Friday, February 13, 2009

Marion and Banks for O'Neal and Moon


The Miami Heat have agreed to trade Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Raptors for Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon. The deal that everyone has been talking about has finally happened. It's not exactly an earth-shattering deal with regards to value, but there are a lot of slight increases.

Winners

The Raptors as a whole should see an increase since they will likely push the ball more with Marion in and J.O. out. They'll get more possessions, and more possessions mean more fantasy goodies.

Shawn Marion will get some more value based on the similarities of the Raptors and the Phoenix team he played for last season. Marion isn't great at creating his own shot, so Calderon and Bosh should help him get more space and give him more lanes in which he can cut to the hoop much like Nash and Stoudemire did in previous years. Toronto is 26th in turovers forced, so hopefully Marion can contribute in steals. Marion should also get his old number back, too (Ricky Davis had 31 last year).

Andrea Bargnani will now be the unquestioned center for Toronto. Bargnani posted his largest lines with J.O. out with injury. Andrea should be able to get a slight increase in points, rebounds, field goal percentage, and blocks. He'll likely have to guard a larger opponent which will help him gets some blocked shots while playing weak side D in the post. J.O. out of town also decreases his chances that he falls off the fantasy map like he has so many times.

Michael Beasley will likely slide into the starting small forward spot for the Heat. Beasley didn't really see an increase in production while Marion was out with injury. However, Beasley injured his knee around the same time which could have affected his minutes. Beasley should see more minutes, point, and triples for the rest of the season.

Jermaine O'Neal becomes the only true big man for Miami. O'Neal probably has the best chance of breaking out in this deal considering his lack of competition. He will certainly increase his seven RPG and likely increase his 14.3 PPG. On the other hand, taking on the bulk of the weight down on the blocks only increases the likelihood that his knee injury comes back to bite him.

Marcus Banks gets packaged with Shawn Marion yet again and gets an increase in value. Banks became relevant last year after seemingly the entire Heat team couldn't play due to injury. He goes from finite value to small value because Banks will need Calderon to suffer an injury (likely a hammy), but Roko Ukic looked great Wednesday night against the Spurs. Banks shouldn't be added yet, but you never know.

Other Winners: Joey Graham, Jason Kapono, and Chris Quinn

Losers

Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony, Jamaal Magloire, and Mark Blount will all move down one spot to make room for J.O. Udonis is really the only guy that's owned in most leagues, but he should probably be cut in 10-team leagues.

Jamario Moon could move into a starting role for Miami, but he'll have to compete with Michael Beasley. Beasley should win the job which would relegate Moon to a bench role.

No comments: