Going into this year’s NBA trade deadline there wasn’t any real excitement and anticipation for it after being spoiled with blockbuster moves that shook the league in years past with star forward Kevin Durant being traded to the Phoenix Suns and James Harden getting traded to the Philadelphia 76ers just to name a few. After a tame trade deadline last year with role players like Bojan Bogdanovic getting traded (which was looked upon as the biggest trade of last deadline), the league wasn’t really expecting any league altering moves this year on February 6th. Soon enough, that narrative completely changed.
It was late Saturday evening, February 1st to be exact, when the entire NBA landscape changed forever. Everybody woke up to seeing the Dallas Mavericks out of nowhere trading their star player Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for their star forward Anthony Davis. Everybody in the basketball world was stunned at the move questioning why Dallas would trade their star player when he is just entering his prime being at the age of only 25 when they are trading for a 31 year old who is out of his prime. Dallas’ general manager Nico Harrison explained why he moved Doncic,”We definitely understand the magnitude of what just transpired. It’s definitely not lost on us. The future to me is [three, four] years from now, The future 10 years from now — they’ll probably bury me and [Jason Kidd(the Mavericks head coach)] by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.”
The NBA will never be the same after this deal, sending the Lakers an all time talent that will take the keys to the franchise away from LeBron James once he retires and will send the Lakers into title contention for the next 10 years. The Mavericks have plans of winning now and whether they made this move to do that or other reasons is a different question. This will be one of the most infamous and potentially the worst trades in NBA history if the Mavs don’t win now.
With the NBA world still being in shock from the news earlier that morning, later that night the San Antonio Spurs, the Chicago Bulls, and the Sacramento Kings, made a trade where the Kings sent star guard De’aaron Fox to the Spurs in exchange for Zach Lavine and 3 first round picks to the Kings and the Bulls getting Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter, and one first round for this year in another blockbuster move. This pairs an all star guard in Fox with one of if not the greatest prospect in NBA history in Victor Wembanyama which shakes up the western conference as the Spurs are put right into playoff contention.
Fast forward a couple of days later as the NBA world approaches the deadline there are rumors of the Phoenix Suns shipping away their all star forward Kevin Durant. The Golden State Warriors were the first and only team in line to put their bid in for KD looking forward to a potential reunion for him teaming him up with Stephen Curry once again. This would not happen and KD showed his disdain towards the Warriors by declining the trade due to what happened when he left Golden State in 2019. The Warriors would thus pursue another all star caliber player.
Jimmy Butler has become one of the most polarizing players in the NBA as of late being very clear to his team the Miami Heat that he does not want to be with the team going forward. He refused to play for the team until he got his wish of being traded with his frontrunner being the Phoenix Suns.The Phoenix Suns proposed an offer in which the heat got guard Bradley Beal; that deal never happened due to Bradley Beal posing a no trade clause and having the ability to decline any trade that he doesn’t believe suits him. It took 3 suspensions, him bashing the general manager of the Heat, performing terribly, and destroying the relationship with himself and the Heat to finally get traded to the Golden State Warriors. Jimmy Butler is now paired with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green where this move puts the Warriors into title contention. It is important to note that Jimmy was on an expiring contract and he stated that he would only resign to a team if it was the Phoenix Suns. He ended up signing an extension with the Warriors for two-years that is worth $121 million, locking him in with the Warriors — presumably — until it’s time for retirement.
Early Thursday morning, the day of the deadline, two massive moves were made. First, the Los Angeles Lakers trade for Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams. This was a huge move for the Lakers, giving them a decent center and a lob threat for LeBron and Luka to set up. Fast forward to a couple days after the trade, in a rare move the Lakers ended up voiding the trade due to Mark Williams not being able to pass the physical for the Lakers. This shakes up the Lakers now not being able to trade for anybody else and being stuck with no center.
The other big move that morning was all star forward Brandon Ingram being traded from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Toronto Raptors. Ingram and the Pelicans were at a contract dispute for the longest time and they finally decided to move on from him. This puts Toronto in an interesting position because they aren’t one of the best teams in the league and all of their best players(including Ingram) are injured. Toronto is now in place to tank for the star prospect out of Duke Cooper Flag in this year’s draft. New Orleans is in the same ordeal but they got worse and did not get anything notable in the trade; They are screwed.
At this point, it is officially trade deadline day. The day consisted of very small trades compared to what happened in the days before. The biggest move of the day consisted of my Cleveland Cavaliers trading for Deandre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavs got a versatile defender and a player that pushes the Cavs to another level. This move officially puts the Cleveland Cavaliers into title contention (bias aside) if they were not in their already.
Other than a bunch of smaller moves with players like Kyle Kuzma and Khris Middleton getting swapped for each other, the Phoenix Suns stupidly traded their starting center Jusuf Nurkic to the Charlotte Hornets where Phoenix also had to trade their first round pick this year just to get rid of him, and the Memphis Grizzlies trading away key role player and defensive mastermind Marcus Smart to the Washington Wizards in a trade where the Grizzlies save a whole bunch of money,that was pretty much it for this year’s trade deadline. Nobody in their right mind would have thought a trade deadline as crazy as this would have ever happened. It just tells you how unpredictable anything can be. This deadline will be talked about for decades and decades on and will be considered to be the craziest, most unpredictable, and most wild of all time.
