2011 NBA Trade Deadline Madness!

With the NFL season all wrapped up and March Madness still a few weeks away, this typically means no excitement when in comes to sports this time of year. Most of the NBA games are still pretty meaningless on a day-to-day basis (with the playoffs still a few months away), so the insane amount of activity that occurred right before the trade deadline really injected some life into the sportsworld!!!

Usually the deadline comes with a lot of hype, but passes us with not much activity. Rumors start swirling in early December but usually don't amount to much more than just that. Due in large part to all the big name players switching teams this last summer, NBA franchises made more meaningful transactions than ever this past week! As a fan of the NBA, I don't see how anyone could have been disappointed with all the activity that occurred! Most of the rumored transactions happened, along with many more that we could not have imagined. Here is a summary of all the moves:

• Bobcats' Wallace goes to Trail Blazers
• Celtics send Daniels to Kings
• Rockets' Brooks traded to Suns
• Thunder trade for Nazr Mohammed
• Rockets' Battier traded for Thabeet
• Cavs get Erden, Harangody from Celtics
• Celtics trade Perkins to Thunder
• Clippers' Davis to Cavs for Williams and Moon
• Hawks ship Bibby to Wizards for Hinrich
• Warriors, Nets make trade for Murphy
• Hornets land Landry from Kings
• Deron Williams goes to New Jersey
• Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks
• James Johnson traded to Raptors

For a detailed breakdown on each of the trades listed above, check out this NBA Deals Page. This flurry of activity will drastically reshape the NBA landscape over the next half a decade. Many of these deals have provided teams will the arsenal needed to succeed immediately (Knicks & Thunder) and others the chips to rebuild for the future (Nets, Cavs, & Rockets).

I think that the Oklahoma Thunder made the most impactful deals that are going to help them more this year than any other team. By acquiring Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammed right before the trade deadline, they gave themselves the interior defense to stop the Lakers and Spurs in the paint. I would not be surprised if the Thunder make it through the Western conference that has been weakened by trades. Assuming that the Thunder have enough time to assimilate the new players into their gameflow, they are my surprise pick to win the West and challenge the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals!!!