Foreseeing the NBA Trade Deadline

The NBA trade deadline is 15 days away. I should be bouncing off the walls about this. The league-wide roster overhaul, the heated jockeying for playoffs X factors, the strategic long-term planning, these things get my nerd brain going. The 2014 NBA trade deadline cannot, in any possible way, be worse than last year. Three moves in two days, J.J Redick being the center of attention, journalists turning to the Dexter Pittman trade for column fodder, it can't possibly sink any lower. Yet the NBA trade deadline will be a non-event again, this year.

It's just the way things are now. The latest CBA makes it ungodly hard to organize a blockbuster trade. The salary cap makes superstar contracts binding and is influencing an athlete's worth like never before. So I'm expecting a lot of action this yet, yet it'll probably be as exciting as Saturday afternoon in an accounting convention. The NBA trade deadline will be a non-event this year, or rather, it will find a way to become a non-event, where trades will make sense at the bank and not on the court. Let me borrow Clairvoyant Bill's hat has for a second and predict you what the 2014 NBA trade deadline will be like. 

Observations on the first month of NBA action

The 30 NBA teams have been going at it for a month now. So much happened, yet so little of it was revealing. Nonetheless, this was a pretty darn interesting month and it feels so good to have the NBA back for the year. I missed the spectacular plays, the rugged games in the East, the absurd pissing contest of overinflated egos, the wild plays and the all-around goofiness that runs from the hardwood to Twitter. Here are my observations about the first month of action.

The Montreal Salarymen, 2013 Edition

It's with this glorious photo of Chairman Yi that I would like to introduce this new pet project of mine I hope is destined to become a tradition. Starting this year (duh!) The Hoops Nerd will publish one lineup per season that will attempt to form the best twelve-player team possible under the current NBA salary cap. This of this as Extreme Couponing for men. I will take into account their salary, how well they fit together and will hire veterans for chemistry purpose, because shopping on rookie deals only would be cheating. I also took into account whether or not a player would accept coming off the bench. That's why you won't see starters on my bench. I took for granted they wouldn't accept that role. Same thing for 11th and 12th spot. I selected guys who would likely accept that role.

The current NBA salary cap is 58, 68 million dollars. I will not try and pretend to understand all the intricacies of the current CBA David Stern has put together with his team of blood-drinking lawyers, but I'll add two twists that should make my life easier. I'll allow myself a five million dollars mid-level exception (that I have to spent on one player if I'm not mistaken) and two million dollars into the luxury tax (two million dollars is acceptable, right?) So here is what I think is the best possible team you can put up with a 65,68 million dollars payroll. Here are the 2013 MONTREAL SALARYMEN!