Bones Hyland Removed (And Then Put Back) The Nuggets From His Bio And Unfollowed Them On Twitter Which Means The NBA's Trade Season Has Arrived

Alex Goodlett. Getty Images.

Whenever we're this close to the NBA trade deadline (9 days), you have to be on high alert when it comes to social media. Outside of it being Emoji SZN where players will often times just troll fans, every once in a while we see some social media activity that actually has some meat on the bone. For every Jae Crowder on Twitter

there's also a Rui Hachimura (who actually got traded)

Is it a little sad that we as grown adults obssess over NBA players social media activity once this time of the year rolls around? Absolutely, but it's hard to trust what you hear from reporters or "sources" as everyone is trying to create leverage through the media. How many rumors are we hearing right now about how Team X is interested in Player Y and most of the time it's just noise? That's why you always have to go to social media in 2023.

I bring this up because there's been another young and exciting player who finds himself suddenly thrown into trade rumors, and that is Bones Hyland of the Denver Nuggets. As it turns out, Bones has gone the social media route to maybe let us in on what's going on

Now because I care about journalistic integrity when it comes to this stuff, I decided to do some research. I wanted to know is this new? Was this always the case and nobody realized until his name started popping up in rumors? So I did what anyone would do who was searching for the truth. I went back to the web archives. Unfortunately, it appears that Bones' Twitter account was last crawled (?) by Google this past July. This is what you saw 

Very clearly states the Denver Nuggets which made sense as Bones plays for the Denver Nuggets. Now, when stuff like this happens, sometimes it's a leverage play. You'll remember Kyler Murray did this shit while he was negotiating his extension, only to then get paid. With Bones, he's still on a rookie deal, so this isn't a contract thing. It feels more like "this team is about to trade me" thing. Especially when you see what he's also tweeting

It was pretty clear the team heard about it because after this edit hit the internet, guess what returned

When asked about these rumors the other day, Bones gave about as boilerplate an answer as you'll hear

There will be a lot of players who say this exact thing, regardless of how they may truly feel. I would just suggest that his actions on social media show that it probably does bother him a little bit and that he is paying mind to it.

The question then becomes, why would the Nuggets trade a cost-controlled guard who is fun as shit?

The second year 22 year old is having a pretty good sophmore year, essentially matching what he did as a rookie when he made the All Rookie 2nd Team 

The efficiency maybe is a little low from the floor, but those things can always improve over time. The Nuggets traded Monte Morris to open up minutes for Bones, and now they're already ready to move on? That seems crazy from the outside looking in, especially when the Nuggets don't exactly have the best guard depth. I guess maybe there's something to moving a guy like this if the return is worth it, but this is a player that was pretty important for the Nuggets in the playoffs last year 

It just goes to show how fast things can move in the NBA. When you have a window, you have to do everything you can to maximize it, and if the Nuggets are able to flip Bones for a win now piece that helps Jokic/the team get over the hump, I guess you have to be willing to pay it even if it costs you a super fun young player. That's quite the pickle for the Nuggets to navigate through.

I'm sure this news/rumors bum Nuggets fans out to some degree (as it would with any fanbase), but it all comes down to the return. If you're making a decision like this as a front office, you cannot miss. Not only does the player need to be an instant impact guy, you need to be positive that the chemistry of your team isn't fucked up. At this time of year people don't always consider the "fit" factor, they just see names of guys and think that trades will always work out. It's a complicated science that has many moving parts, and when you're giving up a guy this early into his rookie deal, you have to be absolutely positive the move makes sense.

Think of the Mavs with Jalen Brunson, or the Celts of old with Chauncey Billups. Sometimes giving up on a guard too soon doesn't exactly put you in a better spot.