2019 NBA Trade Deadline Winners and Losers, Ranked from 30 to 1

Every NBA team made big deadline decisions, whether they made a trade or not. Let’s rank the outcomes from 30 to 1…

The 2019 NBA trade deadline has come and gone, and a whopping 24 trades big and small conspired over the past week. All but a few NBA teams were in on some sort of a move, while players like Marc Gasol, Tobias Harris, and Kristaps Porzingis were among the marquee names traded.

Every team did not make a trade, but all 30 teams made big decisions. Inaction is a decision too, so even sitting on your roster is a Deadline Day action. If you didn’t get better, your opponent might have. If you didn’t tank harder, an enemy may have slid ahead in the lottery odds. Every NBA team was affected at the trade deadline, whether they made a move or not.

So which teams should be happiest with the recent player movement, and which ones left fans wanting more? Let’s rank every team from 30 to 1, from the league’s biggest losers to the ultimate trade deadline winners…

The Big Losers

30. Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies are the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline Biggest Loser. We’ve been clamoring for Memphis to blow it up for years now and they finally did it — or did they? The Grizz did finally trade Marc Gasol but got nothing that will impact their future. Jonas Valanciunas will replace Gasol in the lineup and continue to block Jaren Jackson Jr. from his true position at center. JV and C.J. Miles will actually make more than Gasol next year, so Memphis didn’t exactly shed salary. The prize in the deal was Delon Wright, a decent point guard playing out the final months of his rookie deal. Now the Grizzlies will have pleasure of overpaying a 27-year-old this summer who will be past his prime by the time the team is relevant again. Yay?

Memphis also gave away two rotation players on expiring deals in JaMychal Green and Garrett Temple, weirdly getting back Avery Bradley in a deal that facilitated the Gasol trade. But the biggest Memphis name is still there, as the Grizz couldn’t find the right deal for Mike Conley. Maybe there wasn’t a great return out there, but Conley’s value will only drop as he continues to age.

Instead the Grizzlies remain stuck in no man’s land. They gave away two second-rounders for Justin Holiday, then got nothing for him, Temple, or Green. They won’t make the playoffs but also might not be tankalicious enough to keep their top-8 protected pick. Finishing with the league’s sixth-worst record would have meant a 96% chance of keeping their pick; eighth-worst drops them to 61%, ninth-worst just 20%. You figure Conley finally gets moved this summer — if he’s still healthy enough to be moved — and the Grizzlies head into next year with a lineup of Delon, Avery, Miles, JJJ, and JV?

Memphis waited way too long to break up Conley and Gasol. Now they’ve only compounded the mistake by continuing to wait longer.

29. Washington Wizards

The Wizards were already the biggest loser of the week with the news of John Wall’s torn Achilles, but at least that came before the trade deadline, leaving Washington plenty of time to tear it all down. But wait! The Wizards announced earlier this week they had no intention of trading their guys. But wait! They traded Otto Porter anyway. Too bad they didn’t get anything for him. Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis are effectively expiring deals for the Wiz, who are already around $90 million next year even without Otto. They also gave away Markieff Morris with a second-rounder to save some cash.

But then they stopped short, keeping players like Trevor Ariza (who already cost them Kelly Oubre) and Jeff Green along with All-Star Bradley Beal. Ariza should’ve netted a pick, and this was the perfect time to sell high on Beal, complete the tear-down and start over. Beal is entering his prime with three years left on his contract and could’ve netted a windfall. His value only goes down from here. The Wizards could’ve tanked this season and next and added a couple great picks by the time Wall is back. Instead, they chose to stick with a team that’s getting worse every year.

28. Philadelphia 76ers

A Ben Simmons, J.J. Redick, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid lineup could be the best five-man lineup outside Oakland. Last year’s Sixers lineup featuring Simmons, Redick, Robert Covington, Dario Saric, and Embiid was the best five-man unit in the league. Butler is Super Covington, equal his defensive ability and ten times his offense. Harris is Super Dario, with a better shot and far more consistent offense. Last year’s team lacked a wing creator; this year’s lacked Dario’s spacing. Butler and Tobias fix those things. Jon Simmons, Mike Scott, James Ennis, and Boban Marjanovic add beef to the bench. The potential here is enormous. The 76ers might now have the highest ceiling in the league besides the Warriors.

