NBA trade deadline – Execs react to Butler, Luka, Ingram, Lakers deals

After two months of waiting for a resolution, the Miami Heat finally found one for the Jimmy Butler saga on Wednesday night — while the team was playing in Philadelphia against the 76ers.

It made for a strange scene, with players getting informed about one of the NBA trade deadline’s most impactful moves on the bench by fans as the game was being played, and still trying to put the pieces together once they had emerged from the contest with a 108-101 victory.

But the oddities of the end of this affair were quickly overwhelmed by a palpable sense of relief inside the visiting locker room. Yes, Butler’s teammates were happy for him, with forward Nikola Jovic having the line of the night when he said, “I’m sad and happy in the same moment. Sad you’re not going to see him anymore. But I’m really happy that he got what he wanted.

“That bag [a two-year, $111 million deal] is really big and I’m happy for him.”

The Heat were also happy to not have to answer more questions about the Butler situation. Instead, Miami can focus on the group that they have assembled, one that has seen Tyler Herro turn into an All-Star and currently sits in the sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

That group will add Andrew Wiggins, plus a top-10 protected first-round pick in this year’s draft from Golden State. Wiggins, at 6-foot-8, has prototypical small forward size, and has shot at least 38% from 3-point range in four of the past five years. He slots in nicely in Miami’s starting lineup between Herro and Duncan Robinson in the backcourt and rookie Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo upfront. He also gives them some additional positional size on the wing, something the Heat have lacked.

“I like Wiggins in Miami,” a Western Conference scout told me. “It’s going to allow Tyler to be on the ball, and gives them a big wing that can shoot. He’s not as ball dominant as Jimmy, but they don’t need that.”

And while the Heat and Phoenix Suns briefly discussed the possibility of a swap centered around Butler and Kevin Durant, sources said, Miami pivoted back into discussions with the Warriors over the framework of a deal that had been discussed off-and-on for more than a week.

That deal accomplished what the Heat set out to do when this process began: exit the trade deadline with plenty of cap space for the tantalizing summer of 2026, when several stars — including, potentially, the recently traded Luka Doncic, former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. and other stars — could all hit free agency at the same time.

“To pick up a first and save money and get out of the biggest headache in the league? That’s a win,” another West scout said of Miami’s perspective.

That the Heat were able to navigate this situation successfully, and land a solid return for Butler in the end, is a credit to Miami’s ability to stick together through what has been a tumultuous situation. Several sources noted how hard it can be to do that while dealing with something as complicated as this in the middle of the season, and how they were impressed at the Heat’s ability to do so.

“From front office to coaching staff to ownership,” an East executive said, “they’re all one.”

Miami’s steadfast nature, however, was just one of many things that shaped what has been one of the most fascinating NBA trade deadlines we’ve ever seen. Here are a few more, after conversations with sources both leading up to and after Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline.

Jimmy Butler bet on himself — and won big

play2:02Does Jimmy Butler make the Warriors a title contender?

Brian Windhorst and Monica McNutt break down the Wednesday night trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors.

The irony of the rocky ending to the Butler-Heat partnership is that the thing that caused it to end is what also caused it to have the immense successes it achieved across the past five years, including two NBA Finals trips and three conference finals appearances. It could easily be argued that the Butler Era was the second-best stretch in franchise history behind those James-Wade-Bosh teams.

But the stubborn streak that exists within both Butler and Heat president Pat Riley, in particular, played a significant role in this relationship deteriorating the way that it did. That same steadfastness allowed Butler to eventually get what he wanted.

Initially, Butler had four preferred destinations: the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors. And, for much of the past two months, it was unclear he would find his way anywhere at all.

But in the NBA, it only takes one team to believe in a player for a deal to happen. And, for a player with Butler’s talent — even in his age-35 season — there almost always winds up being at least one interested suitor. In this case, it was Golden State, which not only agreed to trade for Butler, but also guaranteed him an extra $59 million more than he had coming to him as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Disgruntled employees can complain their way into getting what they want in the NBA – if they’re good enough,” an East scout said.

Butler remains an impact player — a guy who has proven, repeatedly, to rise to the occasion on the biggest stages. He’s one of the smartest players in the league, with the ability to read, react and adapt to any situation, and who raises his game in the playoffs in a way few others of his generation have been able to match.

Golden State gets a second star … but has more work to do

Even as the Warriors won the NBA title in 2022, this was a group that has been seeking out a true second star alongside Curry ever since Durant and Klay Thompson suffered a torn Achilles and ACL, respectively, during the 2019 NBA Finals.

Now, more than five years later, the Warriors have finally found that player in Butler — albeit one that’s much closer to Curry’s 36 years of age than they would have liked. That Golden State did so while essentially only sacrificing Wiggins and what should be a first-round pick this year is both a nod to Butler’s age and lack of a wider market, but also could allow the Warriors to make the kind of deep playoff run from a lower seed that the Heat had become known for with Butler on the roster.

