Trade Deadline Winners and Losers
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:10 pm
The trade deadline has come and gone, and it's time to look at who used it to their advantage and who did not. We're not going to count only "cut salary" moves because those are easy - what we're focusing on here are how teams used the last opportunity to make trades to help their teams going forward.
76ERS
The Sixers got an early start on the deadline and traded Rodney Hood off to New Orleans for Brian Stark, whom they promptly cut. This is a classic "cut my tax bill" move and it's something I expect to see most teams on the luxury tax side of the line do - even if you can't get under the tax, it's always smart to reduce your liability. The 76ers were winners at the deadline.
RAPTORS
The Raptors made no moves at the deadline. They're far over the cap but also in the thick of the division race for the first time in a while. It probably wasn't the time to make trades solely to cut salary yet; most of the guys they have are in the rotation (or are really cheap since injuries are making them skate with the possibility of having to sign players and you want cheap dudes, not 10-year vets, if you have to sign additional players). Raptors weren't winners but weren't losers either.
KNICKS
The Knicks also chose to stand pat at the deadline. Their record has slipped since their improbable title run last season, and their cap situation is fast getting dire. They didn't have to push to dump Chet Dooley this season but will surely be aggressive next season. But the longer they wait, the harder it is going to be to move him. I'd say for this year, as defending champs, it's okay for them to sit out the trade deadline, but if they don't repeat, they'd better make moves next year.
NETS
The Nets didn't make a move at the deadline which sort of surprises me since they felt to me like they were a player away. Maybe it's because they moved early to pick up Smart and Humbert, but I think the Nets' window with Kight and Funky is now - they should be going all-in. Maybe nothing surfaced, but for a bubble playoff team, you need to make up your mind to be either a buyer or a seller and the Nets were neither. This year, the Nets were losers at the trade deadline.
CELTICS
The verdict here is simple - by moving Deandre Jordan, the Celtics slid themselves under the tax apron. As a team that's facing down sanctions for unpaid luxury tax, that's an unmitigated success. The Celtics were already not competing for a title anyway, so resetting everything financially was the prudent thing to do. Definitely a deadline winner.
BULLS
Didn't make a move at the deadline, but they are winning their division so it's not like they need to sell off pieces for parts. No grade.
PISTONS
The Pistons are in a tough spot - Anthony Davis is expiring, they're in the tax, in order to keep him, they'll almost certainly have to super-max, and doing that locks their team in and still over the cap and hitting the repeater tax for the foreseeable future. They absolutely had to make a move - they had James O'Connor on the block but needed to be much more aggressive about moving him - at the very least dumping his salary to a tanking team and giving up a pick to do it. Failing to find a taker for O'Connor means their fallback plan should have been to shop Anthony Davis for a massive rebuilding package. Doubt they tried to do that, either. The Pistons will be good next year, but will start getting suffocated by the tax without many moves to make short of a rebuild - and with Davis 33 next season and taking body blows from the TC gods, once he finally gets to the point where he can't carry them any more, I expect a long, cold, Detroit winter.
BUCKS
The Bucks did exactly what non-contending teams should do at the trade deadline - they made a trade to let a team that was capped out dump salary and picked up an asset in doing so. It wasn't a great asset - the Celtics' 2nd round pick - but the trade market was inexplicably soft this season so they made out as well as you would expect under the circumstances.
PACERS
They didn't have much cap room, but they're not going anywhere this season, and don't have any overpriced assets to try to dump to clear their books in the future nor underpriced assets to entice other teams with. On the other hand, they also didn't have their own draft pick; they probably should have looked to package up three assets that add up to a max to a team looking to get rid of an overpriced but still productive player to give themselves a shot in the arm this season. Losers, but just barely.
CAVALIERS
This is a bad team that let the trade deadline expire with over $22 million in cap space available. That's enough to coax some assets out of a team that is deep in the luxury tax. They really should have tried to find a deal to offer cap relief on expiring deals in exchange for some future assets. That they didn't - or couldn't - make such a deal makes them a trade deadline loser.
