The Biggest Trade Ever?

A week ago from yesterday, the NBA world stopped with the news that the Brooklyn Nets had traded away their second surefire Hall-of-Famer in a week, and their third in the last calendar year. In order to land arguably the second or third-best player of this generation of NBA superstars (and T.J. Warren), the Suns gave up an unprecedented haul of draft capital and young talent. Here's everything the Suns gave up to land Kevin Freaking Durant 🏆

• Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder

• 2023/2025/2027/2029 First Round Picks (all unprotected)

• 2028 Pick Swap

And since the Grizzlies reportedly offered four firsts just for Bridges, the Nets could have walked away with a whopping eight first round selections along with the 2nd rounders they got for flipping Crowder to the Bucks 🔀

Although the Suns just got a whole lot better on paper, the pressure is on for Phoenix to win big, and soon. Trading for Kevin Durant is not without risk. He's 34 years old, has suffered a half-dozen different significant lower-body injuries since 2017, and at 37, Chris Paul looks like his best days are long behind him 📉

KD's missed more than a month due to another knee sprain, and will not return at least until after the All-Star break. Ultimately, the new-look Suns will have no more than 22 games after the break to figure out how to play together if they hope to make a run at their first franchise title in these upcoming playoffs 🏥

Tonight Phoenix takes on the Clippers in the final contest before the All-Star break - peep the lines 👇

Clippers vs. Suns Betting Preview (subject to change)

• Spread: Suns -1.5

• Moneyline: Suns -118 (bet $118, win $100), Clippers +100 (bet $100, win $100)

• Total: 224

The Playoff Picture

While the Suns are still a ways away from being made whole, the Clippers are getting closer and closer to being the contenders they have hoped to be all season, especially after a deadline day moves. In a trade that sent away John Wall and Luke Kennard, the Clippers got back three players they hope can help them in the playoffs 📝

• Eric Gordon

• Miles Plumlee

• Bones Hyland

Even more importantly, Kawhi is starting to look like the MVP-caliber talent he's been for most of the past decade, so long as he's been 100% healthy 📈

Since the start of 2023, Kawhi Leonard is putting up some crazy stats:

• 27.0 PPG

• 6.2 RPG

• 4.1 APG

• 52.4 FG%

• 48.2 3PT%

Since the Clippers trail the Suns by just a half-game in the Western Conference standings, holding down the fifth and fourth seeds respectively, tonight's game could mean everything for home court advantage in the first round 🗓️

For My Parlay Gurus

With a superstar advantage and getting a point-and-a-half from oddsmakers, I like the Clippers winning their last game before the All-Star break. Expect the Bucks to beat the Bulls and the Wolves to beat the Wiz to juice those odds in your last NBA parlay of the season's "first half" 👇

• Clippers ML @ Suns: +100

• Bucks ML @ Bulls: -300

• Wolves ML vs. Wizards: -158

$100 on this bet would win you $335 — if we hit, make sure you email [email protected] for a chance to win up to $100*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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