If you asked me in early January what I thought the NBA trade deadline would look like, I would have guessed fairly quiet. Some moves along the margins for contenders, and maybe one or two deals involving past All-Stars.
Instead, we got mayhem after the Dallas Mavericks decided to trade Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis, shaking up the league and putting everything seemingly on the table. We also had the Jimmy Butler situation get resolved, and De’Aaron Fox traded to the San Antonio Spurs, among other big moves. I can’t remember a more exciting month of in-season trades over the last decade.
With all of the dust finally settling, let’s dive into what happened with a simple outline featuring The Man With No Name. What teams made moves that look sharp? What looks like a questionable decision? And who made moves that made me squirm at my desk?
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NBA trade deadline: Grading all the big deals of 2024-25 trade season
The good
Los Angeles Lakers trade for Luka Dončić
The Lakers started February with Davis on their roster and will end it with Luka Dončić in what is perhaps the most shocking trade in NBA history. Never has a player as young and as accomplished as Dončić been moved at the deadline. He’s just 25 and already has five first-team All-NBA selections to his name. For as great as Davis is at nearly 32 years old and 12 years into his career, he only has four such honors. The Lakers are getting a better, younger player who has a much longer stretch of his prime remaining, and they only had to give up Max Christie and a first-round pick.
Dončić is the next great Lakers star in a long lineage of them. From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain to the modern era of Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, he’ll carry the torch for the franchise for the foreseeable future. Regardless of how I feel about their other big move (more on that later), this acquisition alone makes the Lakers the biggest winner of the deadline.
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San Antonio Spurs
I have some minor questions about Fox as a player, and I’m not convinced he would be a tremendous value for most teams on the three-year, $165 million contract he’s eligible to sign this summer. But on the Spurs? This is a great situation, and I think Fox has a chance to become an All-NBA player again.
Fox showed what he’s capable of in his opener for the Spurs, scoring 24 points and dishing out 13 assists on Wednesday against the Atlanta Hawks. His game blends splendidly with Victor Wembanyama’s particular set of skills. The best player type to pair with a pick-and-pop or trailer 3-point-shooting center, in my opinion, is one who consistently gets paint touches with speed and draws help and/or drop-coverage defenders toward him. The Spurs were 24th in the NBA in drives per game before Fox’s acquisition. This season, only five players are averaging more drives per game than Fox. Having him around is going to make Wembanyama’s life as a shooter so much easier. The Spurs have also generally tried to play at a fast pace this season despite being led by Chris Paul, who has been known for domineering half-court-based offensive play. With Fox, they’re going to be able to get up and down and create even easier attempts, something the league’s 16th-best offense could use.
De’Aaron Fox gives the San Antonio Spurs two stars to build around. (Brett Davis / Imagn Images)
Defensively, Fox tends to play a bit overaggressive in a way that can at times lead to breakdowns. He can do that now, and instead of Domantas Sabonis backing him up, he’ll have the league’s best rim protector. This duo should have serious synergy together.
The price tag here for the Spurs was paltry for a player of Fox’s talent. They shared the cost of the Spurs acquiring Fox by sending Zach LaVine to Sacramento and giving the Bulls their own first-round pick back for this season, a selection that was in serious jeopardy of never conferring to San Antonio within the next three years and thus turning into second-round picks. They also sent Sacramento the 2031 first-round pick they acquired from Minnesota last year at the draft, their own 2027 first-round pick, a lottery protected first-round pick from Charlotte this year that will convert to two seconds when the Hornets inevitably miss the playoffs and three other second-round picks.
If that doesn’t seem like a lot, that’s because it isn’t. This was really strong work from San Antonio, and the Spurs have their second star next to Wembanyama.
Golden State Warriors
I like the Butler fit in the Bay Area, and I like the way the Warriors decided to structure both this trade and the two-year, $112 million extension Butler agreed to. The Warriors have put a legitimate end point on the Stephen Curry era. Curry, Butler and Draymond Green each have expiring contracts in 2027. The Warriors did as well as they could have in giving this group of players a chance to win while also setting themselves up for the future.
The price tag for Butler was not that high. Kyle Anderson and Dennis Schröder have been in the Bay for six months or fewer. Andrew Wiggins turned into a franchise stalwart who helped Golden State to another title in 2022, and he’ll be missed. But the Warriors only had to give up this year’s top-10 protected first-rounder as draft capital. They will likely have all of their picks again following the 2025 draft. That’ll allow them to either pivot nicely out of the Curry era or try to acquire another star if they want to go all-in with this group.
