Key to note that trades not including players from the draft will be graded after round 2 and we see all the trades and will be quick and fast. Also there will likely be a lot of C and B- so just prepare for that post.
Anyway the only player trade in this years first round was the Mark Williams trade which combined with the pick to take Khaman Maluach was the quickest center rotation to be built i've ever seen. I do want to congratulate all Phoenix Suns fans who probably feel great today after last night, I think they are one of my winners of the draft night so far. They now have one of the better center rotations in the league and that is very impressive so hats off to them. I think the Hornets could have got more for the talent Mark Williams but after the whole debacle I'm not surprised with this. anyway I wanna quickly grade this so here we go!
Trade Grade Explanation: https://fanspo.com/nba/s/general/p/epTyDdsSXUgNRK/my-trade-grade-rankings-explained
Suns: B
Mark Williams is a great center and a really good fit for this Phoenix team in need of an intense retool and rebuild with a guard heavy roster and weak center group. Mark Williams has essentially kickstarted what is on paper one of the best center groups for a few years with Williams, Maluach, Richards all being very playable NBA players who do a role for the team. Now the worry is he is injury prone and every pick for the Suns matters especially compared to the rest but man I think this is still relatively cheap. that 29 pick is a least favourable and it would be crazy to think thats greater than pick 20 and they moved pick 29 this year in a deep class for sure but it still is a very minimal first round pick. And what really solidified this as a B trade for me is how they were able to cut cap space by trading Micic terrible deal back to the Hornets in a game of hot potato in the last season. I think this just makes too much sense and for so little cost that it gets a great grade.
Hornets: C+
I obviously do not know the demand for Mark Williams but I imagine someone else was gunning for him in the market. I wonder what other packages might have been I just feel like they surly could have got more value out of him. They did do the smart thing which was to lie at the deadline and try trick the Lakers but that did blow up in their face and to me that seems to have caused them to get this grade to be so low. I am torn wether I do this or not so its a C+ to be cautious but I just don't see the picks being valuable and having Micic back is just a pain for this team and its cap table in my opinion. Anyway its not bad its still ok maybe a tad better but I don't have much of a strong feeling towards this one.