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Winners and losers at the NBA trade deadline - NBCSports.com

So much for a quiet trade deadline.

For a couple of months in the run-up to the NBA trade deadline, sources around the league talked about all the reasons there would not be a lot of trades to open 2020, from a lack of cap space to take on bad contracts to a lack of sellers. Then came Kobe Bryant’s tragic death, which became a black cloud over the league and blotted out talk of things as trivial as trades.

But when the doors opened on trade talk again, it felt like the whole league rushed in — the result was a wild, trade filled couple of days that changed both this season and the trajectory of a number of teams.

Here is who won and who lost.

Winner: Los Angeles Clippers

In a West where the margins between the top teams — especially the two that call Staples Center home — are so thin, the Clippers’ moves around the draft made this team better. Maybe a lot better. If they were not the favorites to come out of the West before the deadline, they need to be now.

The big move: The Clippers traded for Marcus Morris.

Morris brings grit, some interior toughness, a few technicals, and some floor-spacing shooting to Los Angeles. Morris averaged 18.5 points per game for the Knicks, and shot 45.4 percent from three — and that was without players like Kawhi Leonard or Paul George drawing defenders to get him even better looks. Also, Morris is a physical defender — exactly the kind of player teams want on their side in the playoffs. Doc Rivers now has even more options on how to attack teams with this versatile roster.

The Clippers still bring Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell off the bench behind that starting five.

Loser: Los Angeles Lakers

This is all relative. The Lakers may still win the West — they do have LeBron James, after all — but the trade deadline made their path more difficult.

The Clippers got a boost picking up Marcus Morris. Denver got a little better and added some scoring (and will get healthy at some point). Utah’s one move was more than a month earlier, but they added scoring off the bench in the form of Jordan Clarkson.

The Lakers are still the Lakers. They also should get better because they will thrive in the buyout market, and they are still the favorites to land Darren Collison if he returns. But even with that, the opponents the Lakers need to beat got better in the last few days, and that is not a win for the Lakers.

Winner: Atlanta Hawks

To maximize what Trae Young can do, the Hawks needed to find him the right pick-and-roll partner, a guy who sets a strong pick and dives hard to the rim, drawing defenders with him (or getting open for the alley-oop). Some defense and shot blocking would be nice, too.

Enter Clint Capela, picked up from the Rockets in a massive four-team, 12-player trade — and the Hawks got him without giving up a first-round pick, nor rising star John Collins.

Capela was half of a very effective pick-and-roll tandem with James Harden (they scored more than a point per possession, in the Damian Lillard/Jusuf Nurkic range). The Hawks looked at a lot of big men and settled on the one that likely fits best with Trae Young. Whether Capela fits next to Collins is another story and something to watch over the next couple of years.

Winner: Miami Heat

The Miami Heat are in the mix with the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors, vying to be the second-best team in the East. (Philadelphia would like to be in that conversation, too, but right now they are not.) At the trade deadline, the Heat got deeper — adding Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder — and while that’s not likely making them a threat to any team with a Greek Freak on the roster, it may be enough to make Miami the second-best team in the East. Toronto and Boston stood still, Miami got better and added playoff-proven veterans.

At the same time, Miami got out from under the oversized contracts of James Johnson and Dion Waiters. It’s a masterstroke. Miami maintained its financial flexibility for the summer of 2021, in case any famous players who grew up in Greece want to test the free-agent market.

Loser: 2020 free agents

The teams that had cap space this summer to chase max-level free agents was not exactly inspiring: Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Charlotte, New York, and Phoenix.

Now Atlanta, Cleveland, and Memphis are off that list.

To be fair, Detroit now will have the cap space — Detroit valued that cap space more than they valued Andre Drummond, the Cavaliers valued Drummond more than the cap space. Still, for potential free agents such as Gordon Hayward, DeMar DeRozan, Drummond (although he likely opts into that $28.8 million next season), Joe Harris, Montrezl Harrell, and others, it’s some slim pickings out there.

Winner: Robert Covington

Robert Covington got traded from a team that had lost a dozen games in a row (now 13) in the NBA’s coldest city to warm-weather Houston on a team poised to be a playoff threat — that’s a win.

Covington had 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and was a team-high +16 in his first game with the Rockets, during Thursday nights win against the Lakers. That’s what Covington does, he puts up solid stats, but the team just plays better defense and runs a little smoother when he is on the court. Use whatever coach’s cliche you want — “he does the little things that don’t show up in the box score” or “he just plays winning basketball” — but he makes teams better.