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Butler is the perfect low-cost, high-reward risk for this late-stage Warriors era. He’s the exact player type they need next to Curry, who has finally started to show some slight signs of age. Butler is a two-way defensive wing who can play on the ball and allow Curry to take off some possessions or dominate as an off-ball scorer in the way we’ve seen for many years. I also love Butler’s ability to play off the ball. Often underrated off-ball because of his lack of desire to shoot 3s, Butler is a sharp cutter, an awesome screener and a timely decision-maker who should thrive within Steve Kerr’s motion-based offense after an adjustment period. We also know Butler is a tough, physical defender who should fit in on that end, replacing the tough matchups Wiggins took.
Butler will give the Warriors a lot more lineup versatility than they’ve had because he combines the offensive and defensive skills the team needed into one player instead of two, allowing Kerr to better mix and match depending on what the opposition presents. And Butler is still quite good. In the 18 games before he got sick and then got himself suspended, Butler averaged 20.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and five assists versus only 1.4 turnovers, shooting 57 percent from the field, 39 percent from 3 and 79 percent from the line.
Philadelphia 76ers
We can certainly quibble with the Sixers signing K.J. Martin this offseason purely as a trade chip; the team had to use two second-round picks to get off his salary to avoid the luxury tax after a disastrous start to the year. But that is a sunk cost at this point, and I think Daryl Morey and company did about as well as they could this deadline simply by taking advantage of what was available to them.
After the Dončić deal that also saw the Mavericks acquire Max Christie, Dallas saw Quentin Grimes, an impending restricted free agent, as superfluous. So the Mavs sent him and a second-round pick to Philadelphia for Caleb Martin. Grimes is a drastically better player at this point. The 6-foot-5, 3-and-D guard has averaged 12 points on 47/40/75 shooting splits after the Mavericks’ first 20 games, when he was acclimating. He’s also a more versatile defender for specifically what the Sixers need. Whereas Caleb Martin at 6-5 has to guard up the lineup, Grimes is best on perimeter players and can take on tough assignments both now and potentially in the future from Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. That will allow the Sixers to sign bigger players around this group and get even better on defense while maintaining their spacing around their star trio of Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid.
This deal also was about moving off the three years and $24 million Caleb Martin had left on his deal after this season, and that gives Philly options moving forward.
The Sixers will have about $170 million committed to nine players once they inevitably convert intriguing two-way player Justin Edwards to a standard contract. That will leave them about $24 million to $26 million away from the projected first apron. Assuming Grimes doesn’t get more than a full midlevel exception deal from any team on the market — and he could end up getting less than that in what has turned into a fairly hostile free-agency market for role players — they should be able to retain him and also keep access to their full midlevel exception, something they can use to keep breakout European signing Guerschon Yabusele in the summer.
I also didn’t mind the Sixers’ decision to move what had turned into an increasingly non-valuable 2026 first-round pick into Jared Butler and four second-rounders. That 2026 pick had turned into the least favorable of Oklahoma City’s, Houston’s and the LA Clippers’ first-rounders, meaning there is a high degree of likelihood it ends up in the 26-30 range. To turn that into four seconds — including one of which is Golden State’s after the Curry, Butler and Green contracts expire, and one of which is Phoenix’s in 2030 — was sharp. I would bet that at least two of those picks end up in the 30s. I think the Sixers end up winning the value equation there, and I think Butler is worth them converting into a team-favorable minimum contract type deal off his two-way.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Throughout the trade cycle, one of the questions I was asked the most by NBA teams was how I thought Cleveland was going to dodge the luxury tax. The Cavs were only about $2 million away heading into Thursday. However, with only 14 players on the roster, this was more complicated than normal. Their 14th guy was Tristan Thompson, who was already on a minimum and is a player they love having in the locker room. The other 13 players on the roster were genuine assets. But someone was going to have to move.
Instead of just swapping Georges Niang to a different team while paying to do so, Cleveland got creative and attached Caris LeVert along with three second-round picks and two pick swaps to acquire De’Andre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks. Hunter is in the middle of a career year, averaging 19 points while shooting 46 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3 and 86 percent from the line. He’s been a terrific bench scorer for the Hawks. He’s also the kind of big-bodied wing defender the Cavaliers desperately needed for further lineup flexibility. Now, they have someone who can slide down realistically to play the small-ball four outside of Dean Wade, and they have options to go very big across the perimeter when their two-big lineups are in.
