Demar Derozan Trade
(11/16/22)
Sporty Strauss trades:
Demar Derozan
Kevin Love
Norman Powell
Jalen McDaniels
Allen Lazard
2023 MLB 5th Round Pick (5.1)
Cooper Troopers trades:
2023 NFL 1st Round Pick
2023 NBA 1st Round Pick
Onyeka Okongwu
I’m not going to grade the trade because who knows (and it involved my team), but I think this trade makes sense for both teams. This trade signals to the league that after an expensive fall that included his wedding and honeymoon, Cooper Troopers is going all in to try to win money this year. His NFL desperately needed bodies this week and Lazard fills the gap the Kupp leaves to hopefully keep Cooper in the NFL Bye zone.
He gets Derozan and then 3 depth pieces for his NBA team in Love, Powell, and McDaniels. His NBA team is clearly set up to win now with players like Lillard, Harden, Middleton, Derozan, and Vucevic. He has the benefit of having young upside players still in Mobley, Jabari Smith, RJ Barrett, Sengun, and Christian Wood (and somehow Lauri Markkanen). This gives Cooper a great 11 keepers and gave him the ability to sell on Okongwu, who has disappointed this year but is still young with high upside (not a hunk though). Sporty Strauss gains a probable keeper in Okongwu, which he is desperately lacking with the trade of Derozan and Primo being a sick pervert (allegedly).
Cooper also gets the first pick in the 5th round of the upcoming MLB draft. This likely won’t be a keeper, but a good spot to add another veteran to his MLB team.
For Sporty Strauss, this move clearly indicates that he is punting on the year as he will now have by far the worst NBA team. His NFL team is 5-5, but has scored the least amount of points in the league and now gets worse without Lazard. He continues to try to get younger and rebuild his team after going all in last year to win the league. He gave up a first round NBA pick last year for Derozan right before the playoffs, which did him no good as he won 0 playoff games, but he gets one back now.
The 1sts in NBA and NFL seem very valuable at first glance, but based on Coopers projection of finishing in the top 3 of the League this year, they may not be as valuable as they seem.
The winner of the League last year ended up with the 10th pick in NFL and the 12th pick in NBA. The NFL players picked in this range this year were Sky Moore (9th), Kenny Pickett (10th), and Jahan Dotson (11th). The NBA the players picked in this range were Russell Westbrook (11th), Marcus Smart (12th), and Gary Trent (2.1).
The NBA picks next year get less valuable than last year as an additional 24 player will be kept. That means these picks will most likely be around the 8-12th best NFL rookie and the 8-12th best NBA rookie next year.