Dead on the Deadline

February 22nd done came and went. And it was definitely a trade deadline to remember.

For the next few minutes at least. 

Or in my case, for the next day and a half, since I've set up for the unenviable task of rounding up all the magnificent small moves that 'highlighted' the NBA's Trade Deadline Day. 

Many NBA observers are calling it the Most Boring Trade Deadline ever. But all jokes aside, the lack of big moves isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a sign that many NBA teams are getting smarter about moving some pieces just for the heck of moving them, and are instead hoping to improve chemistry in the unit that they already have. On the flipside, one could say that it is also a sign that teams are just being over-cautious and are scared to take a risk. 

Sometimes though, the best moves are the small ones. We're already around 60 percent into the season, and any drastic change would require new players in starring roles to learn their new system in limited time, without the luxury of a training camp or a pre-season. Sometimes, the small moves, such as adding a much needed back-up point guard and beefing up the front-line can make a big difference. 

This year, the list of players that didn't get traded has been far more exciting than the ones who did. Circulating in the rumours over recent weeks were names like Josh Smith, Al Jefferson, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, and Carlos Boozer amongst many others. In the end: all of the above will be wearing the jersey at least until the end of this season. 

But here is a list of the 'biggest' players that did beat the buzzer and move to a new squad before the Deadline expired:

JJ Redick: Redick isn't going to be your team's best or your team's second-best player (unless your team is the Bobcats), but on good night's, he can surely be the third best. That - my friends - is the marquee name in this deadline. The Magic traded Redick along with my main man Gustavo Ayon (#AyonSanity) and Ish Smith to Milwaukee in return for Beno Udrih, Tobias Harris, and rookie Doron Lamb. Redick is a solid shooter and will make an interesting clog of guards in Milwaukee along with Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis. Is his arrival the early sign of Jennings' departure over the summer? 

Thomas Robinson: Fifth pick in the NBA draft and the best player for last year's national championship runners-up Kansas, Robinson never quite found his footing in Sacramento behind a logjam of big men. The strong power forward only played about 16 minutes a game. The Kings traded him along with Francisco Garcia, Tyler Honeycutt, and a second round pick to Houston in return for Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich, Toney Douglas, and cash. Hopefully the young man can fit in well along with the core of Harden, Lin, Asik, Parsons, and the eighth place Rockets. This trade happened earlier than Deadline Day, but I'm adding it here anyways because I'm desperate. 

Jordan Crawford: Famous for once dunking on LeBron while still in High School and proclaiming that he is better than Michael Jordan, Crawford is a professional high-volume/low-efficiency scorer from Washington. The Celtics traded for him on the deadline, because I guess they need an off-the-bench offensive spark urgently, especially since the injured Rajon Rondo isn't around to get them easy shots anymore. Leandro Barbosa and others went the other way to Washington. 

Eric Maynor: The Thunder sent their half-decent back-up point guard to Portland in exchange for Giorgio Printezis and a trade exception. That's all I've got to say about that. 

Ronnie Brewer: Brewer is a solid perimeter defender who was being wasted away on the New York Knicks' bench after a decent start to the season. The Knicks sent up to Oklahoma City in exchange for a future second round pick and cash. Brewer will be a good defensive back-up for the Thunder, while the Knicks used the extra cleared cap space to sign Kenyon Martin to a 10-day contract.

Sebastian Telfair: Arrived in Toronto from Phoenix in exchange for Hamed Hadaddi. Yawn. Remember when Telfair was supposed to become a big deal?

A few other smaller trades look place, and you can find a nice recap of updates here on SLAMOnline.com.

NBA's loss is CBA's gain

When the NBA and it's players failed to agree on a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and thus, put an end to the current lockout, there is another CBA that seems to have gained: the Chinese Basketball Association. And now that the NBA's player's union has disbanded, and the 2011/12 NBA season is seemingly slipping away, China will start looking like an even more attractive destination for NBA players.

Of course, going overseas isn't a newly-discovered option for former NBA players - bit players who couldn't find NBA jobs and those who were past their prime have occasionally taken the leap overseas and taken their talents to Europe, South America, and in rare occasions, to Asia.

