Well that was a Freebie - Trading in the NBA

So we drafted a few weeks ago for my NBA season.  My team, which I like but don't love, looks like this (Third pick overall in a snake draft):

1. James Harden SG

2. Hassan Whiteside PF/C

3. Rudy Gay SF/PF

4. Reggie Jackson PG/SG

5. Derrick Favors PF/C

6. J.J. Redick SG

7. Ryan Anderson SF/PF

8. Kevin Martin SG

9. Markeiff Morris SF/PF

10. Darren Collison PG

11. Brandon Jennings PG

Then after the draft I moved Jennings to IR (we have two IR spots), signed and IR'd Tony Wroten (PG), and eventually settled on Marvin Williams (SF) as my 11th active guy after a hot start.

It's easy to see some of my weak spots coming out of the draft.  After Harden my guards are very iffy, so assists and steals are two stats I may not easily get (I was hoping for Ricky Rubio but he was picked just before Favors was).  And despite a lot of bigs, my FG% looks like it won't be good - so I actually put myself in a pretty big hole with this draft, given that we're a 10 category league and my team is pretty awful at three of those categories.

Which means it was time to trade.

I sent some fliers around, and my one big nibble was a new guy named Brian.  Brian's team was pretty bad as well, but he had some slow starting bigs in Zack Randolph and Kenneth Faried that I decided to target.  I knew Faried was a 4th rounder and Randolph a 6th rounder, so I thought it would be cool to use Morris (my 9th rounder) plus to get one of them.

And so the offers trade began:

Trade 1 -  I started with his Faried, Amir Johnson, and Al-Fariq Aminu for my Morris, Williams, Collison, and Jennings.  His PG are nearly as bad as mine, so I figured it gave me a chance.  He countered.

His Counter 1 - He countered with my Gay, Favors, and Jennings for his Faried, Johnson, and Aminu.  Gay and Favors were my 3rd and 5th picks, and I'm a little weak at SF, so there's no way this was going to happen.  

I started to get a bit...discouraged.

My Counter 1 - Seeing how he seemed to like Faried, I countered with his Randolph for my Williams, Morris, and Jennings.  He clearly like Morris and Jennings and seemed to like his other guys I asked for.  This trade showed I only want those PFs and nothing else, and that I was willing to give up a few guys.

His Counter 2 - In the last counter of this deal, he wanted my Gay and Whiteside for his Faried, Johnson, and Aminu.  And though I say you should always counter, because you never know what could happen, this trade was so far off that I simply rejected.

HOWEVER, I did so with a note.  It said something like "I only want Faried and/or Randolph," and I can't give up any of my top five guys.  Some players I would give up include Morris, Ryan Anderson, etc., etc.

And he must've read the note, because a day later in my mailbox I saw

the final trade,

which read like this:

My Markeiff Morris and Ryan Anderson for His Kenneth Faried and Zack Randolph.

I immediately thought to myself

and clicked accept as fast as I could.  Faried was a 4th rounder and Randolph was a 6th rounder - and I got them for a 7th rounder and 9th rounder due mostly to Anderson's hot start and cold starts from Faried and Randolph.  I'll take that!

So now I need some better smalls, but in one trade I've already made my team that much better, especially in field goal percentage.  So maybe there's hope in this league after all...