NBA trade deadline looms out of All-Star break
NBA trade deadline looms out of All-Star break
Now that the All-Star Game is over, with the West blasting their counterparts from the East in a 146-119 laugher, the focus turns to the upcoming trade deadline. The Raptors and Heat got the ball rolling last Friday when Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon swapped locales with Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. And now rumors are the Suns will start to clean house with Amare Stoudamire on the block.
Madness!
Like the Bridge on the River Kwai, the Phoenix Suns are blowing themselves up. Head coach Terry Porter was reportedly fired on Sunday night as soon as the All-Star Game was over. His replacement is Alvin Gentry, who is expected to have the full support of his players after Porter’s attempts to squeeze some defense out of the Suns led to a 28-23 record at a league-worst 17-31-2 ATS.
But which players will remain in Phoenix? Amare Stoudemire has been shopped around the entire league, and Shaquille O’Neal’s name has popped up in trade rumors as well. The Suns are in cost-cutting mode; if you aren’t familiar with the name Robert Sarver yet, you will be soon, because he’s the team owner and the man responsible for its decline in the mad scramble to get under the luxury tax. The most potent rumors from Sunday’s All-Star aftermath had recently-acquired Jared Dudley packaged with Stoudemire and Louis Amundson in a deal with the Chicago Bulls. In return, Phoenix would get Tyrus Thomas, Drew Gooden and the always-popular “another player.”
From a handicapping standpoint, this could be the best thing to happen to the Suns. The last time they blew up their team and started over was in January 2004, when they traded Stephon Marbury in a giant multi-player deal with the New York Knicks. After being given up for dead, Phoenix went 6-9 SU and a tasty 11-4 ATS in the month following the trade. The Knicks, with expectations raised, were 8-6 SU and 6-8 ATS. That doesn’t portend well for the Bulls against the betting odds should they pull the trigger on the Stoudemire deal.
Sarver bought the team from Jerry Colangelo a few months after that trade. Their history of business decisions since then has been shaky. The Steve Nash signing was a masterstroke, but the Suns also traded away draft picks like Rajon Rondo, Rudy Fernandez and Nate Robinson. And then you have Jerry’s son Bryan, formerly the Phoenix president/GM and the man responsible for the Nash signing, leaving the desert for a similar position with the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
Fitting, then, that the Raptors pulled off the first major trade of the week by sending Jermaine O’Neal and Jamario Moon to the Miami Heat for a pair of former Suns: Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. This appears to be a solid trade for both sides. Colangelo rolled the dice in the offseason by sending T.J. Ford to the Indiana Pacers in a package for O’Neal. However, the former six-time All-Star, even when healthy, wasn’t an ideal fit next to Chris Bosh in Toronto’s system – which also ended up costing coach Sam Mitchell his job. O’Neal should do much better in Miami, where there was a gaping hole at center after last year’s trade that sent the other O’Neal, aka The Big Cactus, to Phoenix in exchange for Marion.
While spirits are high in Miami, where the Heat are in a playoff position at 28-24 SU (24-26-2 ATS), there isn’t a lot of positive buzz in Toronto. This deal is being shrugged off as a salary-cap move for 2010 on Colangelo’s part. Again, great news for the Raps from a handicapping standpoint. Toronto’s woes have been partly due to bad chemistry, but mostly because of injuries to O’Neal, Bosh and Jose Calderon, the top three players on the Raptors. Bosh (knee) and Calderon (hamstring) could end up in and out of the lineup for the rest of the year; if not, these Raptors look a lot more like the Euro-friendly team that won the Atlantic Division two years ago.
There will be plenty of other trades this week. The dynamic for handicappers should remain fairly consistent: Fade the buyer, support the seller. I’ll be back on Friday when it’s all over for a post mortem.
Now that the All-Star Game is over, with the West blasting their counterparts from the East in a 146-119 laugher, the focus turns to the upcoming trade deadline. The Raptors and Heat got the ball rolling last Friday when Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon swapped locales with Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. And now rumors are the Suns will start to clean house with Amare Stoudamire on the block.
Madness!
Like the Bridge on the River Kwai, the Phoenix Suns are blowing themselves up. Head coach Terry Porter was reportedly fired on Sunday night as soon as the All-Star Game was over. His replacement is Alvin Gentry, who is expected to have the full support of his players after Porter’s attempts to squeeze some defense out of the Suns led to a 28-23 record at a league-worst 17-31-2 ATS.
But which players will remain in Phoenix? Amare Stoudemire has been shopped around the entire league, and Shaquille O’Neal’s name has popped up in trade rumors as well. The Suns are in cost-cutting mode; if you aren’t familiar with the name Robert Sarver yet, you will be soon, because he’s the team owner and the man responsible for its decline in the mad scramble to get under the luxury tax. The most potent rumors from Sunday’s All-Star aftermath had recently-acquired Jared Dudley packaged with Stoudemire and Louis Amundson in a deal with the Chicago Bulls. In return, Phoenix would get Tyrus Thomas, Drew Gooden and the always-popular “another player.”
From a handicapping standpoint, this could be the best thing to happen to the Suns. The last time they blew up their team and started over was in January 2004, when they traded Stephon Marbury in a giant multi-player deal with the New York Knicks. After being given up for dead, Phoenix went 6-9 SU and a tasty 11-4 ATS in the month following the trade. The Knicks, with expectations raised, were 8-6 SU and 6-8 ATS. That doesn’t portend well for the Bulls against the betting odds should they pull the trigger on the Stoudemire deal.
Sarver bought the team from Jerry Colangelo a few months after that trade. Their history of business decisions since then has been shaky. The Steve Nash signing was a masterstroke, but the Suns also traded away draft picks like Rajon Rondo, Rudy Fernandez and Nate Robinson. And then you have Jerry’s son Bryan, formerly the Phoenix president/GM and the man responsible for the Nash signing, leaving the desert for a similar position with the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
Fitting, then, that the Raptors pulled off the first major trade of the week by sending Jermaine O’Neal and Jamario Moon to the Miami Heat for a pair of former Suns: Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. This appears to be a solid trade for both sides. Colangelo rolled the dice in the offseason by sending T.J. Ford to the Indiana Pacers in a package for O’Neal. However, the former six-time All-Star, even when healthy, wasn’t an ideal fit next to Chris Bosh in Toronto’s system – which also ended up costing coach Sam Mitchell his job. O’Neal should do much better in Miami, where there was a gaping hole at center after last year’s trade that sent the other O’Neal, aka The Big Cactus, to Phoenix in exchange for Marion.
While spirits are high in Miami, where the Heat are in a playoff position at 28-24 SU (24-26-2 ATS), there isn’t a lot of positive buzz in Toronto. This deal is being shrugged off as a salary-cap move for 2010 on Colangelo’s part. Again, great news for the Raps from a handicapping standpoint. Toronto’s woes have been partly due to bad chemistry, but mostly because of injuries to O’Neal, Bosh and Jose Calderon, the top three players on the Raptors. Bosh (knee) and Calderon (hamstring) could end up in and out of the lineup for the rest of the year; if not, these Raptors look a lot more like the Euro-friendly team that won the Atlantic Division two years ago.
There will be plenty of other trades this week. The dynamic for handicappers should remain fairly consistent: Fade the buyer, support the seller. I’ll be back on Friday when it’s all over for a post mortem.