There have been quite a few movements at the end of the trading period. Even though none of the anticipated blockbuster deals took place, there were still a few significant changes. Let’s have a closer look.
Brad Miller is the most prominent name of the players who got dealt. He ended up in Chicago. In Sacramento he averaged 11.8 points and 8.0 rebounds in 43 games. He has missed the past 7 games with an abdominal strain but is expected to play for Chicago, provided he passes the physical.
Brad Miller will take over as starting center. Miller was more important to Sacramento than he will be to Chicago’s fast paced style of play. I don’t expect his numbers to change a lot, maybe a slight rise in rebounds per game but make no mistake, Ben Gordon, Derrick Rose and Luol Deng remain the three most important players when it comes to field goal attempts.
Joakim Noah will lose his starting job and I’m afraid the impressive Tyrus Thomas will get to play fewer minutes as well.
John Salmons has the best season among the players who got traded within the past two days. In fact, this is the best season of his career by far. He is averaging 18.3 points per game and very decent numbers throughout all the categories.
Unfortunately his value will go down. He will be the back up to Ben Gordon and Luol Deng in Chicago and the subsequent drop in playing time will reflect his numbers. Off the bench I expect him to average 14.something points per game.
I have him on one of my teams, not as a starter, and was extremely pleased with his production. I will hang on to him but I think he is good trait bait.
Rafer Alston got traded to Orlando in an attempt to stay competitive with Boston and Cleveland. From a sports point of view this makes a lot of sense since Jameer Nelson’s season ending injury. From a fantasy point of view I don’t see any significant changes in Alston’s numbers. I don’t even expect his point average to improve as he is not exactly the most accurate shooter. He has to feed Dwight Howard but you will be lucky if he averages 5.9 assists per game.
Drew Gooden moved from Chicago to Sacramento. To me he is the clear loser among the traded players. I had him on my watch list for when he returns to the Bulls line up after injury but there is no more need for that.
Spencer Hawes may not be the most impressive player yet but he is improved and deserves to be the Kings’ starting center. I do see time-sharing on the center position though.
Rashad McCants got traded from Minnesota to Sacramento. He has become fairly insignificant after a pretty good season last year and this will not change after this trade.
Chris Wilcox did get traded eventually, from Oklahoma City to New York. I already broke him down in the trade with New Orleans that has been rescinded, so I won’t do this again but let’s just say that he would have been better off with that trade.
David Lee is having a brilliant season and Wilson Chandler and Al Harrington at power forward probably are better than Wilcox as well.
This is the best time to get rid of Wilcox if you have him on your team.
If you can’t make it in New York you can’t make it anywhere!
Andres Nocioni ended up in Sacramento. I’ve always liked him as a player but never believed that he could succeed in Chicago. He averaged 10.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 3-pointers this year. In Sacramento he will be the starting small forward in no time. Expecting a significant increase in playing time, I see his numbers go up to about 13 points and closer to 5 rebounds per game.
You can still add him in most leagues and that is exactly what I would do.
Larry Hughes saw his playing time diminish in Chicago and had virtually zero value since the return of Kirk Hinrich.
He is expected to become New York’s starting shooting guard and should be able to provide the Knicks with the numbers he put up for Chicago. You will most likely see a small improvement though.
I do not necessarily recommend adding him but kept an eye on him and consider him to be an option. Believe it or not but there is certain talent in New York and one or the other player may surprise you with their production.
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