How to stop the NBA trade deadline from being so incredibly awkward

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Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you've got a great weekend ahead of you. Go Birds.

Now that the NBA trade deadline is behind us, I feel like it's a good spot to talk about the elephant in the room with all this. The timing of the deadline is always awkward, but this year things felt particularly chaotic.

Maybe it's because of the Luka Doncic trade. Anytime there's an earth-shattering move like that in the NBA it'll always come with ripple effects.

WINNERS & LOSERS: Here are our winners and losers from the Luka trade

After the Luka deal, the De'Aaron Fox deal happens. Then, a few days later, the Jimmy Butler deal happened. And then a whole bunch of other deals happen in the wake of those deals. Everybody is wheeling and dealing and all the players are living on pins and needles while having to prepare and play in live NBA games.

So then you have moments like P. J. Tucker and Dennis Schroder being dealt to multiple teams in multiple days. And you've got players on the bench reading phones on live television because of breaking news. You also have fans telling the Heat's players that Jimmy Butler is gone while looking at the panic in their eyes.

During the week leading up to the NBA's trade deadline the league just dives as deeply as possible into transactional chaos. It can be a bit funny in the moment, sure. Seeing the Suns players react to the Luka trade, for example, doesn't seem like a particularly meaningful or harmful moment.

But then when the implications and ripple effect begin to impact players outside of that trade, it all just gets to be a bit awkward and feel a little more extreme than normal.

That's why I think the NBA should really consider moving the trade deadline.

Move it to a later date — maybe the end of the week after the All-Star game. The league can take a week off and get everyone off of our television screens. They can wheel and deal in peace without having the awkward moments of Steve Kerr having to stop everything to tell Andrew Wiggins that he's going to Miami.

The transactional nature of the NBA will likely always exist, but that sort of thing sucks to read about. It dehumanizes players in a way that I don't think is good for the fans or good for the NBA as a product.

Sticking to the script

The next big moment in the NBA is obviously the All-Star game. This one will be interesting because of the new format changes.

Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal drafted their individual All-Star teams to compete in a four-team tournament for the NBA's big weekend.

We're supposed to believe they drafted these teams based on the players they wanted to pick. But, when you take a look at the rosters, you can clearly see the pattern that this thing was scripted in.

See it yet? Let me help you out.

• Shaq drafted the NBA's veteran players.

• Kenny drafted the NBA's younger emerging stars.

• Chuck drafted the NBA's international stars (with the exception of Donovan Mitchell).

It's an interesting way to format things. I guess the NBA tried to add a little drama to the picture through this farse of a draft. I won't give them too much grief on it, but we could've honestly just skipped the theatrics.

Regardless, I'm hoping for a fun time. Can't wait for All-Star weekend!

Shootaround

— Bryan Kalbrosky has some destinations for Ben Simmons now that he's secured his buyout.

— Prince Grimes has the biggest odd movers from around the NBA after the trade deadline. Man, the Lakers. Smh.

— Here's our full trade deadline tracker from Charles Curtis so you can see all the little deals here.

— And here's all we know about Luka Doncic's injury and when he may debut for the Lakers.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: How to stop the NBA trade deadline from being so incredibly awkward