And oh boy, they better hope so. Because the Sixers are all-in on this team. A year ago I wrote an article raving about the Celtics and Sixers assets. Philadelphia’s war chest is now empty. It’s just Zhaire Smith, who in typical Philly rookie fashion, hasn’t even played yet. How much better are Butler and Harris than RoCo and Saric? Because starting this summer, they’re going to cost an extra $50 million a season. Assuming Butler and Harris even stay, Philly’s roster should cost around $120 million before even re-signing Redick, and that’s before a Simmons extension next summer. This roster is about to be crazy expensive, and we have no idea if it will even work. Will Butler and Embiid settle for even fewer touches? Will Harris work in a more limited role? This is the third time in a year the Sixers have remade half the roster. Winning basketball takes talent but it also takes chemistry. Will the Sixers have any?

Philadelphia had a long-term future with Simmons and Embiid set up perfectly to age into maturity right as the Warriors dynasty fades. Now the timeline is all wrong. The Sixers are all-in against the strongest East in a decade in hopes of making the Finals to face the most talented team in NBA history. Their player timelines no longer match up. There is no Plan B. Ben Simmons will be more muted than ever and might not have a long-term future if this expensive roster doesn’t perform.

We haven’t even gotten to the details. Thirty games of Tobias Harris cost Philadelphia two first-round picks (one a coveted 2021 Miami pick) plus last year’s pick, Landry Shamet. It felt like an overpay in the moment and feels even more so after Gasol, Porter, Barnes, and Mirotic all failed to fetch a single first-rounder. Is Harris as a fourth option that much better than those names? Tobias also cost Philly Wilson Chandler’s depth, part of the reason they offloaded Former Number One Pick (that’s part of his name now) Markelle Fultz for Jon Simmons. Considering what Fultz is now, getting a decent wing plus late first-round and early second-round picks is a coup. Still, this is a guy they traded their two most prized assets for just two years ago.

The 76ers have gone all-in on 2019. They emptied their war chest for 60 games of Jimmy Butler and 30 games of Tobias Harris. It cost them Covington, Saric, Shamet, Fultz, and two first-round picks. Considering Fultz cost them two firsts and Shamet was their pick last June, that’s five first-round picks and two quality starters on cheap deals for a pair of players that may or may not ever fit or push this team to the next level before walking away or signing a max extension this summer, potentially neither of which is a perfect solution.

If Philadelphia gets to the Finals this June and pushes the Warriors, this whole section could look awfully stupid. They better hope so.

Looks Good at First But I’m Not Buying It

27. Orlando Magic

Markelle Fultz to the Magic made too much sense. Where else would you send a raw, lanky prospect that can’t shoot? It’s Orlando’s specialty, and no team in the league needs a point guard more. The Magic gave up two picks that will probably end up something like 22nd and 34th overall for a guy that went 1st two summers ago, a player I called the best guard prospect since Chris Paul.

That all looks lovely on paper. In real life, Fultz has done nothing the last two years to look like he even belongs in the NBA. The 22nd and 34th pick could probably be traded for something like the 15th pick. Would you draft the current version of Markelle Fultz 15th overall? Would you take him in the first at all? And remember, this version of Fultz is expensive. He’ll cost almost $10 million next year, over $12 million the year after that. This looks like a free tryout, but the far more likely outcome is that Orlando just threw away two valuable picks and a chunk of cap for a guy unlikely to ever make an impact. Taking a chance on Fultz makes sense in theory, but giving up a first-round pick was a shocker. And it’s not like Orlando has shown any ability to develop talent anyway; Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Moe Harkless, E’Twaun Moore, and Dewayne Dedmon were all Magic players in the last five years, and they were so underdeveloped you forgot they ever even played in Orlando. Fultz may be next, if Aaron Gordon, Jon Isaac, and Mo Bamba aren’t first.

Meanwhile Orlando decided to keep pushing for the playoffs at 22–32, getting nothing for expiring deals Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross or for Aaron Gordon’s intriguing contract. There’s a 1% chance that today’s move is the one that finally turns Orlando around and a 99% chance it doesn’t. But hey — at least that fits everything else the Magic have done for the last decade.

