What seemed like a weird deadline day where a lot happened and then nothing happened before a flurry at the end actually resulted in 16 trades, 23 teams and 46 roster players moving (thanks Woj), which all happened to be the most in 35 years. It certainly didn’t feel like that at the time.

We’re at the window where players like Al Horford get shut down for the year because they’re old and too good to let their teams be bad. Also, the buyout market is in full swing and players who were elite five years ago sign with a contender and everyone loses their collective minds (ahem, Brooklyn). I was disappointed but largely unsurprised to see the Bucks not participate in any of the activities because P.J. Tucker’s collective three total points in three games to start his Milwaukee career has lit the world on fire. I’m fairly sure he’s had as many injuries as points since coming to Wisconsin.

What the trade deadline and buyout season does do for us is make us an exhaustive list of guys who benefit from new faces in new places, especially looking at teams that lost their superstar and half-a-star (looking at you Orlando). Let’s get this show on the road.

 Week 14 Stream Table

In the stream table, home games are in orange because basketballs are orange. Road games are in blue because blue is not orange. As always, check back for cancellations.

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*not actually

Sun/Mon (of Week 13): TOR
Mon/Tues: LAC, WAS
Tues/Weds: PHX
Weds/Thurs: BKN, DET, MIA, SAS
Thurs/Fri: ATL, CHA, GSW, NOP
Fri/Sat: DAL, IND, MIL, MIN, NYK, OKC, POR, SAC, UTA
Sat/Sun: ORL, PHI
Sun/Mon (of Week 15): BKN, HOU

Working The Wire

After the trade deadline, waiver wire pieces tend to shift gears into the tatters of rotations on bad teams that dumped the last of their higher end talent or discovered a mysterious calf injury on a veteran that’s enough to put them on the shelf for three months. I’m sorry half of these players play for the Orlando Magic.

Point Guards

Dennis Smith Jr.: Delon Wright being shipped to Sacramento for draft capital makes Dennis Smith Jr. a good streaming option in all formats when he gets back on court. Saben Lee probably doesn’t hold DSJ off the floor and we saw some defensive upside from him making him a top-175ish player.

Theo Maledon: Are we back? Maybe not, but we are at 33.8 minutes per game over the last four contests and a top-100 ranking for Maledon over that stretch on 1.8 steals and 2.8 triples per game. Now that George Hill is officially gone, we don’t even have a worry that these minutes are threatened.

On the Radar
Patty Mills: The underappreciated Patty Mills is 20% rostered in fantasy leagues, which is much better than advertised. It means that people are at least aware of the low-end streamer value Mills provides regularly. Pretty strictly a 3-point specialist in deep formats.

Shooting Guards

Malik Monk: The season-ender to the exciting rookie LaMelo Ball thrusts Malik Monk right back in the spotlight. Monk responded well and went off for 32 points and five threes on Friday against the Heat in just 26 minutes. He’s taking over the Devonte’ Graham role of running the second unit as Graham moved back into the starting lineup to replace Ball. Monk is a shooter and scorer who should really get a lot of chances to score the rest of the way.

Gary Trent Jr.: Trent was getting volume and showed flashes of top-100 value in relief of CJ McCollum. In Toronto there are way less bodies to contend with and there’s no reason Trent doesn’t play 30 minutes and flirt with top-100 value on a tanking team.

On the Radar
Hamidou Diallo: The Pistons have a lot of… guys. Any number of their guards could be options on any given day if they all get 20ish minutes a night. On Friday Rodney McGruder starter and got 16 minutes. Ellington got 22, Saben Lee got 16, Cory Joseph got 18 and finally Diallo got 19. Diallo has some upside as the most inherently exciting.

Gary Harris: Harris came back in the Aaron Gordon trade to Denver and is one of many Magicians to appear in this piece. Harris has been a streaming option over the last two seasons when he actually plays. We’re long past the days where Harris was a top-50 potential guy. He wasn’t playing in Denver and now he will play in Orlando.

Small Forwards

Jae’Sean Tate: At this stage, Tate is very solid for a Rockets team that is completely lost in space. He’s somehow only 32% rostered in Yahoo! leagues despite being the 114^th ranked player in 9-category formats on the season and the 49^th ranked player over the last two weeks. He should be rostered in all formats with at least 12 teams and is firmly in the picture for 10-team leagues.

