Activity at the NBA trade deadline reshaped the league for years to come with maneuvers that will take weeks, if not months, to fully process. There are winners and there are losers, as outlined below, but no cheap shots.
There is also a fundamental sea change under way as to who calls the shots.
LeBron James was not traded at the deadline, nor did I ever expect him to be. With or without his no-trade clause. Since he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, I have held firm that he will end his career there, and I still believe it. But the big trade for this season — you know the one I’m talking about — was a signal that the Lakers, and the NBA, are preparing and beginning to move on from him. Just not in the way you might think.
One of James’ biggest impacts on the league over the last 22 seasons is his ushering in of player empowerment. Superstars selecting the same team to sign with as free agents. Shorter contracts with player options, meant to wield over front offices like an anvil. Make me happy, or I’ll bolt. James never forced his way off a team while under contract — Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving are the patriarchs for that one — but the power to do it comes from the pendulum swing toward the players over the last 15 years, a swing that began with LeBron.
The Dallas Mavericks’ shocking trade of 25-year-old superstar Luka Dončić to the Lakers for 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis is one example of the power starting to sway back in the other direction. So was the not-as-stunning-but-still-consequential trade of Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat to the Golden State Warriors.
Let’s start with the Mavericks. Dončić never asked to be traded, never threatened refusal of a five-year, $345 million supermax contract extension he could have signed this summer. He was the face of the franchise, a perennial MVP candidate, and in the past six seasons made five All-Star teams and led underdog Mavs teams to a Western Conference finals (2022) and NBA Finals (last season).
No player like him at this juncture of his career had ever been traded.
GO DEEPER
Nico Harrison gambles everything that he’s right about his Mavericks — and Luka Dončić
The Mavericks’ reasons for the deal have zigged and zagged, from openly questioning his impact on Dallas’ culture, to his struggles on defense, to a contract situation that would only turn “volatile” if Dončić chose not to sign the contract extension.
In the LeBron era, every team before the Mavericks steered their boats into that same abyss, hoping the superstar signs the big contract and then managing the fallout in the event he doesn’t. Whatever the Mavs’ true reason for moving on from Dončić, they certainly put their future in their own hands by trading him before he could, in theory, create chaos with the contract extension.
As for Davis and the Lakers, he didn’t ask to be traded, either. Nor is he a slouch. His 26 points and 12 boards per game support James’ own words that Davis was the Lakers’ “best player” this season.
Since Davis forced his way off the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019 and finagled a trade to the Lakers (with the help of his, and LeBron’s, super agent, Rich Paul), James and Davis have been an inseparable pair. Davis was their defensive anchor on the 2020 championship team. In the age of, again, player empowerment, Davis’ resume is probably strong enough on its own for him to be consulted on any trade — especially one involving him. And if Davis isn’t quite that player on his own, his relationship with James (and Paul) should have afforded him the opportunity to hear he could be traded, and maybe even stop it.
Instead, neither Davis nor Paul nor James was given the chance. This was a deal hatched by two front-office executives who kept the negotiations as quiet as possible.
Butler, meanwhile, has now forced his way off three teams. Before he pushed the Heat into trading him, we should note, Miami bent the rules of its famous “Heat Culture” to accommodate him during his first five seasons there. Everything from players being available — and accountable — to media, to flying on the team plane and staying at the team hotel. If Jimmy didn’t want to do those things, he didn’t have to.
Heat president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra put an end to all of that this season. Butler sulked about his new role in Miami’s offense — Spoelstra didn’t budge. He complained he was not happy on the court with the Heat, and then formally demanded a trade; Riley said it wasn’t happening. From there, Miami suspended Butler three times, costing him nearly $6 million, during a standoff that, if it were a different star, on a different team, in perhaps any prior season over the last 10 years, would have unfolded differently.
And when Butler finally got his wish on Wednesday night, he was not moved to his desired destination of Phoenix. The Heat waited until they found the best deal they could get, on their terms, while avoiding paying Butler (because of his suspension) and ignoring his desire to be dealt to the Suns.
GO DEEPER
Inside the Warriors’ pivot toward a Jimmy Butler trade: ‘He win? I win? That’s the fit’
Kevin Durant wasn’t traded at the deadline, either. But the Suns certainly thought about it and may very well have sent him to the Golden State Warriors if he weren’t so opposed to a reunion there.
You can say Durant, a 15-time All-Star, killed a trade, but that potential died more so because of the Warriors weighing the massive risk of trading for someone at a crucial juncture for their own franchise who absolutely did not want to be there, than because of any power Durant has.
Just two seasons ago, Durant desired a trade out of Brooklyn, to the Suns, and it happened. Over the last week Phoenix considered moving him and nearly did it, without his blessing.
Deadline winner: The owners
Before the madness commenced last weekend, in any order, the four teams I felt had the best chance to win a title were the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets.
Over the last 10 years, a No. 1 seed has reached the NBA Finals seven times. Only once during that span, way back in 2016, did the top teams from the Eastern and Western conferences both make it. (Maybe we need more of that — the Cavs and Warriors went seven games in what was easily the best, most entertaining finals of the last decade.)
So if history is a guide, either the Cavs (No. 1 in the East) or Thunder (No. 1 in the West) are probably going to make it to June. Because history also suggests one of them won’t, I loved the experience, depth and star power of the last champions, the Celtics (2024) and Nuggets (2023). They are in second place in the East, and fourth in the West, respectively, though Nikola Jokić is playing like the MVP (again), and I love the Nuggets’ trajectory.
Boston and Denver, the past two NBA champions, didn’t make any major moves at the deadline. Time will tell whether they should have. (Ron Chenoy / USA Today Sports)
Of these four teams, one of them, by far, made the most aggressive move to fortify itself for a championship run: the champs from way back in ’16, the Cavs.