26. Sacramento Kings

Trading for Harrison Barnes was predictable. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is obsessed with the Warriors, and Sacramento was the one team in position to take on serious money at the deadline. But the Barnes deal wasn’t a salary dump. Salary dump would imply that Dallas gave up an asset to get rid of Barnes. Instead it was Sacramento giving up Justin Jackson. Jackson isn’t exciting, but he’s a rotation wing on a cheap contract 2.5 more years. That’s not nothing. Neither is the cap space the Barnes contract will eat up. Sacramento could’ve surely gained another pick or two taking on bad money with that cap room. Instead they’re the ones surrendering an asset.

Sacto also dealt Iman Shumpert for Alec Burks and traded Skal Labissiere for Caleb Swanigan which, whatever, but what this team needed was a good small forward and they just traded their two best wings and brought in an overpaid non-star who’s best as a stretch four. Either Barnes plays out of position or takes playing time away from Marvin Bagley or Nemanja Bjelica. This felt like the Kings making moves just to make moves, surrendering a decent young player and valuable cap space to do it.

Middling Teams Going Nowhere Fast

25. Detroit Pistons 24. Charlotte Hornets 23. Minnesota Timberwolves 22. Indiana Pacers 21. San Antonio Spurs

All five of these teams are pushing toward a best-case scenario that involves them losing valiantly in the first round of the playoffs this year. Hooray! And all of them did nothing to move toward or away from that outcome.

The Pistons traded their two best wings for players that can’t help right now and were reportedly unwilling to add a first-round pick to Luke Kennard and Reggie Jackson to get Mike Conley. Detroit is pot-committed to Blake and Drummond; keeping the 17th pick at the expense of Conley was really where you draw the line? The Hornets similarly scoffed at trading a lottery-protected first for Gasol, and don’t forget, they also scoffed at trading Kemba Walker. Now they’ll limp toward a first-round exit before going further into cap hell to re-sign Kemba this summer.

The Wolves watched the Kings and Lakers get better knowing they need to go something like 20–9 down the stretch to make the playoffs, then decided to sit on Taj Gibson, Derrick Rose, Tyus Jones, and Anthony Tolliver and do nothing. The Pacers were hamstrung by the Oladipo injury but could have done something with the expiring Darren Collison, Thad Young, Bojan Bogdanovic, Tyreke Evans, and Cory Joseph deals. San Antonio never does anything at the deadline. These teams were all content to continue down their path of mediocrity without cashing in any of their chips for future assets.

20. Atlanta Hawks 19. Phoenix Suns 18. Brooklyn Nets

The Hawks got nothing for expiring Dedmon and Jeremy Lin deals and failed to trade Kent Bazemore for anything useful, but at least we’ll get more Winging It podcasts. The Suns took on additional salary in Tyler Johnson and didn’t use their cap space to gather picks. The Nets opted to keep DeMarre Carroll and Jared Dudley. At least they’ve been good enough lately to look like a real playoff team, and Lord knows those fans deserve it. Sometimes maybe it’s worth not auctioning every player for a late pick or two.

Slight Winners Are Losers That Should’ve Done More

17. Houston Rockets 16. Portland Trail Blazers 15. Miami Heat

For the second straight year, with a core that’s supposed to contend for a title, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and his approximate $4.5-billion net worth asked his team to cut salary instead of going for the kill. Houston essentially swapped James Ennis for Iman Shumpert, a lateral move that hides the fact that the Rockets also gave away first- and second-round picks to get rid of Brandon Knight’s salary. Nifty moves by Daryl Morey to save Fertitta money, but doesn’t this Rox team deserve to use those picks to add someone that will actually help the team this year?

The Blazers traded a pair of seconds plus Nik Stauskus and Caleb Swanigan for Rodney Hood and Skal Labissiere. It’s the equivalent of shuffling the deck chairs on the Lusitania — not quite the Titanic, but it’s going down soon enough either way. Miami made a miraculous series of moves to turn Tyler Johnson and flotsam into Ryan Anderson and jetsam, potentially ducking the tax, but the team is going nowhere and just made their playoff roster slightly weaker this season for no one’s gain but the owner’s.

