[Mick]

The very concept of the trade is ridiculous. You just don't trade away a top 3 NBA player who is 25 years old. You just don't. 

You can say that again. The Warriors traded Robert Parish when he was 26. All he did was help the Celtics to multiple NBA championships...and incidentally, Parish is the NBA's career leader in games played. They also traded Chamberlain at age 28, another great move. Chamberlain, the NBA's leader in rebounding average who won three straight NBA MVPs after the trade.

Babe Ruth, traded by the Red Sox to the Yankees at age 24. Great move. Interesting side note on Ruth: he won almost as many World Series championships in his 15 years as a Yankee (4) as he did in his six years on the Red Sox (3). We think of the Ruth/Yankee years as a time when the Yankees dominated, but they actually started winning a lot of WS after Ruth left, starting with four in a row (and six of eight) from 1936 on and 16 of the 27 WS between 1936 and 1962.

Say what you want about his conditioning, he can roll out of bed in the morning and drop 30 points on efficient shooting numbers. The ability to reliably generate efficient half court offense is the most valuable skill in the NBA, as demonstrated by the Warriors clear lack of said ability prior to getting Jimmy Butler. Jokic looks doughy too. He's still the best player in the NBA. 

In the six games since Butler's arrival, the Warriors have won five of six and have gone from:

- 18th to sixth in offensive rating (among 30 NBA teams)
- 10th to 5th in defensive rating
- 9th to 3rd in assists per game
- 8th to 3rd in assist/turnover ratio
- 9th to 2nd in steals per game
- 12th to 5th in fewest turnovers per game
- 7th to 2nd in second chance points per game (measure of offensive rebounding)
- 30th to 2nd in free throw percentage per game (no misprint, from 71% to 85.5%, 124 of 145)

Rebounding has dropped off. They were 3rd in the NBA and have been 12th over the last six games. Three point efficiency has also dropped off, from 13th to 20th.

They are now 9th in the West, 1/2 game back of both Minnesota and Dallas, and a game and a half behind the Clippers for 6th place and getting out of the play-in tournament. And they have the second easiest schedule in the NBA for the games remaining. Pretty good odds.

[Mick]

The very concept of the trade is ridiculous. You just don't trade away a top 3 NBA player who is 25 years old. You just don't. 

You can say that again. The Warriors traded Robert Parish when he was 26. All he did was help the Celtics to multiple NBA championships...and incidentally, Parish is the NBA's career leader in games played. They also traded Chamberlain at age 28, another great move. Chamberlain, the NBA's leader in rebounding average who won three straight NBA MVPs after the trade.

Babe Ruth, traded by the Red Sox to the Yankees at age 24. Great move. Interesting side note on Ruth: he won almost as many World Series championships in his 15 years as a Yankee (4) as he did in his six years on the Red Sox (3). We think of the Ruth/Yankee years as a time when the Yankees dominated, but they actually started winning a lot of WS after Ruth left, starting with four in a row (and six of eight) from 1936 on and 16 of the 27 WS between 1936 and 1962.

Say what you want about his conditioning, he can roll out of bed in the morning and drop 30 points on efficient shooting numbers. The ability to reliably generate efficient half court offense is the most valuable skill in the NBA, as demonstrated by the Warriors clear lack of said ability prior to getting Jimmy Butler. Jokic looks doughy too. He's still the best player in the NBA. 

In the six games since Butler's arrival, the Warriors have won five of six and have gone from:

- 18th to sixth in offensive rating (among 30 NBA teams)
- 10th to 5th in defensive rating
- 9th to 3rd in assists per game
- 8th to 3rd in assist/turnover ratio
- 9th to 2nd in steals per game
- 12th to 5th in fewest turnovers per game
- 7th to 2nd in second chance points per game (measure of offensive rebounding)
- 30th to 2nd in free throw percentage per game (no misprint, from 71% to 85.5%, 124 of 145)

Rebounding has dropped off. They were 3rd in the NBA and have been 12th over the last six games. Three point efficiency has also dropped off, from 13th to 20th.

They are now 9th in the West, 1/2 game back of both Minnesota and Dallas, and a game and a half behind the Clippers for 6th place and getting out of the play-in tournament. And they have the second easiest schedule in the NBA for the games remaining. Pretty good odds.