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Welcome to Layup Lines. It’s your boy Sykes here once again. Let’s talk about the most insignificant humungous trade in NBA history.
It’s rare that anyone misses news about an 8-player trade. Well, for that matter, it’s rare to ever see an actual trade with so many players involved. But, believe it or not, one happened on Thursday. It did! I promise.
You just didn’t hear about it because, well, it actually didn’t matter much. The Thunder and the Rockets swapped a bunch of names many non-hardcore NBA fans might not actually know, according to details from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Here’s the move:
- The Rockets got Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, Derrick Favors and Moe Harkless along with a 2025 second-round pick
- The Thunder got David Nwaba, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke and Marquese Chriss.
Yep. Exactly. Nothing to see here. Just a bunch of dudes, swapping teams.
I wonder how this trade call went. The Thunder were probably like “Yo, do you want to include Theo Maledon in this?” and the Rockets were probably like “…who?” And then they probably proceeded to do the same thing for the next 30 minutes as they mapped the rest of this out.
And that’s not to shame any of these dudes for being involved. Making the NBA is an accomplishment on its own that they should all be proud of. And many of them have been solid contributors on good teams.
But, uh, this ain’t really changing anybody’s fortune. Well, except the Thunder, who literally saved a fortune by shaving $10 million from their cap bill. That’s about it, though.
Good luck to these guys. Hope they find steady homes in the NBA at some point.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Everyone loves to talk about the bizarro world in which the Lakers never made the Russell Westbrook trade and went out to get DeMar DeRozan. But, as it turns out, it was actually a thing.
DeRozan, himself, thought it was a done deal. He talked about it on JJ Redick’s Old Man and the Three podcast and, man. Wow. Our Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about it.
“[DeRozan] revealed that he was so “hellbent” on going to the Lakers that he had pushed all his other options to the side. Because of this, he said he had to go into “scramble mode” to find his new home.
DeRozan would have fixed many of the issues that Los Angeles had last season, but the front office opted to make the move for Westbrook, and the rest is history.”
I bet the Lakers wish they’d kept that offer on the table now. Sheesh.
Shootaround
— Rui Hachimura’s media scrums in Japan look like LeBron James’ in America.
— Lonzo Ball’s mysterious knee injury just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
— Matisse Thybulle is catching some eyes in Sixers’ training camp.
— Chet Holmgren is still getting a taste of NBA life despite his season-ending foot injury.
That’s all, folks! Enjoy your weekend.