These are the sort of nothing moves teams make when they are cap-strapped to hell and back and have to sell something, anything, to their fans.

No Brow For Now

14. Los Angeles Lakers 13. New Orleans Pelicans

Well, thanks for wasting everyone’s time.

The trade deadline came and went and Anthony Davis is still a Pelican, and it doesn’t look like that got even close to changing. Theoretically that should make the Lakers big losers since they may have missed their best window to add Davis, but it looks like New Orleans wouldn’t even take their calls, so how much can we really fault Magic Johnson for that? L.A. rebounded nicely by adding Reggie Bullock and Mike Muscala, two of the exact sort of shooters they should’ve surrounded LeBron with this summer, for two guys in Ivica Zubac and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk that we wouldn’t even know the names of if they weren’t Lakers. If not for the false Pels rumors and alienated kids on the roster, this would actually be a decent deadline for the Lakers. Alas.

The Pelicans are winners for keeping Davis. The Lakers offer should still be there this summer, and there should be better offers from the Knicks or Celtics. But the right road map was to sit on Davis but unload Jrue Holiday at peak value while getting something for Mirotic and Julius Randle. They reportedly didn’t even listen to Holiday offers and never got a first-rounder for Niko, settling for a pupu platter of four seconds that’s actually two (see Bucks section). Now it looks like they’ll screw up their chance at tanking, too.

This could have gone much differently. Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Kyle Kuzma could be New Orleans Pelicans, and Anthony Davis could’ve been on LeBron’s real team instead of his All-Star draft. That would’ve left these teams ranked 1 and 30. Both made out well enough, all things considered.

Did Nothing, Won Anyway

12. Utah Jazz 11. Denver Nuggets 10. Oklahoma City Thunder 9. Golden State Warriors

The top of the East was an all-out arms race. The West sat on its hands. Utah kicked the tires on Conley but made their move earlier this season with Kyle Korver. The Nuggets are just waiting for their roster to get healthy. The Thunder think they’re as good as anyone. The Warriors probably enjoyed a nice afternoon at the spa, though I’m sure there’s at least a small sigh of relief that Anthony Davis has not joined a top contender. None of these teams made a move. They didn’t have to.

8. Boston Celtics

The Celtics didn’t make a move either, outside of dumping Jabari Bird, but their big move was the Anthony Davis one that never happened. This week we all waited for the inevitable Lakers trade. Now that all switches to Boston. The Celtics are heavy favorites to land Anthony Davis this summer. All it took was waiting past 3pm ET.

It wasn’t all rosy for Boston, though. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Toronto all got better, and that could be bad news for the Celtics in May, which could be worse news for them in July. But none of those teams made a game-changing move, and the Celtics still have a roster as good as any of them. You figure Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens are feeling pretty good with the guys they’ve got, knowing there’s even more pressure on their three biggest opponents, each more all-in than ever this summer.

Could Both Teams Win the Porzingis Trade?

6b. Dallas Mavericks 6a. New York Knicks

I’ve gone every direction on the Kristaps Porzingis trade. I loved it at first for the Mavs, before we found out Dallas was giving up a pair of firsts too. That tilted me toward the Knicks awhile before I eventually decided I didn’t love it for either team. And now? Well, for now at least, I think I like it for both.

The truth is we don’t know who won or lost this trade because there are so many variables we simply cannot guess. Will free agents come to New York (or Dallas)? Can Porzingis stay healthy, and is he a superstar? I have serious doubts about Porzingis’s health and that makes me question the ultimate upside, but I also like his upside a lot more as a secondary option with a 19-year-old passing savant than as the best player on a dumpster franchise.

New York sent out Porzingis plus two bad contracts in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee. Dallas gave two future firsts, expiring Wes Matthews and DeAndre Jordan deals, and estranged lottery pick Dennis Smith Jr.

