NBA trade deadline: Winners, losers and the Lakers
By Ric Bucher
FOX Sports NBA Writer
Sometimes the flurry of deals made at the NBA trade deadline has a greater impact than simply identifying the teams aiming to extend their seasons and those looking to end them as soon as possible and start over.
This is one of those times.
The biggest takeaways from the moves made prior to Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline reflect how the league currently functions as much as how the trades altered the overall power structure of the league.
Beginning with …
Player empowerment has gone nuclear
If only travel agencies were as accommodating as NBA teams have become to disgruntled superstars.
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Ric Bucher reacts to the James Harden-Ben Simmons trade and explains why he believes neither team won the deal.
The Brooklyn Nets trading James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers marks the second time in as many seasons that Harden has coerced his team into dealing him to the destination of his choice, irrespective of the damage or difficulties presented.
The 76ers, meanwhile, are providing Ben Simmons with a pretty sweet landing spot after he refused to play for them this season. Don’t be surprised if NBA owners negotiate new restrictions or penalties on players who refuse to honor their contracts when the current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2023-24 season — if not sooner.
The trade deadline is more about saving money than acquiring talent
The vast majority of deals made in the past week were with the purpose of getting below the league’s luxury-tax threshold, rather than improving a team’s chances to make the playoffs or win a title.
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Skip Bayless likes the deal for the Nets but doesn't think James Harden will work in Philadelphia.
The harsh reality is that most NBA owners are willing to chase playoff berths and titles only to a point — a fiscal point — that makes sense. Exceptions are the Sacramento Kings, who are desperate to end a 15-year playoff drought, and the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Kings are so intent on simply making the play-in tournament that they dealt promising, young point guard Tyrese Haliburton to land veteran power forward Domantas Sabonis, and even they minimized the financial impact by also dealing shooting guard Buddy Hield and the remainder of his four-year, $77 million contract.
The Pelicans, meanwhile, committed to an additional $50 million in future payroll by dealing Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Josh Hart, Tomas Satoransky and Didi Louzada for CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr. and Tony Snell.
It’s a dangerous gambit for a small-market team, but it would be even more dangerous to have a No. 1 pick and box-office draw (Zion Williamson) demand to go elsewhere because of the limited talent around him. And if you can’t imagine Zion doing that, return to Item No. 1.
The buyout market is where the title contenders shop
The Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks made insurance moves at the trade deadline, but for the most part, the top three teams in both conferences stood pat.
The real competition will begin once useful players on lottery-bound teams negotiate to have their contracts bought out, allowing them to become free agents.
The Miami Heat, for example, made a minor move, trading little-used KZ Okpala to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a future second-round pick. The deal gives them two open roster spots to fill with a player or players who might become available via buyout.
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Despite the blockbuster deal, Emmanuel Acho explains why he believes "neither team will win a title."
The insurance move by the Suns was reacquiring forward Torrey Craig from the Indiana Pacers for Jalen Smith. Craig was part of the Suns’ Western Conference title-winning team last season before he signed a two-year deal with the Pacers in the offseason. His statistics this season are nearly identical to Smith’s; this is simply bolstering the Suns’ wing depth with a more mature, proven player they trust and one who already knows their system.
With a league-leading 44-10 record, it’s not as if Phoenix is shoring up a weakness, particularly with how well Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges are playing.
Likewise, the Bucks traded for power forward-center Serge Ibaka, giving up shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo to the Kings in a four-team deal. Ibaka provides the Bucks added depth as a stretch big man in case Brook Lopez does not recover sufficiently from his December back surgery.
But the Bucks and Suns already looked primed to meet again in the Finals.
By contrast, the Golden State Warriors and the Heat are title contenders with obvious roster concerns. For the Warriors, it’s the absence of a legit backup center behind 6-foot-9 Kevon Looney, with 7-footer James Wiseman’s availability uncertain because of ongoing issues after knee surgery.
Orlando Magic center Robin Lopez is a buyout candidate who would make sense, though there have been reports that the Bucks might have interest in having Robin rejoin his brother in Milwaukee.
The Heat need defensive wing depth and an experienced backup point guard. Former Miami PG Goran Dragic, who is expected to be bought out by the San Antonio Spurs, is an option for the latter, and Gary Harris, another potential Magic buyout candidate, offers the former.
The Clippers crushed it — and it might not matter until next season
No one did a more masterful job at the trade deadline than the Clippers.
None of it will matter as far as their title chances this season if injured stars Paul George and Kawhi Leonard don’t return from injury, but the Clippers have set themselves up to potentially make the playoffs this year and be title favorites next year.
Combined with a preseason trade of Pat Beverley and Rajon Rondo for scoring guard Eric Bledsoe — essentially moving two players the team no longer had use for — GM Lawrence Frank has turned crumbs into cakes.
The moves actually are all part of the same mosaic. Bledsoe's contract, which has only $3.9 million of its $19.3 million value guaranteed, made him an ideal chip to send to a cost-cutting franchise after he served his purpose, which was to provide scoring and eat minutes while Ibaka recovered from back surgery.
This week, Frank flipped Bledsoe to Portland in exchange for the best complementary player dealt at the deadline, small forward Norm Powell, and stretch power forward Robert Covington. Landing Covington then gave the Clippers the depth and latitude to deal Ibaka, who wasn’t exactly thrilled about his complementary role, to the Bucks.
In doing all of that, Frank managed to move two players with potential chemistry issues (Bledsoe and Ibaka) and wind up with a pair of consummate pros in Powell and Covington. How much it matters this season remains to be seen, but Powell has already won one championship with Leonard in Toronto, and he excelled in Portland despite playing with two ball-dominant players in McCollum and Damian Lillard.
Outside of the Sixers and Nets resolving their disgruntled player dilemmas, acquiring Powell was easily the biggest get of all the deadline deals.
The Lakers are a good bet (to make the play-in tournament)
Sure, the Lakers lost to an extremely shorthanded Blazers squad the night before the trade deadline, but L.A. fans shouldn’t be completely disappointed that their team stood pat despite a 26-30 record. And they can thank the Blazers for giving them a reason to feel good.
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Shannon Sharpe reacts to the Lakers' loss at Portland and ponders if they have hit rock-bottom.
Portland electing to begin its rebuilding process now nearly assures that Lillard will take the rest of the season off to recover from abdominal surgery. The Blazers, in short, are committed to improving their draft position, not their playoff chances.
That leaves the Kings as the only threat among teams not currently in the Western Conference’s top 10 to climb the standings. The Lakers are currently ninth.
While their prospects of moving past the Clippers, Timberwolves and Nuggets to assure themselves a playoff berth don’t appear all that strong, the Lakers should be able to, at the very least, maintain their current position. That means they would be in a play-in tournament with the Timberwolves, Clippers and Pelicans for one of two playoff spots.
Being in the play-in tournament means the Lakers have a shot at the playoffs. Being in the playoffs means a shot at pulling an upset. All that might be a far cry from what the Lakers and their fans envisioned at the start of the season, but it’s better than seeing a team with four all-time top-75 players — LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony — wind up in the lottery. Right?
Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," the story of NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds," the story of NBA center Yao Ming. He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.