Au Revoir and Bonjour!

With the NBA trade season winding down—with some mega-trades obviously—we have a nice deal that dropped in Slam yesterday. It’s not quite as big as Luka Doncic becoming a Laker, but the SBUK and SQSQ deal could have championship implications and points to a new direction for SBUK as well.

Trade ID#170

• SBUK receive Alex Sarr
• SQSQ receive Rudy Gobert and CJ McCollum

For SBUK, this is a move to get younger. The 2022 championship core is aging fast and with a 7-8 record and just three weeks of regular season to go, it was time for GM Josh to make moves. Acquiring 2025 RD1.11 rookie Alex Sarr is a nice start. While Sarr has little offense to his game, his BLK are already at 1.6 per on the season, and Washington is invested in giving him big playing time. He could soon be a double double guy with good stocks, and more importantly, the nineteen year old has upside. He’ll join Franz Wagner (23 years old), Desmond Bane (26), and maybe Ausar Thompson (22) as SBUK’s young guns.

An eulogy for Gobert and McCollum while we’re here. McCollum was acquired by SBUK in 2017—via a trade for Myles Turner—which also doubled as Josh’s first SlamNation trade ever. After eight years of service to SBUK, he’ll be feted on his way out. And Gobert has been on this team even longer, as he was drafted in 2015 with a RD4 pick—along with Joel Embiid—making it ten seasons of continual service for the Frenchman.

Take a look at the list of players from one team that have stayed with their franchises the longest: Steph Curry (15 years), Paul George (13), Kyrie Irving (13), Joel Embiid (10), Rudy Gobert (10), Nikola Jokic (9), CJ McCollum (8)… You’ll notice that four of those players are on SBUK, and if thirty-one year old Kyrie Irving gets moved this season as well, the championship core of SBUK will truly be a thing of the past.

Cheers to the next generation of SBUKs and we’re excited to see where this youth movement will be heading!

As for SBUK’s trade partner, SQSQ is leading the league right now in win percentage and are perfectly positioned to win a title in this wide open season. SQSQ has been in this position before, as they took the regular season wins crown in both 2020 and 2022. Alas, one of those seasons was interrupted by COVID and the other by a first-round upset by eighth-seeded SCRM. This time around, SQSQ is taking no chances, as they level up for another championship chase.

SQSQ is led by LeBron James, new-Maverick Anthony Davis, DeMar DeRozan, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and the Doncic-less Daniel Gafford. Adding the still very productive Gobert (10.4 REB, 1.6 BLK, 0.650 FG%) and McCollum (22 PTS, 3.8 AST, 3.1 3PT) really rounds out the lineup. Heck, maybe new Clipper Bogdan Bogdanovic turns into a nice backup wing for them as well.

We’ve heard that SQSQ has been shopping Scoot Henderson around and that makes sense as the 2024 RD1.2 is miscast on this veteran team. Rumors are swirling that there are a few title chasing vets being shopped around in Slam, so this might be SQSQ’s chance to go even further all in. We hope to see SQSQ rewarded with their first ring this playoffs for their aggressive moves!

Tied Up!

This has to be a historic first! No, not the two 8-1 drubbings in WK15—handed out by CHMK and KSKT—but the fact that we had three matchups finish up tied. Three!

It’s rare enough that we get one tie game per week, and maybe two happened in the past but I don’t remember, but three has to be almost impossible. For example, in 2024 we had a total of three matchups tied, two in 2023, and three again from 2022. You have to go all the way back to 2020 to find six tied matchups. So, to have three tied games in one week was spectacular and a moment not to be overlooked.

MELO (10-4) vs SOUR (8-6)

The top ranked team in Russell, MELO faced off against SOUR and the two were neck-to-neck in a few categories, as REB, STL, and especially PTS was rather close! (SOUR won PTS by two.) The final tying category was TOS though, which featured Malik Monk with ten total turnovers for MELO while SOUR had Miles Bridges giving the ball away eight times. This tie could have some playoff implications too, as SOUR is on the playoff bubble!

SCRM (10-4) vs SWMP (9-5)

Our two second place teams in each respective conference faced off in a big battle and came out all tied up, as they each swiped the ball twenty-nine times. (SCRM barely won BLK by one too.) It was a battle of James Harden versus Nikola Jokic, as they had eight and nine steals each, respectively. You would think the team with steals master Dyson Daniels would’ve secured this category win but Dyson + Harden wasn’t quite enough to pull ahead of Jokic + Christian Braun. Both of these teams are playoff bound, and the tie leaves them secure in second place in their respective conferences as well. Great fight!

BUFF (7-7) TRUO (3-10-1)

Of the six teams, only TRUO had already notched a tie matchup this year, so maybe they had the experience of playing in a tight game. This was also the only matchup that tied between a 0.500 team and a sub-0.500 squad. Their big category tied was STL, with BUFF narrowly edging TRUO by just two blocks as well. It was a team wide effort on both sides for steals, with BUFF’s Jalen Brunson leading all players with five, but with many players on both teams picking up four thefts apiece. TRUO has only three wins on the season in an injury plagued year, so this tie was at least a moral victory versus a team they could potentially face in the Toilet Bowl.