I like this deal a lot better for Dallas in combination with the Harrison Barnes deal. Turning Barnes into Justin Jackson was a stroke of genius. Barnes and DSJ would have cost only about $1 million less next season than THJ and Lee will, so this second deal undoes the financial pain from the Porzingis deal. Dallas has traded away four of its opening day starters and turned the team over to Doncic and Porzingis at no real additional cost to the books. Suddenly they’re free agent players again this summer, with just enough room for a max addition. You think playing for Mark Cuban with Doncic and Porzingis in sunny no-income-tax Texas might have some allure? Dallas could have one more chip, too. With all the starters gone and Porzingis still on the mend, the Mavs could tank to the 7th or 8th worst record, which would give them around a 26-to-32% chance of keeping their top-five protected pick. That could give them a third rookie-deal starter with Doncic and Jackson along with a 23-year-old unicorn and max cap room.

This can still go very south. The NBA is littered with the corpses of oft-injured big men whose legs couldn’t hold up to their seven-foot abilities. Porzingis could be a unicorn one minute but a dodo bird the next, another NBA extinction on a huge deal. Dallas is all-in on this duo. They effectively invested five first-round picks in a seven-year window on Doncic and Porzingis, three of those picks still to come, so there won’t be many opportunities to add to this core. It’s Luka and KP or bust.

New York has gone the exact opposite direction. Instead of going all-in on a Porzingis future, the Knicks chose asset diversification. There are four real ways to build an NBA team: draft picks, young players, free agency, or trade. Thanks to the Porzingis trade, the Knicks now have something cooking in all four pots. They have their pick this summer, as good a chance as anyone at landing franchise changer Zion Williamson, plus all their future picks and two Mavs picks. They have Dennis Smith Jr. and Kevin Knox, who will get all the developmental minutes they need the rest of the season. And they can combine any of that stuff in a trade offer for someone like Anthony Davis this summer. Who’s to say the Mavs won’t like Knox or DSJ better than Jayson Tatum by then, or what if the Knicks win the lottery and make the pick available?

New York also has cap room for not one but two max free agents. Come on down, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, or Kawhi Leonard, or Klay Thompson and friends. KD, Kawhi, and Kyrie all appear more likely to leave their current homes than stay at this moment in time, and two of them could choose to play together in New York. Of course, everything in recent history tells us they won’t. Who wants to play for Knicks owner James Dolan? No one, that’s who.

The realists among us assume New York will spend all that money this summer no matter how low they have to stoop, even if it means talking fans into Kemba Walker and Boogie Cousins on dueling max deals. The pessimists might also point out that the Knicks could have just not overpaid Tim Hardway Jr. in the first place, not given Porzingis away, and still had double max room. But the optimist realizes the Knicks walked away from a big extension they didn’t seem excited to offer and turned that player into two picks, a talented young point guard they coveted, and significant cap relief.

The Porzingis trade was painted as a New York salary dump and a shot at a couple free agents. If it were just those two things, I’d hate it for the Knicks. It’s a decision to avoid going all-in on one volatile asset, instead diversifying their assets and leaving themselves many paths to positivity. That’s just smart investing. And for once, it feels like the Knicks have an investment plan.

Even Losers Can Be Winners for One Day

5. Chicago Bulls

A lot of hipster analysts are dumping on the Bulls. I don’t get it. Chicago traded two pieces that aren’t part of their future in Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis and got an outstanding but overpriced forward in Otto Porter. If it weren’t for Otto’s salary, this would be a deal so outlandish it’d start an angry 300-email chain in your fantasy league causing five people to quit. Jabari is a nothing burger. Portis is nice but about to be overpaid himself, meaning the Bulls were five months away from offering him something like $14 million a year to come off their bench. Would you rather have a bench big and $13 million of cap room you can’t use or a top-ten small forward?

And that’s the thing about Otto Porter: he’s pretty good. He’s easily a top-ten small forward, an advanced metrics darling 3-and-D wing that’s hit 40% of his career threes and a player that improves every roster in the NBA. He’s the perfect low-usage complimentary player a team with Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen needs, someone to play defense and hit open shots. Compare Porter to other fringe-top-ten forwards like Tobias Harris, Robert Covington, and Jayson Tatum. Harris cost Philly three first-round picks. Covington was the centerpiece of the Jimmy Butler deal. Tatum could net the Celtics Anthony Davis. Otto Porter might be as good as any of them, and the Bulls got him for two expiring deals.

