Well the NBA trade deadline came and went and Anthony Davis is still a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Now that Davis will be with the Pelicans for the rest of this season the question became if New Orleans would play him. Now the NBA does have a rule regarding “rest” of a player and they reminded New Orleans that a violation of that rule carries a $100,000 fine.
Davis player for the first time since January 18th and had played well as the Pelicans beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 122-117 on Friday night. Davis played 25 minutes in the game, but sat out the entire 4th quarter. In his return Davis ended up scoring 32 points. Davis shot 11 of 15 from the floor; missing the only 3-pointer he took. He was also 10 of 11 from the free throw line. Davis added 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocked shots to his stat line.
I’m sure with Davis on is way out the door at the end of the season that the Pelicans would prefer to land in the draft lottery and take their chances there, but sitting at 25-31 New Orleans is just 5 games out of the 8th and final Western Conference playoff spot. Now I don’t expect the Pelicans to make an actual effort to get into the playoff, but they do have a chance to get into them. my guess is if they start to trend upwards that Davis minutes will decline, but will have to wait and see how they play that and him.
So who was the biggest star traded at the deadline? I guess you’d have to pick between Tobias Harris or Marc Gasol unless you’re an Otto Porter Jr. guy.
Harris was the first one in that group dealt. Harris went to the Philadelphia 76ers along with Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott. In return the 76ers sent Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, a lottery protected 2020 1st round draft pick, a 2021 1st and 2nd round pick and a 2023 2nd round pick.
The Washington Wizards where able to move Porter Jr. and his big contract to the Chicago Bulls for Bobby Portis, Jabri Parker and a 2023 2nd round pick.
The Memphis Grizzlies had talked about moving their top two players before the trade deadline expired, but in the end they only moved one of them. Memphis sent Gasol to the Toronto Raptors for Jonas Valanciunias, CJ Miles, Delon Wright and a 2024 2nd round pick.
While he was playing on Wednesday night Harrison Barnes was traded by the Dallas Mavericks to the Sacramento Kings for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph.
Now depending on which report you want to believe either Barnes was notified by the Mavericks that this could happen and he wanted to pay or he was caught completely by surprise while have was playing. Now it’s not the first time a player has ever been traded during a game, but for some reason LeBron James decided to chime in about the situation on his Instagram page.
Here’s what James wrote: “So let me guess this is cool cause they had to do what was best for the franchise right???”. He added: “Traded this man while he was literally playing in the game and had ZERO idea. I’m not knocking who traded him because it’s a business and you have to do what you feel what’s best but I just want this narrative to start to get REAL/CHANGE and not when a player wants to be traded or leaves a Franchise that he’s a selfish/ungrateful player but when they trade you, release , waive, cut etc etc it’s best for them! I’m ok with both honestly, truly am. Just call a ♠️ a ♠️!!”
Now it’s clear that James wasn’t defending Barnes in any way shape or form, but was trying to get his point across about Anthony Davis. Is there actually anyone out their that thought this post was about Barnes?
Since about the July 31st trading deadline last season there has been speculation that the Miami Marlins would be trading catcher J.T. Realmuto and while it took about 7 months it finally happened.
On Thursday the Philadelphia Phillies acquired Realmuto from the Marlins for catcher Jorge Alfaro and two pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez and left hander Will Stewart. The Marlins also picked up an International signing slot worth $250,000.
Realmuto is coming off a season where he posted a career high in home runs with 21 and RBI’s with 74. With the move to a more hitter friendly Citizen’s Bank Park for 81 games this season he may post another career high in home runs this season.
Sanchez was the top pitching prospect in the Phillies organization, but has had injury issues. Sanchez pitched 46 2/3rd innings last season due to injury and has never thrown more than 95 innings in a season. He did go 4-3 with a 2.51 ERA in high Class A last season. Sanchez is just 20 years old and is headed into his fifth season; so the Marlins have time to develop him.
Stewart is 21 years old and doesn’t seem to be considered a prospect, but he went 8-1 with an ERA of 2.06 over 20 starts in Class A last season. Stewart threw 113 2/3rd innings last season and had 2 complete game shutouts. I’m not sure why Stewart isn’t considered a prospect, but if he keeps putting up numbers like he did last season he’ll find his way into the big leagues.
By dealing Realmuto the Marlins needed a catcher; so Alfaro was put into this deal. Alfaro played in 108 games last season. He hit .262 with 10 home runs and 37 RBI’s. The issue with Alfaro like a lot of players today is that he strikes out a lot. Last season he struck out 134 times in 344 at bats. Alfaro is looked at as a good defensive catcher and he threw out 26% of runners trying to steal last season.
Of course the first question that came up was; did the Marlins get enough for Realmuto. It seemed as though the Marlins where asking for a lot more than the other teams looking to deal for Realmuto than they ended up getting from the Phillies. I guess will have to wait and see how this deal turns out.
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