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🏀 The Greatest AAU Program Ever?

🏀 The Greatest AAU Program Ever?

Chris Lesiak
October 25, 2022

Seattle's Rotary AAU program is changing the NBA, we look at what pick swaps are really worth, and what is happening with Brady & Rodgers?

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ROTARY AAU PROGRAM

Seattle's Rotary AAU Program is Changing the NBA

Seattle is quickly becoming a launchpad for some of the NBA’s brightest stars, including first-overall pick Paolo Banchero, and they all have one thing in common — they played for the Rotary Style. The Rotary Style was founded in 1994 by Dan Finkley and Darryl Hennings, who built the program brick by brick into one of the most successful AAU programs in the country.

Finkley and Hennings built Rotary Style on a mission to give the next generation of young hoopers in their developing neighborhood an opportunity they didn't have. The program really exploded a few years in when Jamal Crawford joined the team, tearing up the AAU circuit before making a name for himself as the three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award winner. Crawford even credits the spirit of the community and devotion that Finkley and Hennings cultivated with the Rotary for inspiring his famous CrawsOver Pro-Am event.

Nowadays, there are Rotary Style alumni all over the NBA, including; Banchero, Zach LaVine, Dejounte Murray, Kevin Porter Jr., Jaylen Nowell, MarJon Beauchamp, and Jalen and Jaden McDaniels. The Rotary has already come so far in such a short amount of time, but they’re just getting started.

NBA PICK SWAPS

What are Pick Swaps Really Worth?

Pick swaps have become a frequent tool in the modern GMs arsenal, and while swap offers are on the rise, the math suggests they’re not as valuable as you might think. Using NBA writer and statistician Kevin Pelton’s model for pick value and the complete history of conveyed pick swaps, it turns out the average pick swap is worth approximately the 36th pick in a given NBA Draft.

This number is so low because most pick swaps don’t actually convey. Only 12 of 31 possible swaps have been executed; meaning 61% of all possible pick swaps went unswapped! Of those 12 swaps, most offered minimal value, with the one very notable exception being the 2017 Nets-Celtics first overall pick swap.

GMs understand the lack of value of these pick swaps but are inclined to include them in trades because the Stepien Rule prevents teams from trading first-round picks in consecutive seasons. With players costing more and more draft assets via trade, swaps help offer extra value to the rebuilding team while also acting as a lotto ticket of sorts. It’s become such a common practice that more pick swaps have been traded over the last two years than in any previous decade.

TOM BRADY & AARON RODGERS

What is Happening with Brady & Rodgers?

Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are all-time greats, and they’re also under .500 this season. While that idea alone is shocking, to say the least, it’s actually somehow even more unprecedented than you might imagine. Here are some facts:

Tom Brady has not had a losing record through seven games since his very first year as an NFL starter — twenty years ago! Rodgers, on the other hand, had never had a losing record through seven games since taking over as a full-time starter in 2008.

In Brady’s shocking defeat at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, he went 32-49 passing for 290 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero interceptions. It was the most pass attempts in Brady’s career without scoring a touchdown and the fourth-fewest yards thrown in a game with 49 or more passing attempts.

Rodgers didn’t fare much better, only going 23-35 for just 194 yards and two touchdowns. While this stat line is far from what we’ve come to expect from Rodgers, he did improve in the second half considering he went 9-15 for only 47 yards in the first half. In the last three years, the Green Bay Packers have gone 13-3, 13-3, and 13-4, and while it’s still early in the season, it’s safe to say they’re not continuing that streak.