NBA Trade Deadline Winners & Losers

As of 3:00 PM EST on Thursday, the NBA trading deadline has come to a close.  Despite weeks of rumors flying about big names like Dwight Howard, Derron Williams, Pau Gasol, Rajon Rondo and Steve Nash, this year's deadline didn't end up involving any of those stars being moved.  That doesn't mean that all was quiet on the trade front though, as several teams did jump into the mix at the last minute to make a flurry of deals just before the deadline.

Of course not every trade is a good deal.  Ideally a trade should benefit both sides, but that doesn't always happen.  Let's break down which teams came out ahead and which ones appear worse off after the deadline.

Winners
Milwaukee Bucks
Traded for: Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh, Kwame Brown
Traded away: Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson

The Bucks kicked off the trade festivities a few days early by acquiring Ellis, Udoh and Kwame Brown's expiring contract.  In exchange, they sent an injured Andrew Bogut and the disgruntled Stephen Jackson to Golden State.  The Bucks are pushing for a playoff spot and Ellis will help with his scoring ability.  He's known as an inefficient gunner, but perhaps a change in scenery and a new team culture can help reel him in and use him effectively.  Perhaps Scott Skiles can even get him to play a little defense.  Ok, that may be asking too much, but considering Brandon Jennings is a better defensive pairing with Ellis than Curry was, plus they have several solid wing defenders, the Bucks should be better able to mask his defensive shortcomings.  Udoh is a useful big man that can give them minutes at the center position, where Drew Gooden has been playing out of place.  This deal also frees up at least $7 million over the next two years (even more if Ellis opts out after next season).  It's a great short term deal, considering the two players they gave up weren't likely to contribute this season anyway.

San Antonio Spurs
Traded for: Stephen Jackson
Traded away: Richard Jefferson
It seems a bit odd that a team considered among the West's elite would make a move that could potentially weaken them in the short term, but they just couldn't resist the long term benefit of unloading Richard Jefferson's contract.  Stephen Jackson is owed less money and only has one more year left on his deal.  Plus, don't discount the possibility that once Cap'n Jack arrives back in San Antonio his lingering hamstring issues may suddenly disappear, while joining a contender could motivate him to be at least as productive as Jefferson was, if not more so.  If Jackson isn't working out, they can at least give more minutes to some of their bench players, who are outproducing Jefferson anyway.  So either way it's an improvement.

Portland Trail Blazers
Traded for: Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams, Nets first round pick.  Jonny Flynn, Hasheem Thabeet, Minnesota's 2nd round pick
Traded away: Gerald Wallace, Marcus Camby
Portland decided they weren't going to contend this year, so they looked to give away anyone that wasn't going to be part of their future.  Wallace has been a productive, high-energy player, but he's started to decline and had moved to a back-up role.  His $9.5 million option was too pricey for them to risk him taking it, as the cap room can be better spent elsewhere.  In exchange, they receive what is likely to be a high lottery pick (although it's top 3 protected), which is much more valuable to them than Wallace.  Okur has an expiring contract that will free up some money, while Williams is an inexpensive role player that could provide some decent production off the bench.

The trade with the Rockets was less impactful, but the aging Camby was expendable and they at least get a look at a couple of former high draft picks that haven't panned out.  It's unlikely that either ever will, but doesn't hurt to give them a chance given the low price they paid to acquire them.

Following these moves, the Blazers also fired coach Nate McMillan and waived Greg Oden.  McMillian is a good coach, but the team had stopped playing hard for him weeks ago and it was time for a change, with the franchise in need of heading in a different direction.  You have to feel bad for Oden, the former #1 pick that has had his career derailed by a series of devastating injuries.  He wasn't going to be able to contribute this year and the Blazers needed the roster space, so he was an unfortunate causality on the Blazers path to improve.

LA Lakers
Traded for: Ramon Sessions, Christian Eyenga.  Jordan Hill
Traded away: Luke Walton, 1st round draft pick. Derek Fisher, 1st round draft pick (from Dallas)

The Lakers made two separate trades that resulted in an upgrade at point guard, which has been their biggest weakness.  Sessions isn't a perfect fit for the team, since he's not a great outside shooter and he's a poor defender, but he's much better than the Fisher/Blake combo they've been attempting to get by with.  They received Jordan Hill in the second deal, which sent Fisher to Houston.  While he has his flaws as a tweener big man, he's an upgrade over the other big men LA had coming off the bench.  The Lakers are extremely top heavy, with three stars surrounded by unproductive bench warmers.  Even if Sessions and Hill are only average players, they are still a big upgrade over the replacement level players the Lakers were using in those spots.  They also managed to unload some expendable bad contracts at the cost of a couple of likely non-lottery picks, which saves them a lot of luxury tax money.  Given that a first round pick should have been sufficient compensation for Cleveland and Houston to take on the salary of players unlikely to provide any value to them, the fact that the Lakers also managed to get Sessions and a couple of young players makes these deals a steal for LA.

