2020 NBA Trade Deadline Winners and Losers

Why the Clippers are big winners, why the Heat actually lost, and how the Knicks and Kings are permanent losers…

THE 2020 NBA TRADE DEADLINE HAS COME AND GONE, and so much for that quiet Deadline we were all promised! A full two-thirds of the NBA made a move over this past week, and there were a few bombshells, including a 4-team 12-player blockbuster and a max-for-max Woj bomb with Minnesota giving Andrew Wiggins for Golden State’s D’Angelo Russell.

If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written, you know I’ve got plenty to say about that last one. Heck, I just wrote an entire column of Wiggins trade ideas two weeks ago and listed Russell as one of four shock Deadline assets that could move last week. I thought the Timberwolves crushed the Warriors in the trade. Here are my extended thoughts on that one.

Let’s look at the other 28 teams and declare some 2020 NBA Trade Deadline winners and losers. You know the drill…

WINNER — LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

The Clippers might not be the biggest winners of the Trade Deadline, but I think they’re the most important winners.

Marcus Morris is part of that. Morris feels a bit overrated to me, not necessarily as a player but as the guy that somehow became the key Deadline asset everyone was fighting over. Morris is fine. He’s a nice quality rotation player that can definitely fill a role on a great team. He’s tough as nails, and he will be ready for the moment. Morris is something like the sixth or seventh most important Clipper now. He’s a nice addition and a huge improvement over Moe Harkless in the biggest games, when Harkless’s lack of offense would’ve likely gotten him played off the court.

Just as important as the Clippers getting Morris was the Lakers not getting him, nor Andre Iguodala or any other help. The Lakers didn’t trade for anyone, and the Bucks didn’t either. Those were my top three title contenders yesterday morning, with the Clippers at 1A. Now they get definitively better and their two key opponents didn’t. That’s huge.

It’s also big that the Clippers didn’t even have to sacrifice much in a trade. Harkless goes to New York, but he was free this summer and gave them 50 good games. The last pick L.A. can trade for a few decades is gone now, but it will be late and it was always meant to be traded. Former lottery pick Jerome Robinson is gone, but he never fit in L.A. and was their least valuable young player.

Marcus Morris is on an expiring contract, but another key here is that the Clippers will now have the opportunity to go over the cap to re-sign Morris.

Last year at the Deadline, I called Marc Gasol the most important acquisition, and Gasol was a champion a few months later. This year, that player might be Marcus Morris.

LOSER — NEW YORK KNICKS

And then there are the Knicks.

The Knicks aren’t losers because they gave up Marcus Morris. They’re losers because they didn’t bother moving anyone else and didn’t even get that great of a haul for the hottest name on the market.

Remember this summer when New York signed all those free agents on short contracts to flip them at the deadline? What happened to all those other moves? Julius Randle is still walking through that door. Bobby Portis is walking through that door. So is Reggie Bullock. So are Elfrid Payton and Wayne Ellington and Taj Gibson.

All those veterans have gotten New York nowhere fast, and now they didn’t net anything in a trade either. They’re almost all potential summer cuts and pretty much all have partial guarantees on dead money next year.

New York could’ve used their cap money this summer to take on Allen Crabbe, who netted the Hawks a first, or Andre Iguodala, who helped the Grizzlies grab a juicy future Warriors pick and got flipped for positive Deadline value. They could’ve absorbed salary and gotten multiple picks and values then.

Instead they got all these veterans they’re stuck with and walk away with a whopping one first-round pick.

Oh, sorry, my editor is telling me they also got swap rights with the Clippers’ 2021 first-round pick. So if the Knicks somehow finish with a better record than the potential champion Clippers, they can swap picks.

Stay delusional, Knickerbockers.

LOSER — MIAMI HEAT

Most columns you read today will list the Heat among the big Deadline winners. I disagree.

I just can’t get that excited about adding Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder to this roster. Crowder is a decent rotation player that became incredibly overrated thanks to his mega-bargain contract that is finally expiring this summer. As a 3-and-D guy, he’s fine but nothing special. He’s hit 34% of his threes only one season in his career and is under 32% over the last three years. He’ll add depth to the back end of the Miami rotation.

