SI:AM | Previewing the NBA Trade Deadline

Plus, highlights from Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen’s golden moments.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’ll be on Twitter all day today following NBA rumors, but first …

If you're reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.

What to watch for as deals get made

The NBA trade deadline is today at 3 p.m. ET. While there has been a flurry of deals made in the past couple of days​​, the real action should occur today as the looming deadline gives teams a sense of urgency.

(Unfortunately, I can’t update this email to keep you posted on all the rumored and completed deals today, but Ben Pickman will be live-blogging the deadline and watching everything closely.)

I’m hardly an NBA expert, so I figured I’d loop in someone who is. I had a bunch of questions for Rohan Nadkarni, who answered with his usual mix of intelligent analysis and sarcasm. It reminded me of when we used to sit next to each other in SI’s old office in midtown Manhattan, before he went Hollywood and moved out to Los Angeles.

What’s your favorite trade that’s been made thus far?

​​I’ll go outside the box here and say CJ McCollum to the Pelicans. I didn’t even necessarily love this deal to become some huge difference maker for New Orleans. As a fan, I’m just really excited to see McCollum take the floor with Brandon Ingram and eventually Zion Williamson. That should be an incredibly fun offensive trio from the moment they share the court. When Williamson comes back is anyone’s guess, however.

Looking strictly at the East (because I have a specific question I want to ask about the West), which team not currently in the top six can best position itself for a sure playoff spot with a trade?

​​Well, I could be cheeky and say the Nets, but I think getting back a healthy Kevin Durant matters to them more than anything. I’ll go with Boston as my answer, though that’s also a little bit of a cheat because of how well the team’s been playing lately. If the Celtics are aggressive and able to flip someone like Josh Richardson into someone who better fits their needs, I have a hard time imagining the C’s missing the playoffs. The truth is the East is just too chaotic, especially from fifth to 10th, that I don’t think (short of the one really drastic one being discussed) there’s a move that’s going to significantly alter the race in the bottom half of the bracket.

The team everyone wants to know about in the West is the Lakers. They’re 26–30. If the postseason started today, they’d be in the play-in tournament. Is there a move they can/need to make to get things right, or are their problems deeper than what can be solved with a single trade?

The Lakers’ problems cannot be fixed with a single trade. Moving Russell Westbrook would help immensely, but still, even that means taking on another team’s batch of flawed players. I do think moving Westbrook is the team’s best chance. Surround LeBron James and Anthony Davis with enough competent shooters, and nobody will be eager to face them in the playoffs.

David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated

Is a Ben Simmons–James Harden swap plausible, or are Philly fans just up to their usual nonsense?

Um, the Harden-Simmons trade is very much for real. Philly has been desperate for a second star and it’s harder to imagine a bigger name coming back in return. The Nets are teetering, Harden is clearly upset, and Simmons actually fills a big need for them (perimeter defense). Especially with how big a flight risk Harden is this summer, the Nets may feel a little bit of pressure to move him now or find themselves losing leverage in the summer. That’s what the Sixers are banking on, at least. This is far from fans trying to manifest some online rumors. Both sides have legitimate reasons to want to get it done.

I’ll end with a selfish question. I’m an extremely fairweather Knicks fan, so last year’s unexpected return to relevancy was fun for me. What can they do to maybe win a playoff series for the first time since I was in college?

​​Win a playoff series? Buddy, they need to make the play-in first. I would be surprised if they made the postseason at this point. The Knicks are not winning a playoff series this year. What they need is for R.J. Barrett to continue the leap he’s in the middle of, Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin to continue to develop, Derrick Rose to come back healthy, and for a star to hopefully ask for a trade to the Knicks this summer. The East is seriously loaded with talent right now. The Knicks shouldn’t do anything shortsighted. If anything, they should continue to nurture the young core with an eye toward 2023, when there’s expected to be an attractive free agent class. For now, I think we’ve seen the ceiling of the Julius Randle–led version of this team.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Michael Pina tries to imagine how Harden and Joel Embiid might fit together on the Sixers:

“They make sense as an extremely attractive partnership in some straightforward ways, but above all else it’s worth considering how effective Embiid and Harden are as independent offenses unto themselves. There’s only one ball isn't usually a concern worth subscribing to, but this pair pushes any such warning label to the edge.”

