NBA Trade Deadline Notes: Nerlens Noel traded, Ben Simmons’ timetable, Boogie and AD debut

I wanted to get a post up as we all nervously sit on Twitter, waiting for that Adrian Wojnarowski tweet that may or may not be coming before today’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.

We get the NBA back tonight, and thanks to the Sacramento Kings front office, the Rockets/Pelicans game that looked like a snoozer a week ago is suddenly the must-watch game of the night. We’ll see how long it takes DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis to gel, and just how the hell a team like Houston plans on guarding the dynamic duo — my guess is not all that well. It’s going to be interesting to see where…

We interrupt this post for some breaking news.

Looks like Philly has dealt Nerlens Noel to the Dallas Mavericks for Andrew Bogut, Justin Anderson and a conditional first-round pick according to Marc Stein of ESPN.

The scuttlebutt on Twitter is that Philly plans on moving Andrew Bogut right away, and with this we have our first major trade salvo of deadline day. For Noel this is a chance to get out of the Philly big-man log jam, and provide some much needed young blood to the Dallas Mavericks. The young power forward is averaging around nine points, five rebounds and block 19 minutes per game this season.

There must be something in the water that makes Sixers GM’s crave first round draft picks. We’ll see if Bryan Colangelo is just trying to clear some playing time for Jahlil Okafor and Joel Embiid, or if this move is the precursor to something bigger.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the 76ers draft-war chest, Philly know holds the rights to the Lakers first rounder (top-3 protected), a conditional first round pick from the mavericks, swap rights for the Kings first round pick, and of course their own first rounder — which will almost assuredly be in the top three. That’s not to mention the mountain of future first and second round picks they have lying around like uncashed checks. Whether or not you trust the process, you have to admit that Sam Hinkie achieved exactly what he was trying to do.

Pelicans Head Coach, Alvin Gentry puts his All-Star players on the court in offensive sets. How often is Boogie going to be anchored in the post with AD floating around the arc? How many minutes will the two play together? Wouldn’t it be smart to stagger the two stars as much as possible, with them only playing big minutes together down the stretch? So many questions about how this is all going to work, and I doubt what we see tonight will be the final answer to any of them.

The other big news out of Philly

As we wait to see what else happens with the 76ers on the trade front, we are also waiting on the results of Ben Simmons CT scan to find out what kind of time-table, if any, there will be on his return from preseason foot surgery. Just having Simmons on the court with Embiid at the same time would be the best moment of Philly’s season. It feels bummer to put it this way but if the two can stay healthy their potential is endless and the Sixers days of living in the lottery will mercifully be at an end.

Today should be a lot of fun for basketball fans. Not only do we get to watch some real hoops after what was a mind-numbingly bad All-Star weekend, but there is a better than 50–50 chance of at least one more big move happening before the deadline. It’s hard to remember a time when the league had this many compelling storylines firing at the same time.

I’m going to go back to frantically mashing F5 on Woj’s twitter timeline now, enjoy the games and deadline fever.