Which NBA deadline deals actually matter?

A cruise through the NBA standings to assess which teams are in position to climb or fall.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Castle and Sun, Paul Klee, 1928

There were a helluva lot of deals at the NBA trade deadline. In fact, only one team — the Chicago Bulls — ended up making zero in-season trades this year. Only two — the Bulls and the Washington Wizards, who traded Rui Hachimura earlier in trade season — didn’t make deals this week.

But not all of these transactions will actually impact the standings. Below we cruise through the standings in each conference and assess what the impacts from the moves made might be.

East

1. Celtics: + Mike Muscala, - Justin Jackson, - two seconds. The most minor of moves! Boston is not afraid of its rivals in the East, and arguably not afraid of any West teams either.

2. Bucks: + Jae Crowder, - Jordan Nwora, - Serge Ibaka, - George Hill, - an entire bucket of seconds. We haven’t seen Crowder play since the postseason, but he would seem to fit a role that Milwaukee needs for a 3-and-D wing to help stretch the floor for Giannis and help mark Boston’s wing scorers in a potential showdown.

3. Sixers: + Jalen McDaniels, - Matisse Thybulle. McDaniels is a bigger, more likely to shoot (and make) threes version of Thybulle without the hyperimpressive on-ball defense highlight reels. If he can hit 38% of his threes in Philly as he has in two of his four NBA seasons, that’d be a nice bonus for the Sixers.

4. Cavaliers: No deals. The Nets implosion helps Cleveland secure the likely No. 4 seed and a plausibly easier first-round series. No teams behind the Cavaliers made major upgrades, which is a net positive.

5. Nets: LOL. - Kevin Durant, - Kyrie Irving, - Markieff Morris, - T.J. Warren, - Kessler Edwards, + Dorian Finney-Smith, + Spencer Dinwiddie, + Mikal Bridges, + Cam Johnson, + lots of firsts and seconds. I can’t wait to see the Nets’ bizarre future draft picks situation once it’s all sorted out! Obviously, Brooklyn is no longer a contender. But because they didn’t trade any more wings on Thursday, they will not be bottoming out this season — it’s still a play-in team at worst (7.5 games above No. 11) and possibly still a top-6 seed. It’s going to one weird team to watch!

6. Heat: - Dewayne Dedmon, + cash. Miami makes a tax-saving move and protects the rest of its massage guns. The Heat are three games behind Brooklyn in the loss column. How quickly do they pass them? My feeling is a might take a little!

7. Knicks: - Cam Reddish, - Ryan Arcidiacono, - Svi Mykhailiuk, - a first that is probably actually four seconds, + Josh Hart. Hart is a big upgrade on the wing and should be a Thibodeau favorite. The 2023 first sent to Portland becomes four seconds if the Knicks make the playoffs. So the only way this could go wrong is if New York is stuck in the play-in and gets beat twice. I don’t find that likely, but … you never know.

8. Hawks: + Saddiq Bey, + Bruno Fernando, + Garrison Mathews, - Justin Holiday, - Frank Kaminsky, - a bunch of seconds. Interesting moves! The Holiday loss stings a bit, and that’s a cost-cutting move seemingly (?) necessary due to absorbing Bey’s contract. Bey has a long-range trigger that Atlanta actually needs, but the fact that Detroit was willing to move him on for James Wiseman is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. Interesting moves. That’s all.

9. Bulls: No moves. 26-29 on the season. Four games out of the security of the No. 6 seed. Welp.

10. Raptors: + Jakob Poeltl, - Khem Birch, - a protected first and a couple of seconds. LOL. The Raptors were the supposed keystone of the entire trade deadline … and they upgraded their center position and stood pat on everything else, including free agent to be Fred VanVleet and hot name OG Anunoby. Toronto has upgraded the center position at the deadline and went on an enormous run before. But Poeltl isn’t quite Marc Gasol and the rest of these Raptors aren’t quite the rest of those Raptors. This makes them a bit more interesting for now. 4.5 games out of No. 6 with 26 games to go.

11. Wizards: No moves since the Rui Hachimura trade. 1-2-3 play-in! Maybe!

12. Pacers: + George Hill, + Jordan Nwora, + Serge Ibaka, + some seconds, + cash, - cap space. Indiana loaned out its cap space to save the Bucks some money in exchange for some seconds. Nwora will probably get a look. Maybe Hill will retire as a Pacer? Anyway, Indiana doesn’t appear to be all that interested in pushing for a play-in nod. They’re only one game out but also just two games better than Orlando. Sliding lower could help them in the lottery.

13. Magic: - Mo Bamba, + Patrick Beverley, + cash. Is Patrick Beverley going to get bought out? Or is Orlando going to try to make a run at the play-in? I’m a little confused, but Bamba really didn’t figure into Orlando’s future at this point, so it’s all probably just a shrug.

14. Pistons: + James Wiseman, - Saddiq Bey, - Kevin Knox. OK, sure, see if James Wiseman is an NBA player given time and a lack of the harsh spotlight. Knock yourself out. Maybe I’m out of the loop on the Pistons, but I’m pretty surprised this is the prize for Bey.

15. Hornets: - Mason Plumlee, - Jalen McDaniels, + Reggie Jackson, + Svi Mykhailiuk, + 2 seconds. It sounds like this will end up being a buyout for Jackson, so Charlotte gets a little worse by losing Plumlee and McDaniels (two of their few NBA quality players) for the price of a couple of second round picks. I’m starting to wonder about whether Charlotte is fully invested in trying to win games this season!

West

1. Nuggets: - Bones Hyland, + Thomas Bryant, - Davon Reed. I’m not going to lie: I’m a little flummoxed by this one. I know the vibes have reportedly be off with Hyland, given his role and his deference to the team’s better players, including Nikola Jokic. And I also know that the Nuggets need a center not named DeAndre Jordan to help back up Jokic. But … trading Hyland to a West rival given that Bryant is on an expiring deal and Hyland had two more cheap years remaining, when you’re already quite capped out and it will be hard to add talent via free agent going forward? Either the vibes were totally untenable or this is pretty shortsighted. Maybe both! Anyway, with the Suns and Mavericks leveling up, the past few days were pretty awful for the Nuggets. No way around it.