Navigating calm waters at the NBA trade deadline

Buddy Hield, Bojan Bogdanovic and P.J. Washington headlined the list of players moved on deadline day. We're using the word "headlined" liberally.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Norham Castle, Sunrise; J.M.W. Turner; 1845

The story of the 2024 NBA trade deadline wasn’t desperation or surrender. Frankly, it was a deadline defined by confidence. As in, most true blue contenders didn’t make major moves.

Look at the full list of moves from this week.

The Boston Celtics tinkered around the edges, bringing in Xavier Tillman and Jaden Springer at the cost of second-round picks. The Denver Nuggets and L.A. Clippers stayed put. The Minnesota Timberwolves made a deal for Monte Morris at the cost of a couple of deep rotation players. The Oklahoma City Thunder traded a couple of their seconds for Gordon Hayward. The Milwaukee Bucks traded for Patrick Beverley and reduced their salary cap number. The Cleveland Cavaliers stayed put.

The New York Knicks, knocking on contention’s door if they can get healthy, went a bit more aggressive, relinquishing beguil(ed/ing) Quentin Grimes, salary filler and two seconds for Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks. You assume that once the Knicks are whole in a few weeks, both Detroit exiles will come off the bench. That will help this team a lot, theoretically. It might be enough to make New York a real Eastern Conference Finals contender, if they weren’t already (which they very well might have been). This move looks like a stated belief that the team is good enough right now with a little more non-All-Star help.

The Dallas Mavericks, still sitting in the play-in zone in the West having been punched in the face repeatedly by the injury bug (that bug is ripped, don’t mess with it), went a bit more bold. You can call them the winner of the 2024 Most Aggro Deadline Team award. They ended up moving two firsts plus summer signings Grant Williams and Seth Curry to add P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. The NBA discourse, which neither Klay Thompson or I partake in, has determined that the Mavericks have done the best work this deadline.

If I did partake in NBA discourse on the internet, my take on the Mavericks is that those firsts were the team’s best remaining tools to upgrade, the team sold low on Williams to get Washington, who isn’t dissimilar to Williams except he’s historically a worse deep shooter, albeit in a much, much different team context. Gafford is a really nice third-tier center who will help when the Mavericks’ existing third-tier center, rookie Dereck Lively III, can’t go or shrinks. When both are healthy, it does give Jason Kidd 48 potential minutes of legitimate center instead of Maxi Kleber, Dwight Powell or other too-small options up there. I’m just not sure that Dallas has upgraded its shooting around Luka and Kyrie, or its point-of-action and wing defense, which are the two greatest needs here. The Mavericks were certainly the most aggressive team at the deadline. They were in that conversation last year, selling the farm for Kyrie Irving. Aggressiveness isn’t always the solution. But we’ll find out in time. It could just be that proving to Luka the front office isn’t satisfied with a play-in bid is worth the risk of treading water with first-round picks going out.

The Suns gave up a couple of theoretical rotation pieces, three seconds and a first-round pick swap to add Royce O’Neale and David Roddy. O’Neale will quite likely platoon with Grayson Allen as the fifth Sun in closing line-ups. Roddy should get a chance to soak up some minutes. I have some questions about the Suns’ team-building philsophy that required giving up what little draft equity remained to add Royce O’Neale and David Roddy to the roster because the injury-riddled roster is four games out of fourth place with 30 games to go.

And finally, we get to our beloved Philadelphia 76ers, who are playing a shell game with our hearts.