NBA Summer Madness Has Begun

This time of year there is are so many things happening around the NBA. The NBA draft begins tonight and then in just a couple of weeks free agency begins. To top it all off teams are making trades to improve their roster or start a rebuild. This year it didn't take long for the trades to take place with two pretty big trades happening yesterday.

The first trade I'll talk about is the three team trade between the Pacers, Jazz, and Hawks. The Hawks seem to be starting what could be a rebuilding process. They traded Jeff Teague to Indiana and in return they got the 12th pick in this years draft courtesy of the Jazz. As for the Jazz they received George Hill in return. This add's more back court depth to their team as well as a veteran presence.

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

The biggest winner in the trade has to be the Indiana Pacers. They gave up a good point guard in Hill, but they get a much more scoring oriented guard in Teague. This should take some of the pressure off Paul George to score the basketball. All the Pacers need to do now is find a stretch four that can spread the floor and open up driving lanes for Ellis, Teague, and George.

The losers in this trade are the Hawks. They ultimately made this deal because Teague wanted out and they want more cap room to resign Al Horford and Kent Bazemore. In the end they will now free up more playing time for Dennis Schroder who has been playing backup to Teague for years now. It should be interesting to see how all three teams fair next season with their new acquisitions.

The next big trade that happened yesterday was the Chicago Bulls traded Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks. The Knicks traded Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon, and Jerian Grant to Chicago for Derrick Rose, Justin Holiday, and a 2017 second round pick. It's not surprising the Rose was traded to the Knicks. Most people knew the Bulls were looking to trade Rose and the Knicks are looking to quickly improve their team after back to back disappointing seasons. What is shocking is how little the Knicks had to give up to land Rose. In all fairness Rose is in the last year of his contract so the Bulls would have had trouble negotiating a better deal.

With the NBA draft taking place tonight keep an eye out for draft night trades as well. There are still murmurs of teams trading high picks for talent and some offers may still be on the table. That will all unfold later tonight.