Pulling that off with this group won’t be easy. For weeks, Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been bemoaning his team’s lack of perimeter shooting, particularly among his bigs, which is why second-round pick Quentin Post has become a rotation mainstay due to his ability to space the floor. Adding Butler and subtracting Wiggins, however, only makes that spacing issue more difficult.

Butler’s elite intangibles could help mitigate that. One of the league’s smartest players, it’s easy to see he and Curry quickly developing chemistry and playing off one another. Butler also should be a natural fit for the read-and-react system Kerr has always preferred, and can operate as a primary initiator with the ball in his hands to allow Curry to play off the ball in a way the Dennis Schroder experiment never really provided after he was acquired in December.

Phoenix got left holding the bag. Now what?

After last season’s desultory first-round sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia infamously declared that “26 of the 29 teams” would immediately trade places with Phoenix’s roster.

It never was determined exactly which three teams Ishbia thought were better positioned. What was abundantly clear in the wake of the Warriors and Heat coming together on a Butler deal was that the league, as a whole, was both surprised and amused.

After months of posturing to try to land Butler’s services in a whole host of ways — including myriad attempts to move Bradley Beal despite his no-trade clause — they wound up not only watching him get sent elsewhere. The Suns roster meanwhile, largely didn’t change. Now, questions remain about Phoenix’s future.

“The Phoenix piece is just fascinating,” another West scout said. “They made that trade with the draft pick and didn’t have anything [ready] to do with it?”

The Suns traded their one strong long-term asset, their 2031 first round pick, for three of the least valuable firsts available, including what will be the 29th or 30th pick this year from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Phoenix then used their 2026 first to unload center Jusuf Nurkic after a falling out with coach Mike Budenholzer, meaning they can now only trade picks in 2028, 2029 or 2030. It also feels safe to assume Beal, who turns 32 in June and has $110 million owed to him over the next two years (and that no-trade clause) isn’t going anywhere after months of talks.

But what about Durant? Now that the dust has settled and he wasn’t moved after Golden State attempted to bring their former superstar back, several sources wondered whether he would remain in Phoenix through the offseason. There’s certainly little reason to believe this group, as constituted, can even be much better than last year’s first-round fodder. And with how competitive the bottom of the West is, there’s a very real chance this group misses the playoffs altogether.

Lakers go all-in out of nowhere

At Luka Doncic’s introductory news conference Tuesday, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka was asked about acquiring a center — a glaring need for Los Angeles after moving Anthony Davis in the Doncic megadeal — and said that the market was “very dry” and “there’s just not a lot available.”

All it took for that to change was Pelinka sending out virtually everything left over from the Doncic deal — the Lakers’ 2031 first rounder, a 2030 first-round swap and rookie forward Dalton Knecht — to acquire Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams in another shocking deal in the span of a few days.

“Of all the things that happened today,” one executive said, “that was the only one that stunned me.”

Williams is 7-2, 240 pounds, and had been averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds for the Hornets this season. And it’s easy to see the appeal of putting him with a pick-and-roll maestro like Doncic, as 30% of all of Williams’ field goal attempts across his three NBA seasons have been dunks, and he averages more than two of them per game in his career.

“If you’re the Lakers, and you firmly believe he’s a good player — and he’s a very good player,” the East scout said of Williams, “you do what you have to do to get the player.”

But then there’s the fact Williams has played just 85 of a possible 212 games so far, including missing an entire calendar year with a back issue. He is also far from a sure thing defensively. Opponents have shot 53% with Williams as the contesting defender – second worst among players to contest at least 300 shots this season, per Second Spectrum tracking. And, after not playing a second of meaningful basketball in his career to date, he’s now being thrown onto the Lakers as the long-term partner to one of the sport’s biggest stars.

That’s not the same level bet that Dallas made in trading Doncic away, of course. It is a massive bet by Pelinka on Williams’ potential, a move that all but removes his ability to meaningfully improve the Lakers in other ways. The Lakers only have 2026 and =2028 first-round swaps to send out over the next seven years, with any other significant upgrades all but certainly having to come at the cost of moving Austin Reaves.

Still, some around the league believe the Lakers are in a better position than they were a week ago.

“I think so, but I don’t know,” a West assistant coach said. “It’s just so weird, because we haven’t seen it. Yes, they have LeBron and Luka, but how will they guard? If you score 150 a game, I guess. It might not matter.”

Now, the Lakers have one player — Jarred Vanderbilt — signed for the summer of 2026, meaning they could go out into that star-studded free agent class and add another max player alongside Doncic that offseason. But that assumes James is retired by then and also has to account for the possibility of Reaves leaving. An extension for Williams this summer would eat into that cap space, too.

