The NBA world was hit with an earthquake of a trade on Wednesday and it’s the one we’ve all been waiting for.
James Harden is being traded to the Brooklyn Nets to join Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, forming a super team in the Eastern Conference, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The deal involves four teams including the Rockets, Nets, Pacers and the Cavs. Here’s the breakdown of the entire package:
All four first-round picks and all four first-round pick swaps to the Rockets are unprotected, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. https://t.co/HdiUsvjPP7
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 13, 2021
Caris LeVert was originally sent to the Rockets in the deal but has been redirected to the Pacers in exchange for Victor Oladipo, who has an expiring contract and is headed to Houston to join John Wall and Christian Wood, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince will be joining the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is a bit strange considering they have Andre Drummond as their starting center. But Drummond is in the final season of his current five-year contract and could perhaps be the next big name to get traded because of the Allen acquisition.
All this comes the day after Harden voiced his frustration following the loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night:
He was both right and wrong simultaneously, as the situation is crazy but was fixed because he’s no longer a member of the Houston Rockets.
[[ad:athena]]
Fantasy impact for Harden, Durant and Irving
The trio of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving is going to be deadly whenever Kyrie decides he wants to return to his day job.
However, all three will inevitably see drops in stats including points, field goal attempts, usage rate and perhaps minutes, too, if the Nets are blowing opposing teams out.
Harden currently ranks 18th among all players in 9-cat, per basketball-monster, and boasts a 28% usage rate. Durant is ninth in value with 31% usage, and Irving is third with a 30% usage clip. It’s highly unlikely that they can sustain those numbers because there’s only one ball to go around, and this talented trio consists of arguably the top-3 isolation guys in the game.
If you roster any of these three superstars, swapping them in exchange for two quality players might not be a bad move. But of the three, Harden could have the best odds of sustaining his fantasy value due to Durant and Irving sitting back-to-backs with the latter also taking unexpected PTO.
Harden said before the season began that he would prefer to play in Brooklyn. Talk about speaking it into existence.
Check back soon for a Daily Dose with the fantasy impact for LeVert, Oladipo, Allen and more.
