The IS YOUR TRADE FAIR test

Ever seen a trade on social media and wondered if it's at all plausible? After checking to see if the trade is even legal according to the CBA and cap rules, the reaction of your team's fans is a great barometer. The more it is hated by your team's fans, the more likely it's a fair deal. Conversely the more "likes" it gets the less likely it's a fair trade and more likely a homer's pipe dream.

Here's a little graphic we made that breaks down the levels of fairness in trade ideas and includes an example from today.

It should be noted that a fan that overrates their team's own players, doesn't value future draft picks properly, or wants players to make as much money as possible aren't "bad" fans. They only become bad fans if they are insulting to the rest of the more objective fan base. The majority of every teams' fan bases are in this 1st "homer" group.

It should also be noted that a fan that is more negative to their own players than they should aren't "bad" fans either. They only become bad fans if they are insulting to the rest of the fan base or direct their negativity in the player's mentions.

The smallest segment of a fan base is the objective group, and they only can become "bad" fans if they are snobby and dismiss the other two groups completely.

While people use terms like "casual" and "hater," to describe fans that aren't in their group, 99 times out of 100 they are off base, but are stuck in their bubble of like minded fans.

If you actively leave a replies on a strangers' tweet/posts calling them dumb, clowns, casuals, "revoke their team cards," "fuck you," etc, then you are in fact an asshole fan though. Or if you're just unhinged like this guy:

Sean, while a fan of his team, gives homer fans a bad name with his extreme, unhealthy obsession for players that even the idea or mention of one his players being traded, causes him to lash out. On the flip side would be the negative fan who tweets at a player hoping he will see it "fuck you" after a missed last second shot.

So there is nothing wrong proposing a trade that favors your team, nor is there anything wrong if in the heat of the moment and you want a player gone, you propose a trade that favors the other team (as long as you're not directing your anger at strangers or the player directly).

If you call multiple players on your team untouchables, that doesn't make you a bad fan either. You'd just be a poor NBA general managers. NBA GM's all have to be from that objective group as overvaluing your players or being a prisoner of the moment and just dumping guys after a bad stretch would make you a horrendous GM.

In the above trade example, the findings make sense. While based on age Jaylen Brown should be worth more than Damian Lillard, the difference in value isn't as much as Scoot Henderson to two 1st rounders is. So in a deal like this where your team (in this case the Celtics) is getting more than they give up, you'd have to find an extenuating circumstance why the Blazers might take less.

The extreme example is the Wizards taking less than Bradley Beal's worth, but that's because he had a no-trade clause. Portland has said they want to do right by Lillard and trade him to a competitive team. My guess is they'd prefer it to be an Eastern Conference team. They more or less have to trade him soon and the team he prefers (The Heat), well their best offer would be worse than this one from Boston.

In order to make this deal work, Boston would have to be giving up a 1st rounder or two, or Portland would have to replace Scoot with someone like Shaedon Sharpe. Portland would want to trade Anfernee Simons instead.

Now if the trade above had been posted to social media with Simons in place of Henderson, the insults and negativity would be ridiculous. And that's why you are unlikely to see many objective or fair trades from fans or even reporters who cover the teams. Scalabrine got killed for being for trading Jaylen for Durant a year ago.

It's much easier to be a reporter of the team you cover and only propose homer deals. Or include a bunch of future 1st round draft picks and pick swaps instead, since the majority of fans prefer those deals (Can't get attached to a face-less future draft pick).

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