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Chapter 1: What are the NBA Trade Awards and their significance?
Tiesitkö, että Liberon uuden tutkimuksen mukaan 70 pienten lasten vanhemmasta tuntee olonsa yksinäiseksi valvoessaan öisin. Teemme jatkuvasti töitä vahvistaaksemme tukeamme sekä vanhemmille että lapsille. Tarjoamme luotettavia vaippoja, neuvoja ja tukea sekä vanhempien muodostaman yhteisön vuorokauden ympäri. Libero, täällä sinulle.
Welcome to the Saturday Slamma Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily brought to you by Amazon Prime. On today's show, we're doing trade awards with Fred Katz. We are not doing trivia again. Alex Spears is again not showing up to the podcast. But listen, here's what we have to be grateful for is that it was supposed to be Clippers Week last week.
And I promise you that show would be a lot different than the one that's going to happen next week with LaMurray. So listen, it's a blessing in disguise. But today, Fred Katz and I are going to recap the trade deadline and hand out some awards, some fun awards. Fred. How's it going? This is a crazy day for people working in and around the NBA.
It is a crazy day. There's a lot going on. There's a lot to follow. There's a lot to do. No question. Crazy for you too. Crazy for all of us.
Yeah. I want you to reveal what I think is one of the more Fred Katz things to write about.
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Chapter 2: What is the Pau Gasol Award and which trade exemplifies it?
This is one of the dorkiest things that you could write about. Oh, thank you for putting those two things back to back. Is the Thunder making a trade for a player that will probably never play for them? A name that I frankly just can't even pronounce. It is, I think, and I even put this out in a tweet that I think it's an acquisition to use for a trade in the future.
But you've revealed in something you wrote at The Athletic why they would want this to trade in the future. So could you lay this out for our listeners?
Yeah, so the Thunder made a trade on Wednesday that I have to imagine... Nobody saw. Nobody knew about. Yeah. Nobody even cared about, including probably even the guy who got traded, whose first name I believe is pronounced Balsa. Yeah. And the only reason I really remember that is because I said, look at the Balsa it tooks to make that trade.
Yeah. It's got to be Balsa. Like salsa, but with a B. Right.
Right. It's got to be Balsa. That's... It's got to be. It has to be. It has to be. It couldn't possibly be anything else. What's it going to have? A silent L? There's no way.
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Chapter 3: What does the PJ Washington Award represent in trade evaluations?
It's got to be Balsa. So they traded from Balsa. Balsa is not in the NBA. What's Balsa's last name?
I just told you I don't know how to pronounce it. I don't know. This is bad. I feel.
You know what? You know what? Just like it's got to be Balsa. It's got to not be Cabrica. Yeah. it's gotta not be Cabrica. Why did you even ask me to say it? I introed it saying, I don't know how to pronounce it. Because honestly, I thought, I thought it'd be fun. I thought it'd be fun to hear you try. You were right. And we all try. Correct. The thunder, the thunder traded for, for this guy.
Chapter 4: How does the Gordon Hayward Award reflect on player evaluations?
He was drafted in the second round of the 2021 NBA draft. And I'm looking through trays and just catching up on stuff. And I'm like, what is, what is this deal? Because all it was, was the Thunder sending cash to Utah and Utah sending the draft rights to this 2021 second round pick to Oklahoma city. And I'm like, what the heck is this deal?
And you know, Oklahoma city, they don't do anything random. So I'm like, what is happening here? And it starts to hit me. I'm like, okay, the Thunder gave up cash and they got back a random draft rights guy. Who's probably not coming to the NBA. Yeah. Um, Why are they doing that? Why would they want... I feel like I sound like the Brian Windhorst meme right now. Yeah. Why are they doing that?
Why would they do that? Why would they want a draft rights guy who's probably never coming to the NBA? And the answer... could only be, just like Bolsa could only be pronounced Bolsa, the answer could only be that the Thunder are preparing for the possibility of going into the second apron next season.
Because what happens when you go into the second apron, you're no longer allowed to use cash in deals. So that means if you want to make a trade and you want to slide into like a smaller trade and you don't want to use a draft pick and you don't want to use a player, because remember, you can't trade those like fake, fake second rounders anymore under these real deals, under these new rules.
If the Thunder want to get into that deal, and remember, they can't aggregate if they're over the second apron. They want to get into something. Don't want to use a player. Don't want to use a draft pick. They can't use cash as a touching point in a trade anymore because they're not allowed to if they're over the second apron. What can they use? Draft rights players. Balsa.
Draft rights players specifically who were in the last five to nine.
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Chapter 5: What factors contribute to the Poeltl Award for questionable trades?
If it's a three-team trade, five drafts. If it's a two-team trade, nine drafts. And so it signals that they're at least preparing for the possibility to go into the second apron next year, which will be a big deal for them, which signals something about their future, signals something about how they plan to handle their finances moving forward. And the reality is the Thunder didn't have any –
I'm not sure if... I think they had no draft rights guys at all before they made this trade. They certainly had no draft rights guys they would be allowed to use as touching points.
I was going to say, I think they did, but I think they were too far back.
Right. If you have a draft rights guy from 1462, then it's too far back. You're not allowed to use him as a touching point. Yeah. So I know they didn't have any actual touching point draft rights guys. And so that... I mean, that... Look, the title... Everybody is waiting for that team to get too expensive, right? That's what everybody keeps saying. When is that team going to get too expensive?
And the Thunder are signaling the possibility that too expensive does not mean going into the second apron. And too inflexible does not mean going into the second apron. I think we can take that away from that move. Sometimes the best way to tell what's going on with a team is by studying their cap sheet. Not sometimes. Most of the time. Yeah. That's how you can get a lot of stories.
