The NBA trade market is broken
Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Ben Simmons, James Harden (again), Kyrie Irving (again), Kevin Durant (again).
This may look like a list of the best players in the league and Ben Simmons, but it is all the big names who have requested/forced a trade in the past 5 seasons. The age of single franchise players is slowly dying as the likes of Damian Lillard and Steph Curry hang on. I predict that out of all of the stars in the league, only Curry and Udonis Haslem will never play for another team.
The trade market is broken and players have thrown any loyalty out of the window but the question that many GMs are wondering is when this turbulence ever come to an end.
With the salary cap rising every year, teams can afford to hoard stars and trade everything in an attempt to win a chip. However, after seeing how the Brooklyn Nets’ ‘Big 3’ failed, why are teams still bringing in these stars?
More than ever, NBA players are more influential in their trades, specifically their destination, think Paul George to the Clippers or Kyrie to the Nets. This means that players understand the power they have and will simply stop playing until they get what they want (James Harden or Ben Simmons). When players choose a certain destination, the star forces that teams hand, because who would publicly say no to Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard? Imagine the outrage from the fans.
Another reason that NBA teams are bringing together as many stars as they can is that the NBA is as competitive as it has ever been before. In 1962, 5 players were averaging 30+ points per game. This season, there are 7 players (plus Kevin Durant on 29.7) averaging 30+ points per game. Scoring has hit an all-time high meaning teams need to overload on scorers. It is no longer enough to score 140 points and win comfortably. This means teams are loading up on stars and specifically scorers to blow the opposition out of the water. However, this creates a ripple effect across the league that means other teams start to build up their roster, meaning talent pools and some of these super teams are no longer winning, so their stars request a trade, starting the whole cycle over again.
When will we learn…
On the face of it, this trade is incredible and some would say that the Nets got completely robbed. However, just like we saw with Harden and Kyrie at the Nets, Russ at the Lakers, and Paul George at the Thunder, adding an extra star doesn't immediately make you the NBA champion. Fans and pundits jumping to conclusions hours after the trade has happened and the player has even laced up for the team usually leads to unfortunate moments like this…
Not only did this matchup not come close to ever happening on the biggest stage, but only 2 of those players in the graphic are still on that team, LeBron and AD.
The team that knows better than anyone else about whether or not you should trade everyone for superstars is the Brooklyn Nets. Since 2010, they traded away the picks that ended up as Jaylen Brown, Markele Fultz, Collin Sexton, Draymond Green, and Damian Lillard. On top of that, they gave up Saddiq Bey, Caris Levert, T.J. Warren, Brook Lopez, and Kyle Kuzma. In return, they received, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, D’Angelo Russell, Timofey Mozgov, Jason Terry, and Gerald Wallace All of this has led to missing the playoffs 6 times, losing in the first round 5 times, and losing in the second round twice. They traded away all of their assets without a backup plan and now they are going headfirst into a rebuild with no picks. They will most likely not pick in the lottery until 2028.
For the Suns and the Mavericks, it may look like they have secured their future. However, if they don't start making deep playoff runs, KD will request a trade and Kyrie will not be signing back in the summer.
