Good evening. It is a raining 50-degree day here in the Bay Area. And, Danny, we have a trade-to-anounce.

We do. And it's at least as we know it right now, I consider this strange one. And that is because the Atlanta Hawks are trading Allen Crab to the Minnesota Temple of the Exchange for Jeff Teague and Dedy Leroux Periodic Favorite Travion Graham.

And why this trade is interesting for me is because in some ways it is a really simple one. All of these players are on expiring contracts. It is a two-for-one, so it creates a roster spot.

And so that means that you could think of it in some ways as you could go to challenge trade or just teams valuing different things. Except that to me, Jeff Teague is unambiguously the best player in this trade by a pretty decent margin and a desperately needed fit for the Atlanta Hawks.

And the thing to me that's interesting about it is it really seems like the wolves have just decided that he can't play. They moved him out of the starting lineup. And yeah, it's been a bit of a struggle for him this year to be sure.

But the overall numbers are not terrible, even this year of 58% true shooting, 38% from 3, not a huge volume of attempts per 36 minutes, but right around where his career averages were.

You just look at his top nine line numbers, 7.9 assists for 36 minutes a little below last year, but still right around where he's been since he started playing big minutes in Atlanta, way back in the 11-12 season.

But it seems like there's just a feeling that he's not going to be there anymore. They wanted to move Jerk Culfer into a point guard role. Now they're giving Shabbat Napier who they at least have some bird rights on and might come cheaper than Teague in the future.

And they also seem like something we said in their previous day, of course, because we just did their preview. There has to be a trade immediately afterwards that they just need someone who's going to make wide open shots on this team, especially once Carl Anthony Towns comes back.

And they've got Wiggins, they've got Culver, they've got Napier, maybe they feel like they have enough ball enders.

So, through this seems at least for Minnesota's standpoint more of a deck chairs on the Titanic type of trade. Maybe it's just doing Jeff Teague a favor because he wasn't so much in their plans to get more time.

So, I understand this just because they really want that shooter and crab, but it still does seem like a bit of a talent downgrade to me.

But maybe there's something more about the way Teague has played this year or just that he's not reliable or what.

But I haven't seen that much of a decline in what he's been doing this year, have you?

I haven't. And also, while Alan Krab is a adds to their shooting, it's not like he is this amazing underutilized overall player.

And so, from Minnesota's perspective, I mean, you could argue that making them worse in the immediate isn't that great a consequence.

I don't expect them to make the playoffs that is something that's changed as the perpetually questionable Carl Anthony Towns continues to not play in basketball games.

There are a couple of interesting angles here from Minnesota's perspective that I think could end up being important.

One that created a roster spot and Minnesota actually still has a significant portion of their middle level exception to use.

Now, before it started pro-rating, it was about 5 million. Now, they still had enough wiggle room already under the tax to use all of that beforehand.

And I don't know who they would use that on. Like, is there a buyout candidate that sees Minnesota a likely non-playoff team as a desirable outcome?

Because like, remember Wayne Ellington and West Matthews last year, they didn't go to elite teams, but they went to playoff teams that had playing time to off.

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