Otto Porter: Porter is already climbing back up in roster percentage at 43% in Yahoo! formats and now that we expect him to play out the rest of the season in Orlando, he has every opportunity to be a top-100 player in 9-category leagues. Even if he’s limited to 25 minutes, we’ve seen this profile succeed before.

On the Radar
Kenrich Williams: Williams hops on the radar with the concussion scare for Lu Dort. He’s had some streaming value earlier in the season and has seen 20+ minutes regularly.

Power Forwards

Khem Birch: The UNLV product started in the stopgap game without Wendell Carter Jr. and went off in 37 minutes. We’ll get a better idea of what this rotation looks like with Otto Porter (mentioned above) and Wendell Carter (who should be very much rostered at this point). Birch has had some late-round value in the past as a 25-minute energy guy. Six defensive counters in Orlando’s last game will keep us interested. We’ll get another chance to see him on Sunday night against an undermanned Lakers squad.

Chuma Okeke: If it were up to me, Okeke would get the run over James Ennis and Khem Birch, but the Magic roster is very much in flux (read: they’re bad) and so we’ll just have to be patient. Okeke was touted by the Magic as a mid-first prospect even though he was slated to miss all of last season. He should get the opportunities as a rookie with upside on a bad team.

On the Radar
Isaiah Roby: Moses Brown is the obvious big winner for the Al Horford shutdown, but Roby has gotten quite a few starts under his belt now and has played 30.1 minutes per game in the last two weeks. It has only panned out to top-200 value (barely), or he would be right in the thick of the adds with two defensive stats per night.

Center

Nerlens Noel: Noel hasn’t necessarily been dropped everywhere yet so he may still be rostered, but he makes the cut on our criteria. He’s a must-start player with Mitchell Robinson once again hitting the shelf, this time with a fractured foot.

Derrick Favors: I’m not sure people are realizing how streamable Derrick Favors has been in deeper leagues. He plays basically 16 minutes every single game and just rebounds a lot and blocks shots without jumping. He is a top-160 player over the last eight games in 14.8 minutes per game.

On the Radar
Daniel Gafford: Gafford flashed his upside in the short 14 minutes on Saturday night with 13 points, five boards and four defensive counters. He doesn’t need many more minutes to have deep-league value.

The Stream Team

PG: R.J. Hampton – Hampton hasn’t played yet for the Magic but he’s a right sight better than Chasson Randle or Michael Carter-Williams.

SG: Brodric Thomas – Not a made-up player. Played 31 minutes in a loss to the Kings. Had four defensive stats and a 3-pointer.

SF: Terance Mann – Suddenly there’s minutes available for Terance Mann? What a weird situation. Mann went off on Saturday night for 23 points in 29 minutes (10-of-12 shooting) while Luke Kennard played seven minutes.

PF: Mike Scott – He’s getting some time at small-ball center for the Sixers with Tony Bradley now in Oklahoma City. Doc Rivers seems to like Dwight Howard off the bench. Not a good stat set but the minutes are there.

C: Taj Gibson – Back on the stream team with the injury to Mitch Rob. Rebounds and some blocks.

Miscellaneous Musings

Special recognition to the Houston Rockets, who have managed to turn one of the all-time players in our league’s history into Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk, bypassing the chance to make it Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen. That’s fantastic asset management. Good for them.

Everyone is a junior in the league now, which is particularly hurtful when the seniors that they came from played during my lifetime. It’s a good time to be a junior and a bad time to be Gary, unless you like changing addresses. I saw some conversation on the Twitter machine that all three players named Gary (Gary Harris, Gary Clark and Gary Trent Jr.) changed teams at the trade deadline. Someone should purchase a Gary Trent Jr. Raptors jersey to signify the pinnacle of the 2021 NBA trade season as the junior Gary representative (size medium).

What are the Thunder going to do with 34 draft picks? They have to hit on just five or six of them over the next seven years to get the core they want, so they’re just going to take 34 chances to get five right because they don’t believe in their talent scouting? They might end up with too many guys for the G-League. Should we found the H-League? At a certain point, there are too many draft picks. We’ll see where the Magic, Rockets and Thunder head in that direction and when we see them playing with four guys because the fifth is a draft pick that they haven’t made yet.

What was your reaction to the trade deadline? Did your team make the right moves? Did they make no moves and you’re a sad boy like me? Are they about to sign Andre Drummond because people think he’s good but really he’s not? Let me know on the Twitter here.