Loser: Moe Harkless

If Covington wins because of the change in his situation, then you have to feel for Harkless. He did nothing wrong, he played well for the Clippers — he started most of the time, played smart, and took on the toughest wing defensive assignments so that Kawhi Leonard and Paul George didn’t have to all game. But, his $11.5 million contract made him a perfect person to round out a trade deal.

Harkless got traded from a title contender in sunny Los Angeles to the New York Knicks. That’s going to be a shock to the system.

Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves

Gersson Rosas is reshaping this team and he made some bold moves to do just that at the trade deadline.

He traded for D'Angelo Russell, which will make Karl-Anthony Towns happy and gives the Timberwolves a solid point guard of the future. Amazingly, he got Andrew Wiggins off the books at the same time. He added solid bench depth by trading for Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez. He got good value for Covington. He managed the salary cap well.

That’s a good start. There are legitimate questions about how well a team with Russell and Towns is going to defend, but this is still a big step forward.

Loser Traditional NBA centers

Andre Drummond — who scores more than 17 points a game and is the NBA’s best rebounder — had almost no trade market and was salary dumped to Cleveland. Houston sent Clint Capela out the door to start a 6’5″ center in P.J. Tucker. Cleveland could not get a good enough offer for Tristan Thompson. Boston and other teams were not willing to put real assets on the table to trade for a traditional center, deciding instead to wait for the buyout market.

In case you had any doubt about how the game is moving away from traditional centers. The league is moving on.

Derrick Rose is having a renaissance season, and as part of that rebirth he was returning to the All-Star Saturday Night Skills Challenge — in Chicago, where he remains beloved — to defend his title from 2009.

Until he strained his adductor the other night.

Rose is now out of action for the Pistons through the All-Star break, and he will not be participating in the Saturday night events, the league announced. That sucks, especially for the fans in Chicago.

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is taking his place. The second-year guard is having a strong season for the Thunder, averaging 19.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists a game.

The other participants in this year’s skills challenge are Bam Adebayo (Heat), Patrick Beverley (Clippers), Spencer Dinwiddie (Nets), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Domantas Sabonis (Pacers), Pascal Siakam (Raptors), Jayson Tatum (Celtics). Beverley, Dinwiddie, and Tatum have all won this event in the past.

The rules are the same as always, this is a head-to-head tournament where players have to maneuver an obstacle-course competition that tests their dribbling, passing, agility, and 3-point shooting.

The skills competition, along with the Dunk Contest and Three-Point contest, highlight All-Star Saturday night, taking place at the United Center in Chicago Feb. 15.

Memphis took on a lot of salary to get Justise Winslow out of Miami in what will be remembered as the Andre Iguodala trade.

The Grizzlies are not keeping all that money on the books, plus they already have a crowd at the two guard with the just extended Dillon Brooks, De'Anthony Melton, and Grayson Allen.

All that means they intend to let Dion Waiters go, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

That will leave $12.7 million (maybe minus a little less) as dead salary on the books next season, but the Grizzlies seem ready to live with that.

Once he clears waivers, Waiters will be a free agent who can sign anywhere.

Waiters can still get buckets and shoot the three, but his rough season in Miami is not going to help his cause — the Heat suspended Waiters three times this season. The first time was for the first game of the season due to “conduct detrimental to the team” (Waiters responded to that by taking a shot at Erik Spoelstra on Instagram). The second time again was for “conduct detrimental to the team” and not too coincidentally came right after first responders had to be called to the Celtics’ team plane because Waiters took too many “edible” gummy bears and had a panic attack. The third suspension was for “failure to adhere to team policies, violation of team rules and continued insubordination.”

Waiters accepted responsibility for his “immature decisions.”

Waiters has played in just three Heat games this season, averaging 9.3 points a game in those contests.

This draft’s No. 1 pick had all the suspense of the last NBA Draft’s No. 1 pick.

LeBron James didn’t have to pick Anthony Davis first to recruit him this time around. Instead, LeBron selected his teammate Davis with the top pick, the opening of the All-Star Game team drafts.

Team LeBron and Team Giannis are now set after a playground-style draft broadcast on TNT Thursday. No trades this year — Giannis Antetokounmpo joked last year’s trade cost him the game — and not as much drama. Although Antetokounmpo did have a little fun at James Harden‘s expense.

