Dex Ponce: NAW Is the Best Trade Pickup in the East. Period.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker is the best trade acquisition in the Eastern Conference this season.

Yeah, I was wrong last night. I already ate that. Moving on. Because I have something to say about the guy nobody outside Atlanta is watching.

NAW cost a second-round pick and cash considerations.

A second-round pick. And cash.

Last year in Minnesota: 9.4 points per game. This year in Atlanta: 20.4. In March? 23.3 on 74.6% true shooting — the most efficient 20-point scorer in the NBA this month. He's shooting 50.6% from three. He dropped 41 on Orlando two weeks ago — nine threes, because apparently he felt like it.

Now let's play a game. Name the other big Eastern Conference trade acquisitions this season.

James Harden went to Cleveland. He's been great — 21 a game, the Cavs look terrifying. I respect it. But Cleveland paid Darius Garland for that. A two-time All-Star. Harden is 36 on an expiring deal. NAW is 26 on a four-year contract. The Ringer wrote a whole column about how Harden makes Cleveland a Finals team. They didn't mention NAW's name. That's the gap I'm living in.

Harden is the better player right now. NAW is the better acquisition. There's a difference, and it matters.

Anfernee Simons went to Chicago. Played six games. Broke his wrist. Done.

Ivica Zubac went to Indiana. Two first-round picks and Bennedict Mathurin for a guy who played five games and fractured a rib. That's not an acquisition. That's a crime scene.

Kevin Huerter went to Detroit. Role player on a 52-win team. Fine. Nobody's writing columns about it.

NAW has played 70-plus games this season. He's available. He's producing. He's defending at a 93rd-percentile level on the perimeter WHILE having his offensive breakout. A Spanish basketball blog wrote about his "historical greatness" before ESPN bothered to publish a column about him. Let that sit.

And here's the part that connects to what I wrote Monday — NAW isn't a one-man show. Jalen Johnson creates, NAW converts. That's the engine. Johnson averaging 22.9, 10.5, and 8.1 makes NAW's catch-and-shoot numbers possible. NAW shooting 41.6% on 5.9 catch-and-shoot attempts per game makes Johnson's passing numbers mean something. They feed each other. Quin Snyder built a system and NAW walked into it like he was custom-ordered.

Three teams tried NAW before this. New Orleans. Utah. Minnesota. None of them got this version of him. None of them were close.

Dyson Daniels won MIP last year for the Hawks. If NAW wins it this year — and he's second in the betting odds behind Jalen Duren — that's back-to-back MIPs from the same system. That doesn't happen by accident. That happens because the system is real.

I know what you're thinking. Dex, you just ate a 95% confidence prediction. Why should we trust this one?

Because predictions about single games are coin flips with ego attached. This isn't a prediction. This is a fact pattern. Second-round pick. 9.4 to 20.4 PPG. 74.6% true shooting in March. Elite defense. 26 years old. Four-year deal.

I'm 92% sure Nickeil Alexander-Walker is the best trade acquisition in the Eastern Conference this season.

The 8% is Harden. And Harden cost an All-Star.

Tell me I'm wrong.