NBA Trade Deadline Night Watch

So today the Rockets brought the saga of Ryan Anderson, to all outside evidence nice guy, and the Original White Whale to Daryl Morey’s Captain Ahab, to a near conclusion. It may seem like the Phoenix trade did that, but it didn’t. It simply broke one bad Anderson deal into two smaller, and as it turns out, more palatable, bad deals.

So the story, except for a postscript in the form of Iman Shumpert, Sauce Castillo and Wade Baldwin IV, is all but complete.

When all was said and done, it took two three trades, a first round pick, a several second round pick(s), a prospect (De’anthony Melton) and a couple of guys who might end up being just fine, but not on the Rockets. Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss could resurrect their careers in Cleveland, and I wish them all luck. EDIT - Sauce Castillo and Wade Baldwin IV never even got Photoshopped into Rockets unis.

Morey remains GM, his gimlet eye on the gray horizon, and the White Whale Contract is no more. The Quest for The Stretch Four continues, however. Some jobs, like parenting, keeping it real, finding the best BBQ brisket, and looking for a great stretch four, never end.

The estimable Jeremy Brener, of this very Dreamshake, covered the actual players involved earlier today. I’m just here to set the table for late night/early morning trade discussions, and to pour one out for our own Captain Ahab, and his never-ending obsession.