What Are The Next Dominos To Fall Before The NBA Trade Deadline?

The basketball world got turned on its head when the New Orleans Pelicans went out and traded for DeMarcus Cousins on Sunday. With this deal, New Orleans now boasts the best front court in the NBA, as Cousins will line up next to Anthony Davis in an attempt to outmuscle just about every team they play.

It’s going to be a ton of fun (although maybe not as fruitful as NOLA fans would hope), but there’s still a lot of questions that need to be answered. What will happen with some of the players who were mentioned as trade targets for the Pelicans prior to the Cousins deal? Does Boston – which was viewed as the most dangerous team in the Boogie sweepstakes – ever plan on getting a third star to pair with Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford? And for real – just how good can a Cousins/Davis front court be?

We decided to take a look at all of these. But before we do any of that, we need to lament on what the Kings got back in this deal, because it’s still amazing.

1. Is this really the best offer Sacramento could have gotten?

We don’t know much about this deal from Sacramento’s perspective. All we know is that the team really loves Buddy Hield as a prospect and they reportedly turned down a better deal a few weeks ago, if you believe Vlade Divac.

But still, a move that sends the best center in the NBA to a conference rival who you’re battling for the 8-seed probably should net you a bigger return than a 23-year-old rookie and two draft picks. Especially when said center is still under contract for one more year after this and is in the middle of the best year of his career. Plus if you’re going to make a move like this, and the Kings waited this long, you’d think that they’d want to wait as long as possible to make a move in the hopes of driving up his value and getting one team to overpay right before the deadline, right? (IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I have never been a general manager of a basketball team in my life.)

So the answer to this is no. Divac admitted as much, and it really is mind-boggling that this was all it took for Cousins to go from Sacramento to New Orleans, especially when you remember that the Pelicans nearly did a similar deal for Jahlil Okafor.

It’s possible that Hield turns into a really good player and the two picks the team acquired turn into guys who can play, and all of this fits into the vision that the team’s front office has for its future. It is more likely that they got fleeced, especially if Divac told the truth about a better deal being on the table a few weeks ago, which is one of the more mind-boggling pieces of general managing that we’ve seen lately, but hey, it’s the Kangz.

2. So… is Boston ever going to do anything?

Thomas’ cryptic tweet from Monday night is a reminder that the Celtics still haven’t done anything. This ties back to Cousins because Boston seemed like the team that had the most to offer in a potential deal to land the talented big man.

Hell, this has been the case for a long time. The basketball world seems like it is waiting for Boston to do something – no team has the ability to change what happens over the next couple of months quite like the Celtics due to their perceived war chests of assets, and it seems like every possible move for a big name includes this team in one way or another. Maybe a Thomas-Horford-Cousins (or some other star) core, with the pieces that would surround them, could be good enough to take down the Cavaliers in the East. We’ll never know, of course, but maybe a Thomas-Jimmy Butler-Horford core or, dare I say, a Thomas-Carmelo Anthony-Horford core or whatever is on the horizon.

No one has any ideas, but it’s plausible that the Celtics could be in prime position to shake up everything. Just not by acquiring DeMarcus Cousins.

3. What is the next major trade domino to fall?

The trade deadline is on Thursday afternoon. Could something happen before we’re officially counting down to 3 p.m. on Thursday, or are we going to have one of those super wacky deadlines where everything happens at once starting at 2:45 p.m.?

Boston is, of course, the team to watch. But beyond that, there have been rumblings that Orlando may be in the market to get a point guard, and Reggie Jackson’s name has been thrown around as a potential target. Phil Jackson is probably doing everything he can to get rid of Carmelo Anthony, even if he should not do that, especially because the Timberwolves seem like they’re interested in Derrick Rose.

Maybe the Bulls are going to blow things up and move Jimmy Butler, who knows? The Cavaliers want to acquire a playmaker… or, more accurately, LeBron James wants the Cavaliers to acquire a playmaker. Lou Williams getting sent to Houston is a sneaky good deal, but it’s hard to consider that a “major” deal that can change the landscape of things over the remainder of the season.

There is a lot that could potentially go down over the next couple of days. While all eyes are on Boston, we’re at that fun point of the calendar where anything can happen in a nanosecond.