Andre Iguodala is the prize, of course, but he’s another name that always seemed overrated as the big Deadline acquisition. Look, Iguodala has been awesome. He has a real Hall of Fame case and is one of the most cerebral players in basketball and an incredible defensive talent. But he’s looked washed for all but about three weeks of the season several years running now, and even then he struggled to find an offensive role as teams ignored him, even in acres of space with historically good shooting around him.

Miami will be a very different environment. No one can match Golden State’s shooting, but the best Heat lineups will already have two other non-shooters in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Iggy can probably be a pretty good Butler replacement for 15 minutes a game, but what else is he adding — and what’s he adding above and beyond what Justise Winslow was already giving?

I don’t hate adding Iguodala, but the $30-million extension (really just $15 million next year with a non-guarantee after that) is a clear overpay, and the Heat lose Winslow too, a player they once turned down four first-round picks for. It hurts to develop a player that long and lose him for a guy with one or two playoff runs in him.

It might be worth it, if you are the Lakers or Clippers and a title is clearly in your sights, but the Heat stopped short and made this a half-measure. By all accounts, they tried to push for Danilo Gallinari but scoffed at paying him past the magical summer of 2021. With Gallo’s shooting and offense, this team could really have been something. Without him, they’re just one of the many non-Bucks team in the East. Their upside is a spirited run to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Miami also dumped Dion Waiters and James Johnson. That’s good. But those guys were coming off the books in a year anyway, so the Heat really only gained cap room this summer when no one else wants it.

Maybe the Heat aren’t losers per se, but I don’t think they won much. Iguodala and Crowder just don’t move the needle a ton at this point.

TBD — MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

I really like the idea of Justise Winslow with the Grizzlies.

Memphis already has one of the league’s most enviable young cores, featuring Ja Morant, Brandon Clarke, Jaren Jackson Jr., Dillon Brooks, and DeAnthony Melton. One thing that core was missing was wing play, with Iguodala and Crowder too old and Kyle Anderson just not the right fit.

Winslow feels like a perfect fit in many ways. He’s another nasty defender that could help this team have a really tough defense in a few years. He can also shoot now, making 38% of his threes the last two seasons, and he’s a great fit as a secondary creator as well. He’s still only 23 too, so he should continue to improve, and his contract is team friendly at $13 million a year with a team option on the end.

The problem with Winslow, of course, is that we’re almost always stuck imagining the idea of him rather than watching him play ball. Winslow missed most of his sophomore season and has played only 11 games this year, and he’s been banged up much of the two years in between. He has developed well and he’s still young, but can he stay healthy enough to make an impact? Memphis is just finally getting out of Chandler Parsons, after all.

And was Winslow enough? The Grizzlies gave up Iguodala and Crowder, and they also took on around $30 million in mostly dead salary next year, taking them almost completely out of this summer’s free agency group. I can’t say I blame them for not being too interested there, but it’s still a real opportunity cost. Memphis didn’t get a single pick in the deal (not that Miami has much to offer), so the Grizz gave them two quality assets and gave the Heat a ton of cap flexibility all for just Winslow, a guy that can’t stay healthy.

Winslow is the best asset in this trade, and Memphis got him, but the price was steep and there’s a lot of risk here. I think I like it, but we’ll see.

WINNER — HOUSTON ROCKETS

I absolutely loved the Robert Covington trade for Houston, and that was even before the Rockets took it to Anthony Davis and the Lakers with their new small-ball lineup.

Houston is all-in on this season when the window is most open, with Russell Westbrook rapidly aging and with the Warriors and Nets not yet a threat. This was no half-measure. They sacrificed Clint Capela and yet another pick and they’re going for it.

If you told me right now the Clippers, Lakers, and Bucks all don’t win the championship this year, I would gasp and say, “Wow, the Rockets really did it, huh?” This trade is all-in on small-ball, switchy defense, and 3>2, and it’s a move toward the highest of variance.

The Rockets get seven chances to win four games. If they hit 25 of 50 threes twice and James Harden goes nuclear two more times, you’re in trouble. And Russell Westbrook has never had this much space to operate in. Love this for the Rockets. They’re going for it.

TBD — ATLANTA HAWKS

The Hawks were another one of the four teams in that 12-player blockbuster deal, and I loved their part — essentially a first-round pick for Clint Capela.

But Atlanta wasn’t done. Thursday they traded for Dewayne Dedmon, a nice stretch big the team already knows fits well on and off the court, but he’s quite expensive as a backup big and sort of undoes the savings the team gets on Capela. Granted, they get Capela and Dedmon both for the cost of what it may have taken to pay someone like Andre Drummond, but they could’ve just stopped with Capela.

