Part 1 covered Atlanta to Houston on the road trip, and we're continuing our adventure with the Pacers. The Hoosiers recently installed a new head coach who has straightened the team out some, but there remain uncertainties in their rotation.
Indiana
It's somewhat apt that the Pacers follow the Rockets in this list, because their roster situations are similar in their flaws. Some of the inconsistencies in the Pacers rotation have been ironed out by their new coach, but a few timeshares remain. Josh McRoberts and Tyler Hansbrough are holding each others' half of the BFF necklace at power forward, and Mike Dunleavy and Paul George are splitting minutes (with occasional guest appearances from Dahntay Jones and eventually Brandon Rush) in the past versus the future shooting guard duel.
Dunleavy leavy-ing to another team would give George the starting shooting guard spot the rest of the season, but even if Dunleavy remains on the team through the rest of the season, there should be a point soon after the trade deadline where George takes over the starting spot.
Hansbrough will likely take over the starting power forward gig at some point down the stretch too, but the Pacers are going to ride out McRoberts for the time being. McBob and Roy Hibbert have played well together this season and have helped the Pacers reclaim a spot in the playoffs. Psycho-T is the team's future at power forward, so I'm not wasting an investment in McRoberts on the bet that he'll lose minutes to Hansbrough in the long run.
Brandon Rush seems to have fallen out of favor. His current injury was a little curious as it seemed to coincide with the shakeup of the team's coaches. I shouldn't be stirring up rumors, but Rush has been so frustrating the last two season that I've essentially cut him off from my fantasy family as long as he's still on the Pacers' roster.
LA Clippers
Small forward is the only need the Clippers have right now with Baron Davis deciding to play confidently the past month. Looking past the trade deadline, Al-Farouq Aminu should be given the starting small forward spot over Ryan Gomes at some point. Aminu has regressed a lot since his impressive first month of the season, but as long as the Clippers stay out of the playoff race (currently eight games out), Aminu should get the minutes he needs to develop with an eye towards him being ready to start next year.
Ryan Gomes looks like a dilophosaurus. You know, that dinosaur that spits on Newman in the original Jurassic Park. Seriously, go look at his Yahoo! profile pick. Oh, and he's a waste of minutes for fantasy purposes. Gomes is the least aggressive player in the league. Thinking about him being on a NBA roster wasting minutes that a potential fantasy monster like Aminu could be getting gives me ulcers. Gomes is about as interesting as a head of lettuce. As you can tell, I'm a big fan.
LA Lakers
You can never count out the Lakers from making a trade, but their focus would be to add another strong piece, not add to their depth. We probably wouldn't see any of their role players shoulder a larger role as a result of a trade. One situation we may see develop is a movement from Ron Artest from the primary small forward to Matt Barnes getting the bulk of the minutes once he returns from his injury.
Memphis
The Grizzlies have been rumored to be looking for a trade partner for O.J. Mayo most of the season. Sam Young has claimed a larger role as the team's starting shooting guard and began flourishing lately. His growth could spur the Grizzlies to move Mayo by the deadline.
Beyond Mayo, there aren't a lot of likely trade scenarios to consider with the Grizzlies. Zach Randolph has an attractive expiring contract they could move, but there's little reason for them to move him with the team only one game out of a playoff spot in the West. If Randolph were moved, Darrell Arthur would be the player to grab. Arthur is actually one of the more exciting players currently buried in depth-chart anonymity.
Miami
Nothing's out of the question with Pat Reily in charge of the roster in Miami. Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller remain the players to monitor as the season winds down. Haslem is still questionable to return this season, but if he does, he could provide nearly a double-double and a block per night. Any jumps in value for the Heat's bench players would more likely come from an injury to their starting lineup than any potential trade.
Miliwaukee
The Bucks have a wealth of depth, and they're one of the few teams that might be able to work out a mutually beneficial trade with a team like the Grizzlies (lacking depth). It'd be interesting to see Memphs and Milwaukee work out a package based around exchanging Ersan Ilyasova and Corey Maggette for Randolph.
