Courtesy of Espn illustration
It's fair to say that just over a quarter of a way into the NBA season, Orlando succumbed to the reality that in it's current state it could not compete against Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. So they have traded in a big way.
The First Trade
The first trade, a like for like swap of salaries between:
Rashard Lewis to Washington Wizards for Gilbert Arenas to Orlando Magic.
What does this do for Orlando
This trade for Orlando might prove to be a good one. Rashard Lewis has been horribly out of form this season actually being a liability on the defense end and shooting a horrific 41.9% from the field down from his 45% for his career.
As for Gilbert Arenas, this brings a 3-time all star to Florida who has been getting back to form after missing 50 games due to suspension last season and only playing 57 games in the previous 3 seasons. What Arenas brings is a pure scoring first passing second point guard that can play the shooting guard spot. And he will have to with both Jameer Nelson and Chris Duhon playing the 1 spot. What Arenas must bring to this team is his ability to score when he has the ball and spread the floor so Dwight Howard can play one-on-one in the interior.
This trade upgrades the Magic's ability to score in different ways apart from the catch and shoot game that Rashard Lewis only has. This does not improve or degrade their existing defense, however Orlando is the 4th best ranked defense in the league allowing only 92.6 points per game so this change will not adversly impact their defense, however Arenas will need to improve his ability to defend the perimeter if he wants to stay Stan Van Gundy's good side.
What does this do for Washington
This is a reputation redeeming trade for Washington. After Gilbert Arenas' behaviour with gambling and guns in the locker room, the Wizards needed to offload him and let the team flourish under the leadership from No.1 draft pick John Wall. Whilst Wall and Arenas had played some good games together, their ability to co-exist when both play similar positions and both have egos was never going to be a true success. Now Wall can take this team and make it his own. What Lewis brings to this team is a catch and shoot type guy with length, can can help spread the floor more and allow John Wall to get to the basket. When Josh Howard returns it makes for an interesting combination. A lightning quick point guard, a slashing cutter in Howard and a relatively good catch and shooter in Lewis if he can recapture his touch.
The Second Trade:
The second trade is more of an interesting one where Orlando have made the point to upgrade it's avenues to score after the past 5 games have seen Orlando significantly struggle to put to the ball in the hole..
This trade engaged the Phoenix Suns and was a 6 man swap with future draft picks involved:
Vince Carter, Martin Gortart and Mikael Pietrus to Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark.
What does this do for Orlando:
This trade creates greater flexibility on the offensive end. The return to Orlando for Turkoglu might reinvigorate him to find his career-best form from a couple of seasons ago. It gives the Magic a playing capable of playing the point forward role which if the Magic meet the Heat in the playoffs can tire out a LeBron James on the defensive end through a 7-game series. The same could also be said for a Paul Pierce if the Magic come across Boston in the playoffs.
The inclusion of Jason Richardson is a huge one. J-Rich can create his own shot, has not significantly slowed as the years have passed and his another shooter to spread the floor. Richardson also has an uncanny knack to have long hot streaks which Stan Van Gundy will love using and at Sports Analytics Inc, we believe he is an upgrade to Vince Carter these days. Combine this with Richardson's league renowned locker room leadership and well-liked personality and this will help mature the team.
Finally Earl Clark brings another body to the line-up that is young, quick and long which adds more rebounding to a team that is surprisingly ranked 22nd in the league for rebounding despite having the big man Howard in the middle. However it's fair to say his game time is going to be limited behind a stacked line-up of quality players now that runs deep in Orlando.
The one downside to this blockbuster trade for Orlando is defense. Whilst many experts will say being the 4th best defensive team in the league you can afford to bring in some more offense. However the problem with this trade is it does not help their perimeter defense, nor their interior defense with the loss of Gortat, and the top two defensive teams in the league are guess who? Miami and Boston. It's fair to say that Van Gundy has his work cut out convincing Arenas, Turkoglu, Richardson and Clark to all buy into a defense first mentality because leaving it all up to Dwight Howard will zap him of his energy to score up the other end.
What does this do for Phoenix?
The fact that the Suns were forced to give up the popular Richardson for the ability to trade away Turkoglu and his overpaid contract is likely going to rip the Phoenix locker room apart. It was immediately noticeable when Steve Nash cried 'Damn' on his twitter account. The plus for Phoenix is in the Western Conference where many interior monsters exist, Gortat and Pietrus bring much needed size and defensive toughness. Something the Phoenix Suns have not had, well since we can recall (Shaq hardly brought this in his limited time there).
The acquisition of Turkoglu for Phoenix was to replace Amare Stoudermire however this has clearly failed with Phoenix ranking a paltry last in the league in defensive rebounds per game, 25th in rebounds per game in total and dead last in points allowed per game. So clearly Alvin Gentry was intent on bringing some defense back to Arizona.
The only foreseeable problem for Phoenix now is they have traded their 2nd and 3rd most creative offensive players which will run the risk of them losing their mantle of being the No.1 scoring team in the league at 109.9 points per game, to bring in some handy but by no means amazing defensive players to the team.
The X Factor here is Vince Carter. Carter can mitigate the loss of offense for the Suns, if he can execute the pick and roll game with Steve Nash. No other Point Guard in the history of the game has executed the Pick and Roll game as good as Nash and with Carter's uncanny ability to get to the hoop and score this duo could actually become more valuable than the Nash and Richardson duo that basketball watchers have observed for the past few years.
Overall Rankings for the 3 teams involved
For Orlando, Sports Analytics INC likes these trades. This gives them more ways to beat teams offensively, and catches them up to Boston and Miami in the race in the Eastern Conference. Orlando gets an 8 out of 10 for making the necessary changes early in the year to build chemistry come playoff time.
For Washington, this trade gets a bad boy with tainted history off their books, but they've incurred a player that is out of form and not all that much of an upgrade with another $60 million on his contract to be paid. Whilst it now is solely John Wall's team, it is not going to give them any short-term relief anytime soon.
Washington gets a 5 out of 10.
For Phoenix, this trade does not make them significantly better, but they offload an ugly contract, inherit Vince Carter with only a 1 year guarantee that does not have to be renewed, and get some bigger defensive minded bodies that should help them win those line-ball games that sneak them into the Western Conference Playoffs.
Phoenix gets a 6.5 out of 10.
At Sports Analytics INC, we will reexamine the first blockbuster trade of season 2010/11 in February before the All-Star break to determine just how effective these trades were for these teams. We predict this creates a 3-way race for Orlando if they hit chemistry sooner rather than later.
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