Breakdown of Blockbuster Trades: Bradley Beal, Chris Paul, Marcus Smart and Kristaps Porzingis
The 2023 NBA Draft took place last night and with the draft always comes a flurry of trades. This year was no exception. Three blockbuster trades stood out amongst the rest, and we're going to break them all down.
Blockbuster Deals
Celtics Receive
Kristaps Porzingis
2023 First-Round Pick (Grizzlies)
2024 First-Round Pick (Grizzlies via Warriors)
Grizzlies Receive
Wizards Receive
Tyus Jones
Danilo Gallinari
Mike Muscala
2023 First-Round Pick (Celtics)
The key players moved in this deal were Porzingis heading to the Celtics from Washington and Smart heading to Memphis from the Celtics. Both the Grizz and Celtics consider themselves contenders and made moves that they believe will help better position them for a championship run while the Wizards are now in a full-blown rebuild. Being that both the Celts and Grizz are in win-now mode we are going to focus on how Porzingis and Smart moving will impact these teams moving forward.
This a trade that we will look back on for the Celtics as a disaster. At least for the short-term future. They traded away an elite defender and glue guy who is an absolute gamer for a guy who has never lived up to expectations in the NBA for a number of reasons. There is a reason Porzingis is now joining his fourth team in nine years and one of the main reasons is injuries. If you were to guarantee me the Celtics have him for 60 games and a playoff run that could change things a bit. However, he's only managed to play 60 games in a season once in the past six years. While he did manage to suit up for 65 games in 2022, over his previous five seasons he had missed a whopping 211 games while playing in just 199. The defense and intangibles the Celtics are losing in Smart aren't worth the 23-8-3 that Porzingis will give them if he's able to stay healthy and play at the top of his game.
The Grizzlies are the winner of this deal in our eyes. They lose what are both likely late first-rounders and add a guy in Smart who fits what their team is trying to do perfectly. Not only will he be a replacement and upgrade for Dillon Brooks who proved to be a professional clown in the playoffs this year, but he will also be crucial early in the season as the team attempts to survive the first third of the season without a suspended Ja Morant. The Grizzlies are a better team today than they were the last time we saw them on the court and we aren't sure that can be said about the Celtics after this deal.
Suns Receive
Bradley Beal
Jordan Goodwin
Isaiah Todd
Wizards Receive
Chris Paul
Landry Shamet
Second-Round Picks in 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2030
First-Round Pick Swaps in 2024, 2026, 2028, 2030
Cash
Again, as we mentioned earlier the Wiz are clearly rebuilding and it's impossible to know now how all those second-rounders and pick swaps will pan out, and they've already shipped CP3 out of town. So we are going to focus on what the Suns did. They lose Paul and Shamet while giving up a ton of future assets for Beal. Beal is an excellent volume scorer and the Suns are better with Beal than with an aging Paul and Shamet. Nevertheless, we aren't so sure that this is the way to a championship for Phoenix. What the team was lacking was depth and defense. Dropping him onto this team makes it much more difficult for the Suns to add pieces now and they need quite a few of them. They didn't need a guy to take 20 shots per game away from Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. They needed a bunch of guys who are gritty and could complement them. Beal is the perfect guy to help in the regular season when KD inevitably misses time. However, this team still doesn't look like it's built for a championship run unless they can bring in a handful of veteran guys willing to take a discount to play with these stars. If KD is pulling the strings here it's safe to say he does not have a future as an NBA GM after what we've seen in Brooklyn and now Phoenix.
Warriors Receive
Chris Paul
Wizards Receive
Jordan Poole
Ryan Rollins
2030 First-Round Pick (Protected)
2027 Second-Round Pick
We aren't sure if everyone else is perplexed as us by this deal, but we aren't sure what the Warriors are doing. No one sat back and watched them play last year and thought, "What this team needs is to get older and less healthy." This week was not a great start to the Mike Dunleavy era in Golden State. We understand why they wanted to trade Poole both from an on and off-court perspective, but this wasn't the deal to make. Even if Paul is the best you can do, how do you then throw in multiple future draft picks? They traded a young asset for a point guard who will turn 39 during the playoffs next season on a team that already has Steph Curry. Golden State is an old team that looks like they may have reached the end of the road when it comes to championships with their current core. Once again, we are going to just ignore the Wizards who will be irrelevant for the foreseeable future but did a good job of fleecing a rookie GM.
