3 Big NBA Trades That Could Still Happen
Now that NBA free agency is pretty much over, the NBA offseason has cooled down considerably. But there’s still 2 months before players report to training camp and still plenty of time for teams to make moves. So here are 3 trades that could still happen involving some big name players. Of course we start with Carmelo.
Trade 1
Houston: Carmelo Anthony
New York: John Henson, Spencer Hawes, Andrew Nicholson
Milwaukee: Eric Gordon
Brooklyn: Ryan Anderson
In this trade, Houston gets their man. Carmelo Anthony has been rumored to be headed to the Rockets for weeks now and I think he will end up there. By taking on Melo’s $26.2 million salary, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson will have to go. Anderson makes a lot of sense for Brooklyn due to their willingness to take on veterans at a high price tag. They’ve already picked up DeMarre Carroll and Timofey Mozgov this offseason. Eric Gordon would start in the backcourt for Milwaukee and would bring a nice veteran presence to the team. Finally, New York gets rid of Carmelo. In return they get a solid big and John Henson and Spencer Hawes’ expiring contract. It’s the best they’ll get for Melo at this point.
Trade 2
Denver: Eric Bledsoe
Phoenix: Kenneth Faried, Emmanuel Mudiay, 2018 DEN 1st
Denver is one of the more intriguing teams in the entire NBA. They have a young stud in Nikola Jokic and recently signed Paul Millsap. They’re definitely on the rise but they’re just outside of the playoffs in my opinion. Adding Eric Bledsoe would put them into the playoffs in the West. He along with Millsap and Jokic would form a great core for Denver to build around. The Suns are in the process of rebuilding and it may be time to move on from Bledsoe. Emmanuel Mudiay is a solid point guard prospect but could use some tutelage. He’d be backing up Brandon Knight as the point guard as he would be groomed to be the future starter. Kenneth Faried would get to start for Phoenix and could become a nice asset for them to move at the trade deadline.
Trade 3
Utah: Chandler Parsons, 2018 MEM 1st
Memphis: Derrick Favors, Dante Exum, Raul Neto
Both Chandler Parsons and Derrick Favors are coming off of disappointing, injury plagued years. Both would really benefit from a change of location. Starting with Parsons, he’s being paid $23 million a year and just played in 34 games last year. By moving him to Utah, he would fill the huge hole left by Gordon Hayward and would have the opportunity to be the number one option on offense. As for Favors, he’s coming off one of the worst years of his career. He averaged only 9.5 points compared to 16.4 the previous year. Memphis moved on from Zach Randolph and will have an opening at their 4 spot. Memphis is also one of the few teams left in the NBA that still loves to use bigs and Favors would fit perfectly there next to Marc Gasol. Dante Exum would have to go to make salaries match up and could potentially be the starting shooting guard for Memphis. The Grizzlies would have to give up their first round pick to the Jazz, but that’s a small price to move on from Parsons’ contract.
Written By: Steven Santoro (SVS_1993)