Fans again voted LeBron and Antetokounmpo captains (they were the top vote-getters in the fan All-Star voting), and they picked their teams on Inside the NBA Thursday. That started with them picking from the pool of starters (voted in by the fans, media, and players), then the reserves (chosen by the coaches vote).

LeBron took teammate Davis first but “only because he’s from this city (Chicago).” Antetokounmpo went with fellow African Joel Embiid for his first selection, and it went from there.

Here are your All-Star teams:

Team LeBron (coached by Frank Vogel)
Starters
LeBron James
Anthony Davis
Kawhi Leonard
Luka Doncic
James Harden

Reserves
Damian Lillard
Ben Simmons
Nikola Jokic
Jayson Tatum
Chris Paul
Russell Westbrook
Domantas Sabonis

Team Giannis (coached by Nick Nurse)
Starters
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Joel Embiid
Pascal Siakam
Kemba Walker
Trae Young

Reserves
Khris Middleton
Bam Adebayo
Rudy Gobert
Jimmy Butler
Kyle Lowry
Brandon Ingram
Donovan Mitchell

The NBA All-Star Game will be played Feb. 16 at the United Center in Chicago. You can catch it on TNT starting at 8 p.m. ET.

Team LeBron and Team Giannis will play in the new NBA All-Star Game format, aimed to add a spark to what has evolved into a boring exhibition that is all scoring and guys making sure they don’t get injured. The league office has been looking for a way to bring some energy to the game, and they have come up with this new format — and thrown in a Kobe Bryant tribute to boot.

It works like this: Each of the first three quarters will start with a 0-0 score. The two teams will be playing for specific charities each quarter, and the team that wins that quarter gets more money for their cause. After three quarters, then the game heads to a modified Elam Ending: the teams’ scores will be added together to get a traditional score, then 24 points will be added to that to create a “target score,” and the first team to that number wins. No game clock, just play until one team gets to the target score. (The league chose 24 points to honor Kobe, as he wore that number.) Here’s an example to help explain it: If after three quarters Team LeBron leads 150-145, then the “target score” becomes 174 (150+24) and the first team to that number wins the All-Star Game. Team LeBron would have to score 24 points, but if Team Giannis can score 29 points first to win.

It promises to make a confusing broadcast. But at least the televised draft was entertaining.

Andre Iguodala did not reach the buyout market, he was traded to Miami. Marcus Morris also got traded, but to the Clippers team just down the Staples Center hall.

The Los Angeles Lakers stood pat at the trade deadline — in part because they did not want to meet the Knicks’ asking price for Morris — and now will be looking to the buyout market and the possible return of Darren Collison, to add playmaking and shooting to the roster for a playoff run.

And maybe J.R. Smith, too. That according to Mark Stein of the New York Times.

Yes, this J.R. Smith.

We’ve known this was coming for a while. As for that play above (and any other Smith antics), Smith wouldn’t get in the practice building if this did not get at least a tentative thumbs up from LeBron James, although going through a workout and making the roster are different things.

Does Smith fit the playmaker/shooter role the Lakers would like to fill? In the second half of his career, Smtih evolved into a high volume shooter and scorer, which won him Sixth Man of the Year but is not necessarily a fit with the Lakers right now. Also, last season, Smith, 34, played just 11 games for the Cavaliers — none after November — and struggled with his shot, hitting 30.8 percent from three and he had a dreadful true shooting percentage of 44.4 (he is a career 37.3 percent shooter from three). Smith asked to be traded, but the Cavaliers could not find a taker. Cleveland waived Smith in July and he has been without a contract since.

The guy that would help the Lakers is Darren Collison, who is expected to announce his decision on a return after the All-Star break. Collison averaged 11.6 points and six assists a game, plus he shot 40.7 percent from three for the Pacers last season, but rather than become a free agent — there was considerable demand for his services — he decided to retire.

Collison is reconsidering that decision. If he returns, the Lakers are considered strong frontrunners, according to sources around the league. Collison played the 2013-14 season with the Clippers under Doc Rivers and that reportedly did not end on the best of terms.

The Lakers are expected to be active on the buyout market as well.

Will that be enough in a West where the margins between the Lakers and Clippers — and the Nuggets and Jazz, as well — are very slim? The Magic 8 Ball says, “Ask again later.”

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2020-02-07 07:54:00Z
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