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The NBA trade deadline has passed, teams have made their moves, players have moved on, and it’s time to examine how the flurry of trades will affect the rest of the NBA season.
In every trading season, there are winners and losers. NBA general managers evaluate their teams and decide which moves to make based on the short- and long-term needs.
To properly asses the moves teams make, you must look at why they made the move, how it affects the team short term, and the long-term impact the move will have on the team moving forward.
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at who the winners and losers were from the 2010 NBA trade deadline.
Winners
Cleveland Cavaliers: The Cavaliers were able to send longtime center Zydrunas Ilgauskas to the Washington Wizards for All Star power-forward Antawn Jamison in a three-team deal that also involved the Los Angeles Clippers. Already having the best record in the league, the addition of Jamison could very well be the last piece that Lebron James needs to solidify his first NBA championship. What made the move an absolute necessity, though, was the talk around the league that the Cavaliers could have possibly acquired Amare Stoudemire throughout All Star Weekend. With James being able to opt out of his contract this summer, it was imperative that the Cavaliers made a move to keep “The King” happy and make him feel like Cleveland was absolutely a place he could win a championship. The Cavs did put themselves at some risk, however, in taking back Jamison, a 34-year-old with two expensive years left on his contract.
Dallas Mavericks: The Mavericks were a sinking ship before the All Star break. They were quickly falling further and further in the standings and desperately needed a move. Even after all the moves they made this past summer, such as getting Shawn Marion from the Toronto Raptors, they were destined to be a team that was good, but not good enough to win a championship.
Trading Josh Howard, Drew Gooden and Quinton Ross to the Washington Wizards for Caron Butler and Brandon Haywood was a trade in which the reward greatly outweighed the risk, and Mark Cuban has never been one who is afraid to take risks. Caron Butler will give the Mavs a perimeter scorer to go with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry. Hawood will give them a presence inside the paint on the defensive side of the ball and greatly help to rebound and match up with the posts of the best team in the West, the Los Angeles Lakers.
New York Knicks: It has been quite some time since the Knicks have been called winners, but General Manager Donnie Walsh was able to make Knicks fans feel like winners for at least a day in February. The Knicks were able to complete a trade for Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets and while it cost them 2009 first-round pick Jordan Hill and a future first-rounder, they were able to shed Jared Jeffries’ salary and effectively clear enough cap room to offer two max contracts to free agents this summer.
The goal all along for the Knicks was to clear cap space to try and become the primary players in the “summer of 2010” free-agency frenzy, and with this trade, they accomplished those goals, and that makes them winners.
Houston Rockets: The Rockets were able to turn the expiring contract of Tracy McGrady into promising young shooting guard formerly of the Sacramento Kings, Kevin Martin, former lottery pick Jordan Hill, and a future first rounder from the New York Knicks. The downside of the deal though was that they lost valuable cap space they would have had if they let McGrady’s contract expire, and possibly lsot their best scorer and fan favorite in power forward Carl Landry. Also worrisome is the fact that Kevin Martin has been extremely injury-prone throughout his career and for a franchise that has had to endure seeing their two best players, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, miss years upon end due to various injuries, that’s nothing Rockets fans want to hear.
Losers
Teams unable to make a deal where the big losers this year. The Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat were the three most prominent teams that will be hurt the most by their GMs standing pat this trade deadline.
Boston Celtics: While the Boston Celtics were able to make a deal and acquire Nate Robinson from the New York Knicks in exchange for Eddie House, JR Giddens and Bill Walker, this does little to ease the tension being felt in Boston these days. For a fan base that was looking for a big move to shake things up now and in the future, only being able to acquire Nate Robinson took the wind out of the sails of Celtics fans.
With a plethora of expiring contracts to play with, most notably Ray Allens, Celtics GM Danny Ainge was thought to be a major player this deadline. Unfortunately for the Celtics, that was not the case. Unable to make a move, the Celtics will have to rely on the fact that their big three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce will suddenly become healthy and effective again come playoff time, an extremely big if for Ainge to rely on.
Phoenix Suns: The Phoenix Suns decided not to trade All Star power forward Amare Stoudemire at the deadline – definitely a questionable move considering he will likely opt out of his contract this summer and leave Phoenix with the choice of either overpaying for his services or watching him walk and receive nothing in return. With the financial state that Phoenix is in, trading him for cheaper, younger players and expiring contracts seems like it would have been the wise move going forward in Phoenix.
Miami Heat: The Miami Heat is a team that totally depends on Dwyane Wade. At the deadline, they had a chance to get Wade some help and GM Pat Riley failed to deliver. Miami will definitely be feeling the ‘heat’ come summertime when Wade looks back and asks why he should resign to a team that has refused to get him any help since Shaquille O’Neal left.
Now that the trade deadline is over, teams are able to get back to focusing on the final-stretch run toward the playoffs.
With around 20 games left in the season, plenty of time will be left to further determine each trade and I’m quite sure that time will tell the real winners and losers of this past deadline better.
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