Pre-Draft Trades 2019

Last year's pre/draft trades was highlighted by a Carmelo Anthony acquisition by Thien. This year the fireworks were a bit brighter, with an All-Pro moved, a recovering All-Star, and a move by IL Conceived that essentially gave them this year's 1.3 overall selection for their sixth keeper. Interesting stuff all around!

Trade ID#88:
• Swamp Dragons receive Khris Middleton
• Funk Coalition receive Gordon Hayward, Andrew Wiggins

Trade ID#89:
• Team Spade receive Will Barton
• IL Conceived receive 2019 RD1 (1.3 - Jaren Jackson Jr)

Trade ID#90:
• Fob Stars receive Damian Lillard, Sour Snails 2019 RD2 (2.15 - Jordan Clarkson), 2020 RD3, and option to switch 2020 RD2 draft slot with Sour Snails
• Sour Snails receive Kemba Walker, Tobias Harris, Fob Stars 2020 RD4

Trade ID#91: The first move was of 2019 involved the same player as the last move of 2018: Gordon Hayward. Swamp Dragons acquired Hayward right before the Toilet Bowl in exchange for Jeff Teague and Robert Covington, to give Fat Jubas a shot at a long playoff run. As it turned out, Jubas was upset in the first round last year while Swamp didn't even need either Teague or Covington to clinch a second Toilet Bowl title. Now they'll add Khris Middleton's well-rounded stat line -- 20.1 PTS, 5.2 REB, 4.0 AST, 1.8 3PT, 1.5 STL -- to their keeper core.

Funk Coalition meanwhile had just acquired Middleton for their playoff run, by flipping over Klay Thompson and Nikola Mirotic to Buffy. Hayward has looked slow to recover from his gruesome injury and Andrew Wiggins is well, Andrew "No Heart"Wiggins. Also, it's safe to say that Swamp's 2016 trade off of LeBron for Wiggins and Jabari Parker was a huge hit for Eddie.

Trade ID#92: Frank took Will Barton with his last dispersal pick and then immediately flipped him to Spade for the third overall pick in 2019. Randall rarely drafts rookies anyway and was looking to poach one of the dispersal candidates, settling on swingman Barton and his 15.7 PTS, 5.0 REB, 4.3 AST, and 1.9 3PT plus healthy percentages.

Even if stretch big man Jaren Jackson Jr isn't in line for a starting job right away like DeAndre Ayton or Luka Doncic, IL Conceived has, at the very least, landed the understudy to Marc Gasol, in real life and fantasy.

Trade ID#91: It looks like Trieu just doesn't like Damian Lillard! After re-acquiring him for the stretch run last year, Sour Snails made a big pre-draft move to ship out Lillard to bring in additional depth. Kemba Walker and Tobias Harris aren't quite franchise-level players -- argue all you want Hornets fans -- but they are pretty damn good. Walker averaged 22.1 PTS, 5.6 AST, 2.9 3PT, 1.1 STL, on 43.1 FG%, which isn't a big drop from Lillard's numbers. And Harris has really rounded out to a nice 19.3 PTS, 6.0 REB, 1.2 STL, 2.2 3PT, on 47.3 FG% during his time with the Clippers. That's a lot of value for Lillard, and Sour Snails is once again pretty deep despite trading off a top twenty-five guy.

As for Fob Stars, while it was tough to part with their top duo, bringing in Lillard juices up their PTS, AST, and 3PT just slightly, while giving them a true franchise player to build around. With Lillard making first team All-NBA last season and rumors of either hed or Walker being traded to Lakerland this year, it'll be interesting to see how Snails and Stars will integrate their new points guards!