Springfield Trades Away Dan Dickau, Morris Almond for Pu-Pu Platter
Somebody might want to tell the Springfield Armor brass that even though they're currently in last place with a 5-22 record, tanking by trading their best players is not helping - the D-League draft order is determined at random, not via record.
Today they traded away two of the more NBA-ready players in the D-League - newly-acquired Dan Dickau, most recently with the Phoenix Suns this fall, and the D-League's leading scorer Morris Almond - for Kyle McAlarney, Noel Felix and Tony Bobbitt. While McAlarney, Felix and Bobbitt are serviceable D-League players I think it's okay to say the Armor got worse end of the deal twice in one day.
The Armor could've boasted a starting lineup of Dan Dickau, JamesOn Curry, Morris Almond, TJ Cummings and Marcus Campbell (fairly formidable in the D-League), but are now relegated to boasting a starting lineup featuring JamesOn Curry and stuff.
For the past week, I've been teasing Dan Dickau coming into the D-League both on RU's Twitter and Facebook accounts (hint: follow me if you want the underground stuff that isn't quite full story worthy), but heard he was being traded, so I didn't want to post anything on RU until I figured out his whereabouts.
Well, I found his whereabouts! Dickau will join the Fort Wayne Mad Ants tomorrow night after a sign-and-trade netted the Armor Notre Dame's Kyle McAlarney.
In short, I think the Mad Ants dominated this trade, as McAlarney's essentially a poor-man's version of Dickau. They are both undersized, unathletic white guards, and though Dickau is 31 and McAlarney is 22, neither can really be described as having 'ridiculous upside'. McAlarney's a better pure shooter, at least from distance, but Dickau is the superior player everywhere else as far as I'm concerned (especially as far as being a point guard goes).
The other trade that went down is the D-League's leading scorer, Morris Almond, being traded from the Springfield Armor to the Maine Red Claws. The Red Claws gave up Tony Bobbitt and Noel Felix (both of which are a long ways from re-joining the NBA) for Morris Almond and TJ Cummings (the son of NBA great Terry Cummings, not the porn star (definitely don't google it)).
It's clear to me that while they're both expansion teams, one team clearly gets it and one team ... is building around JamesOn Curry.
If Maine can get their talent to mesh (and I have enough faith in Red Claws assistant Randy Livingston that they'll be able to), they have the most NBA talent assembled on one team in the history of the D-League.
Let's take a look at the hodge podge of former/future NBA talent now assembled in Maine:
PG: Russell Robinson, former Jayhawk point guard, NCAA National Champ and last cut of the Cleveland Cavaliers
SG: Maurice Ager, first round pick in 2006 of the Dallas Mavericks
SF: Morris Almond, first round pick of the Utah Jazz in 2007
PF: Trey Gilder, who began this season with the Memphis Grizzlies
C: Paul Davis, former NBA draft pick and three year NBA veteran
6th Man: Billy Thomas, NBA-caliber shooter, leader, former Cleveland Cav/Washington Wizard/New Jersey Net
Not bad, eh?
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Say it with me now
Pro basketball is back in Springfield!
Ridiculous Upside, where developing talent and winning are not mutually exclusive.
by Jon L on Feb 15, 2025 7:42 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Yay JamesOn!
I blog at Ridiculous Upside. I know you'll love it.
by Scott Schroeder on Feb 15, 2025 7:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Ha... Ha Ha... Ha...
That’s it… I’m moving to somewhere who knows how to build a team… Any suggestions?? I mean really Springfield… What the eff were you thinking??
by WMass_Colt on Feb 15, 2025 9:21 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Haha
I mean, I guess technically the Mo Almond trade could make sense (if a top player isn’t working out, proven solid role players might be worth it), but I have no idea what trading Dickau for McAlarney did for them.
I blog at Ridiculous Upside. I know you'll love it.
by Scott Schroeder on Feb 16, 2025 12:24 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
is this a money thing?
D-league experts—Wondering whether the Armor are doing these deals to save $$$, I know that d-league players are slotted into certain A, B, or C slots, so maybe the Armor don’t want any A guys on there team? Or does each team have to have certain A salary players? that’s the only way this makes sense-right?
by flexilexi on Feb 16, 2025 1:40 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Well
Kind of, but not really.
As far as I know, D-League teams only have to pay if they go over the salary cap, but they don’t get anything back for being under the cap. They shouldn’t have been over the salary cap.
Dickau was an A, but McAlarney was a B, so that doesn’t help matters that much.
Almond was an A, but Felix is a B, so that’s not a tremendous saving either.
Also, JamesOn Curry and Marcus Campbell are still A contracts as far as I know.
With Almond being the most talented of the bunch (and I’d say Dickau second), why wouldn’t they trade one of the less-talented A’s?
I blog at Ridiculous Upside. I know you'll love it.
by Scott Schroeder on Feb 16, 2025 1:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
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