Pre-Draft Moves: Slide and Shuffle

After a few seasons of pre-draft trade fireworks, last year’s pre-draft was very quiet, with the exception of two trades. Well, this year it looked like we wouldn’t see much action either, with just some shuffling of picks and extra keepers — plus a big trade veto that caused much deliberation and a compensation pick to boot. Oh right, and an All-Star changed hands, in the form of Chris Bosh. But then, with the keeper deadline ticking down, a HUGE deal went down that will change the landscape of the league. We’ll get to that later though! For now, let’s look at the trades in chronological order.

• ID#54: Buffy trade Chris Bosh to Fat Jubas for Danilo Gallinari and Isaiah Thomas

Seeking an infusion of youth and some more keepers, Roger moved Chris Bosh, fresh off successful heart surgery, to Fat Jubas for Danilo Gallinari and Isaiah Thomas. We all know about Gallo’s injury history but when healthy, he’s a devastating scorer and distance shooter who will get a ton of shots in Denver. And then there’s Isaiah Thomas, the best offensive spark plug in the league. After moving to Boston late last year, Thomas really elevated his burst scoring to new levels and he’ll provide a nice jolt to Roger’s team. As for Jubas, Bosh will fill in nicely next to Jonas Valanciunas and Robin Lopez, stretching the floor with his 3PT and likely leading Eric’s team in PTS.

• ID#55: Squirtle Squad receive Zach LaVine from Jedi Knights in exchange for 2016 RD5
• ID#56: Another Bad Creation receive Alec Burks from Morrie’s Pogiboys in exchange for 2017 RD4
• ID#57: Another Bad Creation receive Wesley Matthews from Morrie’s Pogiboys in exchange for 2018 RD3

The re-monikered Another Bad Creation (formerly Half Man HalfImAsian) move two future picks for Alec Burks and Wesley Matthews. Both are coming off serious injuries but their scoring and outside shooting are nice additions to a roster that already features Kevin Durant and J.J. Redick firing from outside. ABC will be looking for a bounce back year and will have two new pieces for cheap to replace past keepers Mario Chalmers and Amir Johnson.

Brian’s Squirtles could have kept Kelly Olynyk, Dennis Schroder, or Ersan Ilyasova but opted to move a late round pick in this year’s draft to take on Zach LaVine’s dunk show. LaVine is Minnesota’s starting shooting guard this year and his potential is unlimited.

And now for the doozy, which really deserves a post of its own. In fact, let’s do that shall we? When else do we get NBA MVPs moving and last year’s #1 too?!