With the trade deadline slowly approaching (next Thursday, to be exact), there are a specific group of players who should concern themselves with the possibility of being dealt.
Whether it’s due to the team’s priorities or their own contract situations, there are eight specific players who will come up in plenty of rumors before it is all said and done, according to David Aldridge of NBA.com. Here are some of the most intriguing thoughts from the piece:
Kyle Lowry was supposed to be an early trade chip for relatively cheap this season, but his stock has risen exponentially since Rudy Gay was traded. The point guard has elevated his level of play to the point where most believed he was snubbed from this year’s All-Star team (I thought he should have made it over DeMar DeRozan). If anything, however, all Lowry has done is make Masai Ujiri’s job more difficult:
Now it appears the Raptors are less likely than more likely to trade Lowry by the deadline. If a team overwhelmed them with an offer, they’d most assuredly listen, but the likelihood is growing that Lowry will finish the season in Toronto. The chance of a division championship is too enticing.
That doesn’t mean the Raptors are going to pay him in the summer.
The fear of investing heavily, only to find that this season is fool’s gold, a contract drive by a player with a history of injuries, is likely too great. The best guess is that Lowry plays it out, and, depending on how he and the Raptors do down the stretch, he’ll be in the driver’s seat in the summer.
It’s true. We’ve seen this movie with Lowry before, where he goes on a ridiculous tear and makes everyone believe he is a top 10 point guard in the league, then proceeds to suffer some injuries and become irrelevant for long stretches. However, what he has done over the past couple of months and how big of an impact his play has had on the team is impossible to ignore. It’s quite a dilemma for Ujiri.
The Denver Nuggets are lukewarm about the overall usefulness of power forward Kenneth Faried. They have to decide how much he’s worth, but are also generally unhappy with how he defends, and have already invested so much money in other assets:
The Nuggets have been unhappy with Faried’s defense this season, and aren’t inclined at the moment to give him a huge deal. They’ve already got $79 million committed the next two seasons to Lawson, JaVale McGee and Danilo Gallinari.
Denver has until the end of October to decide whether to give Faried an extension. The universe of similar, high-energy players with recent extensions includes Chicago’s Taj Gibson (four years, $33 million in 2012), Milwaukee’s Larry Sanders (four years, $44 million in 2013) and Ibaka. Faried isn’t as good as Ibaka, but is he better than Gibson or Sanders? Good question.
Trevor Ariza is in a contract year and he has played like it, averaging 14.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.9 steals and pumping in 2.3 three-pointers per game on 38.8 percent shooting. His hounding perimeter defense has been one of the best in the league this season and a primary reason for why the Washington Wizards are rated the 7th-best defensive team in the NBA. Is that enough for them to pay him when the season is over? It’s complicated:
They’ve already committed $80 million to Wall in a new extension, and Beal will be in line for his in a couple of years. And they can’t let unrestricted free-agent center Marcin Gortat walk. Gortat, acquired from Phoenix after Okafor suffered a season-ending neck injury, has infused the locker room with his goofiness and tough play inside.
But they can’t pay Ariza, who also pines to return to the West coast, what he’ll likely ask for as a free agent. Ariza recently hired Rob Pelinka as his agent, a man not known for taking 70 cents on the dollar. It’s a tough, tough call for a team that desperately needed a perimeter defender like Ariza. Yet if the Wizards let both Ariza and Gortat walk in July, they’d have enough cap room to go after a major free agent to pair with Wall, Beal, Nene and first-rounder Otto Porter, Jr., for at least two years.
Ariza could really help an already-contending team if he had to be moved, and the perfect fit that comes to mind are the Golden State Warriors, who are rumored to be aggressively active on the market. The Warriors have generally been disappointed with the lack of progression from where they were at this time last season, and what Ariza offers on both ends could really help remedy many of their issues because it has become clearer that Harrison Barnes isn’t what many thought he would be in his second season. Barnes is young and has time to grow, but the Warriors are looking to win right now and may not have the patience to watch him eventually develop into a decent player.
There is plenty more of where that came from, so be sure to read up on Aldridge’s informative piece.
OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:
You actually make it seem so easy together with your presentation but I to find this topic to be really one thing which
I think I’d never understand. It sort of feels too complex and very extensive for me.
I’m taking a look forward to your subsequent publish, I’ll try to get the hang of it!