By Liz Saiz — Feb 8, 2024

Entry 19: "Trade Deadline"

Trade Deadline: An Opinion Piece For The People, By The People

By: Liz

February 8, 2024

With the NBAs trade deadline coming to an end earlier this afternoon, lots of opinions began flooding in surrounding the outcomes. In this post I made on X earlier, I asked for thoughts and opinions on who the Nuggets should have aimed for going into the last day before the deadline closed. To say there were mixed answers would be an understatement, though most of the responses seemed to revolve around one particular player.

For starters, there were a lot of responses regarding Andre Drummond. People such as rockRockedRock in this reply thought that trading for Drummond would be great for Denver because it would “give [the Nuggets] more depth at the 5.” He wasn’t the only one to say something like this either, this reply by Cuskz was also in favor of trading for Drummond for very similar reasons. However, this reply from burlydontmiss is actually going to lead into my next talking point.

Zeke Nnaji was also a largely discussed player today among the members of Nuggets Nation, specifically, trading him away. I won’t lie and say that I’m surprised by this, he hasn’t been playing as well as he has in previous years this season. This reply by Bubba Gump summed up how most of the others replying about Nnaji were feeling perfectly. There has been a lot of disappointment surrounding Nnaji this season, but as GOBIT74 stated in this reply, “[Calvin Booth] would have to overpay dramatically (picks and possibly players) to offload him,” which is unfortunately the truth. There wasn’t just backlash regarding Nnaji, though, there was actually a positive reply from The Euro Podcast where they said that they “would like to see Zeke improve.”

Onto the next, there were also a few replies stating the types of positions people think Denver should have traded for. This reply from richknowsball states that he would have liked acquiring a backup center in order to give Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokić a bit more rest now that we’re approaching the end of the regular season. This reply from Chantler_ was also in favor of a backup center stating, “There have been a lot of serviceable backup [center’s] that have been traded for a price the Nuggets could’ve afforded.” But, this reply from D Link states that he hoped for a wing defender or a “consistent 3-point shooter.” The beauty of having discussions like this is honestly getting to see the differences and similarities in people's thoughts and opinions!

Of course, where there are serious answers, there are some that are just on the cusp of being considered serious in a joking matter. Such as this reply from Punxsutawney, saying to trade Gordon for former Denver Nuggets, Gary Harris. While this is a silly little ‘haha’ type of post, it’s a very unrealistic trade. Or this reply from DulchichMuse, though he claims to be serious about this type of trade (sorry lol).

Then there were a few strays. This reply by Mubashir Yusuf was in favor of getting former Denver Nugget and NBA Champion, Bruce Brown, back onto this team; This reply from Lucas57423009 was considering Lonnie Walker and/or Quinten Grimes as options for Denver to pick up; Though there isn’t actually a post saying this, I asked MileHighAdi on X what his ideal trade scenario would be, and he said that Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls would be his top pick; And this reply from C was in favor of Royce Oneal who, funny enough, had already been traded to the Phoenix Suns prior to this reply.

I don’t really have an opinion about the trade deadline, other than who ‘won’ the whole thing today. If I had to decipher who really ‘won,’ I would say it’s a close tie between the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks, though this article from BleacherReport seems to disagree.

In a trade with the Charlotte Hornets, the Mavericks sent Seth Curry, Grant Williams, and a 2027 First-Round Pick and acquired P.J. Washington and Two Second-Round Picks. I would grade this trade a solid C+ for Dallas and a B for Charlotte, while BleacherReport graded this an A for Charlotte and a D+ for Dallas. In a trade with the Detroit Pistons, the Knicks sent Ryan Arcidiacono, Malachi Flynn, Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, 2028 Second-Round Pick, and a 2029 Second-Round Pick in order to receive Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burk. This was a phenomenal trade for New York, and for that, I’d give them an A-. However, I’d give Detroit a solid C, but only because it was a bit of a mess. Overall, I’d say all four of these teams improved, but the Knicks and the Mavericks ultimately won the deadline.

There was one final point brought to my attention by Popburnerroy on X in the form of this reply, and I highly recommend viewing this post!

I’ll end this piece here, but not without saying this: I’m glad I finally did an opinion piece like this! I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while, an article that isn’t just a Nuggets game recap. It’s nice to change things up a bit, at least I think so anyway.

But, anyway, before I bore you to death. I appreciate all the responses I received today, and though I didn’t use every single one, I hope every person that replied knows that I read through all of them and took everyone’s opinions into account while writing this! With that being said, the Nuggets are taking on the Los Angeles Lakers for the second time this season tonight, so go Nuggets! Thank you!

References:

The Euro Podcast on X