But the change in economy has also directly influenced the change in preferred basketball-player destination. The NBA, which is the richest and the most competitive basketball league in the world, is obviously the dream destination for every basketball player in the world. But the NBA is no more (for now): and so, during this lockout, more and more players are thinking China. Europe is in serious recessions, while China has become the world's second largest economy. It also happens to be a country crazy about hoops - of course, the cultural barrier in the Far East as compared to Europe may be a tougher hurdle for the average NBA player - but the CBA has rising competitiveness and relative financial strength in its favour. No team outside the NBA can really match NBA salaries, but in today's economy, it seems that the CBA comes the closest.

The CBA was only founded 16 years ago - in 1995. The first American player to play in the league was James Hodges. There are 17 teams in the league.

The first American to play in the CBA was James Hodges, back in 1996. Since then, former NBA players slowly made their way back and forth, but the biggest breakthrough in NBA to CBA history was the arrival of former All Star and Timberwolves/Nets/Suns/Knicks/Celtics guard Stephon Marbury. One of the most exciting (and possibly crazy) players in the NBA, Marbury shocked the world when he joined China's Shanxi Brave Dragons in 2010. Since then, Marbury has played for the Foshan Dragons and has now signed for the Beijing Ducks. In the process, he has become one of the most popular players in China, all while also promoting his shoe company there. For a former perhaps-nutcase, Marbury has flipped his career around for the better with the China move.

Now, to promote their own talent, Chinese teams have quite stringent rules for allowing foreign players on their rosters and for the playing time that the foreign players get. All teams except the Bayi Rockets can have a maximum of two foreign players, although the bottom five teams in the league are allowed to sign an additional Asian player to their roster. When facing an opponent in any game, the foreign players are allowed to play a combined total of six quarters, except for when teams are facing the Bayi Rockets, in which case the foreigners can play up to five quarters.

Why the Bayi Rockets exceptions, you ask? Well, the Rockets are China's Army Team, and thus, they feature only Chinese players. The Bayi Rockets also happen to be the squad that beat up players from the Georgetown University team in a 'friendly' game a few months ago. They also happen to be the most successful team of the CBA, winning 8 of the 16 titles so far.

Until last season, a few former NBA players did manage to make their impact on the, although none of them were as well known as Marbury. These included former Kings player Quincy Douby (Xinjiang Flying Tigers), who was last year's China All Star MVP, former Knick/Hawk Randolph Morris (Beijing Ducks), former Spur/Clipper/Bobcat Marcus Williams (Shanxi Brave Dragons), former Clipper/Mav/Wizard James Singleton (Guangdong Southern Tigers), former Rocket/Wizard Mike Harris (Shanghai Sharks), former NBA journeyman Andre Emmett (Fujian Sturgeons). Another former NBA big name - Steve Francis - had a shot with the Beijing Ducks, but it never really worked out. Former Kings player Bonzi Wells had a pretty successful 1 season in China with the Shanxi Brave Dragons.

Still, nothing prepared China for what was going to happen across the pond this year. When the NBA went into lockout, most of the players took the wait-and-see approach before deciding on their futures overseas. But some of them were more proactive and decided early. Now, compared to basketball leagues in other countries, China has strict rules that are still keeping NBA-ers at bay: once a player signs with a Chinese side, he has to play the whole season. In other countries, players can break their contract and return to America if the lockout ends; not in China.

But many players have made the jump eastwards anyways, and from the looks of things, many more are now considering it. Already, a major portion of the former Denver Nuggets have traded the Rocky Mountains for the Great Wall: Wilson Chandler (Zheijiang Lions), Kenyon Martin (Xinjiang Flying Tigers), and JR Smith (Zheijiang Golden Bulls) signed for CBA teams a few months ago. They were joined by the Nets' Dan Gadzuric (Jiangsu Dragons), and the Hawks' Josh Powell (Liaoning Dinosaurs). Chinese stars Yi Jianlian of the Wizards also headed back to his homeland to play for the Southern Tigers, who are the league's defending champions.

And a few days ago, the Suns' Aaron Brooks became the latest to accept a contract with the Chinese team, signing with the Southern Tigers. Chinese teams have been showing interest in bringing over Shane Battier, too.