Just study their cap sheet and be like, okay, well, this has to be this. This has to be pronounced Bolsa. You know?
Yeah. Well, and so a lot of people with the Thunder in particular, it's like, Are they going to be able to keep Hartenstein? Are they going to let Lou Dort go? They have all these team options on these guys. Kendrick Williams is a team option. What are they going to do with all these guys?
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Chapter 6: How does the Mike Conley Award highlight veteran trades?
Well, the answer could be that they bring them back because I think part of it is they've drafted guys that can come in and take the place of some of these players, but they don't know anything about Thomas Sorber yet because he tore his ACL before the season. And so I do think that that could have possibly been a guy to kind of help if Hartenstein was going to move on.
But in my opinion, he's too important for them.
And look, I'm not sitting here and reporting, oh, the Thunder are definitely going into the second apron. Sure. But it's too soon. It's just too soon to know. There's too much that could happen between now and the end of the season that
could affect that decision moving forward yeah but what i am reporting is that the thunder are preparing for the possibility of it which means that it is something that is very much on the table and this is i think the first time that we've received definitive information you know people could speculate people could ask around people could know but this is the first time they've like made moves specifically preparing for that like that that moment is like okay that moment's right around the corner whether it's next season or the season after like it is right around the corner
Yeah. All right. Let's get into our trade awards, Fred. The first trade award is the Pau Gasol Award, the trade that makes a team a true contender. Who did you have for the Pau Gasol Award?
Okay. I struggled with this because I didn't think there was any Pau Gasol equivalent trade.
Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing that's making people freak out as much as people freaked out about the power of small trade.
So I deviated a little bit.
Uh-huh.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of the Simone Fontecchio Award in trade discussions?
But you go ahead and explain your part on this one.
Yeah, I mean, look, Indiana was going to have flexibility this summer and they were going to have the ability to go out and get a center to replace Miles Turner a year after he left for Milwaukee. And they did their work early. And the reality is that they viewed this season as a gap year. We all knew they viewed it as a gap year.
We all called it a gap year on the outside when Tyrus Halliburton is back and healthy next year and the rest of the roster is presumably healthier than it's been so far this season. then they will be a bad, much better team than they were this year.
This team is still only months away from taking the supposedly unbeatable thunder to seven games in the NBA finals and having genuinely having genuinely one of the best vibes, playoff runs that didn't end in a title in NBA history.
No question.
Like just one of the, one of the best stories that, of any playoff run ever, whether they won a title or not. This team still has talent. This team still could be good, and the East is super weak. So who's to say that they couldn't just shoot back next year? And Zubats is a very good player. He's a very good player. He's going to fit them well. He's an excellent defensive center.
With him, he hasn't been as good defensively this year as he was last year. It doesn't really affect the way that I think of him defensively. He's going to be playing for another really awesome coach in Indiana, Rick Carlisle. He protects the brim. He's a great pick and roll defender. He's got an incredible unbelievable, just unstoppable hook shot.
Just one of my favorite hook shots in the NBA with either hand. It just feels like he's the new Robin Lopez and just never misses a hook shot. He's a different type of player than Miles Turner stylistically. I think he's probably a superior player to Miles Turner. And you put him with wings who can guard like Siakam and like Neesmith and like Nembhard and you have Halliburton at the top and
You've got a bench that can run and Obi Toppin's healthy next year and so on and so forth. Like you've got a roster and you've got a team that literally just went to the finals. So maybe it helps turn them around next year. That being said, the picks were a lot.
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Chapter 8: What does the Bogdanovic and Burks Award reveal about overrated trades?
It was, they gave up stuff. They gave stuff up. So I'm conflicted because I see those picks and I see the value of those picks and And I'm like, that's a lot. That's a lot.
It's a lot. It is a lot. And I will stop talking about it because I have it for a different award in which. So do I. We can talk about the a lot part next. I will talk. I will talk a lot about it. Mine is Vooch to the Celtics. I just think they needed a big. They had a lot of guys at guard that could play and just getting a big because I think the East is super wide open.
It feels really unclear to me who I think is going to win. Now, I think the Knicks should win the East. And I thought that last year as well. But weird stuff happened in the playoffs. And I do think that if weird stuff is going to happen in the playoffs, I could see the Celtics winning with or without Tatum, I could see them sneaking in.
And getting a big that can stretch the floor and rebound for them, I think is really good. He doesn't solve every problem for them as a big, certainly. But I do think he makes them a much more dangerous team now that they have a little bit of big depth. I think that was a really nice move for them. It doesn't affect them moving forward, but it gives them a nice big to have right now.
So I really like that deal for the Celtics.
Okay. I'm not going to respond because I might have that for a later deal. Okay. For a later award.
Okay. What about the PJ Washington Award? This goes to a trade that most people did not like, but we think could really pay off in the postseason.
Yeah. All right. I'll tell you what. This is the one I struggle with the most. Yeah. And the reason why is not because it's particularly difficult. It's because I've become extremely old and washed up. And I don't go on social media anymore. I don't sit there scrolling Twitter. Yeah. I don't really have any idea what anyone has said about any of these trades. Okay. So I have no idea.
So one person told me. Uh-huh. Just like one random friend who's kind of a casual NBA fan. Uh-huh. And I'm basing my entire opinion on this. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everyone loves this deal and I'm being ridiculous. Okay. I'll let you know. One person was like, all the Wolves did was get Io DeSumma. So I'm basing it on the one friend who said that. Yeah. But I love that deal for Minnesota.
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