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Hunter is 6-8, 225 pounds, and he is a good on-ball defender at the point of attack against other big-bodied wings. He’s not necessarily an active team defender who flies around rotationally. But with his 7-2 wingspan and strong torso, he can bother the kind of big wing initiators the Cavaliers have struggled with. Particularly, this seems like a move directed at trying to get past Boston. Yes, Boston will continue to try to get switches onto Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, and the Cavaliers are always going to struggle to find an answer to that. But if Hunter can make his shots from 3 and make it harder for the Celtics to consistently get those switches, this deal will be worth its weight in gold.
The downside is that Hunter has two years and $48 million left on his contract. The Cavaliers added about $15 million to a payroll that is set to spike when Evan Mobley’s extension will kick in. With only 10 players under contract, the Cavaliers have about $207 million in salaries on the books. The luxury-tax threshold is set to be in the ballpark of about $180 million. Essentially, the Cavaliers are almost certainly going to be in the tax next season. Even moving both Max Strus and Isaac Okoro likely wouldn’t get them under the threshold next year, and that’s before potential contracts handed out to key bench players Sam Merrill and Ty Jerome.
This deal, however, got the Cavaliers under the tax for this season, meaning they will avoid the dreaded repeater tax next year. And because they dipped beneath the tax, they’ll have access to any player who is bought out. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, teams that pay into the luxury tax are not allowed to sign players whose salaries exceed the nontaxpayer midlevel exception before being bought out. So if someone like Clint Capela is bought out, the Cavaliers could now sign him as a backup center.
Kudos to Cavaliers ownership and front office for seeing the window open to try and win the title and choosing to go for it, whatever the price point.
Sellers
The sellers that were able to consummate deals on this year’s market did about as well as could have been expected.
• Miami was left between a rock and a hard place as Butler tried to angle his way to Phoenix, cratering his market. The Heat should have dealt with this decision last summer once they knew they weren’t going to extend Butler. But given the circumstances, for the Heat to end up turning Butler into Wiggins, who has been quite good this season, as well as what might turn into a top-20 pick this year, was solid work. Wiggins will help the team this year before turning into either a keeper or an intriguing trade asset himself. They also shored up their perimeter defense by getting Davion Mitchell in a deal that got them out of the luxury tax.
The Hornets shipped center Mark Williams to the Lakers. (Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)
• Charlotte probably ended up gaining more pick capital than anyone this cycle, and I was a fan of the Hornets’ choices. Their decision to trade Mark Williams — more on that below — couldn’t have been particularly easy given his recent production. But Williams has been an enormous part of their defensive issues when he’s been on the court this season and has been outplayed by Moussa Diabate for stretches. The best thing an organization can do in losing times is attempt to build a winning culture. Williams’ play, frankly, was too inconsistent in terms of motor and intensity. The Lakers may get more out of him than the Hornets did, but Jeff Peterson didn’t draft him, Charles Lee wasn’t the coach when he was picked, and this new ownership group was not around when he was selected. In the end, the Hornets get an interesting scoring flier —albeit one who has defensive issues of his own — in Dalton Knecht, as well as a 2031 first-round pick and a swap. That’s a lot of capital if the front office had lost faith in Williams, either because of his availability or performance.
The Hornets also got a first-round pick to take on Jusuf Nurkić from the Suns. Yes, Nurkić is a downgrade from Williams. But I don’t believe that he’s such a downgrade to where it’s not worth gaining essentially three first-rounders in Knecht, the Lakers’ pick and the Suns’ pick. I also thought they did well to get two second-round picks in the Nick Richards trade with Phoenix earlier this month.
• New Orleans also did quite well, getting an expiring salary in Bruce Brown Jr., an intriguing backup big man fit in Kelly Olynyk and what might be a good first-round pick for Brandon Ingram. I’m intrigued by the first-rounder that they got, which is Indiana’s top-four protected 2026 pick, for two reasons. First, the 2026 draft is loaded with talent. Second, we saw what can happen with Indiana when Tyrese Haliburton seemingly isn’t at 100 percent earlier this season. He’s turned it on since, and the Pacers have been tremendous since the calendar turned to 2025. But if Haliburton, a player who has missed time previously, gets hurt next year, that might end up being a useful selection.
• Utah did a nice job just facilitating deals around the league and adding five second-round picks in the process. The Jazz didn’t move Collin Sexton, John Collins or Jordan Clarkson, but those players will likely be easier to move as expiring deals over the summer or during next season. They were just happy to jump into deals and make things happen while getting paid for doing so.
