Every year at the end of the NBA trade deadline, websites (ourselves included!) publish a list of winners and losers. The idea is that some teams/players did better than others, and as a result, we try to determine who played the game the best with the All-Star break, the second half of the season, and the playoff push all looming.
But every year, there are two people who usually find themselves at the center of the deadline: ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania. We’re at the apex of slop season (as my college friend @TrillBroDude calls it), and while there are tons of journalists who work their asses off ahead of the deadline, Wojnarowski and Charania are the two whose Twitter accounts tend to be the most active ones in announcing deals that have gotten done.
We decided to have a little fun with this for the 2024 deadline by introducing the Woj vs. Shams scoreboard, a completely arbitrary way of assigning points to the two of them for the trades that they break. (If we do this for the 2025 trade deadline and beyond, we’ll expand it out a bit to include other national newsbreakers.) Here is how the scoring breaks down, with the caveat that only posts made to their Twitter accounts are considered for scoring:
- Breaking a trade involving a star: 10 points
- Breaking a trade involving anyone else: 5 points
- Follow-up tweets first breaking details about a trade (specific picks/other players/the word “sources” must be in the tweet): 2 points
This is, once again, a totally arbitrary scoring system based on absolutely nothing other than us trying to continue to churn out trade deadline-related content, because that is our job. Every trade during the week of the deadline is considered here, so let’s dive in.
Wednesday: Jazz trade Simone Fontecchio to the Pistons
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Nothing
Wojnarowski 7, Charania 0
Wednesday: Grizzlies Xavier Tillman to the Celtics
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Nothing
Wojnarowski 16, Charania 0
Wednesday: Pistons trade Monte Morris to the Timberwolves
Wojnarowski: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 18, Charania 7
Thursday: Pacers trade Buddy Hield to the Sixers
Wojnarowski: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Broke the trade (5 points)
Wojnarowski 20, Charania 12
Thursday: Jazz trade Kelly Olynyk to the Raptors
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Nothing
Wojnarowski 27, Charania 12
Thursday: Sixers trade Danuel House to the Pistons
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points)
Charania: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 32, Charania 14
Thursday: Hornets trade Gordon Hayward to the Thunder
Wojnarowski: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 34, Charania 21
Thursday: Pistons trade Alec Burks, Bojan Bogdanovic to the Knicks
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 45, Charania 25
Thursday: Raptors trade Dennis Schroder, Thad Young to the Nets for Spencer Dinwiddie
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 52, Charnia 27
Thursday: Hornets trade P.J. Washington to the Mavericks
Wojnarowski: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 54, Charania 34
Thursday: Nets trade Royce O’Neale to the Suns in a three-team deal
Wojnarowski: Nothing
Charania: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 54, Charania 43
Thursday: Sixers trade Patrick Beverley to the Bucks
(NOTE: Neither are credited with breaking the trade because Patrick Beverley did)
Wojnarowski: Follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 60, Charania 45
Thursday: Spurs trade Doug McDermott to the Pacers
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Follow-up tweet (2 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Wojnarowski 67, Charania 49
Thursday: Bucks trade Robin Lopez to the Kings
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Charania: Nothing
Wojnarowski: 74, Charania 49
Thursday: Sixers trade Jaden Springer to the Celtics
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points)
Charania: Nothing
Wojnarowski 79, Charania 49
Thursday: Celtics trade Dalano Banton to the Blazers
Wojnarowski: Broke the trade (5 points)
Charania: Nothing
Wojnarowski 84, Charania 49
Thursday: Warriors trade Cory Joseph to the Pacers
Wojnarowski: Nothing
Charania: Broke the trade (5 points), follow-up tweet (2 points)
Our final score gives Wojnarowski an 84-56 win. Congrats to Woj, who doesn’t really win anything other than professional pride for this, but maybe next year we’ll make a trophy for this or something.
