It’s hard to match the absolute insanity that was the 2024-25 NBA trade deadline, and to the majority of the league’s credit, teams didn’t really try. But there was still some notable movement ahead of Thursday’s 3pm EST deadline – to varying degrees of success. Let’s do the early assessment of who came out on top, and who left us scratching our heads.
Winners
Washington Wizards. I’m old enough to remember a season ago, before the blockbuster Luka Dončić trade, when Anthony Davis, bad injury luck and all, was regarded as a top-12 player in the NBA. To start this season, he was even garnering MVP buzz. The Dallas Mavericks were understandably eager to put the dark stain that was one of the most ill-conceived trades in NBA history behind them and focus on their exciting young Rookie of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg, but in doing so, they moved on from Davis at the floor of his trade value. Enter stage left: the Wizards, who acquired both Davis and fun-but-polarizing four-time All-Star Trae Young this deadline. They gave up only two first-round picks in totality for both stars – neither of which will likely end up higher than the No 20s – and the players they shipped out, including veterans Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum, were hardly needle-movers. It’s a very low-risk and potentially high-reward move to embrace the ascent of young upstarts Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George, and raise a middle finger to the bottom dwelling. Add in a potential high lottery pick in a stacked draft, and Washington could be cooking with gas next season.
New York Knicks. It’s often the smaller, less flashy moves at the deadline that end up being the most impactful for teams who fancy themselves contenders. See: the 2024 Mavericks trading for Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington in a series of small but savvy swings that ultimately sent them to the NBA finals. (Yes, they made some, shall we say, questionable deadline moves the following year, but we won’t get into those.) It’s my wager that the Knicks made one such move on Thursday, when they traded two second-round picks for Jose Alvarado, the workhorse guard who’s earned such a reputation for his sneaky on-ball defense that he’s earned the nickname “Grand Theft Alvarado”. The Knicks need his off-the-bench services more than it even initially seemed, as their current reliable bench guard Deuce McBride is sidelined indefinitely after abdominal surgery. But even on a fully healthy roster, Alvarado is a beautiful fit. The native New Yorker is tough and gritty, with a high motor and a flair for the dramatic: in other words, the perfect Knick.
Minnesota Timberwolves. In the summer of 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers struck out on the belle of the free agency ball, Kawhi Leonard. While they were the butt of preseason jokes for missing out on Leonard’s services in favor of the neighboring Clippers, it ended up being the best thing that could have happened to them. They were forced, by necessity, to redirect their attention to assembling depth on the fly, and the result was an NBA championship the ensuing season. I predict a potentially similar fate for the 2026 Timberwolves, who, at least for now, struck out on their pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Minnesota made preemptive cap space for the move in the form of a Mike Conley salary dump, but wound up snagging Ayo Dosunmu from the Chicago Bulls to fill a dire need at the guard spot instead. Dosunmu is a sneaky-great get for this Minnesota roster, which is already a bona fide contender. They were served well by not blowing it up.
Honorable mention: Indiana Pacers. It was a cruel twist of fate that separated two potential Pacers timelines: in one, they’re champions after one of the most remarkable Cinderella runs in NBA history. In the other, the one we’re living in, Tyrese Haliburton ruptures his achilles in the first quarter of Game 7 of the NBA finals, and the devastating loss sends them headfirst off a cliff into the tanking abyss. They’re handling that reality about as well as possible, though: they’ve executed a flawless tank in preparation for one of the most talented draft classes in recent memory. While they lost center Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency, they replaced him at this deadline with stellar center and rebound machine Ivica Zubac, who made the All-Defensive second team just last year. In the trade for Zubac, the Pacers did send the Clippers their aforementioned very valuable first-round pick this coming year, which is a little risky, but they only ship it to Los Angeles if it lands in spots No 5 to No 9. They also parted ways with Bennedict Mathurin and one other future first. Assuming this year’s pick stays in their hands, Indiana could enter next season with a fully healthy Haliburton, a nicely retooled roster, and a blue chip prospect. Not too shabby.
Honorable mention: Los Angeles Clippers. Self awareness is an incredibly valuable, and yet all too rare, front office trait in the NBA. It can be difficult to take a clear-eyed look in the mirror and be honest with yourself about who you really are, and it’s worth commending the Clippers front office for doing that at this trade deadline. The hole they dug themselves to start the season was going to be too big to climb out of, and any aspirations of contention were fool’s gold. They allegedly didn’t know James Harden was going to ask for a trade until quite recently, but as soon as he did, they were willing to pivot, and did a commendable job. While Darius Garland’s nagging foot injury is worrisome, he’s a decade younger than Harden and has serious upside. And in the haul they got for Zubac, they may end up with a 2026 first-round pick in an absolutely stacked draft.
Losers
New Orleans Pelicans. To be fair, the Pelicans sealed their fate as a loser this year way back in the summer when they inexplicably sent an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for the rights to *checks notes* move up 10 spots in the 2025 draft. The absolutely incomprehensible miscalculation of their own status in the league and likelihood to be anything more than a bottom-dweller this year proved to be, predictably, too much to overcome. The Pelicans are 14th in the Western Conference, but instead of surrendering to their fate and having a firesale of their hottest commodities – the likes of Trey Murphy III and Herbert Jones – they whimpered out of the deadline only having made one move: sending Alvarado to the Knicks for Dalen Terry and two second-round picks. The Pelicans need a long, hard look in the mirror: they’re going nowhere fast.
Everyone invested in the Giannis sweepstakes. We all have that one friend who talks about how they need to break up with their spouse every time you see them. But, inevitably, if given an exit route from their relationship, this same friend always responds the same way: “Well, I love him, my family is close with his family, we have two years left on our lease …” This is the story of Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. It’s really, really time for them to break up, and for this reason, we all foolishly believed they would. Instead, they pumpfaked, and the Greek Freak is still a Buck. Among the teams left in smouldering ash in the wake of the fake-out: the Golden State Warriors, who had to settle for oft-injured Kristaps Porzingis, and the Miami Heat, who thought they were frontrunners for Antetokounmpo and ended up empty-handed at the deadline. The reward for the roundtable prognostication we collectively endured that resulted in absolutely nothing? Four more months of that, at minimum. We are all losers here.
Honorable mention: 2026 Los Angeles Clippers fans. Their fans, on the other hand? They have my sympathies. They had one good month of happiness and cheer, and it was gone just as quickly as it came. Hang in there, Clippers fans: you still have the NBA’s foremost arborist.