• I really like what Washington has done with asset acquisition under the Michael Winger and Will Dawkins regime. This cycle, it was turning a player amid a career-worst season into a positive asset. The Wizards traded Kyle Kuzma to the Bucks for Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson and a 2028 first-round pick swap that might look quite good if Giannis Antetokounmpo departs the Bucks at the end of his current contract. Johnson is a total flier, a project guard with skill whom the Bucks selected in the first round last year. For the Bucks, a team in the middle of what should be a contention window, it was a terrible pick that made no sense. For the Wizards though, a team that has a lot of time and is in the middle of rebuilding, it’s possible Johnson could turn into an interesting player with his athletic fluidity and explosive potential as a shot-maker.
They also turned Jonas Valančiūnas, whom they signed in the offseason to a three-year, $30 million deal with a non-guaranteed third season, into two second-round picks. Any time you can use your cap space, pay a player for half a year and end up moving on at the deadline for positive value, it’s a win. Then they traded Marvin Bagley III and Johnny Davis as expiring deals to take on Marcus Smart from the Grizzlies and Memphis’ first-round pick this year. They added a lot of draft capital while taking on decent role players who won’t necessarily get them out of the tanking zone, but who should help their young players mature and develop.
The Wizards’ front office is going to be judged by their next two drafts. But for now, they’re winning on the margins and setting themselves up for success.
The bad
Lakers trade for Mark Williams
The Lakers had the best deadline of any team in the league because they got Dončić, but the Williams trade wasn’t exactly my favorite move. My issues are two-fold.
First, Williams has some pretty significant issues staying on the court. He’s only played 84 games in two and a half years because of a variety of maladies. He dealt with ankle issues and a thumb problem as a rookie, he had back issues throughout his sophomore season, and he dealt with a foot issue this season. If there are two injuries that teams are typically terrified about when it comes to big men, it’s back and foot problems.
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Second, while Williams has a massive 9-9 standing reach that allows him to finish efficiently at the basket — which dovetails perfectly with Dončić — he’s been among the worst defenders in the NBA this season at the center position. The stats aren’t pretty, and the film might be worse. With him in the game, Charlotte’s opponents scored 117.5 points per 100 possessions versus just 110.9 when he’s off the court. Williams also allowed opponents to shoot 66.1 percent at the rim last season and has allowed opponents to shoot 68.2 percent at the rim this season, per Second Spectrum. His positioning and understanding of angles in ball screens is quite poor, and his footwork on the perimeter is egregiously bad. If he needs to be in rotation in scramble situations outside the paint, it’s a significant advantage for the opposing team. Anyone who can pull him away from the paint is going to cause immense issues. His motor does not seem to run particularly hot, either. Even when he’s at the rim, he doesn’t have much upward explosion, and he doesn’t really disrupt anything opponents do.
Some people will say, look at who he was playing for and consider how P.J. Washington has played since being acquired by Dallas from Charlotte. The difference between these two situations is that Washington had shown positive moments on defense before, and his issues over his last year and a half in Charlotte were effort-based. Williams’ biggest problems on defense stem from him not processing the game quickly enough and from his feet not being nimble enough. Undeniably, Williams has tools to continue improving as he gets more time, but there is a long way to go. I’m skeptical that he’s going to be in any way useful in a playoff series right now on that end.
It’s also hard to minimize how valuable Williams is going to be on offense with Dončić feeding him. Few guards over the last decade have been as successful at finding rim-runners as Dončić. His ability to manipulate back-line defenders is second to none, with only his current teammate in LeBron James as a challenger among big ballhandlers. Williams is going to get fed at the rim, and he should be able to dominate on the offensive glass with all the skilled players around him.
Still, I think this is an error of opportunity cost for the Lakers. They had so few assets remaining in the chest after the Dončić deal. Using them on a player who carries significant injury and defensive questions is not the right play. This deal could work out if Williams figures out what he needs to do on the defensive end. I just would have gone a different direction.
One benefit for the Lakers, though, is that Williams keeps them flexible in the summer of 2026. His cap hold will be about $18 million. If he figures out defense and stays healthy, he will be worth way more than that. The Lakers still project to have around $55 million in cap space with Williams, Dončić, Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt and Bronny James as the five players with deals reaching into the 2026-27 season.