HAWKS
Pulled the trigger on a deal to ship salary and points off to the Thunder in exchange for dropping their tax liability. Wall wasn't quite the solution they'd hoped for at backup PG and so it made sense to find a way to dump him. Finding a way to dump more salary would have been nice, but the Hawks wind up as winners at the trade deadline because their moves helped them lower their tax bill.
MAGIC
In the perfect position of being in the chase for their division, home court in the playoffs, and under the tax line. Didn't need to make any moves at the deadline unless it made them a better team. Standing pat is perfectly fine. Won simply by not "making a move just to make a move" and staying the course.
HEAT
See my notes on the Pacers. The Heat don't have their own pick, and with the little bit of cap space they have should have been looking to pick up some sort of asset from a cap-distressed team in order to allow them to put a little better product on the floor this season. They did make noise on the trade block, but this grade is for results, not effort, and so the Heat were losers at the deadline.
WIZARDS
Remember when I said this was about results, not effort? It's hard to think of a bigger loser at the trade deadline than the Wizards this season. Despite a team that has been over .500 they were going to have a hard time making the playoffs in a loaded East, so they decided to bail out. They had a trade lined up to dump Bonifaz Wenninger's salary and drop themselves out of the tax, they had it posted by the deadline, the Bobcats signed off on it... and they got tripped up by the small detail that Louie Thomas of the Bobcats wasn't trade-eligible. Which means all their hard work went out the window, and they remained well over the tax line. That sucks, and they're the losers at the deadline you fell bad for. It's an object lesson as to why it's better to get a trade done early than get it done at the last minute (yes, i know, it takes two to tango and other owners drag their feet).
BOBCATS
I pretty much explained why the Wizards were losers at the deadline, and the Bobcats were losers for pretty much the same reason. They didn't pay close enough attention to the details and it cost them points and left them with extra cap space they could have used to absorb salaries from other teams. This trade blowing up managed to cost both the Wizards and the Bobcats significant points. A for effort, but you're still losers at the deadline.
NUGGETS
Best record in the league and cuts getting you a hair under the luxury tax means you only need to trade if it makes your team significantly better. The Nuggets are winners at the deadline for not screwing up a good thing.
TRAILBLAZERS
Yet another struggling team without its own pick and a minimum of cap space. The concern here is the Blazers are pretty much locked into this roster next season and so don't expect much to change next year except they'll have their own pick. Making a move to find a taker for Jaylen Brown, who at 28 will be in decline by the time the rest of the Blazers' young pups are ready to compete, would have been a great idea - even losing on talent to dump his salary would have been acceptable. But the Blazers didn't do that, so they find themselves being labelled trade deadline losers.
TIMBERWOLVES
Everyone loves Raby, and maybe the worry of being a new father kept him distracted, but my goodness, with almost $38 million in cap space, the Timberwolves had ample opportunity to suck up some bad contracts and get picks and/or points in return. The worst part of it is, it's not like the Timberwolves have a bunch of young prospects waiting in the wings to develop, either - the Wolves should have been in a mode to stockpile picks a la the Bucks. Sorry, Raby, I have to call them like I see them and the Wolves were trade deadline losers.
JAZZ
The Jazz are in full rebuild mode following a scare from the tax man and while they're having a bad year, they do have a couple of young studs, they have their own pick, and they didn't have a lot of cap space to absorb other teams' contracts in exchange for assets. It would have been nice for them to find a way to wring some points out of a trade, but they didn't have a lot to work with. Neither winners, nor losers... they were neutral.
