Winners and Losers of the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline: Who Improved, Who Fell Short, and Which Teams Hold the Most Draft Capital?

While no superstars moved on deadline day, many contenders improved heading into the postseason. But which teams got worse?

Who were the biggest winners and losers from the 2024 NBA trade deadline?

There was a flurry of activity in the 24 hours before the deadline expired on Thursday afternoon, although without any current star players changing teams. The biggest trades completed during the 2023-24 season came earlier, with James Harden going to the LA Clippers in November and the Toronto Raptors dealing forwards OG Anunoby (to the New York Knicks) and Pascal Siakam (to the Indiana Pacers ) long before the deadline.

The biggest name considered likely to be traded this week, Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, ended up staying. And the team that supposedly had interest in him, the seasonal tournament champion Los Angeles Lakers, ended up not making a move.

Still, the trades teams made before the deadline have the potential to change the 2024 postseason and beyond. Playoff teams filled major holes, including the league-leading Boston Celtics, who added frontcourt depth with Xavier Tillman Sr., and the rebuilding Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, who stockpiled draft picks . Let’s look at who helped themselves the most at the deadline and who might regret moves made or not made.

Winner: New York Knicks

Even if we don’t include the Anunoby trade, reached in late December, it’s possible that no team has improved more than the Knicks. New York was able to add a pair of quality contributors in Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, filling a long-term scoring need on the second unit and a short-term need in the frontcourt with Anunoby and All-Star Julius Randle currently sidelined due to injury.

Assuming Anunoby and Randle can return, the Knicks have eight quality rotation players, all of whom have playoff experience. They are now loaded with shots around center Isaiah Hartenstein. And New York accomplished all of that without giving up a single first-round pick or hampering the team’s ability to match salary in a potential trade for a star next season.

Loser: Los Angeles Lakers

After dreaming of adding Murray to the superstar duo of Anthony Davis and LeBron James, Lakers fans ended up with the same roster they started the day with. It’s unclear if a big trade would have been the best long-term option for the Lakers if it had cost them a precious first-round pick. However, upgrading the roster would have strengthened the Lakers’ chances of escaping the play-in tournament and making another run like last year’s trip to the Western Conference finals.

The Lakers are still in position to add a buyout candidate because his salary is below the luxury tax. Point guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Lowry would be huge additions with Gabe Vincent still sidelined by arthroscopic knee surgery. However, the Lakers must deal with a new team entering the buyout market after the Philadelphia 76ers dodged the tax with their trades on Thursday. The Sixers can offer more money using their mid-level non-taxpayer exception, the vast majority of which the Lakers spent on Vincent last summer.

By the way, one of the most surprising results of the trade deadline was a move that didn’t happen: the Lakers traded Christian Wood, which could have allowed Los Angeles to avoid paying the luxury tax.

Winner: Trade offers from the Lakers this summer

The result of the Lakers’ decision not to trade a first-round pick now is that they will have three available to trade on draft night. If the New Orleans Pelicans decide to postpone the pick the Lakers owe them until 2025, the Lakers can trade this year’s pick as soon as it is officially made. (The Lakers could make that choice on behalf of another team as part of a prearranged trade.) Otherwise, the Lakers would have their first-round pick available in 2025 in addition to picks in 2029 and 2031, giving them much more draft capital to trade than they had now.

The downside is that LeBron James has a player option for next season, one that he won’t have to exercise until June 29, two days after the draft concludes. LeBron has never been shy about using leverage to encourage his team to go all out, which could force the Lakers to overpay for upgrades at draft time to secure James for another season in Los Angeles.

Loser: Dejounte Murray, still a Hawk

Murray was surely hoping to join his fellow Klutch Sports clients James and Davis in Los Angeles. Instead, he remains stuck in an ill-fitting zone defense with All-Star point guard Trae Young. When Young is on the bench, Murray has produced at an All-Star level himself. According to data from PBPstats.com, Murray is averaging 26.0 points and 7.4 assists per 36 minutes with a true shooting percentage (TS%) of .598 without Young. Those marks compare closely to All-Star starter Damian Lillard’s production this season with the Milwaukee Bucks: 25.4 points and 6.9 assists per 36 minutes with an identical 0.598 TS percentage.

When playing with Young, Murray’s production drops to 19.5 points and 4.0 assists per 36 minutes with a poor .534 TS%. Had Murray not agreed to a four-year extension last summer, he would have been an unrestricted free agent this summer, and perhaps the best agent available in a free agency landscape weakened by extensions and players traded to destinations where they are likely to re-sign. .

Ganador: Boston Celtics

For all the activity at the deadline, little of it involved the championship favorites. Of the four teams with odds under +1500 to win the title on ESPN Bet, neither the defending champion Denver Nuggets nor the LA Clippers made deals involving players on their roster. The Milwaukee Bucks made minor moves, reshuffling their defense by trading the ineffective Cameron Payne for Patrick Beverley and clearing a roster spot by trading Robin Lopez.

All of that leaves the Celtics in the strongest position to win the title. Tillman fills Boston’s biggest need (a relative term) for depth behind centers Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis. The Celtics may still be short of their first championship since 2008, but it probably won’t be because of anything that happened this week.

The Mavericks’ urgency to build a contender around Doncic before he can test unrestricted free agency in 2026 by declining a player option is starting to feel like desperation. To add Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington to its frontcourt, Dallas gave up a 2027 first-round pick that is protected only if it falls among the top 2 picks, as well as a 2028 first-round trade to Oklahoma City Thunder.

Add in the unprotected 2029 first-rounder to the Brooklyn Nets in last year’s pre-deadline deal for Kyrie Irving and the 2030 first-rounder trade the Mavericks executed with the San Antonio Spurs last summer (to get to Grant Williams, who was sent to Charlotte as matching salary in the Washington trade) and suddenly Dallas doesn’t control any of its tradable first-round picks after Luka’s potential free agency. If these moves aren’t enough (consider me skeptical there), the Mavericks could be looking at a bleak post-Doncic future.

Winner: Charlotte Hornets

It turns out that when the Hornets try to stockpile draft picks, they don’t do too badly.

Charlotte got a first-round pick from the Miami Heat for Terry Rozier, while the Dallas pick the Hornets got for Washington might be the best one to change hands all season because of its light protection. Charlotte also got a pair of second-round picks from the Thunder in exchange for accepting $18 million in 2024-25 salary in the Gordon Hayward trade.

None of these picks will help the Hornets right away, but they reflect the organization coming to terms with its rebuilding reality. By the time promising No. 2 pick Brandon Miller and second-year center Mark Williams are ready to form a playoff-caliber core along with LaMelo Ball, Charlotte will be better positioned to support them with young talent and cap flexibility.

By contrast, Chicago’s inactivity was the continuation of a worrying trend. As KC Johnson of NBC Sports tells it, Chicago recently noted that the Bulls have not traded a player since August 2021 and have only traded two players originally acquired by executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas: officials Al-Farouq Aminu and Garrett Temple.

Although Chicago considered a trade for All-Star guard Zach LaVine, no market materialized before he underwent foot surgery. The Bulls opted not to trade impending free agents DeMar DeRozan and Andre Drummond, or deal Alex Caruso at the apparent peak of his value. Instead, Chicago kept the group together for another low-ceiling run during the play-in tournament.

2024-02-09 17:31:00
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