Emma Baccellieri wrote today’s Daily Cover about why crypto companies love advertising during sports. … Star point guard Jaden Ivey is the engine that makes Purdue run, Pat Forde writes. … These Olympics have their own shirtless flagbearer Nathan Crumpton, a skeleton racer (and author, model, photographer and Princeton alumnus), representing American Samoa, who Alex Prewitt profiled.

Around the sports world

Former MLB outfielder Jeremy Giambi has died. He was 47. … Washington defensive lineman Jonathan Allen apologized for calling Adolf Hitler a “military genius.” … The NFL is going to play a game in Munich next season. … Bruins pest Brad Marchand earned a six-game suspension for punching Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. … You have to watch this atrocious possession by Thunder guard Ty Jerome, who dribbled the ball for 24 seconds without making a pass. 

The top 5…

… moments from today in Beijing:

5. This headed pass by Sweden’s Max Friberg in hockey

4. Justin Schoenefeld’s gold-medal-clinching run in mixed team aerial skiing

3. The dramatic photo finish in the men’s snowboard cross final

2. Chloe Kim’s opening-run 94 on her way to winning gold in women’s halfpipe

1. Nathan Chen’s gold-medal-winning free skate

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

SIQ

Today is basketball legend Tina Thompson’s birthday. (She also shares a birthday with another women’s hoops pioneer, the late Lusia Harris.) Thompson, currently in her fourth season as head coach of the Virginia women’s team, turns 47 today. The Hall of Famer was the No. 1 pick in the first WNBA draft by the Comets and ranks second on the league’s all-time scoring list. Who is first?

• Tamika Catchings
• Sue Bird
• Lisa Leslie
• Diana Taurasi

Check tomorrow's newsletter for the answer.

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which team paid English soccer’s first million-pound transfer fee to acquire Trevor Francis in 1979?

Answer: Nottingham Forest. Though Forest hasn’t played in England’s top tier since 1999, the club had a successful run from the late ’70s to early ’90s under legendary manager Brian Clough and added Francis to bolster a team making its first appearance in the European Cup—the precursor to the Champions League. (Famously, Clough addressed the media after Francis’s signing rather begrudgingly on his way to play squash.)

Francis made an immediate impact for Nottingham, scoring the lone goal in Forest’s 1–0 European Cup final win over Malmö on May 30, 1979. Winning the European Cup was a momentous achievement for the East Midlands club. It had a breakthrough season in ’77–’78, winning the First Division and League Cup for the first time (the club’s first major trophies since the ’59 FA Cup). Forest lifted the European Cup again in ’80, although Francis missed the final due to injury. He was sold to Manchester City in September ’81.

From the Vault: Feb. 10, 1997

Scott Cunningham/NBA Photos

The cover story for the Feb. 10, 1997, edition of Sports Illustrated didn’t exactly rely on cutting-edge analytics.

“The Best Point Guard in the NBA,” the headline blared, accompanied by a picture of a man I’ve never seen before in my life. “We rated the playmakers, and, surprise, Cleveland’s Terrell Brandon came out on top.”

Who? How?

“To rank NBA point guards, SI senior writer Phil Taylor picked 16 whom he considers the cream: ten who are or have been All-Stars and six with All-Star potential,” the accompanying chart inside the magazine explained. “SI took their standings through Jan. 26 in nine statistical categories and ranked the players in descending order in each. The categories were rated according to their presumed importance to the position.”

This dubious methodology is how SI ended up ranking Brandon as the best point guard in the league, narrowly ahead of John Stockton. The last three names on Taylor’s list? Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson.

Brandon was no chump, though. He was named to the All-Star team for the second straight year in 1997 and enjoyed a solid 11-year career in the NBA that earned him nearly $60 million, according to Basketball Reference.

And the cover story by Richard Hoffer leans into Brandon’s relative anonymity, calling him “certainly the best player you've never heard of.”

Check out more of SI's archives and historic images at vault.si.com.