Clearing the Deadline cobwebs: The best players traded on the NBA’s record trade-deadline day

In the biggest trade deadline day in NBA history, 37 players moved in 11 trades across the league. 16 of the NBA’s 30 teams will enter the last half of the season with a roster change, including some dramatic moves that could boost various title aspirants. With the number of multiple team trades, draft picks offered, protection on future draft picks, and the reshaping of rosters, it was difficult for even the staunchest NBA follower to clear the cobwebs and find where their favourite players landed or how their favourite teams have reloaded. Here is my countdown of the top ten players who have moved to new teams.

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International Watch: Ranking the top 10 FIBA World Cup players outside the USA

Although the USA – the world’s number one ranked team – were an automatic favourite to be crowned champions at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain, few predicted that they would achieve the feat with such relative ease, winning each game by an average margin of 32.5 points per game and continuing their 63 game unbeaten streak in international basketball contests. But don’t let the Americans’ dominance distract you from the top performers from the rest of the world, many of whom, even in defeat, used the World Cup stage to further define their legacies.

Here are the top 10 players from the 2014 FIBA World Cup outside the USA. Click here for full feature.

World Cup Shot Clock: 24 things to look forward to for the FIBA Basketball World Cup

Over the next two weeks, some of the top basketball players in the world will face off at the FIBA World Cup, the biggest global festival of hoops. From top contenders, exciting new faces, dark-horses, and a little bit of history, here are 24 things that you need to look forward to for the World Cup.

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Trophies

Just before we move on ahead to start thinking about the playoffs and my trademarked annual ‘Upset Watch’ series for the First Round, it’s time to reflect and reward. Within the next few days, the NBA’s scribes (and for the case of All NBA Teams, the coaches) will fill in their respective ballots to reward individual greatness across the league. Here at Hoopistani, I don’t yet have a vote (working on it, though!). But nevertheless, here are my choices for players who should receive the end-of-season individual trophies (word to Drizzy).

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Second Round Superstars

As year after year of surprise success stories have proven, there are always several talents that go unnoticed or underestimated by the scouts, and are picked up in the Second Round to find themselves in just the right situation to succeed.

Although there have been a lot of great Second Round picks in the past, here are the 10 of the best ACTIVE players to have been picked in the Second Round, presented to you in the draft order they were picked. They are the league’s diamonds in the rough, the ones who proved that it doesn’t matter where you start in the league, it’s about where you finish.

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New Rising Suns

This feature was first published in the 124th edition (2014 - No. 3) of SLAM China magazine. Here is my original English version of the story.

When asked about the surprising success of the Phoenix Suns this season, the team’s new GM Ryan McDonough said that, “The whole is better than the sum of its parts.”

The ‘parts’ are a group of underrated, unheard-of, and unexpected young talents. A late second-round pick. A career backup guard. A player who missed all of last season to a heart defect. A set of twin big men, known more for looking identical than for their skills on court. A swingman who spent the majority of his career jumping between the D-League, Russia, and China. Another swingman who spent the past half a decade between playing professionally in a different country nearly every year. And a second-year Center who barely stepped on the court last season.

But the ‘whole’? That’s a Suns team which found itself at sixth place in the cut-throat Western Conference after the season’s first two months, winning more games by the end of December than they were expected to win all season. A team that, at full health, was en route to becoming the year’s most unlikely success story.

Before the season began, the Suns were ranked by many to be at the bottom of the West’s totem pole, aiming for the star-studded 2014 draft class rather than a playoff place. They had a new coach, a new GM, and several new untested players in a roster that displayed all the symptoms of a team ready to tank and sacrifice a season for better luck in the long run.

For a franchise that once enjoyed great regular season success in the mid-2000s, it seemed that the good times were far gone. Former back-to-back MVP Steve Nash left a season ago, and the Suns had the second-worst season in franchise history, finishing 25-57. Before the new season began, they cleaned house some more of their remaining starters. Marcin Gortat was sent to Washington for the injured Emeka Okafor (and his expiring contract). Luis Scola was sent to Indiana for backups Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee and a first round pick. And Jared Dudley was sent to the LA in a three-team trade that landed Clippers’ backup Eric Bledsoe to Phoenix.

The Bledsoe trade turned out to be a masterstroke. Before he got injured, Bledsoe and Goran Dragic suddenly morphed into an electrifying double point-guard backcourt which was running through every defender and running past most opponents in the Conference. On paper, there were many better teams out West: the Mavericks, the Nuggets, the Grizzlies, the Timberwolves, the Pelicans, even the Lakers. But somehow, the Suns jumped up over them all.

And if their arrival to this point has been a revelation, their journey here makes it even more intriguing. The Slovenian Dragic was the 45th pick back in the 2008 draft, who mostly spent his career as Nash’s backup in Phoenix or Lowry’s back in Houston. Bledsoe always displayed his explosive potential on both ends of the court early in his career, but only played around 20 minutes as game behind Chris Paul in the Clippers. This season, both guards have been posting career-high numbers, averaging around 19 points and six assists each. Before his injury, Bledsoe was one of the front-runners of the Most Improved Player award, doubling his stats across the board.

Around these two guards, the supporting cast has followed them in unlikely roads to success. PJ Tucker played in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Germany before battling his way back to the NBA, and is now playing 30 minutes as the Suns’ starting small forward. Miles Plumlee was Roy Hibbert’s backup in Indiana, who got a grand total 13 points and 22 rebounds in 55 minutes of action all of last season! He was a throw-in piece in the Luis Scola trade and has exploded in Phoenix in his sophomore campaign, averaging around 10 points and nine rebounds per game. Then there’s Channing Frye, the sharp-shooting big man, who missed all of last season after discovering his heart defect. Upon his return, Frye hasn’t skipped a beat and is back averaging double-digits this season.

The high-scoring bench mob has been equally impressive. Once a slam dunk champion, Gerald Green bounced around in the D-League, in Russia, and in China (where he played for Foshan in 2011) before returning to the league. He was also a part of the Scola trade from Indiana, and is now enjoying a career-best scoring season for the Suns. The Morris Twins – Markieff and Marcus – have matured to being a minor punch-line to a major front-line. And the Suns recently brought back the ‘Brazilian Blur’, Leandro Barbosa.

Barbosa’s job will now be to help the Suns cope with the loss of Bledsoe. Along with Dragic, he should be able to help continue Phoenix’s two-point guard offense, where the small guys penetrate and the skilled three-point shooters spread the floor to help create space.

A man who knows a thing or three about three-point shooting is the Suns’ rookie head coach, Jeff Hornacek. Hornacek has been a coaching revelation; the former sharp-shooting guard has helped change the culture in Phoenix, brought a run-and-gun offense back to the team, and has encouraged selfless, sharing basketball. He quickly started setting records for a debut coach and was named December’s Coach of the Month. If the Suns continue to survive in the playoff race without Bledsoe, he might become a favourite for the Coach of the Year award.

But with the loss of one-half of their unstoppable point guard combo, that playoff dream just got much tougher. Can they keep up their form for the rest of the season? Dragic’s numbers have improved, and so have the contributions of the rest of the team, but that simply won’t be enough. Few are expecting that Emeka Okafor will contrubute if he returns from injury.

Before Bledsoe’s injury, the Suns could’ve used Okafor and his expiring contract, along with a couple other pieces, to go for another major contributor and try to rise even higher in in the West. Do they now revert to the original rebuilding plan for next season, or keep battling to get better?

There is one other x-factor for the team: the potential of Ukrainian rookie Alen Len. Len has played sparingly so far this season after recovering from his ankle surgery. He was shelved as a prospect for the future, but the 7-footer has the skill-set to start making some major strides if he is given more opportunities this season.

The Suns may have lost one of their most important players, but as their GM said, they are still better as a whole than the sum of their parts. When one part goes down, others will rise. Luckily, Hornacek’s squad is a system more than just a set of individuals, and as long as the players trust in that system, they should be fine.

Hornacek’s surprising squad have been here before; they’ve been underrated and they’ve been written off, and yet, they’ve risen above and beyond their expectations. Perhaps it wouldn’t be wise to bet against them again. No matter how dark the night gets, this is a Sun that can keep rising.

The AllMost Stars Team

By now, you've probably seen the 2014 NBA All Star rosters. You've probably voted for many of the starters and you probably agree with most of the reserves that the coaches voted in. But as it is with every year, the list of players snubbed at the All Star Game becomes almost as interesting as the list of those who did make it.

This year is no different. Every team feels like their star should be an All Star, and argues incessantly to the relative merits of their own representatives over the others. Then, there are those like Grantland's Zach Lowe, who argued that there are no 'snubs' in the West, just great players unfortunate in the wrong conference. It's true that the conference imbalance also makes for imbalanced All Star teams. And at the end of the day, each team can only have 12 players, so no matter what a personal definition of an 'All Star' is, the final list cannot fit them all. Now whether or not you agree with the contentious voting system (fans for the starters + coaches for the reserves) is a whole different issue.

