Jake Yono

2/7/25

JY Journalism

My Reaction To The NBA Trade Deadline Madness

Several deals have been executed across the league with the NBA trade deadline approaching. Some notable trades include Jimmy Butler going to the Warriors, Marcus Smart to the Wizards in exchange for a notable player, Marvin Bagley to the Grizzlies, and the Raptors receiving Brandon Ingram in a deal with The Pelicans, which involved Blake Houn and Kelly Olynyk, along with a couple of picks. The Bulls and Hawks made a deal for DeAndre Hunter, giving away Caris Lavert and a couple of pics. Meanwhile, the Wizards and Bucks struck a deal in which Milwaukee received Kyle Kuzma, Patrick Baldwin Jr., and Precious Achiuwa, while the Wizards acquired Khris Middleton and Alondes Williams. The Sixers traded De’Aaron Fox and Jordan McLaughlin for Zach LaVine and future picks, while Chicago received three notable players from Atlanta: John Collins, Kevin Huerter, and Tyus Jones. Luka Dončić was also involved in the Mavericks’ blockbuster deal.

Wow, that was a lot of trades! Based on my data analysis, this season—leading up to the deadline—has surpassed even the 2018-2019 season regarding trades. This marks the most trades in NBA history, topping the previous record set by the Pro Basketball Reference Database. Now, let’s examine how each team has positioned itself. Will they come out positive, or will they face negative consequences? In this article, I will reveal my projected standings for the end of the season and break down each trade, analyzing how it can help or hurt each team.

First in the Jimmy Butler Warriors trade, in part of a 5-team deal, the direct beneficiaries were Golden State and Miami. I think this trade helps Miami the most as they only sent away Jimmy and 2 second round picks to receive Star players Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Davion Mitchell from Toronto who are all at least 5 years younger than Butler and can last longer and help the Heat come Playoff time as they are currently in seed #6. For Golden State, they hope to enter into the back half of the playoffs with a championship high-level experienced player in Butler to give them a leap come the postseason. In the Marcus Smart deal with the floor general, this trade also gave Washington Colby Jones and Alex Len and Memphises a 2025 1st-round pick. Memphis, in return, received Marvin Bagley, a power forward with great work in the post and outside range, and 2 Wizards 2nd round picks. Given the circumstances of both of these clubs, I believe the Grizzlies benefit from this deal as Bagley can take them very far in the playoffs in my opinion and Washington also gains players Alex Len and young star Colby Jones to help them with their rebuild and a first-round pick to further improve their chances of getting better in the long run. In the deal with 2-way star Brandon Ingram, New Orleans made the smart deal in realizing that players and picks are way better than keeping a good leader for your organization by only giving away Ingram they received Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, and a first and second-round pick these are players that can break out and control a game once in a while. New Orleans needs as much help as they can get, and Toronto could use Ingram to push into the play-in tournament. The soaring Cleveland Cavaliers in my opinion gave away too much to Atlanta as they got Deandre Hunter a key player that averages 19 per they gave up Caris Lavert and Georges Neing and 3 second round picks which is too much but I think Cleveland shouldn’t drop a lot as this will be put forth in my rankings in the end. The Bucks and Wizards were the primarily involved teams in a 4 team deal with New York and San Antonio, but the main 2 players were Kyle Kuzma and Khris Middleton. While Middletons' numbers are declining and Kuzma is one of those guys that can be up and down, this was a relatively fair deal, in my opinion, also noting Milwaukee received 2 future second-round picks. One of the more league-wide deals consisted of De'aaron Fox and Zach Levine both top 20 in scoring this trade also consisted of San Antonio getting guard Jordan McLaughlin and the Kings who in my opinion didn’t lose anything gained 6 future draft picks 3 first and 3 second round and they did give up 3 mediocre players in Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins and Tre Jones. With Sacramento sitting at seed #10 with all these acquisitions and a good roster, I could see them jumping into the playoff picture and potentially making an impact in the West. Last but certainly not least, we have the deal that sparked all these other ones up between the Lakers and Mavs consisting of Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris in exchange for Anthony Davis, young guard Max Christie, and a 2029 1st round pick. I think this provides more defense for Dallas, who were simply an average defensive team, with Luka Carried on offense, who led the team in offensive rating. Now Davis can make their offense and defense better as so far this season he is 10th in PPG, 7th in RPG, and 3rd in BPG, truly an all-around player coming to Dallas. I think it will take some time to get used to, but Dallas will have success from this deal, and so as LA now has LeBron James and 25-year-old generational star Luka Doncic playing together, this is truly something to see.

Wrapping up my article on the busiest trade deadline in NBA history this period is changing teams left and right as new schemes and planning will be taken into account with new players on each team, the Detroit Pistons as they are currently 6th in the east and have a lot on the horizon, Thanks.