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Best of YB: The state of the NBA following the trade deadline
Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics stood pat at the NBA trade deadline. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Best of YB: The state of the NBA following the trade deadline

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, and while there wasn't a ton of movement on Thursday itself, the Philadelphia 76ers finally unloaded one of their young bigs by trading Nerlens Noel to the Dallas Mavericks while the Oklahoma City Thunder beefed up its roster.

Big names like Jimmy Butler, Paul George, and reportedly disgruntled Knicks stars Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose stayed put, but none of that can offset the bombshell of the Sacramento Kings trading DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans to kick off the week.

That got us wondering, did the Kings just make the Pelicans into a super team? After all, New Orleans now has two of the best players John Calipari has ever coached at Kentucky.

Other than the Pelicans, who else won and lost the NBA trade deadline? We took our hand at grading the NBA trade deadline on the Vince Carter scale: "Celtics fans have been hoping, praying and BEGGING for Danny Ainge to make something of the multiple first round draft picks the team owns, yet he stood pat because of his professed belief that this team had enough to make a deep playoff run."

Like the Celtics, two conspicuous teams failed to do much for their rosters this week. I'm talking the two-time defending Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors and reigning NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.

We did our best to poach “playmakers” in Ice Cube's league who can help the Cavs: "I'm going with Stephen Jackson. He's still tough, he can still shoot threes, his headbands are almost as big as LeBron's and if there's a gunfight in a strip club parking lot during the playoffs, he'll really be useful."

As for the Warriors, they already got their prize in the offseason, signing Kevin Durant. Oh yeah, they also have two pretty darn good shooters on their team who make the aesthetic of pushing the boundaries of the three-pointer look so easy: "Stephen Curry, the Warriors' two-time MVP, has set some shooting records that feel untouchable to just about anyone but Stephen Curry. Yet, it’s Klay Thompson whose jump shot is bordering Walter White levels of purity, and watching his form has all of the addictive qualities of Blue Sky."

Uncoincidentally, the Golden State backcourt were popular in our discussion of the guard tandems you'd want in a 2-on-2 tournament: "Curry/Thompson would shoot threes and run through that tournament in a very annoying fashion, especially if they were playing Make It, Take It rules."

While NBA rosters are now mostly set in stone for the remainder of the season, there's another trade deadline looming. As NHL trade deadline nears, here seven teams who could be dealing: "Literally, every big name player in the rumor mill has been connected to Toronto."

Finally, with the Oscars slated for Sunday night, we leave you with the 'Pete Rose instead of Kareem? Surely, you can't be serious' quiz after the writers of the film "Airplane!" admitted the role Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played was originally intended for Pete Rose. Really.

Can you name the athletes who appeared in these movies?
SCORE:
0/50
TIME:
10:00
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Dan Marino
Airplane!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Any Given Sunday
Lawrence Taylor
Black & White
Allan Houston
Blazing Saddles
Alex Karras
Cannonball Run
Terry Bradshaw
Conan The Destroyer
Wilt Chamberlain
The Dark Knight Rises
Hines Ward
The Dirty Dozen
Jim Brown
Dodgeball
Lance Armstrong
Dumb And Dumber
Cam Neely
Ernest Goes To Camp
Lyle Alzado
Fast Break
Bernard King
Fast & Furious 6
Gina Carano
Furious 7
Ronda Rousey
Goon
Georges Laraque
The Goonies
John Matuszak
The Hangover
Mike Tyson
Happy Gilmore
Lee Trevino
He Got Game
Ray Allen
Holes
Rick Fox
Kicking And Screaming
Mike Ditka
Kingpin
Roger Clemens
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Vinnie Jones
The Long Goodbye
Jim Bouton
Major League
Bob Uecker
Men In Black
Bernard Gilkey
My Giant
Gheorghe Muresan
The Naked Gun
Reggie Jackson
On The Right Track
Bill Russell
The Other Guys
Derek Jeter
Philadelphia
Julius Erving
Pitch Perfect 2
Clay Matthews
Police Academy
Bubba Smith
Scrooged
Mary Lou Retton
Senseless
Patrick Ewing
Singles
Xavier McDaniel
Smokey And the Bandit
Joe Klecko
Spiderman
Randy Savage
Stone Cold
Brian Bosworth
Talladega Nights
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tarzan
Johnny Weissmuller
Ted
Shawn Thornton
Ted 2
Tom Brady
That’s My Boy
Rex Ryan
There's Something About Mary
Brett Favre
Thunderstruck
Kevin Durant
The Towering Inferno
O.J. Simpson
Trainwreck
LeBron James
Van Wilder
Darius Miles

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