I like to imagine that teammates Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin just went on The Great American Road Trip. Traded three times between four teams in five days, Stauskas and Baldwin could’ve hit the road together, their destination ever-changing, having the time of their lives as they bounced from state to state with no clue whether they were heading closer to their new team or farther from an even newer team. In under a week, they were Trail Blazers, Cavaliers, Rockets, and Pacers—honestly, all great ways to describe two guys hurtling down the road, more concerned with having a great time than making great time.
Of course, they probably never left their houses. After “playing” for four teams in a week, Stauskas and Baldwin ended their journey on the waiver wire. You can learn more about what will happen in the NBA this season from reading up on other trades, but I’m pretty confident you can learn more about how the NBA actually works by studying the way these two basketball players were bounced from team to team for reasons completely unrelated to their basketball-playing skills.
Let us recap the strange adventure of Nik and Wade:
February 3: Stauskas and Baldwin were traded from Portland, along with two second-round draft picks, to Cleveland for Rodney Hood.
First, let us meet our two heroes. When he played college ball at Michigan, I thought Stauskas was one of the best shooters I’d ever seen. The Kings did, too, drafting him eighth overall in 2014. But in five pro seasons, he’s shot just 34.9 percent from 3—below the current league average of 35.4 percent. The highlight of his career has undoubtedly been picking up the nickname “Sauce Castillo” thanks to a closed captioning mistake. After four rough seasons playing for Sacramento, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, he seemed like he might fit in Portland, scoring 24 points in the Blazers’ season opener. But Stauskas had hit double-digits only three times since November 1, and had started picking up DNPs in recent weeks.
Baldwin was selected 17th overall by the Grizzlies just three drafts ago, and the Grizzlies instantly realized it was a mistake. They made the surprising choice to cut Baldwin after just one season—something that almost never happens with first-round picks. He’d played in just 23 games over two years with the Blazers.
Suffice it to say: Neither guy was in Portland’s plans. But the Trail Blazers wanted a wing as they push toward a top-four playoff seed, so they traded for Hood, an actually playable shooting guard. (Sure, Hood completely failed to help LeBron James last year, but he’s had some good moments in the past.)
Just one problem: The Trail Blazers are over the salary cap—wayyyyy over the salary cap, about $30 million over the salary cap—and to acquire a player when you’re over the salary cap, a team has to deal away players whose salary values are roughly equivalent to the player they’re bringing in. Hood’s salary is $3.47 million, and the combined salaries of Stauskas and Baldwin are $3.16 million—enough to make the trade work.
Cleveland was probably more excited about the second-round picks than Stauskas and Baldwin. But for the trade to work, the Cavs needed to take on those salaries. And off Nik and Wade went. Maybe they’d get minutes for a tanking Cavs squad?
February 6: As part of a three-team deal, Stauskas and Baldwin were traded from Cleveland to Houston. The Rockets also got Iman Shumpert, the Cavaliers got Brandon Knight, Marquese Chriss, a first-round draft pick, and a second-round draft pick, and the Kings got Alec Burks and a second-round draft pick.
No, they wouldn’t.
The Rockets had a few goals here. The biggest was getting rid of Knight, who signed a five-year, $70 million contract in 2015, then had the worst year of his career in 2016, tore his ACL in 2017, and has played in just 12 games this season—and played poorly in those 12 games. He’s owed $15.6 million next season, and the Rockets do not want to pay him. The second-biggest goal was getting rid of Chriss, who, like Stauskas, was once the no. 8 pick, but has fallen out of Houston’s plans and demanded a trade last month.
Why were Stauskas and Baldwin included? By taking on Knight and Chriss, the Cavaliers were putting themselves over the limit of 15 players per team. They could have simply cut Stauskas and Baldwin, but then would have been responsible for paying the $3.1 million owed to them. Since the Rockets really wanted to get rid of Knight’s salary, they were willing to give up a first-rounder and take on Stauskas and Baldwin’s salaries.
Some people were genuinely excited about the addition of Stauskas to the Rockets. After all, the Rockets are the greatest 3-point shooting team in league history, willing to take on virtually anybody who can regularly make long-distance shots—and hypothetically, that’s Stauskas’s one NBA skill. Maybe this would work out?
February 7: Stauskas and Baldwin were traded to the Pacers, along with a second-round pick, for the draft rights to Maarty Leunen.
No, it did not work out. Unfortunately for Stauskas and Baldwin, the Rockets had no interest in keeping them. But they couldn’t cut Stauskas and Baldwin since, again, that would force them to pay their salaries.
Their salaries also pushed Houston over the luxury tax—the point at which NBA teams are forced to pay double, or even triple or quadruple for every additional dollar they spend. You’d think this wouldn’t be a problem for the Rockets, whose new owner Tilman Fertitta promised he’d be willing to pay the luxury tax to bring Houston a winning team. But I guess Stauskas and Baldwin were not the keys to that winning team.
So the Rockets agreed to give a second-round pick to the Pacers to get them to take the salaries of Stauskas and Baldwin. Teams legally have to give up something in a trade, so the Pacers gave up the rights to Leunen, a player drafted in 2008 and currently playing in the second division of Italian basketball. Leunen will obviously never play for the Rockets—but maybe the Pacers saw something in Stauskas and Baldwin, and saw this as a rare opportunity to take on a useful pair of players for nobody in return. Would they find a home in Indiana?
Later on February 7: The Pacers cut Stauskas and Baldwin.
No, they would not. Finally, the long journey for Stauskas and Baldwin had come to an end. The Pacers took on our heroes not for salary cap reasons, not for luxury tax reasons, not for roster space reasons, but as a way to get a future second-round pick for only the cost of paying the rest of their salaries.
In my head, I still picture trades as sensible things—Team A has two power forwards but no point guard; Team B has two point guards but no power forwards, so Team B gives Team A a point guard in exchange for a power forward. Deal! In reality, most NBA trades are just accounting with basketball players attached. We act like it’s exciting because we like basketball, but who cares about matching salaries and tax thresholds? Well, all of the people involved in making basketball teams, apparently.
Everybody got what they wanted—the Blazers got Hood, the Rockets got rid of Knight, the Cavaliers got a first-round pick, and the Rockets slipped under the luxury tax. That Stauskas and Baldwin were along for the ride is a coincidence, first because their salaries were just the right amount, later because somebody else’s salary was too big, and finally because their salaries were too big.
Stauskas and Baldwin can continue their road trip. They’re free to play wherever they want, not limited to whichever team decided the dollar signs next to their names were appropriate. I like to picture them cruising down the road, following whichever highway they think will bring them to their next basketball home. Unfortunately, they might not be very good at basketball, which is probably a bigger problem.