4. What does this mean for Brook Lopez?

Speaking of potential dominoes, Lopez seemed like he was one of the guys that New Orleans was targeting to pair with Davis in their front court. While Cousins is a better player, Lopez himself is no slouch, and if some team needs an impact big man, he is the perfect person to acquire.

The issue is Lopez is owed a lot of money – he has one more year left on his deal and is owed $22.6 million in 2017-18. This probably takes a number of teams that could use his services out of the equation, even though the Nets have reportedly lowered the asking price on Lopez from two first-round draft picks to one first and a second (which, while he’s a really good player, two first rounders for him is quite the asking price).

If some team can afford to take on Lopez’s contract and move the necessary pieces to make the Nets say yes, it kind of seems like a no-brainer to add the Nets’ big man. He is the kind of guy who can add a scoring punch to any frontcourt, and could very well be a valuable asset for a team in win now mode. New Orleans made a ton of sense, but the Pelicans decided to get Cousins instead. Some other team probably makes sense for Lopez, too.

5. What does this mean for Jahlil Okafor?

Like Lopez, Okafor was a name that got thrown around for a while as a guy the Pelicans wanted to put along side Davis. It seemed like the two sides were pretty close, but then the deal seemed to stop being a thing that could happen. The Sixers reportedly did this weird thing where they held him out to try and drive up his value (although that claim may be a bit dubious), and now, Okafor is still in Philadelphia.

But he is different from Lopez in that a team that has a more long-term view of things could absolutely take a chance on him. It’s hard to see him being much more than what he is at this point – a skilled back to the basket scorer who has limitations athletically and is a streaky rebounder – but he is still a young guy on a favorable contract for a few more years. If you need scoring in the post at a relatively cheap price, Okafor is as good of value as you’re going to get.

The Sixers have Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel already, so Okafor is something of a luxury right now, especially if Embiid is able to make a full recovery from a knee injury. It seems like a pretty safe bet that Okafor will head somewhere else, whether it be to Indiana or a mystery team. That could change depending on a few factors, but for now, there aren’t many players who seem like they are closer to being moved than Okafor.

6. How close are the Pelicans to being a contender?

All the focus on this trade has been on the Kings, which makes sense, because it is amazing that they gave up Cousins to next to nothing.

But my goodness, can we take a second to appreciate the fact that the Pelicans have maybe the best 1-2 frontcourt punch perhaps since the turn of the century. At no point in recent NBA history (or maybe ever) has a squad matched the best center in the league (Cousins) with the best power forward in the league (Davis) for a duo like this.

The normal schtick goes here – things will not click right away for Cousins and Davis, because there is always an adjustment period when a team acquires a superstar to put next to its already established superstar. OK, cool, that’s out of the way.

Let’s look forward to when Cousins and Davis get used to playing on the same team as the other guy. It is important to remember that neither player has ever had a teammate as good as their low post comrade, so that may take a little. But once we get to the point where these two have chemistry with one another, it’s two bigs who can score from all over the court, rebound, and pass playing with one another. It will be awesome.

The issue is everyone else around the pair. Jrue Holiday can play, but he’s a free agent after this season. Beyond him, well, the Pelicans need some help. Cousins reportedly will not sign an extension offseason, so if New Orleans wants to compete while he’s in town, it needs to move fairly fast.

New Orleans is going to be good in 2017-18. Whether they’ll be good enough to, say, challenge Golden State and San Antonio will be dependent on the pieces around Davis and Cousins – especially on the wings, where the team is probably going to rely on Solomon Hill (who hasn’t been great since signing a big deal this offseason) and E’Twaun Moore (who has had his moments this season) for the remainder of the year.

Does New Orleans try to move Holiday or, say, Terrence Jones in an attempt to get more talent on its wings? If so, who do they get? And what is the plan if Holiday leaves this offseason and the only point guard on the roster is Tim Frazier, who has played well at times but has his limitations and has seen his minutes per game fall off a ton over the last few months?

Basically, the Pelicans need to figure out what they’re going to do at three positions heading into next year. If they do, and Cousins and Davis gel like we all anticipate, this is going to be a really dangerous basketball team, one that could potentially make a deep run into the postseason behind an all-time great frontcourt and pieces around them who can get the job done when called upon.

If not, Cousins and Davis should at least be a ton of fun together.