Showcase games are a real thing that real teams really do to demonstrate to other teams that their players have value. Showcase games might not be as effective now, in the age of analytics and easily available game tape (I just bet that teams in the 60s would regularly trade for players who had dominated them the game before), but they still are totally happening to this day.
Not convinced? What if I told you that this game by Alec Burks is a showcase game? MIND = BLOWN.
The Warriors want to move Burks and his ultra-friendly three million dollar, one-year deal in order to get some roster flexibility. His ability to make shots and draw free throws is wasted on this team that is marked by a stark inability to win games. What they’ve done here is show teams what Burks is capable of when he is given a large role and a green light to score. GM’s around the league are scratching their chins thoughtfully and thinking to themselves “that Burks guy could bolster our bench or even displace one of our current starters who we are mildly displeased with.”
The trade deadline is coming right up. There are many tradestinations (that’s “trade destinations” in case my NBA journalist lingo is too complicated for you to successfully parse) for Burks, and it would take way too long to list them all. Basically any playoff team would be able to find a use for this guy, so the Warriors should have no problem extracting maximum value from him in the form of prospects, picks, piles of cash, copy machines, and cheesesteak recipes. Oops, did I accidentally leak that Burks is getting traded to the Sixers? I think I just did.