Is Porter overpaid? Certainly. But he’s easily worth at least $18 to $20 million, so the marginal cost to Chicago is just $7 to $9 million, a price the Bulls can afford to pay for a talent-starved roster full of cheap, young players, especially since they’d have probably just given the money to someone like Cristiano Felicio otherwise. Some will point out that the Bulls will pay LaVine and Porter $47 million next year, but that’s cherry-picking. The Bulls will also pay Porter, Markkanen, and Wendell Carter Jr. just $38 million, and that’s a downright bargain.

Is Porter better as a complimentary player? Absolutely. But the Bulls have to start somewhere, and they’re now a good point guard away from being the fifth or sixth best team in the East. Porter is paid like a star and he isn’t even a second banana. He’s a third banana on a good team and a fourth one on a great team, and by the time the Bulls are either of those things, Porter will probably be on another roster. But he can help the team in the meantime, and he can help the key parts of Chicago’s future by helping them grow in a complimentary role. Porter finished each of the last two seasons among the top-25 in real plus-minus in the NBA. The Bulls got him for nothing. Quibble with the details all you like, but that’s a slam dunk this city hasn’t seen since MJ.

4. Cleveland Cavaliers

Credit where it’s due — post-LeBron Cleveland has made every move a rebuilding team should make. The Cavs went all-in during the LeBron era as they should have, mortgaging future picks and assets for players around this time every year. This year they’ve done the opposite, trading away Korver, Burks, Hood, George Hill, and Sam Dekker in independent deals that netted them a whopping seven second-round picks and two firsts, too. All those extra 2s only really restocks an otherwise barren cupboard, but a restocked cupboard is far better than an empty one.

Cleveland has a quality shot at Zion, and even if they don’t get him, they’ll add two first-rounders, then do this all again next year when they can auction off Tristan Thompson and Jordan Clarkson for more future picks. And they did all of that without taking on any money past next summer. It’s still a long road back to relevance to Cleveland, but they’re headed in the right direction.

The Three Big Winners

3. Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks have quietly become a juggernaut, with the profile of a championship team any non-Warriors year. To that team they added another huge weapon in Nikola Mirotic, a gunner with endless range who fits the stylings and spacing of this team to a tee. Mirotic cost four second-round picks but zero firsts, and two of the seconds are Milwaukee and Denver picks that will come in the 50s, making them almost useless. They’re throw-ins designed to make the deal more palatable to Pelicans fans. Mirotic cost two seconds.

He gives Milwaukee an alternative bomber to Brook Lopez and one that plays a little more defense. He also gives the Bucks another option this summer as an unrestricted free agent along with Eric Bledsoe, Khris Middleton, and Lopez. It’s always good to have additional options. Mirotic does that for the Bucks both now and into the future.

2. Toronto Raptors

If I had to pick one player traded at the deadline most likely to impact May and June, it would be Marc Gasol. Gasol is not the All-Star he once was, but he’s still a huge upgrade over Jonas Valanciunas. Gasol is a far better passer and can actually shoot the ball, so he adds multiple dimensions to this offense. He’s also a former Defensive Player of the Year and remains one of the league’s best post defenders, and he’ll be invaluable if the Raps have to deal with Joel Embiid or Boogie Cousins in the playoffs. Valanciunas got played off the court when the games mattered most. Gasol is too versatile for that.

It’s astonishing how little Toronto gave up for Gasol. The price was just Valanciunas, C.J. Miles, Delon Wright, and a measly second-rounder. All three players were peripheral to Toronto’s future, and none would have been more than bit players in a playoff series. JV and C.J. were actually negative salary, and the Raptors will actually save money paying Gasol instead of those two next year.

Some of the Toronto buzz has been fading, but the Raptors’ upside this year is their versatility, and they just added even more layers to the onion. They already have some of the most confounding potential defensive lineups in the league. Now they add a post threat on both ends, a floor-spacing center, and the league’s most prolific elbow facilitator. Toronto can play fast or slow. They can defend or try to score. They can go big or small or just long. Now they can space the entire floor, and they can defend a dominant big man. They can do a bit of everything.