THUNDER
The Thunder snagged themselves some points and a rookie-deal Marcos Reams from the Hawks and Brian Foote from the Suns (guys they must hope the TC gods will bless) with some of their bounteous cap space. However, with $32 million in cap still remaining after the deadline, you kind of wish they had gotten more. Things are about to get expensive as they have a blue-potential RFA every season for the next four years at least, so you figure their window to add talent is probably only the next two off-seasons. They're winners, because they turned some cap space into points, but not as big of winners as they could have been.
KINGS
Leading the Pacific Divison and a modest tax bill means the Kings didn't really need to worry about making moves, and they didn't. With all of their salary tied up in four key players, any move to get under the tax would have meant breaking up a successful core. Doing nothing was the right move. Winners.
LAKERS
The Lakers are surging for the first time in years; while I'm not a fan of Tristan Bosworth and think the move to be made for the Lakers was to drop an expiring Bosworth deal on a team with cap space and send along some points, I can also see why Tray didn't do anything. Of course, the cynic in me tells me it's because the Lakers are on semi-cruise control and Tray wouldn't have made a move even if he had to.
SUNS
The Suns managed to pick up a better-than-normal-yellow Kyrie Irving and decent rotation big Jamey Brown from the Thunder; this may have been the best move of all of them since it makes the Suns a substantially more dangerous out in the playoffs. While I don't think it will let them challenge the likes of the Kings and the Nuggets, with the right first-round matchup they could now make some noise. Winners for sure.
WARRIORS
With a little over $11 million in cap space, the Warriors had some room to absorb some salary and take on future assets. Unfortunately for the Warriors, they made some overpays in Free Agency and ate up a lot of cap space then, and compounded the error by making those deals more than one season (or at least one plus a team option). So those moves really hampered their ability to deal at the trade deadline, but since they know they're stuck with another year of Kanter, they probably should have been willing to take on a contract with a couple of years on it in exchange for points or something good - their cap won't be clean for at least another full season and any players they draft now won't be ready until after that anyway. Losers because they couldn't get something for that $11 million in cap space because this is about results.
CLIPPERS
If the Wolves were bad, the Clippers were worse. Almost $45 million in cap room at the deadline and absolutely nothing pried away from luxury tax teams in return. The Clips may be trying to tank for the #1 pick, but you could have at least gone out and brought in some points by taking on some bad contracts. This was an opportunity to put stuff into the cupboard for the future and nothing happened. The only reason they're not the biggest loser is the denied Wizards/Bobcats trade.
ROCKETS
While not as dominant as the Nuggets, the Rockets are leading their division as of this writing and are just a whisker under the cap. No need to mess with a good thing; winners for not upsetting a great situation with a trade.
SPURS
They're over the cap, but they're right in the mix for the division and don't have any obviously bad contract they would want to get rid of - everyone making substantial money is part of the playoff core. I can't call them winners, exactly, because of their tax status, but because of their playoff status they aren't losers either. Calling their trade deadline neutral feels about right.
PELICANS
Nick is back off of cruise control and made a minor move with the 76ers to improve his team without really increasing his payroll (presumably because the 76ers wanted a guy they could cut free of cap holds). Improving your team without hurting your tax status? That's a win. Good job, Nick!
MAVERICKS
The Mavs put their whole team on the block and appear ready to rebuild... and got no takers. The good news is they're under the cap. The bad news is they waited about two seasons too long to trade Bradley Beal and now they're probably stuck with his contract. Can't really call them winners because they're not good enough to have wanted to stand pat, but they're not in the tax either, so can't call them losers. Yet another neutral grade for the Southwest.
GRIZZLIES
With $12 million in cap space, the Grizzlies could probably have absorbed some more salary to continue stockpiling payments on their luxury tax bill. Have to say I was a little mystified at their February 1 signings of veteran minimum guys, who they didn't need to facilitate a trade and who did eat into their cap space some - the Grizz probably could have opened up as much as $20 million or so. The Grizz will argue they made their trade deadline deal at Day 60 when they got Keith Pfeffer - but that's the Day 60 mark, not the trade deadline. The Grizzlies wasted an opportunity and so are trade deadline losers.
