trade deadline

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

On the last Rick Pitino Show, he has a small segment on how
the top franchises were built. He lists the top eight players
on the team and tells whether the players came from draft,
free agency, or trades. Generally only one or two of the players
was drafted, with a few exceptions like the Lakers, and the remainder
acquired by trade or free agency. He mentions that his strategy is
to go young and build up value in his players for trading, and then
says that they'll be working to swing something before the trading
deadline. When he talks about building value, DeClerq's name seems
to come up a lot. I think there's no chance that this roster is going
to stay intact past the trading deadline.

The upcoming opportunities for improvement are:
1) trade by the Feb 19 trading deadline.
2) trade during offseason.
3) draft. If the season ended today we'd most likely draft at 11.
4) free agency over the offseason.

Trading by the deadline has some opportunities. 

First, it's a good time to make salary cap related moves with teams that 
have relatively unimportant players with expiring contracts. These guys 
have decent trade value before the deadline and are worthless after. 
Examples might be Kevin Edwards and Michael Cage of the Nets and 
Weatherspoon on the 76ers. This type of trade has particular value to 
teams like the Celtics that are right at the cap, and can possibly get
under enough to snag a great free agent.

Second, playoff-bound teams may be looking for additional firepower or
to fill short-term needs due to injury, etc. 

Third, second-tier teams with no championship hopes in the forseeable
future may dismantle and rebuild with youthful new players.

Alex