Toronto Raptors
I understand what Toronto is going for with Ingram. He’s a talented player who likely would not typically sign in Toronto, and he fits the archetype Masai Ujiri and this front office have typically valued as a big wing playmaker at 6-8 with a 7-4 wingspan. He’s been immensely productive in New Orleans, averaging 23 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists on a true shooting percentage that is 1 percent above league average.
My main worry is the fit, and it’s a concern that I had regarding Ingram and his potential destinations. Ingram likes to handle the ball, and he doesn’t tend to move it all that quickly. He’ll catch and hold the ball often, allowing defenders to recover. He’s an awesome shot maker and can create advantages, but he tends to operate in similar areas to RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes. Barrett, Barnes and Ingram love to get into that painted area and either drive to finish or get to midrange opportunities. Toronto also has been a particularly bad defensive team since Darko Rajaković took over last year. Ingram isn’t going to help on that end. He’s long but doesn’t really utilize that length to his fullest advantage and doesn’t really disrupt what offensive players want to do. His skill set seems quite duplicative with what the Raptors already have.
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The Raptors also are 16-35 and about to get expensive without much flexibility if they retain Ingram. The team chose to acquire ready-made players in Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for Pascal Siakam last year, and those players now have a combined cap hit of $60.2 million. Barnes’ max extension will kick in next year at $38.6 million. For Toronto to retain Ingram, you’d anticipate that it would have to pay him at least $30 million per season. Throw in Jakob Poeltl’s $19.5 million and the $15 million owed to Ja’Kobe Walter, Ochai Agbaji and Gradey Dick combined, and that’s at least $162 million tied up in eight players. And that’s with Ingram making $30 million, which is probably on the lower end of the projection. Ingram will likely make the team better this year, and the Raptors should be just good enough to where their draft pick is unlikely to stay in the top five.
I get that Ujiri has typically been against tanking, and generally, I’m in favor of the idea that a season doesn’t have to end in a title for it to be successful. This just doesn’t seem like the move that will help the Raptors take the next step.
Milwaukee Bucks
I can’t completely hate what Milwaukee did. The Bucks needed more flexibility, and they got that with the Khris Middleton-for-Kuzma swap by getting under the second apron and giving themselves a chance to make further moves now and into the future. Next season, Kuzma makes about $14 million less than Middleton, a number that should help Milwaukee retain Brook Lopez when he hits unrestricted free agency this offseason. Kuzma is also the archetype that fits well with the Bucks. His ability to play both forward spots gives the Bucks serious versatility as they downsize in certain matchups to play Giannis Antetokounmpo at the five.
But Kuzma is also in the middle of a career-worst season. He’s averaging 15 points, six rebounds and 2.5 assists versus 2.3 turnovers while shooting 42 percent from the field, 28 percent from 3 and 60 percent from the line. His true-shooting percentage is 15 points below league average. He rarely gets to the line. Even though he has a reputation for attempting 3s, his 3-point attempt rate versus his overall field goal attempt rate is below league-average. A shift in role may help this, as Kuzma hit 35.5 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season and 34 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s the year before. When he’s unguarded, as he’ll assuredly get more open looks playing with Giannis and Damian Lillard, he makes them at a reasonable clip. But throw in the poor decision-making and what has been relatively apathetic defense this season, and the version of Kuzma who played for the Wizards this season would be a substantial downgrade on even the version of Middleton that was only playing 25 minutes per night.
Can Kyle Kuzma rejuvenate himself in Milwaukee? (Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images)
When Middleton has been on the court, he’s been about the same guy as over the last two years on offense. He’s averaging 20 points per 36 minutes, right in line with last year. His seven assists per 36 minutes are on track with his previous two years. He’s still rebounding at about the same level, and he’s shooting 51 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3 and 85 percent from the line. The issue has been on defense, where Middleton struggles to move his feet and can’t sustain second and third efforts as regularly as he used to because of the multiple ankle surgeries he had this summer.
Given that Middleton is a proven playoff guy who just had a monster series against the Pacers last year, I would have just declined this deal — even if it were Kuzma-for-Middleton straight up. I don’t dispute that the Bucks needed a change, but I would have either gone a different direction or just stayed with the status quo and hoped Middleton could lock in for the playoffs. The Bucks also gave up their No. 23 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft in Johnson, as well as a pick swap after Antetokounmpo’s next deal expires. They also traded an expiring deal in MarJon Beauchamp for Kevin Porter Jr., a player who has also not been very good this season.
The Bucks became more flexible, but I’m not convinced they’re actually any better following these moves.
