KeithSmithNBA

With the NBA trade deadline in our rearview mirror, it's time to take stock of the Western Conference! For @spotrac.com, I broke down each West team's trade deadline in terms of:

🏀What They Did
🏀Why They Did It
🏀Work Left To Do

Read more:

www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/32...

If you have his Bird rights, you can use him as part of a sign-and-trade.

We covered the fallout from the trade deadline for the East teams earlier in the week. Now you can check out where the West teams stand after all the moves. And I give a sense of roster moves to keep an eye on for the rest of the way for each team too. Check it out!

With the NBA trade deadline in our rearview mirror, it's time to take stock of the Western Conference! For @spotrac.com, I broke down each West team's trade deadline in terms of:

🏀What They Did
🏀Why They Did It
🏀Work Left To Do

Read more:

www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/32...

Celtics hit the All-Star break at 35-19 and in second place in the Eastern Conference.

Hitting the 40/20 rule is a tough ask, but who knows?

Getting to 50 wins means going 15-13 the rest of the way. That's very attainable, as Boston is on a 53-win pace right now.

I just saw that Brandon Miller dunk...WOW!

I wonder what that feels like. Has to feel like flying for a moment.

Bad loss for the Magic. Not how you want to hit the break. Orlando has a lot of stuff to figure out in the rest of the regular season.

Nick Richards just knocked down the fourth three-pointer of his career, but his second since getting traded to the Bulls.

That's something to keep an eye on the rest of the year. If Richards can add even a semi-reliable outside shot, it changes his value as a player big time.

Yup. Great example.

No such thing as a backup team! I am enjoying seeing the Pistons play so well, though! I like seeing almost any team do well...as long as they don't wear purple and yellow.

I'm not giving up on Rob Dillingham. He's got a ways to go, but the talent is there. And he's blur. If anything, he just needs to slow down sometimes. Maybe he never gets there, but beware giving up on young guards too early!

Big time! Love how far they've come in just a couple of seasons.

Ousmane Dieng has made a career-high five three-pointers tonight for the Bucks at the Magic.

White gives it up to Queta. Queta hands off to Pritchard and rolls. Pritchard drives and skips it to White, who relocated to the corner. White catches and immediately swings to Hauser, who lifted from the corner into the space vacated by Queta/PP. Hauser drills the three. Beautiful basketball!

The Jordan Walsh-aissance has been so much fun. In a season full of cool stories for the Celtics, Walsh's is one of my favorites.

The ball got knocked off his knee, but then Hugo asked for what would have been a bad challenge. Three strikes, and you're out...temporarily.

Mazzulla had words for the rookie as he went to the bench after the rough sequence.

2/2

Joe Mazzulla's tough-love approach with Hugo Gonzalez continues.

Gonzalez blew a defensive rotation. Then on the other end, he had a clear kickout pass to a shooter in the corner and Hugo tried the layup himself.

1/2

That speed pullup at the nail off a screen from Jaylen Brown is such a great shot for him. Would love to see Boston run actions to get him that look more.

Celtics. I grew up just south of Boston and the fandom has mostly stuck. However, I love the NBA as a whole more than the Celtics, if that makes sense.

However, in matters of the CBA, cap and roster-related stuff, I'm completely agnostic. No fandom involved there at all.

Joe Mazzulla isn't happy with the Celtics defense so far. Bulls have gotten a good look on most trips.

So, Paul Reed's got this, huh?

-In addition to the above, after five games, a player can be moved to the suspended list and the team can another player (assuming they have room under any applicable hard cap).

2/2

Roster stuff with these suspensions:

-Players who have a suspension of 5 games or less take up an active roster spot on gameday.

-After five games the team can make the player inactive for games.

1/2

Nope. That's the code of the locker room. Stuff happens in there that you keep to generalities. Otherwise, no one trusts you anymore.

I've seen it more than once!

Last game before the All-Star break can get weird. Everyone has travel planned to somewhere, usually right after the game. I’ve seen players leave the locker room still in uniform because they are in such a rush to get to their flight.

You started with saying you don't know if Duren initiated. Guys step to each other every game. That's a regular thing.

Ben on X: "@GrinchAntman He did not head butt Duren. In fact, if one head butted the other, Duren initiated that as well. https://t.co/6vUBmMp2pC" / X @GrinchAntman He did not head butt Duren. In fact, if one head butted the other, Duren initiated that as well. https://t.co/6vUBmMp2pC

This video shows otherwise.

x.com/benhuncc/sta...

As much as I hate it, the league (both the team and player sides) have agreed to separate on-court and off-court behavior into different buckets.

Ben on X: "@GrinchAntman He did not head butt Duren. In fact, if one head butted the other, Duren initiated that as well. https://t.co/6vUBmMp2pC" / X @GrinchAntman He did not head butt Duren. In fact, if one head butted the other, Duren initiated that as well. https://t.co/6vUBmMp2pC

It's a link to the shit shit, but this video shows who initiated the head-to-head contact:

x.com/benhuncc/sta...