Mid-season Trades: What Stood out?

   With the NBA’s mid-season trades finally over as of Thursday at 3pm, many teams around the league have been spending their weekends getting acquainted with a few newer faces. Some new acquisitions will go practically unnoticed and may pan out to not make a significant difference long term but there are a few deals that were made throughout this exchange period that cannot go without mentioning.

Trade #1:  Orlando Magic trade JJ Redick to the Milwaukee Bucks 

     As if the season couldn't get any worse for the now 15-41(.268) Orlando Magic follwing the loss of former franchise player Dwight Howard this past off season, on Thursday the Magic lost shooting guard JJ Redick, a fan favorite who has spent all 6 of his years in the league with Orlando. Redick was the teams second leading scorer averaging 15.1 PPG, 2.40 RPG, and 4.4 APG this season as well as 91% from the charity stripe. The deal from Orlando included forward/center Gustavo Ayon and guard Ish Smith. The Milwaukee Bucks, who are currently 26-28 and holding the 8th seed in the East, traded forward Tobias Harris, guard Beno Udrih, and rookie guard Doron Lamb. 

    Don't be so quick to revisit the World of Hate though Magic fans. The Bucks chances of actually making a run at the title are pretty slim and with the prolific talent from Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis that they already have, JJ Redick will likely become the regular sixth man getting much fewer touches. If Orlando fans are upset with anyone, I would hope it is solely their organizations front office. Hopefully this off-season will bring some kind of life back to the city's NBA fans.

Trade #2: New York Knicks trade Ronnie Brewer to OKC and acquire Kenyon Martin

      This deal was rather interesting to me. The Oklahoma City Thunder (40-15) are favored by many to win the West for the second year in a row. The defense that forward Ronnie Brewer, also formerly an asset to the Chicago Bulls, can provide for them may be just another threat to build upon that case. The Thunder acquired Brewer in exchange for a 2014 second round draft pick from the 6'7" range to the Knicks. 

      New York, on the other hand, signs forward Kenyon Martin, who hasn't played in the league this season at all, as a free agent on a 10-day contract. Martin can definitely replace the size sacrificed in the trading of Brewer, sustaining their defense and possibly improving their rebounding. Last season with the Clippers, Martin averaged 5.2 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 1 block over the course of the 42 games he played with the team. The question with Martin will be if he is in good enough shape to be more of an asset and less of a liability to the Knicks. We all know that the Knicks have had a bit of a lingering and impacting chemistry problem to begin it.

Trade #3: Memphis Grizzlies trade Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors

        I would be remiss not to mention the acquisition of former Memphis marquee player Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors. The three team trade deal was finalized on January 30th in which The Grizzlies traded small forward Rudy Gay for Raptors point guard Jose Calderon who was then sent to the Detriot Pistons in exchange for veteran forward Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye. Gay was averaging 17.2 PPG and 5.9 RPG in Memphis this season. In Toronto he joins a young talented guard in DeMar Derozan. 

      The shock of this trade came in large part from the fact that most people felt Memphis had a good chance at making a deep playoff run with Rudy Gay playing alongside veteran player and premiere defender Tony Allen, dominant and skilled big men in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, and a reliable point guard in Mike Conley. Meanwhile, Toronto was fighting to clinch one of the lower seed spots. In addition, the trade seemed to sneak up on us as there weren't many rumors indicating this deal coming to fruition. Toronto and Memphis are both still in the process of adjusting to the roster changes and although it seemed that Memphis struggled to do so more initially, they are currently 36-18 while the Raptors 23-33, making them the 10th seed in the East. 

       There is still plenty of time left for the Raptors to make it to the 7th or 8th seed but I'm more interested in seeing not only how Gay with the Raptors will play out for them in the long run but also how the Grizzlies without Gay will play out for them in the short term, namely this year's playoffs. In my opinion, this was the most intriguing and most valuable deal of all of the mid-season exchanges.

     The Lakers, Clippers, Hawks, Pacers and Jazz not making any trades is noteworthy. All of these teams are either focusing on a playoff push or holding off to make bigger and/or better deals in the summer. The Miami Heat did trade center Dexter Pittman, who spent about as much time "developing" in the D-league as he did with the team, for rights from the Memphis Grizzlies to power forward Ricky Sanchez who is currently playing in Argentina.

For more extensive information and opinions on the trades that transpired, here's a brief video

Sources:Bleacher Report ESPN NBA