Rumors came out about the type of trade packages that the New York Knicks offered to Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz. Some of them seemed so good that Ainge was insane NOT to accept them. So was Cleveland’s trade package actually better?
Ultimately, the Cleveland Cavaliers gave the deal that Ainge liked the most. They gave more unprotected picks than the Knicks, and one can argue that Collin Sexton is better than RJ Barrett. What about the rest of the trade package though?
There’s Obi Toppin vs Lauri Markkanen, which currently favors Markkanen. Then, there were different combinations of Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, and Mitchell Robinson offered by the Knicks.
It shouldn’t take a statistical analysis to know that all of those younger and more talented players favor the Knicks trade package. On top of Quickley and Barrett, Leon Rose even offered a couple unprotected picks and some pick swaps. That seems like a trade that would interest any rebuilding team.
Let’s take the main piece of each trade first. RJ Barrett is already the younger of the two compared to Collin Sexton. Barrett is also 6’6, more versatile, and is just as good of a playmaker as Sexton. Sexton, however does have the shooting efficiency nod and is a much better three-point shooter right now. They essentially play the same position at shooting guard, which is where the 6’1 player usually doesn’t have as high of a ceiling as the 6’6 player.
We’ll let you listen to the part of our podcast where we talked about all of this. Then let us know what you think!
