Caris Levert to the Pacers in Exchange for Victor Oladipo
On Monday, Jan. 11 superstar shooting guard James Harden said Houston wasn’t good enough after an embarrassing loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Two days later the Houston Rockets granted Harden’s wish of getting traded, shipping Harden to the Brooklyn Nets to join Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and cement the Nets as a dynasty.
The Rockets got a nice package for him too, they in turn received eight unprotected first round picks, four of them being pick swaps, Dante Exum and Rodions Kurucs from Brooklyn.
Rockets general manager Rafael Stone pulled a Sam Presti and traded his star player for first round picks and he got a lot of picks too, eight to be exact. The trade benefits the Rockets future by giving them potential star players or potential trade pieces to get star players. They acquired Dante Exum who was the fifth pick in the 2014 draft, who had high upside coming out of the draft and suffered many knee injuries which have derailed his career though he is still a solid role player if nothing else. They also acquired Kurucs who is a nice, young shooting forward who has great potential and fits in well with Rockets coach Silas’s system.
The Nets received James Harden to play alongside Durant and Irving. If Steve Nash can keep this team disciplined this team should win the NBA championship. This trade was a high risk, high reward situation for Brooklyn because they gave up their young players and picks for a 31-year-old James Harden to win a championship now.
A couple of minutes later it was announced that the Pacers and the Cavs had entered the trade. The Pacers had traded Victor Oladipo to the Rockets for Nets shooting guard Caris Levert and a second round pick. This trade is good trade for Indiana as Oladipo has an expiring contract and probably would’ve left the Pacers anyways and they traded him for three more years of Levert who is two years younger than Oladipo and already on par with Oladipo’s skill level.
The Cavaliers traded Exum and a Bucks pick which won’t have much value as the Bucks are a contender with Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Exum who is injury prone and out of his prime years for Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince. Allen is a top shot blocker in the NBA and is a solid rebounder and nice young player who can be mentored by veteran centers Andre Drummond and Javale McGee. Prince is a nice veteran player who can be used to mentor young forwards Kevin Porter Jr. and rookie Isaac Okoro.
I think all these moves benefit each team and I don’t see a loser in this trade, as each team improved in some way.
My grades for this trade:
Rockets: B+
Pacers: A-
Nets: A-
Cavaliers: A
