So I've often played around with the idea of trading away two players for one, but I've always struggled to gather up the courage to pull the trigger unless I was getting back a top 20, top 30 player.
Take for example, in my 10 team H2H league, I've been shopping around a package of Nurkic and Jaylen Brown to see what I can get with a preference to strengthen 3PM, STL, BLK.
Would it be worth it to trade those two away in return for, say, Otto Porter or RoCo?
Or should I offer Nurkic and Batum and go after guys like Jimmy Butler, Myles Turner, Marc Gasol?
A 2 for 1 trade leaves me needing to pick up a player off the wire to fill the spot opened up on my roster...and my wire is THIN right now.
Do you guys stay away from 2 for 1 trades preferring to have deeper teams? Or would you rather attempt to have as many top-50, top-75 players you can get and depend on them to carry your team week in week out?
It always makes sense. But those trades are hard to pull off because the person taking back 2 needs to cut a player most of the time... and they are getting the second best player in the trade. Who wants that? You have to be desperate for depth to take the trade, or it has to be really generous. It's still worth trying them once in a while in each league if you have enough players to do it.
Yes, basically all the examples you listed, the answer is yes.
I almost can't believe a 10-team wire is thin. There's always the next big thing in a league of that size, unless you have a 6-player bench.
Thanks, Philippe.
Yeah we've got a couple more bench spots, Dan.
I guess I always feared a dip in my team's overall production when I give up two decent players for a good one.
Say I get back Covington for Jaylen Brown and Nurk. Just comparing Brown to him, the only stat that RoCo is significantly better in is 3PM and FG% (which will regress back to his mean at some point surely). He's just slightly better in PTS and STL. Then there's a whole other player with decent averages included in the deal. But when you look at their rankings, Brown and Nurk aren't even close to him.
Is it right to combine Brown and Nurk's totals (or averages) and compare them to Covington's and whoever else I'd pick up off the wire to judge the trade?
RoCo's ranking is very high because his 3PTM is elite level.
The 1-something 3s a game that Brown is hitting is almost pedestrian in the modern day NBA.
I agree with you though, it very much depends on who's on the wire.
And yes, I would definitely take into account of the player that's coming in to fill the hole.
I often start sending those 2 for 1 offers out when I'm eyeing on someone or I have player that's getting off IR.
Yep, compared RoCo's numbers PLUS your replacement 2nd player vs. the guys you're trading away. The 2-for-1 almost always favors the guy getting the best player.
Jaylen Brown's FT% alone is a reason to trade him away, by the way.
If I was offered Nurkic and Jaylen Brown for my Otto Porter or RoCo, after I'd vomited in my mouth a little I would reject that as quickly as humanly possible.
In that example for instance, you can get a player off the waiver wire (even in a 12 team) who offers almost the same value as Jaylen Brown. You might even find an improvement on him. Whereas Otto or RoCo (let's call it a top 25-30 player) produce roughly 2-3x the 'value' of a mid-rounder (~top 50-70), which we'll generously call Nurkic.
For a 2 to 1 to be balanced, it varies depending on how high you're targeting (because the value production sort of goes exponential towards the top), but typically I would expect to have to pay a 2nd and 3rd rounder for a 1st rounder (and even that's difficult to pull off), maybe a 3rd and 5th rounder (or two 4th rounders) for a 2nd rounder, and so on.
This is actually a pretty complex subject and it changes depending on size of league, # of starters, format, and so on. Essentially 'value' is about a player's production relative to the averages of the active player pool (typically 130-156 players), which really skews towards the elite guys, then flattens off, combined with the value-over-replacement (replacement being the best players that can be picked up off the waivers) if you're needing to replace a player.
Anyway... to cut a long story short, in almost all cases you want the 1 of a 2 for 1 (I'm offered sh!tty 2for1s and 3for2s across my leagues every day and they're almost all immediate rejections). It's not usually about a reluctance to trade 2 of your guys for 1, usually it's about the fact that almost no-one wants to dilute themselves from a better player to two worse ones.
Awesome post Magones. This is all really good input gentlemen. It's helped me look at these types of trades in a different light.
At the end of the day, like some of you have already noted...it's not often that you find an owner willing to give up the better player for two worse ones.
I'd like to add another player putting up early round value but I'll need some creative ways to make it happen without giving up my early round players already on my team.
Precisely, it's all about finding that balance. Usually it needs to be combined with a buy-low and/or sell-high element in order to get a really nice deal. E.g 2 over-performing mid-rounders for a Jimmy Butler or maybe a Myles Turner.
Good luck with your offers!
biggest trade i made this season so far was trading porzingis and THJ for steph.