And of course, there was a major push a few months ago for Kobe Bryant - it didn't resolve to anything back, but since the NBA's status has gone from bad to worse, I'm sure that even the Mamba would be thinking about expanding his horizons. Kobe would definitely become the biggest basketball name in country, and perhaps the best NBA player to ever play in an overseas league. But Chinese fans shouldn't get too carried away about that, yet, as he has a lot more international options and offers to choose from.

The NBA, our favourite league, is unfortunately slipping. Who knows when, and if, there will be a settlement between the two sides, especially now that they're going to court. But the NBA's loss has become the CBA's gain. And while the world's best basketball league in the world's strongest economy squabbles and shuts down over money matters, the second-strongest economy in the East seems to be becoming a brighter option for the basketball starved players.

Denver Nuggets - All For One

It's been around three weeks since the trade deadline, and the new pieces that were roughly reshuffled on Feb 24 are now starting to show some shape with adjusting to their new teams. But out of all the teams involved in major trades at the deadline - Hawks, Celtics, Cavs, Nets, Knicks, Thunder, Blazers, Jazz, and Wizards, it has been the Denver Nuggets who have shown the most improvement, winning nine of their 11 games since.

Before the trade, it had been a season full of 'Melo'Drama for the Denver Nuggets and their coach George Karl. Trade rumours were lurking for their superstar forward, and the Nuggets, who have been one of the best teams in the West for Carmelo Anthony's seven-year era, were on a slightly slower pace this season. True, they were still winning more games than they lost, but there was a tension in the air.

And then Carmelo and Chauncey Billups were sent to New York Knicks for four lesser-known players. Now, a lot of people compared Carmelo bolstering out of Denver to LeBron James' exit from Cleveland, but this is far from a fair comparison. LeBron left the Cavs as a free agent, leaving his former team with nothing in return. Cavs lost LeBron, Shaq, Ilgauskas, and Delonte West to free agency, getting nothing in return but large cap space to use on players who didn't want to go there in the first place.

Anthony was also reaching his free-agency at the end of this season, so instead of leaving Denver with nothing, his trade to New York mid-season at least brought the Nuggets some value for him. And oh my, have the Nuggets struck gold.

This was the original trade: The Nuggets gave up Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman, and Anthony Carter. Melo is a multiple time all star in his prime and one of the league's best scorers. Billups is a multiple time all star from the past and a Finals MVP. Melo and Chauncey were their top two scorers. The other three guys are solid backups.

In return, they got Wilson Chanlder, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, and Timofey Mozgov from the Knicks, and Kosta Koufos from the Timberwolves. No all stars, no championships, not even a 20 point average - just four or five guys who are willing to fit into the system.

And the trade has worked miracles! Before the trade, Denver were a respectable 32-25. Since the trade? They are 41-27. Conversely, look at the Knicks, who have seemingly gotten the better of the trade - Knicks were 28-26 before Melo, and have been 7-6 since.

Everyone expected Denver to free fall without their two leaders. Instead, this team has figured out a way to stay relevant and even get better. The Nuggets now share their offense between Nene, Chandler, Arron Afflalo, JR Smith, Ty Lawson, Felton, Al Harrington, Kenyon Martin, Chris Anderson, and Gallinari, who is currently injured. In a team full of support-guys, players amongst whom near is no real star, they have figured out a way to be incredibly efficient.

A lot of credit for this needs to go to Coach Karl. Without Anthony's lack of defensive ability, the Nuggets are now a much better team on the defensive end. And on offense, since the ball doesn't need to go through one player alone, they are a lot more efficient, sharing, assisting, and actually scoring more points.

Of course, the true test of this team will come in the playoffs. If the playoffs started today, the Nuggets would be fifth in the West, and they would play their first round against the Thunder. If they keep playing balanced basketball the way they are, the Thunder have a right to be quiet worried.

But does all this mean that, despite all his abilities, Carmelo Anthony is a negative player? Well, yes and no. Of course, his problems on defense and sometimes his one-trackedness can hinder a team, but every successful squad needs someone to turn to when the going got tough, and Anthony is one of the best in the league at that. At this point, the Nuggets may be enjoying life without their former best player. But the Knicks shouldn't feel despair about getting a lethal scorer like him: it will take time for him and Billups to settle in their new team, and once the playoffs start, we will see Anthony's real value.

As of now though, the Denver Nuggets are definitely the winners of the trade deadline.