In the meantime, the Lakers have little shooting around Doncic, and still lack perimeter defense. Williams will be asked to help make up for that, but he’s going to have to take massive steps forward to do so.

“He’s not as athletic and vertical as [Dereck] Lively and [Daniel] Gafford, but he’s a legitimate center,” a West scout said of Williams. “He’s very raw and young, so the [defensive] numbers sell him short.

“There will definitely be pain along the way, but there’s a lot of upside with him.”

Mavs choose to stand pat after Luka-AD blockbuster

play0:40Anthony Davis: Mavs trade was ‘shocking’

Anthony Davis says his trade to the Mavericks from the Lakers was shocking at first.

After Saturday’s blockbuster, I would have assumed the Mavericks — and not the Lakers — would have been the ones to go all-in on another deal ahead of the deadline. After all, general manager Nico Harrison made it clear he sees this as a three-to-four year window for contention, and he just traded Doncic to acquire soon-to-be 32-year-old Davis to play him alongside soon-to-be 33-year-old Kyrie Irving.

And yet, as the trade deadline came and went Thursday, Dallas did nothing, instead waiting to see what materializes on the buyout market. “I thought they had more up their sleeve,” a West executive said.

Yes, Dallas was short on movable money after the Doncic trade. But the Mavericks still had a few first-round picks at their disposal to move in deals. And while I wouldn’t have made the Doncic deal — the majority, if not the vast majority, of NBA executives wouldn’t have either — the clear rationale is creating a team that’s capable of winning right now, and adding Davis improves those odds.

As it stands now, the Mavericks entered Thursday night’s action in a four-way tie for eighth in the loss column, and just one loss ahead of the San Antonio Spurs, now with new point guard De’Aaron Fox in tow, in 12th.

If healthy, the Mavericks have the firepower to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the West. But health is a real concern for both Davis and especially Irving, given the team’s lack of depth on the perimeter, if Dallas wants to get as far as it hopes. Count me as skeptical.

Toronto has sped up its rebuild. Will it work?

The Raptors have made it clear they don’t plan on taking several years to build themselves back into a contender. Last year, they traded Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby after Fred VanVleet walked in free agency.

They then inked Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes to massive contract extensions last summer, and have now traded for Brandon Ingram – giving up one of the first-round picks they got from the Indiana Pacers to do so.

The Raptors are likely to give Ingram a multi-year extension this offseason, too. “Bird rights are one of the most valuable things in the NBA right now,” a West executive said.

That’s especially true in Toronto, not typically a destination for free agents. But the Raptors wouldn’t have made this trade without also anticipating a deal that makes sense for Ingram over the next few years. Toronto giving up a first-round pick in the deal proves that.

Assuming Ingram gets an extension in the range of $35 million per season, the Raptors would have nine players under contract making a combined $172 million, putting them $15 million below the luxury tax with several roster spots to fill. That’s also without accounting for a top-five pick that should be another $8-to-$10 million, depending on where it lands.

Teams in Toronto’s current situation aren’t often flirting with the luxury tax. And yet, by taking on Ingram, the Raptors also are positioning themselves to be a team contending for a playoff spot in the East next season.

Still, Toronto’s approach here is obvious: build around positional size across the board, and Ingram is a long, 6-foot-8 wing who can get a shot in any situation. But he also isn’t isn’t a strong defender and has typically preferred to live in the midrange instead of beyond the 3-point line.

Assuming he re-signs, though, the Raptors will go into next season presumably with a starting lineup of Quickley, either R.J. Barrett or Gradey Dick, Ingram, rising star Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl, plus whoever they get near the top of the first round in June. It remains to be seen what this team’s true ceiling is. But this swing on Ingram shows a belief he could help it take a step forward.

Cleveland goes big wing hunting

The Cavaliers have been the surprise of the NBA this season, a harmonious group that raced out to wins in their first 15 games and has never looked back.

Now 41-10 this season, and sporting the best record in the East, it would’ve been easy for Cleveland to sit back not risk shaking up the team’s chemistry.

General manager Koby Altman, however, did the opposite, moving on from both guard Caris LeVert and forward Georges Niang — plus three second-round picks and first round-pick swaps in 2026 and 2028 — to land forward De’Andre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks, giving Cleveland the big wing it needs.

“They’ve been hunting size on the wing to match up with the Celtics and OKC and [other contenders],” a West executive said. “If he stays healthy, he could be the missing piece.”

Health is a concern for Hunter, who has played over 60 games just twice in his career – and isn’t on pace to it this season. But he is shooting a career-high 39% from 3-point range across 37 games this season on more than six attempts per game, and does bring Cleveland more positional size as a natural fit at small forward, compared to LeVert, who operates more as a shooting guard.

Source: espn.com