The greatest trick Masai Ujiri ever pulled was getting any NBA GM to trade with him after he keeps pulling off this crap time after time. Consider that the Raptors added Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol in the same season without giving up Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby and just one first-round pick. That’s sheer wizardry! He’s a witch! The crown jewel youngsters in deals for Kawhi and Gasol were Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright. How? How?!

The crazy thing is this deal probably helps Toronto next year too. Even if The Worst ends up happening, Lowry, OG, Siakim, Ibaka, and Gasol is still a playoff team out East. And if nothing else, Marc completes the Gasol cycle with a return north of the border, and honestly, that just feels right.

1. Los Angeles Clippers

But even Ujiri can’t match Jerry West, THA GOD.

The Clippers get it. They’re the one team that decided against the treadmill of mediocrity and created a path to the future instead. The Clippers are hanging by a thread to the West 8-seed. Almost any other team in the league would dig in their heels, trade a pick for a rotation player, and grind toward an inevitable first-round playoff exit. Not the Clippers.

Instead, they shocked everyone sending out Tobias Harris for sharpshooting rookie Landry Shamet, three future Sixers picks including one first, and a 2021 Miami first-round pick every team in the league wants. Then if that wasn’t enough, Jerry West flipped Avery Bradley for two useful players in JaMychal Green and Garrett Temple, somehow saving money next season, then turned new addition Mike Muscala into a cheap, young center in Zubac. Add it all up and the Clippers gave up Tobias, Bradley, Boban, and Mike Scott for Shamet, Wilson Chandler, JaMychal, Temple, Zubac, two firsts, and two seconds, all while reducing their 2019–20 salary and clearing a path to two max salary slots in sunny Los Angeles. Oh the humanity!

Roll back the clock even further. Less than two years ago, these Clippers were stuck on the CP3-Blake train to Nowhere. Then instead of letting Chris Paul leave for nothing or giving him the fat contract Houston is stuck with, the Clips turned CP3 into Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley, and a first-round pick they traded for Danilo Gallinari. Then after signing Griffin to a mega deal, they turned Blake into Tobias, Boban, Avery, and the pick that became Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Add up all the pieces. Here, let me help you.

Chris Paul + Blake Griffin = Shai, Shamet, Harrell, Lou Will, Gallinari, Zubac, two future firsts, two future seconds, a full bargain season from Tobias and Boban, and bargain half-seasons from Temple, Chandler, and JaMychal

That’s how you turn around a franchise! The Clippers went from a bottom-10 future among NBA teams in 2017 to top-10, maybe even better depending on the summer. There’s one other thing the Clippers got — they avoided the franchise-crippling deals Blake and CP3 have saddled Detroit and Houston with going forward. There are no franchise-crippling deals in L.A., just Gallinari on a nearly-expiring deal, a heap of young and/or bargain talent, a lot of picks, and a ton of impending cap room.

Remember how New York diversified its assets? The Clippers did, too. Instead of hanging on for certain playoff loss and overpaying Tobias this summer, the Clippers pivoted. Now they’ve got young players Shai and Shamet that could turn into starters. They added a bunch of picks and could add another if they miss the playoffs and keep this year’s pick. They could have a legit trade package for Anthony Davis if New Orleans really likes Shai or Gallinari. And of course there’s the massive impending cap room with NBA superstar whisperer Jerry West waiting to make the final pitch.

For all the posturing on Davis trades, and for all the cap room the Knicks just cleared, and for all the noisy purple and gold neighbors, the Los Angeles Clippers might just be the sleeping giant that could rise this summer. Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler already said they want to play in L.A. Kevin Durant already has a relationship with West. Kyrie Irving could overshadow LeBron in his own city.

The 2019 NBA trade deadline was all about an Eastern arms race on the surface. But when we look back a year from now, don’t be surprised if it’s the Clippers that were the real trade deadline winners all along.

Stats courtesy of Basketball Reference. Thoughts are my own but inevitably conglomerated from a litany of people I follow on Twitter and podcasts I consume. Thanks to Jeff Siegel and Early Bird Rights for help with the various cap numbers.

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