Here is my list of nine Almost All Stars this season, or AllMost Stars. One could make an argument for most of them to make the East or West squads, but only a few of them could truly replace someone less deserving actually in the final roster. One of them will definitely make it though, since Kobe Bryant has been ruled out to injury and the NBA's brand new commissioner Adam Silver will make it one of his first duties to choose a replacement in the West.

West

Goran Dragic: 'The Dragon' has been an absolute monster this season, and if the NBA wants to find another guard to take Kobe's spot, Dragic should be a no-brainer. Dragic has been the heart and soul of the Phoenix Suns, who are the league's most amazing story this season. He has lifted the team up from the expected tail-end of the West up to sixth place. He's averaging a career-high 20 points per game this season to go with over six assists. Most impressively, he has helped the Suns survive the loss of Eric Bledsoe without missing a step in their rankings.

Anthony Davis: Davis could give Dragic a run for his money in the race for Kobe's replacement, despite playing a completely different position. First of all, Davis would become the only representative of the All Star Game's host city - New Orleans - in the game. Davis has improved his game dramatically this season and is putting up historically impressive numbers. Davis is averaging 20.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and a league-leading 3.3 blocks a game this season for the Pelicans, developing into a rare, dominant two-way big man. Despite the fact that the Pelicans are far outside the playoff race in the West, he has a PER of 27.1, fifth best in the league. Ultimately, it's his team's losing record that kept him out of the West roster.

DeMarcus Cousins: Cousins missed the roster because of his team, too, which are currently bottom-feeders in the West. But don't blame it on 'Boogie' - Cousins has been an absolute beast, enjoying his best season with career highs in points (22.6 ppg) and rebounds (11.6 rpg) as well as enjoying the NBA’s highest usage rate.

Mike Conley: The numbers - although impressive - might not scream 'All Star', but don't let the Grizzlies' slow pace fool you into ignoring Conley's contributions. Averaging a career-high 18 points per game, Conley helped keep the Grizzlies barely afloat in Marc Gasol's absence, and upon Gasol's return, helped the team propel to a 9-2 streak. Still, it might be too little too late in the West, which is loaded with talented guards including Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Tony Parker, and James Harden.

Tim Duncan: A veteran of 14 All Star games, T-Robot missed the cut for only the third time int he last 16 years! With the Spurs suffering a mix of injuries, Duncan has helped Parker in keeping the team near the top of the West and is still putting up consistently impressive numbers. With 15 points and 10 rebounds per game, it's clear that Duncan - even as he pushes close to 38 - hasn't conceded to Father Time just yet.

David Lee: A regular double-double machines, Lee's offensive numbers could put him in All Star consideration nearly every season, and this year, he has been the second-best player for the successful Warriors. Lee rounds up four big AllMost Stars out West, and I would've picked any of them in the spot over Dirk Nowitzki. Lee has averaged 19 points on 51.6 percent shooting and 9.8 rebounds this season.

East

Lance Stephenson: Probably the biggest snub of either conference, Stephenson has been rightly miffed at being snubbed by Eastern Conference coaches to make the Eastern reserves, despite being the third-best player in the conference's best team, leading the league in triple doubles, and being a lock-down defensive player. Stephenson is averaging career highs across the board and could be one of the top choices for the Most Improved Player award. For now, he has made it clear that "I already had a chip on my shoulder and it made me even worse. Now I'm going to kill everybody who is in front of me."

Kyle Lowry: I would've chosen Lowry over DeRozan as the Raptors' lone representative at the All Star Game in New Orleans. Head to head, DeRozan has a slight scoring edge, but Lowry rebounds and assists better, and has been slightly more consistent. It's close, but I think DeRozan's injury and Lowry's play in his absence sealed the deal for me. The Raptors have been the surprise team of the East thanks to both these players, standing atop the Atlantic Division. I think both of them and Lance Stephenson could have been picked over the last Eastern guard spot, which shockingly went to Joe Johnson.

Jeff Teague: With the Hawks hanging on to the third spot in the East despite Al Horford's absence, it could be argued that the team should've been rewarded with a second All Star besides Paul Millsap. Besides John Wall, Teague has been the best point guard in the East and is averaging career-highs across the board, including points (16.9) and assists (8).

*The East is too awful for me to give any another considerations, so Aaron Afflalo, Al Jefferson, have to deal with being the snubbed snubs.

Rising Suns

The Phoenix Suns can be certain that they are heading into the post-Nash era with some optimism and new personality in their roster. Time will tell if this new team can gel together without an All Star leader. The Sun may have set on the Nash-era, but it will be up to these new faces to make sure a new sun confidently rises in Phoenix again.

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