Nothing like a good blockbuster, league-shaking trade to jump-start your week! Even better when it’s a huge reshuffling of point guards across both conferences. This is the first four-team trade in league history, too. Trade details first, then we’ll go team by team.

Knicks Gaming acquires: Ant SZN
Magic Gaming acquires: Duck
Wizards District Gaming acquires: Kapp + 2023 2nd round pick (via SGC then KGG)
Kings Guard Gaming acquires: Ty + WDG 2023 1st round pick

What This Means for Knicks Gaming:

Knicks Gaming being involved is probably the most unlikely of the four. We’ve often discussed what the team would look like without Duck and Malik, I just never expected Knicks Gaming to actually trade Duck. He was the Most Improved Player last year, but has definitely had some issues this year with his scoring. I’m just stunned they actually traded him! Again, we’ve talked about it a lot, but them DOING it, is a bit different. There are a thousand ways this will change the team gameplay-wise, but honestly, it’s almost impossible to project. Duck and Glo had great chemistry both on and off the court, so this complicates the locker room a bit. We’re really going to find out what Ant is made of. He is going to have every opportunity to prove he is the guy, but man, what a mystery box. Is Ant that guy? Who knows. This is a real wait-and-see kind of trade for Knicks Gaming. Duck and Malik are no more. It’s the Ant x Leeky show now.

What This Means for Magic Gaming:

A true stunner. The earliest a top 10 pick has ever been traded in 2K League. However, if you feel it’s time to cut bait, you’d rather do it earlier than later. It’s a real classic, “trade the youngster for the vet” deal. Duck, for however you feel about him, is on his third year starting in the NBA 2K League as a point guard and knows what he’s doing out there. He should help their scoring a bit and his understanding of how to play next to a high-level sharp will certainly help Snubby. BigReign should see a nice boost in the PnR game as well, though I liked his chemistry with Kapp, he can get points on the board with any PG. Honestly…I didn’t think Kapp was the issue with this team. Maybe they just felt like they needed to reshuffle the deck and trust in their retained players with Duck. We’ll see how much of an impact this has. If the rest of the team doesn’t start playing better, it won’t have much. Side note, all this reshuffling and we still don’t get to see Matty play a little PG? Little bit of a bummer.

What This Means for Wizards District Gaming:

Why are we helping the Wiz? There is the old adage that you can’t worry too much about other teams and you got to just focus on your team and your assets. But…if a team is going for their 3rd-straight title…maybe don’t give them the answer to their problems on a silver platter? Now, let’s take a step back because obviously, that’s a bit of an overstatement. Kapp has only played in 5 career 2K League games, so saying he’s going to lead the Wiz to a title is a bit overzealous. We saw flashes of high-level playmaking and scoring ability in his group stage games, but they were just that, flashes. Maybe the pressure of being the leader of a team was too much for a young guy, but now he gets to go to the best environment for a guy of his skill set. In terms of replacements for JBM, Kapp is about as close as you’re going to get as a rookie. We’ll see if he can live up to that LOFTY comparison, but with four champions around him, I think he’ll be just fine. Again, why are we helping Wizards District Gaming? With Ty, I think it was clear that they weren’t going to WIN the title. But now you trade them back their title chances? So odd. Lastly, to me, this signals the last ride for this group. No first round pick means they can’t retain four players and if they win a third title, might be time to call it a dynasty and move on. I’m a little early on this, but a gut feeling they are all in.

What This Means for Kings Guard Gaming:

I’m a bit lost on what this means for Kings Guard Gaming. Recouping one of the first round picks from the OneWildWalnut trade is a good move for sure, especially if you have 3-4 good players to retain. What makes this trade kind of odd is that it doesn’t make them that much better this year, but it also doesn’t secure their future. Ant was a good future piece for them to have the rights to. If Mama isn’t good or decides to retire, you have Ant as an option to replace him long-term. Now that’s obviously off the table, but they also don’t have a high enough pick to competently replace Mama if that situation still happens. They have the Wizards first round pick, which likely lands in the 20-24 range. So it leaves them in an awkward middle ground where they are now fully invested in the group they have for this year, without a real long-term plan. What happens if this all goes wrong and you have to trade a Crush or a Walnut or even Mama again? The pressure to win this season was already very high, this trade, to me, ramps that up to an 11.