About an hour before Thursday’s deadline, Cleveland acquired 6-foot-8 forward De’Andre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks for Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, three second-round picks and two pick swaps.
Hunter, 27, the No. 4 pick by the Hawks in 2019, is enjoying his best season as a pro, with averages of 19.0 points and 3.9 rebounds on nearly 40 percent shooting from 3-point range. From a prototype perspective — a big, athletic wing who can shoot and defend — he is the player the Cavs have been missing since they got good again. When they lose this year, it is almost always because they were pushed around on the perimeter or in the paint. With two small All-Star guards in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, Hunter should give Cleveland the physicality it’s lacked in close losses to Boston and Houston, a blowout defeat to the Thunder and two frustrating losses to Atlanta.
Niang, while having a good year on his own, was unlikely to be a major rotation player in the postseason. When he had that chance with Cleveland last year, he struggled. LeVert is also enjoying a fine year, but the emergence of Ty Jerome as a backup guard who can score made LeVert expendable. LeVert’s contract expires after this season anyway, and Hunter has two years and $48 million remaining on his deal. Cleveland, with all of its main players under contract for huge sums over several years, never could have afforded a player as expensive as Hunter as a free agent this summer.
This summer, however, is not the point. The Cavs are going for it. They traded future draft capital and two popular players in their locker room for Hunter, who got hot at the right time for Cleveland to decide his current output is worth the risk of his previous injury history.
Neither the Thunder, Celtics nor Nuggets added players at the deadline … via trade. Oklahoma City stormed out to a 40-9 record largely without center Chet Holmgren, who broke his pelvis early in the season.
Holmgren, who is averaging 16.5 points and 2.3 blocks in his short, injury plagued career, is set to return Friday for the Thunder against Toronto. A team that was already rugged defensively, highly efficient on offense, with two All-Stars (and one superstar) in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams gets the benefit of adding a player of Holmgren’s caliber without having to trade for him.
GO DEEPER
Thunder’s Chet Holmgren set to return from hip injury
Boston was already too deep, with too expensive of a roster, to make any serious trades. The Nuggets searched for bench help but couldn’t find a trade that worked.
I don’t know if Hunter is enough for the Cavs to get past Boston in a seven-game series, but I’d wager we will find out in May.
Deadline winner: The Cavs
All, literally all, of the other big-time trades made this week included at least one team on the outside of legitimate contention trying to get inside the ropes.
We’ve covered the big swings taken by the Lakers, Mavericks and Warriors. Milwaukee added Kyle Kuzma from Washington and Kevin Porter Jr. from the Clippers; the Spurs took De’Aaron Fox from the Kings to pair with Victor Wembanyama; the Clippers traded for Bogdan Bogdanović; the Knicks landed Delon Wright; the Heat added Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and Davion Mitchell.
By my count, 60 players were traded this month. If I counted wrong, I may have counted twice a player who was traded multiple times (like P.J. Tucker, for instance).
Of all those teams mentioned above, it was the Lakers whose other move may have put them on an upward trajectory. Late Wednesday evening, L.A. traded for 23-year-old center Mark Williams from Charlotte.
Williams is by no means Davis, but the 7-footer is averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds in just 23 games this season (the lack of games is because of injury). He gives the Lakers a viable center, so long as he is healthy, should be a force in the pick-and-roll with either Dončić or James and averages 1.2 blocks. Again, he is too young and too unproven to say he is an all-league defender or is even good enough to anchor the Lakers’ defense. But he at least has the skill set to try.
The Mavericks made a second trade, too, acquiring Caleb Martin from Philadelphia. His arrival in Dallas, at least on paper, doesn’t add to the new dynamic created by trading Dončić for Davis. The Mavs are going to win with defense now, but their perimeter scoring is now the responsibility of Kyrie Irving, who along with the rest of Dallas’ guards will need to feed Davis (whereas Dončić can get 30 points on his own).
GO DEEPER
Vecenie: After Luka Dončić trade, Lakers should be thinking about summer 2026
Dončić, James, Austin Reaves and a snowball’s chance of defending the rim make the Lakers better than they used to be.
Deadline winner: The Lakers
At this point in this column, and in this week, and, heck, this point in the season, I’m a little worn out. Perhaps you are, too.
It’s difficult to follow every single player and asset acquired by the Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors. Yes, I am aware the Kings traded for Zach LaVine and Jonas Valančiūnas, but I don’t see those moves catapulting Sacramento back into the discussion in the West (I’ve been wrong before — read my deadline column in 2022 and find the unfortunate prognostication).
What I can say, though, is the Pistons continue to impress me.
The NBA’s worst team last season has thrived under new coach J.B. Bickerstaff. Cade Cunningham is an All-Star for the first time, and if the season ended Thursday, Detroit would host a Play-In game against the Orlando Magic.
I like the move to acquire Dennis Schröder on Thursday. With Jaden Ivy out at least one more month with injury, Schröder is a better fit for Bickerstaff’s pick-and-roll offense than the pass-and-cut system in Golden State. Schröder can start or come off the bench and will add even more veteran leadership to a locker room that grew older, wiser and better after the offseason acquisitions of Malik Beasley and Tobias Harris.
The Pistons are one game out of sixth in the East (behind Miami) and three behind Milwaukee for fifth. Orlando is getting healthy and is a half-game behind Detroit for seventh. Vaulting into the top six could be challenging, as will holding off the Magic for home court throughout the Play-In.
But the Pistons set themselves up to continue to be competitive now, while maintaining flexibility to take bigger swings as their core improves under Bickerstaff in the near future.
Deadline winner: The Pistons, with a nod toward the Wizards for making smart decisions in a rebuild.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Adam Hagy Glenn James / NBAE via Getty Images; Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
