Good morning. Let’s basketball?

We Have Some Trades

The Celtics traded Lamar Stevens and two future seconds for Xavier Tillman. Insurance policy up front. Not a tremendous insurance policy, but an insurance policy nonetheless.

The Timberwolves picked up Monte Morris for Shake Milton, Troy Brown Jr. and a deep future second. Shake and TBJ have both been rotation players off the bench for the Wolves this season. Morris, of course, played a significant role for the pre-championship Nuggets before being traded in the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope deal. While he hasn’t really played for Detroit this season, there’s a good chance he joins Nickeil Alexander-Walker as the primary back-up guards for Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley. Good move for Minnesota! This is a title contender identifying a need and addressing it.

The Pistons (not a title contender) had another move, too, trading the Wizards’ 2024 second-round pick — which will be very high on account of the Wizards being terrible — to Utah for Simone Fontecchio. Why? Well, one presumes this sets the Pistons up to trade Bojan Bogdanovic — who sat Wednesday — for a pick or picks before the trade deadline. Fontecchio can step into that role. Yes, the Pistons are terrible. But you need to put live bodies and capable NBA-level players around your young prospects to be able to assess properly. The 32nd pick or so is a steep cost, but let’s see how much of it Detroit makes up with the Bojan trade. If they don’t get a Bojan trade in, I would say that the front office should be immediately assigned to the Motor City Cruise.

For the Jazz, this is another indication that they are not that interested in a play-in berth. Fontecchio has started 35 games for Utah this season! But he’s 28 and a free agent after the season, and he’s definitely the least essential starter. Curious if this gets Walker Kessler back into the starting lineup, or if the Jazz have a couple more moves to make. All eyes on Kelly and Clarkson. (Olynyk and Jordan, respectively.)

Oh Cool, More Visual Clutter

NBA officials are going to start wearing sponsor patches during All-Star. The sponsor is … Emirates, Dubai’s state-run airline. Emirates has also taken sponsorship of the In-Season Tournament, which will be officially dubbed the Emirates NBA Cup.

Pass! We’re calling it the NBA Cup or the In-Season Tournament.

NBA basketball court real estate still needing official league partner logos:...