The ugly
Dallas Mavericks
I can’t fathom what the Mavericks did.
Trading Dončić was a baffling decision by general manager Nico Harrison, and the more he speaks, the less it makes sense. His news conference made it feel like the Mavericks were trying to solve a problem that didn’t yet actually exist. I am willing to acknowledge that there may have been issues with Dončić that have yet to come entirely to light, or that the team felt his conditioning was a real issue with how he will age. I am even willing to acknowledge that, on some level, if the Mavericks wanted to make this trade immediately and do so in-season, they probably did need to keep it quiet.
But here’s the thing: Even if you do want to trade him, you don’t have to trade him at the deadline.
If Harrison was simply set on not giving Dončić the supermax contract extension, the best move would have been to keep him for this season and shop him in the offseason. Given that both Harrison and Dončić acknowledged in their post-trade news conferences that Dončić never said he was looking to leave Dallas or was a threat to not sign the supermax deal, the team could have used the week or so leading up to the NBA Draft to solicit offers and find the best deal for him. Davis, Christie and a single first-round pick is not the best deal that would have been out there for Dončić. The Mavericks have given themselves a very tight window to try to win a title.
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That window might get far shorter if the season goes poorly from here. Kyrie Irving, whom Harrison is now relying upon to create a majority of the team’s offense, has a player option this summer. Irving has a serious case as being the most underrated player in the NBA right now, but he also marches to the beat of his own drum. If he doesn’t like the way things are going in Dallas after this season, the team runs the risk of him opting out — and this contention window Harrison wanted to keep open could close as quickly as it took him to offer Dončić to Rob Pelinka over coffee.
It’s an enormous risk for not nearly enough reward. Davis is a top-10 player in the league, but he also turns 32 in March and has a long list of injuries that have kept him from playing in more than 62 games in all but one of his past six seasons. The Mavericks don’t own their own draft picks from 2027 to 2030, meaning they won’t even be able to rebuild all that easily if this goes off the rails.
The timing is wrong, the package they received in return was wrong, and the process was wrong. Everything about the way this was handled reeks of shoddy decision-making. Harrison has largely made good moves that have worked out before while building a team to compete around Dončić. But even if this magically works out, it’s going to be hard to look at anything that happened here as logical given the process. Harrison said he only sees the future as three to four years down the road, a truly unconscionable thing for someone in charge of roster building for an entire organization to say.
The Mavericks also traded Grimes for a worse player in Martin. We’ve seen former Heat projects leave South Beach and struggle elsewhere to recapture the same success. There’s a real shot Martin is next.
I didn’t like anything about the past week for Dallas. It has potential to be the kind of franchise-altering decision that leads to a decade of despair.
Chicago Bulls
The old saying in poker is that, if you can’t spot the sucker at the table, that means the sucker is you. Every time the Bulls have done deals with the Spurs under this current regime, they haven’t spotted themselves as the suckers. Whether it’s ownership wanting to constantly compete or president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas struggling, the Bulls are absolutely nowhere right now.
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If the team merely wanted to get off the Zach LaVine deal at the deadline, I don’t quite understand that given how good he has been. But I especially don’t understand it if they want to compete for a Play-In or playoff berth, as Karnišovas said at his post-deadline news conference.
LaVine was the team’s best player. To give him up for Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins and Tre Jones will make the team worse this year. And if the goal was to tank by trading LaVine, then there’s no reason to get your own 2025 first-round draft pick in return. That pick is top-10 protected this season and top-eight protected for each of the next two years before turning into second-rounders. If you want to rebuild, then you’re keeping that pick. I guess you can make the case that you acquired two second-rounders for LaVine, but that return doesn’t feel worthwhile.
The team also retained Nikola Vučević despite his utterly outstanding season offensively. If the Bulls were ever going to trade their 34-year-old center who doesn’t defend, this was the chance, while he’s averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds and shooting 55 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3 and 81 percent from the line.
What are the Bulls left with? They have a roster with somewhere between four and six point guards, depending on how you categorize certain players. They still have Vučević and didn’t acquire much real pick value. Jones has been solid this year for the Spurs, but Collins has struggled and Huerter has been bad. Maybe changes of scenery will help them. But this looks like a misshapen roster that is neither contending nor tanking.
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Mark Blinch/Getty Images, Glenn James/NBAE, Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images, Megan Briggs/Getty Images, Patrick T. Fallon / AFP, Emilee Chinn/Getty Images, Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