The Bucks would need to move a considerable number of players for coach Scott Skiles to permanently shorten his rotation. Until that happens, we'll continue to see Drew Gooden (when he returns), Ilyasova, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Larry Sanders share time at power forward and Maggette, Carlos Delfino, and John Salmons (and occasionaly Ilyasova and Mbah a Moute) share minutes on the wing. If Gooden ever gets healthy enough, he could put up the most consistent stats of any of the Bucks' potential starting power forwards. Skiles is unlikely to commit to a raw rookie like Sanders for more than a limited role. The young shot blocker has great length and upside, but his offensive game is a liability on an already offensively challenged squad.
Minnesota
Coach Kurt Rambis finally came through and gave Kevin Love the minutes he deserves this season, but he still hasn't committed to Johnny Flynn as the Timberwolves' primary point guard. Luke RIdnour's unfortunate familial health emergency has opened the door for Flynn, but it'd be surprising if Flynn were to keep the gig when Ridnour returns.
With David Khan in Minny's GM seat, it's hard to consider anyone safe from being traded except for Pistol Pete's doppelganger Ricky Rubio. Rubio is apparently the only untouchable contract Khan has. Corey Brewer is the most likely player to be traded, and Martell Webster, Ridnour, and anyone else not currently starting for the team should be available.
On the off chance that Darko Milicic were moved, rookie Nikola Pekovic could develop some good value. He'd need to find a way to stay out of foul trouble, but Pekovic's current per-36 averages are 13.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks. More likely for the T-Wolves is the possibility that they move a first round pick to help facilitate a Carmelo Anthony trade. One player they've been attached to in rumors is Anthony Randolph. If he were to join the team, he'd be of interest in deep leagues. There's little doubt he'd play more in Minnesota than he has riding the pine in New York.
New Jersey
After being the most talked about trade-happy team for the first two and a half months of the season, the Nets have fallen out of the trade market. Troy Murphy will probably get moved, and they should try and rid themselves of Devin Harris (in my opinion). If Harris were to get moved, Jordan Farmar would be a must pick up in most leagues (as long as another point guard didn't come back in the trade). Beyond that, the team has a healthy understanding of their position. Derrick Favors is starting at power forward already, and they plan on increasing his minutes and role as the season moves forward.
Damion James is close to returning from a broken foot and will move back into the starting small forward spot when he's back. He might not get the most minutes at the position, but he'll be starting and given a chance to play a significant role.
Everyone else, besides Brook Lopez, is fair game for a trade. Though the Nets have said they're no longer in the Melo sweepstakes, there remains a chance Favors could get moved for a different star player. If that were to happen, Kris Humphries would be in position to claim the starting power forward gig. He's a double-double machine as long as he's getting enough minutes. Make sure Hump-diddy is on your watch list.
New Orleans
All of their starting gigs are locked down except shooting guard. If they wanted to get creative, they might take a swing for the fences while they still have Chris Paul playing in town and trade for a bloated contract like Rip Hamilton's. They have enough in trade exceptions alone to acquire darn near any contract in the league without giving up a key player. Unfortunately, half of their roster was acquired in trades this season, making half of their players unavailable to be traded in package deals. The NBA's collective bargaining agreement only allows a player to be traded twice in a season if they are the sole commodity being moved in the second trade. That means there won't be any packages of Jarrett Jack, Willie Green, Jason Smith, Marco Belinelli, Aaron Gray, Marcus Banks, Trevor Ariza, or David Andersen going anywhere.
Marcus Thornton has the biggest potential of any player buried on the team's depth chart right now, but coach Monty Williams has been short in sprinkling any praise on the sophomore guard. It's tough to see a reasonable situation that would result in Thornton being given the 30-plus minutes a game every fantasy expert was predicting for him before the season.
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Thanks for reading through Part 2 of our 3-part road trip through the NBA trade deadline. In the final installment, I'll take a look through the remaining rosters on our trip from New York to Washington.
Be sure to include any insight you might have about the trade deadline in the comments. We're all operating on a great deal of speculation at this point, so the more ideas we can generate in this possibilities game will help us all be better prepared for any moves that actually get completed.