The Hawks didn’t give up much for Dedmon, just two late second rounders, but I don’t understand the rush here. The team has nothing to play for now, and Dedmon would have always been available.

With so many of Atlanta’s moves, I like the idea but can’t shake the feeling that they’re overpaying by about 20% each time. They clearly should’ve gotten more trading down from the Luka Doncic pick. They paid way too much to move up for De’Andre Hunter. They overpaid a few free agents and now had to make them go away in this deal, and they didn’t get enough to take on Dedmon.

Those margins add up over time. Atlanta has a ton of margin and still plenty of cap room, but every dollar is useful and the Hawks have a long way to go. I like what they’re doing in theory, but I wish they were doing it better.

WINNER — DENVER NUGGETS

The Nuggets were yet another team in that blockbuster.

Denver didn’t do much, but unlike Atlanta, they nailed the little moves around the margins. Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez were low in the rotation totem pole and headed toward new teams this summer. The Nuggets flipped them for a Houston first round pick that should come in the 20-to-25 range. That pick will essentially replace their own pick, which they traded last summer for Jerami Grant. Grant for Beasley and Hernangomez is good business, especially since they got 50 games from those two as well.

But that’s not it. Denver got Minnesota to throw Noah Vonleh in, and he’ll replace Hernangomez just fine and probably better. They also flipped Shabazz Napier for Jordan McRae, who takes Beasley’s role as bench gunner that can get hot and provide a spark. They also exchanged lottery ticket projects with Minnesota, and Keita Bates-Diop is a better fit for this roster than Jarred Vanderbilt.

Denver didn’t get their big move, but their little moves all made sense and helped the team.

LOSER — DETROIT PISTONS

What exactly are the Pistons doing?

Listen, I’m not exactly a big Andre Drummond guy. You’ll notice a distinct lack of Cleveland Cavs as winners here despite the fact that they got Drummond largely for free. Drummond is known for two skills: rebounding and defense. But Detroit is typically average at best on defense, and Drummond’s teams are frequently better rebounding with him off the court than on. I don’t see the point.

Still, dumping Drummond for nothing more than expiring contracts and a piddly second-round pick is just pathetic. That’s really it? And if it is, you really wouldn’t rather just keep Drummond and make a playoff push?

Even worse, once Drummond was gone, Detroit didn’t bother doing anything else. Derrick Rose was a super obvious trade candidate that would’ve helped any number of teams. Instead he’ll do nothing important for Detroit. Luke Kennard was rumored to be a target for some. He’s still around.

Detroit has no present now, and they haven’t had a future for awhile now. There’s not even an asset on the team worth mentioning outside of Sekou Doumbouya. It’s grim.

WINNER — WASHINGTON WIZARDS

Washington didn’t accomplish much, but at least they did what teams in their position should.

Isaiah Thomas never fit. He’s replaced now with Shabazz Napier, who’s flat out better now, and they also get essentially a free look at Jerome Robinson. I’ve never been a Robinson guy, but he’s young and was a lottery pick only a couple years ago.

It’s not much, but it’s a free look at talent, and the Wizards have shown an ability to take cast-offs like Thomas Bryant, Davis Bertans, and Moe Wagner and turn them into assets. Maybe they can do the same with Robinson.

LOSER — SACRAMENTO KINGS

Have the Kings ever been a winner, at anything?

On the one hand, the Kings had soured on Dewayne Dedmon and got off his contract next year, replacing him with a decent bargain backup center in Alex Len and another dead weight salary in Jabari Parker, and they even got two nothing second rounders for their trouble. Now the Kings have plenty of cap room to pay Bogdan Bogdanovic this summer and keep him around.

On the other hand, the Dedmon deal never made sense on this team in the first place, so the Kings could’ve just not signed him in the first place. Sacramento did this with Trevor Ariza last year too. They keep overpaying veterans that don’t really fit and then immediately dumping them, usually at cost. And now everyone knows they’ll match any Bogdanovic offer, so they may have to pay through their nose to keep him.

Everything else in the NBA may be in constant flux, but at least we know one thing. The Kings stay KANGZ.

MEGA WINNER — MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES MEGA LOSER — GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

Here’s everything you need to know on that one… ■

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