Against Klay Thompson's wishes, let us partake in NBA discourse

It's trade deadline day in the NBA. A wild Fontecchio has been discovered!

Good morning. Let’s basketball?

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We Have Some Trades

The Celtics traded Lamar Stevens and two future seconds for Xavier Tillman. Insurance policy up front. Not a tremendous insurance policy, but an insurance policy nonetheless.

The Timberwolves picked up Monte Morris for Shake Milton, Troy Brown Jr. and a deep future second. Shake and TBJ have both been rotation players off the bench for the Wolves this season. Morris, of course, played a significant role for the pre-championship Nuggets before being traded in the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope deal. While he hasn’t really played for Detroit this season, there’s a good chance he joins Nickeil Alexander-Walker as the primary back-up guards for Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley. Good move for Minnesota! This is a title contender identifying a need and addressing it.

The Pistons (not a title contender) had another move, too, trading the Wizards’ 2024 second-round pick — which will be very high on account of the Wizards being terrible — to Utah for Simone Fontecchio. Why? Well, one presumes this sets the Pistons up to trade Bojan Bogdanovic — who sat Wednesday — for a pick or picks before the trade deadline. Fontecchio can step into that role. Yes, the Pistons are terrible. But you need to put live bodies and capable NBA-level players around your young prospects to be able to assess properly. The 32nd pick or so is a steep cost, but let’s see how much of it Detroit makes up with the Bojan trade. If they don’t get a Bojan trade in, I would say that the front office should be immediately assigned to the Motor City Cruise.

For the Jazz, this is another indication that they are not that interested in a play-in berth. Fontecchio has started 35 games for Utah this season! But he’s 28 and a free agent after the season, and he’s definitely the least essential starter. Curious if this gets Walker Kessler back into the starting lineup, or if the Jazz have a couple more moves to make. All eyes on Kelly and Clarkson. (Olynyk and Jordan, respectively.)

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Oh Cool, More Visual Clutter

NBA officials are going to start wearing sponsor patches during All-Star. The sponsor is … Emirates, Dubai’s state-run airline. Emirates has also taken sponsorship of the In-Season Tournament, which will be officially dubbed the Emirates NBA Cup.

Pass! We’re calling it the NBA Cup or the In-Season Tournament.

NBA basketball court real estate still needing official league partner logos: