Massive, massive trade. A new title contender in the East has emerged as Knicks Gaming enters the fray with Radiant. Pistons GT turn to Ant as their PG of the future, but the short-term effects may see them fall out of the playoff picture. Let’s go through each team and how it impacts them both!

Knicks Gaming receives: Radiant + 2023 2nd round pick

Knicks Gaming saw 76ers GC claim they had the best backcourt in the league and took it personally. They make the biggest trade in franchise history and acquire one of its greatest all-time players. Radiant should be an excellent fit next to OriginalMalik and give them ~arguably~ the best backcourt in the NBA 2K League.

Radiant has never played with a SG quite like Malik. His best partner, talent and production-wise, was ZDS back in Season 2 and we saw Radiant carry that team to the Finals. Now, we need to pump the brakes a tiny bit. Whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not, the Pistons went 0-5 during The Turn and Radiant played a huge role in that. As of now, Radiant is shooting only 59.9 TS% and is turning the ball over more than 5 times a game (5.18) which is tops in the league. Radiant looked much more like himself in the 3v3 Switch Open, but we’ll see if that carries over to 5v5. Malik will certainly help take some of the pressure off and they should help each other shoot more efficiently from the field, but as always, we should make a mental note anytime two high-usage guards get paired together. Through it all, Knicks Gaming is primed to make a title run now and man, it’s going to be a blast to watch Radiant and Malik together,

Pistons GT receives: Ant + 2023 1st round pick

Well, so ends the Radiant-Ramo duo. It was decently successful, a playoff appearance and a tournament finals over the course of two years, but it is pretty shocking to see it come to an end this quickly. Especially considering they just went to the 3v3 Switch Open Finals on Saturday. But alas, the duo has been split and it’s the Ant SZN show now.

We still really don’t know what we have in Ant in the league. He’s shown some decent flashes, but nothing to hang your hat on and say “he’s the guy”. He’s taking over a Pistons GT team that’s going to need him to handle almost all of the offensive load, so this might actually be our best chance to see what he’s made of. He’s being reunited with his pro-am teammate EG, so at least he’s somewhat familiar with this team. Getting a 2023 1st is nice, but giving up a 2023 2nd is…tough to swallow. The 1st rounder might be in the back 7 picks of the lottery and that 2nd rounder might be in the top 7 of the 2nd round. Pistons might’ve traded Radiant and a slight jump of about 14 picks for Radiant. I know we are late in the year, but I don’t love that return. If Ant is their long-term PG, it looks a whole lot better, but that’s a big if right now.