Yo, points czar - 2,688 words. Count 'em yourself if you like.
76ERS
The Sixers got an early start on the deadline and traded Rodney Hood off to New Orleans for Brian Stark, whom they promptly cut. This is a classic "cut my tax bill" move and it's something I expect to see most teams on the luxury tax side of the line do - even if you can't get under the tax, it's always smart to reduce your liability. The 76ers were winners at the deadline.
RAPTORS
The Raptors made no moves at the deadline. They're far over the cap but also in the thick of the division race for the first time in a while. It probably wasn't the time to make trades solely to cut salary yet; most of the guys they have are in the rotation (or are really cheap since injuries are making them skate with the possibility of having to sign players and you want cheap dudes, not 10-year vets, if you have to sign additional players). Raptors weren't winners but weren't losers either.
KNICKS
The Knicks also chose to stand pat at the deadline. Their record has slipped since their improbable title run last season, and their cap situation is fast getting dire. They didn't have to push to dump Chet Dooley this season but will surely be aggressive next season. But the longer they wait, the harder it is going to be to move him. I'd say for this year, as defending champs, it's okay for them to sit out the trade deadline, but if they don't repeat, they'd better make moves next year.
NETS
The Nets didn't make a move at the deadline which sort of surprises me since they felt to me like they were a player away. Maybe it's because they moved early to pick up Smart and Humbert, but I think the Nets' window with Kight and Funky is now - they should be going all-in. Maybe nothing surfaced, but for a bubble playoff team, you need to make up your mind to be either a buyer or a seller and the Nets were neither. This year, the Nets were losers at the trade deadline.
CELTICS
The verdict here is simple - by moving Deandre Jordan, the Celtics slid themselves under the tax apron. As a team that's facing down sanctions for unpaid luxury tax, that's an unmitigated success. The Celtics were already not competing for a title anyway, so resetting everything financially was the prudent thing to do. Definitely a deadline winner.
BULLS
Didn't make a move at the deadline, but they are winning their division so it's not like they need to sell off pieces for parts. No grade.
PISTONS
The Pistons are in a tough spot - Anthony Davis is expiring, they're in the tax, in order to keep him, they'll almost certainly have to super-max, and doing that locks their team in and still over the cap and hitting the repeater tax for the foreseeable future. They absolutely had to make a move - they had James O'Connor on the block but needed to be much more aggressive about moving him - at the very least dumping his salary to a tanking team and giving up a pick to do it. Failing to find a taker for O'Connor means their fallback plan should have been to shop Anthony Davis for a massive rebuilding package. Doubt they tried to do that, either. The Pistons will be good next year, but will start getting suffocated by the tax without many moves to make short of a rebuild - and with Davis 33 next season and taking body blows from the TC gods, once he finally gets to the point where he can't carry them any more, I expect a long, cold, Detroit winter.
BUCKS
The Bucks did exactly what non-contending teams should do at the trade deadline - they made a trade to let a team that was capped out dump salary and picked up an asset in doing so. It wasn't a great asset - the Celtics' 2nd round pick - but the trade market was inexplicably soft this season so they made out as well as you would expect under the circumstances.
PACERS
They didn't have much cap room, but they're not going anywhere this season, and don't have any overpriced assets to try to dump to clear their books in the future nor underpriced assets to entice other teams with. On the other hand, they also didn't have their own draft pick; they probably should have looked to package up three assets that add up to a max to a team looking to get rid of an overpriced but still productive player to give themselves a shot in the arm this season. Losers, but just barely.
CAVALIERS
This is a bad team that let the trade deadline expire with over $22 million in cap space available. That's enough to coax some assets out of a team that is deep in the luxury tax. They really should have tried to find a deal to offer cap relief on expiring deals in exchange for some future assets. That they didn't - or couldn't - make such a deal makes them a trade deadline loser.
