2) The Portland Trailblazers – Basketball’s Rendition of the iPhone Upgrade
Portland’s acquiring of Aaron Afflalo was the basketball equivalent of when Apple’s latest iPhone isn’t a new phone but is instead an “S” (i.e. from 5 to 5S): it’s needed (Portland needed someone capable of spacing the floor and hopefully motivating the ghost of Nicolas Batum), it’s predictable (Afflalo came courtesy of the NBA’s most obvious deadline seller, Denver), and it’s probably going to be a success (Afflalo’s getting 12-15 points every single night).
The Blazers’ combination of a top 5 point guard (Lillard) and a scoring machine the Warriors have difficulty guarding (Aldridge) was already threatening -with the upgrade of Afflalo they’ve become even scarier.
1) The Oklahoma City Thunder -Hopefully They Improved Too Much
There’s no sugarcoating it, OKC got emphatically better and in the process reminded all of us why Sam Presti was the NBA’s genius GM 4 years. They traded Reggie Jackson (who hated OKC so much he tweeted “Crying tears of joy #godisgreat” after being shipped out) and Kendrick Perkins for Enes Kanter (a more than capable low-post scorer who is quietly 22 years old), and 3 shooters who mandate their opponent’s respect in Steve Novak, D.J. Augustin, and Kyle Singler.
Where Kanter is weak (interior defense), OKC is strong with Ibaka and Adams. Where Novak, Augustine, and Singler are weak (penetrating defenses), OKC is all-time strong with Durant and Westbrook. I’m hopeful this trade improves OKC so dramatically that they rise to the 7th seed and the Mavericks fall to the 8th seed. Remember, Dirk’s not having a Dirk year and Rondo’s inability to shoot is impairing an offense that was at one point the best in the league -it’s possible!
Quick Thoughts on the East
Prospective NBA Finals opponents for the Warriors (isn’t that weird to say) didn’t make any moves, but 2 teams are too intriguing not to comment on!
- The Milwaukee Bucks are officially building the greatest team wingspan in the NBA with the Greek Freak (7’3”), Jabari Parker (6’11.5”), John Henson (7’5”), and new addition Michael Carter-Williams (6’7” and he’s a point guard).
- The Philadelphia 76ers are the most interesting NBA experiment in memory. This off-season alone the 76ers will most likely have three 1st Round Draft Picks and five 2nd Round Draft Picks. That’s not a draft, that’s almost half of a college football recruiting class. Warriors connection: no team has tanked this obviously since the Warriors after the Monta-Bogut trade in the 2011/12 season.
Not since 2004 (when Detroit acquired Rasheed Wallace) has the team that won the NBA Title made a huge deal on deadline day and the trade that seems the most threatening to the Warriors’ title aspirations happened a month ago when Memphis acquired Jeff Green, but the Warriors’ title route undeniably changed in a matter of 90 minutes last Thursday. Its repercussions will continually unfold until a champion is crowed in June. Get ready Warriors fans, you could have 4 more months of basketball!