NBA Trade Deadline Winners and Losers: Knicks Make Best Moves, but No Help on the Way for LeBron James and Stephen Curry
We are now one NBA trade deadline closer to the apocalypse. Let’s not waste any more time getting to winners and losers.
Winner: The new CBA
The new CBA between the team owners and players maybe didn’t quell player movement at the deadline—the volume of trades was high—but it did take some of the excitement out of Thursday. A number of teams were restricted by the second apron. Another number was restricted by fear of coming close to it. Free agency already doesn’t really exist in the NBA the way it did six years ago, let alone 10. (Remember superstars taking free agent meetings?) I wonder if deadline deals are on the way out as well. We haven’t even gotten to the buyout portion of the season, when—once again—a bunch of teams will be severely limited in what they can do. Other factors are of course at play here, like the play-in tournament and lottery odds. But I have one eyebrow raised at the CBA for sure.
Loser(s): LeBron James and Stephen Curry
Bron and Steph are the Spider-Man meme pointing at each other on Friday. Both have been defying our understanding of aging this season and are good enough individually to be a top player on a contender. And both saw their front offices essentially do nothing to upgrade their rosters. At this point, we would be lucky to get a play-in matchup between these guys.
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson during a recent game.
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
Winner: Bing Bong
… Are people still bing bonging? In any event, the New York Knicks did arguably the best work of any team on the trade market this season. After acquiring O.G. Anunoby before the new year (without surrendering any first-round picks), the Knicks scooped up sniper Bojan Bogdanović on Thursday, again without sending out any firsts. New York is deep, postseason ready and incredibly flexible lineup-wise. Hard to ask for much more than that! Except Knicks fans do have more because those firsts can come in handy this summer if the front office wants to go star hunting.
Loser: Deeeeeetroit Basketballlllllllll
The Quentin Grimes trade wasn’t a disaster. But this whole season has been? I just wanted to recognize the ineptitude of the Detroit Pistons.
Winner: Philadelphia talk radio
I won’t presume to know the mood of an entire city based off of one text. But my Philadelphia Man friend texted me Thursday irate at the Philadelphia 76ers’ deadline moves, which I actually thought were completely fine. Nabbing Buddy Hield for contracts and seconds is basically getting a 40% three-point shooter to play off Joel Embiid for free. Philly still has all of its cap space for the summer. So if everyone is actually mad, this one time I don’t believe it’s warranted. The Sixers will go as far as Embiid’s health will take them, as has always been the case. If they add Kyle Lowry to the mix as a buyout guy, the team should be better once Embiid returns.
Loser: People who believed in the Suns’ minimum signings
This is me raising my hand here. I thought the Phoenix Suns did well as a second-apron team in the offseason, signing a bunch of capable guys on minimum deals to fill out the roster. So what did Phoenix do at the deadline? Traded a bunch of those players for Royce O’Neale (and David Roddy). Even though I’m disappointed in myself for believing, the Suns did really solid work here. O’Neale is a great pickup for them as a wing defender who can guard up or down and isn’t afraid to shoot the open three. At the very least, he’s a great insurance policy for Grayson Allen come playoff time if Allen can’t survive defensively. It can’t hurt to have another guy to throw at Kawhi Leonard.
Push: Dallas Mavericks
Daniel Gafford is a really solid pickup for the Mavs and gives them another rim runner off the bench. I don’t love the P.J. Washington fit as much. It’s a shame everyone seemed to grow sick of Grant Williams, because he was the type of player Dallas desperately needed around Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. Even if Washington is more talented, I have no clue if he will end up being more valuable in a playoff series. And these moves aren’t happening in a vacuum as the Mavs’ dealing has come at the expense of a lot of future draft capital.
Huh: Toronto Raptors
If there’s a plan here other than to slowly start to recreate Team Canada, it’s going over my head. Let’s check back in during the offseason and perhaps the picture will start to reveal itself. Right now, Toronto is kind of a weird collection of not-untalented but not quite coherent players.
Please, do something: Chicago Bulls
They can’t keep getting away with this. “This” being keeping together the core of a team that has to furiously fight only to enter the play-in, especially when one of those players (DeMar DeRozan) can walk this summer, another one of them (Alex Caruso) is coveted by most of the league and their young talent isn’t fully realizing their potential.