HAWKS
Pulled the trigger on a deal to ship salary and points off to the Thunder in exchange for dropping their tax liability. Wall wasn't quite the solution they'd hoped for at backup PG and so it made sense to find a way to dump him. Finding a way to dump more salary would have been nice, but the Hawks wind up as winners at the trade deadline because their moves helped them lower their tax bill.
MAGIC
In the perfect position of being in the chase for their division, home court in the playoffs, and under the tax line. Didn't need to make any moves at the deadline unless it made them a better team. Standing pat is perfectly fine. Won simply by not "making a move just to make a move" and staying the course.
HEAT
See my notes on the Pacers. The Heat don't have their own pick, and with the little bit of cap space they have should have been looking to pick up some sort of asset from a cap-distressed team in order to allow them to put a little better product on the floor this season. They did make noise on the trade block, but this grade is for results, not effort, and so the Heat were losers at the deadline.
WIZARDS
Remember when I said this was about results, not effort? It's hard to think of a bigger loser at the trade deadline than the Wizards this season. Despite a team that has been over .500 they were going to have a hard time making the playoffs in a loaded East, so they decided to bail out. They had a trade lined up to dump Bonifaz Wenninger's salary and drop themselves out of the tax, they had it posted by the deadline, the Bobcats signed off on it... and they got tripped up by the small detail that Louie Thomas of the Bobcats wasn't trade-eligible. Which means all their hard work went out the window, and they remained well over the tax line. That sucks, and they're the losers at the deadline you fell bad for. It's an object lesson as to why it's better to get a trade done early than get it done at the last minute (yes, i know, it takes two to tango and other owners drag their feet).
BOBCATS
I pretty much explained why the Wizards were losers at the deadline, and the Bobcats were losers for pretty much the same reason. They didn't pay close enough attention to the details and it cost them points and left them with extra cap space they could have used to absorb salaries from other teams. This trade blowing up managed to cost both the Wizards and the Bobcats significant points. A for effort, but you're still losers at the deadline.
NUGGETS
Best record in the league and cuts getting you a hair under the luxury tax means you only need to trade if it makes your team significantly better. The Nuggets are winners at the deadline for not screwing up a good thing.
TRAILBLAZERS
Yet another struggling team without its own pick and a minimum of cap space. The concern here is the Blazers are pretty much locked into this roster next season and so don't expect much to change next year except they'll have their own pick. Making a move to find a taker for Jaylen Brown, who at 28 will be in decline by the time the rest of the Blazers' young pups are ready to compete, would have been a great idea - even losing on talent to dump his salary would have been acceptable. But the Blazers didn't do that, so they find themselves being labelled trade deadline losers.
TIMBERWOLVES
Everyone loves Raby, and maybe the worry of being a new father kept him distracted, but my goodness, with almost $38 million in cap space, the Timberwolves had ample opportunity to suck up some bad contracts and get picks and/or points in return. The worst part of it is, it's not like the Timberwolves have a bunch of young prospects waiting in the wings to develop, either - the Wolves should have been in a mode to stockpile picks a la the Bucks. Sorry, Raby, I have to call them like I see them and the Wolves were trade deadline losers.
JAZZ
The Jazz are in full rebuild mode following a scare from the tax man and while they're having a bad year, they do have a couple of young studs, they have their own pick, and they didn't have a lot of cap space to absorb other teams' contracts in exchange for assets. It would have been nice for them to find a way to wring some points out of a trade, but they didn't have a lot to work with. Neither winners, nor losers... they were neutral.
THUNDER
The Thunder snagged themselves some points and a rookie-deal Marcos Reams from the Hawks and Brian Foote from the Suns (guys they must hope the TC gods will bless) with some of their bounteous cap space. However, with $32 million in cap still remaining after the deadline, you kind of wish they had gotten more. Things are about to get expensive as they have a blue-potential RFA every season for the next four years at least, so you figure their window to add talent is probably only the next two off-seasons. They're winners, because they turned some cap space into points, but not as big of winners as they could have been.
