NBA Trade Deadline: Winners and Losers
The NBA trade deadline was officially over Thursday afternoon at 3PM EST, and some big names moved cities, and some stars remained at home and will at least finish this season on roster.
There are not even a handful of teams that were not looking to add a piece to their team, even the NBA Champion Lakers and the elite-rostered Brooklyn Nets had their nose in the trade deadline this year.
The deadline gives fans and media a great perspective on how each front office views their franchise. Such as the Magic, who are obviously tanking and rebuilding after sending away their top players in Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, and Evan Fournier. As for where other teams such as the Clippers and Sixers made smaller moves that still bolster their playoff roster.
Here are the NBA trade deadline winners and losers.
Winners:
Miami Heat
After trade negotiations for Kyle Lowry fell through, Miami decided to pull the trigger on guard Victor Oladipo in a trade with Houston. The Heat sent Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk and a draft swap to the Rockets and get another valuable offensive piece.
Grade: B+
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls struck gold this NBA deadline by acquiring some cornerstones moving forward in Nikola Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu. However, Chicago did have to send off some assets including Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., and two first-round picks (2021, 2023). The Bulls were decently quite prior to the trade, having no real involvement in Vucevic, but now make a big splash to kickstart their rebuild.
Grade: A
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets have waited patiently to be a championship contender, and last seasons playoff bubble push proved they are ready to compete for it all. To compete for it all in today’s NBA, you need at least three to four reliable guys to count on down the stretch, which Denver was missing. Although Denver’s center Nikola Jokic is on his way to a potential MVP trophy, the Nuggets need some help and they got that with the acquisition of Aaron Gordon. Gordon will be a great two-way player in Denver and at 25-years-old could be a franchise player for the Nuggets along with Jokic and Jamal Murray.
Grade: B
Losers:
Boston Celtics
Boston did acquire Evan Fournier via the Orlando Magic tank-job, but the Celtics really missed out on bigger names guys such as Aaron Gordon, Kyle Lowry, and Andre Drummond (Team is negotiating with Drummond after his buy-out). The Celtics are on the lower half of the Eastern Conference playoff seeding, and fans really wanted to see a splash to jump start the team.
Grade: C+
Houston Rockets
Houston is acquiring picks after picks after picks this season but it just looks like they have no trust in any players within the roster. After trading pretty much every star that has come to the Rockets, the front office decided they would trade Victor Olidipo for Kelly Olynyk, Avery Bradley and a 2022 pick swap. Olidipo and Miami will be much better off and Houston continues to be disappointing.
Grade: D
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