GRADING THE COVINGTON CAPELA FIRESTORM
@Baldwin31
Only the NBA can produce mass hysteria at a whims notice after midnight eastern time. I guess it’s safe to say trade season has officially started.
The Trade:
Atlanta Hawks
I promise Trae Young put more effort into his celebration of this trade than any defensive possession the Hawks have played this season. Now I know the bar isn’t high for that, but hear me out.
Capela gives Young and the Hawks the defensive rim protecting centre they need to anchor a defence that features more blow byes than a men’s league game. Seriously, it cannot be overstated how bad this team’s perimeter defence has been, and how much a guy like Capela will instantly help with that.
Add in Capela is on a steal of a contract and Andre Drummond’s future home will have to wait for whenever the team who signs him this offseason realizes he’s not actually that good.
Jokes a side, the Hawks got better the moment this trade went through and to only give up Brooklyn’s pick (number sixteen right now) and Evan Turner’s expiring is borderline highway robbery.
Grade: A
Houston Rockets
Daryl Morey got his wish and got the wing defender he’s been looking for since Trevor Ariza sold his soul for a gold mine the size of Arizona. The problem is that he gave up a heap to do so.
Losing Capela makes sense, what he did for them is more or less replaceable by about 20 guys in the league, unfortunately Houston acquired zero of them in this acquisition. Covington will help them immediately, don’t get me wrong but the fact of the matter is guys like Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert and Anthony Davis will be in the playoffs and currently the Rockets have no one who can pretend to guard any of them.
PJ Tucker is a bonafide badass who can play on my team any day and Jordan Bell is interesting for 10-15 minutes a game but lets not act like those dudes can ever have a prayer of being the only “centres” on a team that wins a title.
The Rockets feel about two moves short right now and that’s why giving the first hurts so much. I like the idea of Covington for them but, this team’s slim title hopes feel way too beholden on a buyout market with two good Los Angeles teams.
Grade: B-
Minnesota Timberwolves
Say it with me Gersson, “I need someone who can pass”. Now please, say it again because I’m pretty sure Gersson, you didn’t know that.
I don’t mean to be mean (although if there’s a potential joke possible…) but I’m not the one who’s in charge of an NBA team that currently does’t have a point guard. This Timberwolves team’s point guard rotation makes the Devin Booker Suns teams look like they had Jason Kidd and Steve Nash for gods sake.
I struggle grading this move because I just have to assume more is coming. There just has to be. Rosas can’t honestly be prepared to run out a team that doesn’t have a point guard. Lord knows there Twitter account loves ‘Point Wiggy’ but that can’t be the answer.
The good news is they got three NBA rotation players which is an upgrade on a team that hasn’t won a game with their star since the Browns still had a shot at the playoffs (seriously it’s been THAT long).
Hopefully something else is in the works so that they can at least pretend to care about games in 2019-20 but I can’t fail them since the return on Covington is pretty impressive all things considered.
Grade: C+ (will go up if assets turn into a PG)
Denver Nuggets
This trade made no god damn sense.
Let’s break up a locker room that’s grown up together right before the playoffs for the off chance LeBron’s a good scout, Charlotte’s drafts can’t be that bad and maybe Minnesota could hit on one wing.
Yes, the Denver Nuggets moved Malik Beasley, Juancho Hernangomez and Jared Vanderbilt, two solid bench contributors and a prospect with some upside for Shabazz Napier, Noah Vonleh and Keita Bates-Diop.
Napier has been pretty good this year but are we sure he’s better than Beasley, let alone Morris or the other guys he’d have to play over to even touch the floor? Same goes for Vonleh and Hernangomez and Vanderbilt and Bates-Diop.
I get wanting a first round pick for an expiring Beasley but is this really the best you could get?
To me this looks like a potential locker room hazard at worst and at best a slight upgrade with a pick in a terrible draft. It seems like Denver tried to out think the room and in classic over thinking fashion, may have just screwed themselves instead.
Grade: D- (The pick saves them from complete failure I guess)
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