KINGS
Leading the Pacific Divison and a modest tax bill means the Kings didn't really need to worry about making moves, and they didn't. With all of their salary tied up in four key players, any move to get under the tax would have meant breaking up a successful core. Doing nothing was the right move. Winners.
LAKERS
The Lakers are surging for the first time in years; while I'm not a fan of Tristan Bosworth and think the move to be made for the Lakers was to drop an expiring Bosworth deal on a team with cap space and send along some points, I can also see why Tray didn't do anything. Of course, the cynic in me tells me it's because the Lakers are on semi-cruise control and Tray wouldn't have made a move even if he had to.
SUNS
The Suns managed to pick up a better-than-normal-yellow Kyrie Irving and decent rotation big Jamey Brown from the Thunder; this may have been the best move of all of them since it makes the Suns a substantially more dangerous out in the playoffs. While I don't think it will let them challenge the likes of the Kings and the Nuggets, with the right first-round matchup they could now make some noise. Winners for sure.
WARRIORS
With a little over $11 million in cap space, the Warriors had some room to absorb some salary and take on future assets. Unfortunately for the Warriors, they made some overpays in Free Agency and ate up a lot of cap space then, and compounded the error by making those deals more than one season (or at least one plus a team option). So those moves really hampered their ability to deal at the trade deadline, but since they know they're stuck with another year of Kanter, they probably should have been willing to take on a contract with a couple of years on it in exchange for points or something good - their cap won't be clean for at least another full season and any players they draft now won't be ready until after that anyway. Losers because they couldn't get something for that $11 million in cap space because this is about results.
CLIPPERS
If the Wolves were bad, the Clippers were worse. Almost $45 million in cap room at the deadline and absolutely nothing pried away from luxury tax teams in return. The Clips may be trying to tank for the #1 pick, but you could have at least gone out and brought in some points by taking on some bad contracts. This was an opportunity to put stuff into the cupboard for the future and nothing happened. The only reason they're not the biggest loser is the denied Wizards/Bobcats trade.
ROCKETS
While not as dominant as the Nuggets, the Rockets are leading their division as of this writing and are just a whisker under the cap. No need to mess with a good thing; winners for not upsetting a great situation with a trade.
SPURS
They're over the cap, but they're right in the mix for the division and don't have any obviously bad contract they would want to get rid of - everyone making substantial money is part of the playoff core. I can't call them winners, exactly, because of their tax status, but because of their playoff status they aren't losers either. Calling their trade deadline neutral feels about right.
PELICANS
Nick is back off of cruise control and made a minor move with the 76ers to improve his team without really increasing his payroll (presumably because the 76ers wanted a guy they could cut free of cap holds). Improving your team without hurting your tax status? That's a win. Good job, Nick!
MAVERICKS
The Mavs put their whole team on the block and appear ready to rebuild... and got no takers. The good news is they're under the cap. The bad news is they waited about two seasons too long to trade Bradley Beal and now they're probably stuck with his contract. Can't really call them winners because they're not good enough to have wanted to stand pat, but they're not in the tax either, so can't call them losers. Yet another neutral grade for the Southwest.
GRIZZLIES
With $12 million in cap space, the Grizzlies could probably have absorbed some more salary to continue stockpiling payments on their luxury tax bill. Have to say I was a little mystified at their February 1 signings of veteran minimum guys, who they didn't need to facilitate a trade and who did eat into their cap space some - the Grizz probably could have opened up as much as $20 million or so. The Grizz will argue they made their trade deadline deal at Day 60 when they got Keith Pfeffer - but that's the Day 60 mark, not the trade deadline. The Grizzlies wasted an opportunity and so are trade deadline losers.
Yo, points czar - 2,688 words. Count 'em yourself if you like.