Three weeks ago, we witnessed arguably the most remarkable trade deadline in NBA history. The headliner was the shocking swap of Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis, but the deal that no one saw coming was far from the only league-altering transaction.
Among them: The monthslong Jimmy Butler III-Miami Heat saga ended with a deal to the Golden State Warriors. De’Aaron Fox’s trade request from the Sacramento Kings was granted, creating what Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs hope will be their next championship duo. The Milwaukee Bucks traded former All-Star Khris Middleton and acquired Kyle Kuzma in a deal to bolster their playoff run. The NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers made a move on the margins, adding wing De’Andre Hunter to better match up with the defending champion Boston Celtics.
In our weekly look around the NBA, we asked league scouts, execs and general managers to evaluate how all the new players have looked in their respective homes and what the future holds for all the various teams involved during the push to the postseason.
Jump to a section:
Why the Lakers ‘annihilated the deadline’
Butler add resembles former Finals MVP
Sneaky deadline winner? Klutch Sports
Margin moves with big East implications
The league still can’t get over the Doncic-Davis swap
Windhorst: If you think you’ve heard a sufficient amount about how alarmed the entire NBA was when the Doncic-Davis trade became known, trust it’s still just a fragment of the reality of the reaction within the league.
“Did the Lakers win the deadline? The Lakers annihilated the deadline,” one general manager said.
Bontemps: It’s hard to find anyone outside the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex who would dispute that the Lakers-Mavs trade was lopsidedly in L.A.’s favor. But many people around the league credit Dallas general manager Nico Harrison for standing on his convictions. It wasn’t lost on people that he was front and center in Los Angeles for Tuesday’s first meeting between the two teams since the deal.
None of that changes the fact that Doncic is a generational talent who is several years younger than Davis. And, even as he’s rebuilding his stamina and conditioning after being out several weeks due to a calf injury, he’s already showing what he can do, highlighted by a combined 72 points, 38 rebounds and 24 assists over his past three games.
“He isn’t in shape yet and he’s already making Jaxson Hayes look better,” a Western Conference executive said. “You can see the plan moving forward.”
Windhorst: The Lakers and Mavericks are likely to have follow-up moves before this transaction can truly be assessed. The Lakers already attempted one — the rescinded trade for Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams — and will surely look at more moves this summer to bolster the Doncic fit. As for the Mavs, Harrison may be the target of plenty of criticism, but he has a devoted group of supporters that insist people should wait until Davis starts playing regularly and see how Harrison improves the roster this summer before passing final judgement.
Bontemps: The question for the Mavericks becomes whether they’ll be healthy enough to see what this group can do in the playoffs. Davis, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II all continue to be sidelined with injuries, leaving Dwight Powell — the team’s 13th or 14th man — as the only current usable big.
The best thing Dallas has going? The Phoenix Suns have lost 11 of 14, giving the reeling Mavericks some wiggle room to withstand their injuries and remain in the play-in mix.
Jimmy Buckets immediately paying dividends by the Bay
Ohm Youngmisuk breaks down the Warriors’ newfound energy since acquiring Jimmy Butler.
Windhorst: The Warriors are 7-1 since Jimmy Butler made his debut, and there’s no question he has provided balance to their offense while showing versatility on defense. The praise for one another is high in Golden State, with Draymond Green declaring and then doubling down on his belief that the Warriors are equipped to win the title this season.
“The funny thing is Golden State preferred to trade for [Kevin] Durant, and Jimmy only wanted to go to Phoenix,” one league executive said. “And now they seem to think they’ve made the perfect move.”
Bontemps: It’s no surprise Butler has instantly slotted in with the Warriors. A player with his level of smarts on and off the ball was always going to fit with Stephen Curry. And, as one executive pointed out, the addition of Butler resembles Andre Iguodala’s arrival in 2013 — a seamless defensive-minded fit next to Curry during the Warriors’ dynastic run. (Iguodala just had his Warriors No. 9 jersey retired over the weekend.)
Another executive pointed to the newfound confidence of young players like Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody — now full-time starters — since the trade and credited Butler for helping bring that out.
Klutch Sports gets a pair of deadline wins in Fox, Ingram deals
Windhorst: When canvassing the league to get opinions on trade deadline fallout, there was one expected winner declared.
“The winner is Klutch,” a league executive said, referring to agent Rich Paul’s firm. “They almost hit a grand slam.”
Paul engineered Fox’s departure from Sacramento to his preferred destination in San Antonio, where he is in position to get a large contract extension this summer. And, as part of the same deal, Paul was able to finally get Zach LaVine out of Chicago — more than a year after he made his own trade demand — to Sacramento. Klutch also was able to land Brandon Ingram a three-year, $120 million contract extension (with an unexpected player option in the last year) in Toronto after he got his request to be traded from the New Orleans Pelicans.
Bontemps: All three, however, find themselves in uncertain situations from a team success standpoint. San Antonio, of course, traded for Fox expecting to have a runway to see him and Wembanyama play together for the next couple of months. That went out the window, though, when Wembanyama was lost for the season due to deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder.
LaVine, meanwhile, has settled well with the Kings. But the combination of LaVine, Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan all playing at the same time has left opposing scouts wondering if they’re going to stick with the trio in the starting lineup or potentially flip one of them (likely Monk) for Keon Ellis to give Sacramento a more balanced starting group rather than one with only Keegan Murray as an average or better defender.
Then there’s Ingram, who remains sidelined with an ankle injury for the bottom-feeding Raptors, and it’s unclear when, if at all, he’ll debut for them this season.
Windhorst: The “almost grand slam,” though, is a reference to the Lakers trading Klutch client Davis for Doncic, effectively displacing LeBron James as the franchise power broker. However you want to process that position on the Lakers, Davis is outwardly content in Dallas and is a year away from a chance to extend his contract, which the Mavs are highly incentivized to do having traded their franchise player for him.
Smaller deals could still have a major impact
Bontemps: All of the players we’ve checked off so far have made All-Star teams and could still in the future. But there were key role players who changed teams in the East and could play a significant part in how the rest of the season will shake out — specifically Kuzma in Milwaukee and Hunter in Cleveland.
Kuzma’s importance with the Bucks was amplified by Bobby Portis’ 25-game game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy. “You just replaced Portis with him,” a scout said, “so there’s some real utility in having him.”
There’s also a belief that Kuzma could benefit from playing alongside stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard — like he did early in his career in Los Angeles with James and Davis — as opposed to his role as a frontline player with the rebuilding Washington Wizards. “It’s a way, way different situation,” an executive said.
Windhorst: League executives pointed to the fit De’Andre Hunter brings to Cleveland. The Cavs risked their excellent team chemistry by moving Caris LeVert, who was in the midst of his best season in Cleveland, in the deal to gain more size on the perimeter.
“I don’t think Hunter has missed a shot since he put on that uniform,” one scout said.
Well, he’s missed a few. Hunter is shooting 57% on 3-pointers and has fit into Cleveland’s scheme seamlessly. The Cavs are 6-0 with an average margin of victory of 23 points since Hunter joined them. Cleveland is already a plus-46 when he’s been on the floor.
Bontemps: In a potential series with Boston, in particular, the Cavaliers’ roster was lacking anyone equipped to defend All-NBA wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Is Hunter going to stop them by himself? No. But, the combination of he and Dean Wade gives Cleveland 48 minutes of size and shooting at the small forward spot in a way that LeVert and Georges Niang did not.
“He’s a picture-perfect guy for contending with Boston,” a scout said of Hunter’s impact. “He’s not a stopper [defensively]. But he can at least give them trouble.”
Source: espn.com