Washington Wizards
Traded for: Nene, Brian Cook, 2nd round draft pick
Traded away: JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Ronny Turiaf

The Wizards were desperate to change the culture of this team, which had become too immature and selfish.  Many in the organization felt that this was holding back the development of franchise point guard John Wall.  Changes had to be made if this team was ever going to take a step forward.  While Andray Blatche may be the team's biggest headache, they weren't going to be able to unload him.  So instead, they dumped McGee and Young.  Both have talent, but haven't developed as the team had hoped and are set to be restricted free agents after this season.  If they weren't planning to re-sign them then trading them now was the right choice.  In exchange, they get back a quality big man in Nene that is already locked into a long term deal.  Granted that deal is a bit overpriced and may not look so great in a few years, but for now it looks like a good deal.  The Wizards now have two quality pieces at important positions to build around.

LA Clippers
Traded for: Nick Young
Traded away: Brian Cook, 2nd round draft pick
When Chauncey Billups was lost for the season to injury it left a gaping hole at the two guard position.  Mo Williams was forced to step in to the starting lineup, but that left a lack of scoring punch off the bench.  Young can provide that for them.  He won't be able to provide the veteran leadership that Billups did, he's a one dimensional gunner and he isn't much use on the defensive end.  However, he can score in bunches, which is a spark the Clippers could use off the bench.  After their attempts to trade for other guards, such as Jamal Crawford and Ray Allen, fell through, this ended up being the best they can get.  It's still an upgrade over what they had and they didn't give up much to get him.

Losers
Golden State Warriors
Traded for: Andrew Bogut, Stephen Jackson, Richard Jefferson

Traded away: Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh, Kwame Brown, Stephen JacksonThe Ellis/Curry back court wasn't working, so it was about time they broke that up.  They made the right choice by deciding to keep Curry and trade Ellis, but the return is questionable.  After coming up empty in the off-season in their attempts to sign a quality defensive minded center, they finally manage to obtain one in Bogut.  The problem is, he's still injured and may not play again this season.  Long term the deal could pay off, but only if Bogut can remain healthy, which is something he's struggled with throughout his career.  In the short term, this likely eliminates any chance they have at making a late season playoff push, but that may not be such a bad thing.  The Warriors first round draft pick belongs to the Jazz this year, unless that pick ends up being in the top 7.  Their intention with this trade for Bogut, in addition to possibly shutting down Curry for the season with his recurring ankle issues, could be to tank the rest of the season in hopes of improving their draft spot enough that they would get to keep their pick. 

With that said, you could make a case that the Warriors could be considered deadline winners when you consider it from a long term perspective.  However, just prior to the deadline they made things worse by swapping the newly acquired Jackson to San Antonio for Richard Jefferson.  While RJ has been a slightly more productive player (11.19 PER compared to Jackson's 9.26), he has a worse contract, which is not only more expensive, but lasts an additional year.  If their intention was to tank the season, any slight upgrade RJ can provide production wise is counter intuitive to that plan, while it also wrecks their future cap space.

 New Jersey Nets
Traded for: Gerald Wallace
Traded away: Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams, 1st round draft pick

The Wallace trade was bad given that they are likely surrendering a high lottery pick for an expensive role player, but the Nets are deadline losers more for the trade they failed to make.  After it became clear that Dwight Howard wasn't going to opt out of his contract to become a free agent this summer, they had to know how unlikely it will be to keep Derron Williams if D12 won't be coming to join him in Brooklyn.  Now they will probably lose D-Will this summer for nothing. 

The one benefit of these decisions is that Wallace is one of the players that interested Orlando as part of a package for Howard before their franchise center was pulled off the market.  By acquiring another asset to use in a potential deal, the Nets could revisit a trade for Howard this summer before D-Will hits free agency.  So it's still possible for the team to make it's move to Brooklyn with both super stars leading the way, but it's an unlikely gamble that could blow up in their faces if everything doesn't work out right.

Denver Nuggets
Traded for: JaVale McGee, Ronny Turiaf
Traded away: Nene

This deal is basically stating they made a mistake in re-signing Nene to a 5 year, $65 million deal last summer.  While many thought at the time they might have overpaid, keep in mind that Nene was in high demand from several other teams and quality big men don't exactly grow on trees.  McGee is an athletic freak and shot blocking machine, but he's still a young, unpolished player that too often makes boneheaded mistakes.  That's a problem for a team trying to make a playoff run.  Perhaps a new team will help McGee mature quicker so he can reach his potential.  They better hope so, because if not then this looks like a downgrade in the short term.  McGee will also be a restricted free agent after this season.  If they re-sign him, he could end up being almost as expensive as Nene was.  If they let him go, this move was basically made to dump Nene's contract.  Given that Denver has several players that need to get paid in the next few years, that may have been an unfortunate necessity.  Rumor has it that with the savings from this deal, the Nuggets are now closer to reaching an agreement with restricted free agent Wilson Chandler.  If they can lock up Chandler to a reasonable deal and McGee flourishes with his new team, this could end up making the Nuggets winners after all, but until that happens we can only say that this is currently no more than a head scratching salary dump.