A short but sweet deadline.

 

 

Some small deals to kick off deadline week with a lot of role player shuffling that could really improve teams on their final push for playoffs, before the big one hit and Jimmy Butler found himself on his 4^th team this season! Bad locker room presence or simply cashing in on his value?

 

Philadelphia sends: Caleb Martin

Phoenix sends: Garrett Temple, Chuma Okeke and a Philly 2024 2^nd round pick.

 

Good value for Philadelphia here for a player that had fallen out of his rotation, Ben loves 2nds, Ben gets 2nds.

Phoenix gains a more than solid 3&D wing that can play 1-4. Martin is on a great contract and is getting good minutes on an NBA playoff team.

 

Phoenix sends: Caleb Martin, Zeke Nnaji

Los Angeles Lakers send: Grayson Allen, Kennedy Chandler

Philadelphia sends: Max Strus

Unsure on the return here for Phoenix gaining Grayson and Chandler, I think I�d have preferred to hold Martin over both players my guess is Laddas sees potential in Chandler. Grayson has just as nice of a shot from 3 as Martin but in terms of defense and likeability you can�t argue it�s Martin > Grayson.

LA get what they were after another big man and getting the best player in the deal. Not bad for a team not looking to put wins on the board this late into the season while they drool excitedly over Wembanyama highlights.

Philadelphia free up a roster spot for an incoming big man. Assume the value was worked into a prior deal.

 

Toronto sends: Bismack Biyombo

Philadelphia sends: Portland 2023 2^nd round pick.

Philly were able to bring in more big man depth to cover the hole left from trading Horford and with Adams still sidelined.

Toronto move off Biyombo due to Meyers Leonard gaining a rest of season deal and gain an asset to help push a future deal across the line.

 

 

Sacramento sends: Damian Jones

Washington sends: Xavier Tillman

Sacramento hit the deadline with only 20 wins and a bunch of expiring players and thought last minute hmm maybe I should get some guaranteed contracts on the books since all these guys will walk. Though I am not a fan of the undersized center in Memphis you can�t argue the main point being to gain a guaranteed deal.

Washington heard the news of Bassey going down and could be out for the rest of the season and managed to snag one of the better big men on the market allowing him to continue to run the double big starting line-up and cover their bench unit. Washington haven�t cooled off.

 

Toronto sends: Grant Williams, Terrence Ross, Portland 2023 2^nd.

Oklahoma sends: Isaac Okoro, TyTy Washington Jr, Ryan Rollins

Being I was in this deal I was privy to the reasoning of both sides.

Oklahoma gets a high tier 3 level scorer off the bench to continue their push for the playoffs and Grant Williams exchanged for Okoro. With Okoro buried behind players they valued more to their team�s structure and success they gained a 6^th man scorer in Ross and a player similar age and trajectory in Williams who will look for around 10-14m this off-season which can be covered with the outgoing Ross dropping 11.5m off their books.

Toronto gained a player of need in Okoro who they could insert into their starting unit or back up spot with the holes in their rotation. Grant Williams was sitting outside of their rotation with Bazley as the backup 4 and Ayton now taking the starting 4 position for the time being, this left no minutes for Williams so he became expendable. Losing Terrence Ross will certainly hurt their bench production.

 

Toronto sends: Ryan Rollins

Washington sends: Isaiah Roby

Phoenix Suns send: 1.9m TPE.

Toronto sent out Rollins to free up a roster spot for an upcoming deal but sent him for free in the end with the GM not realising how close his future trade partner was to the hard cap and not being able to get the deal through. Unfortunate.

Washington gains Rollins a GSW rookie in the NBA there could be some upside to him, I don�t know much about him but being in their system you�d assume he�s in a good spot to become a good player.

Phoenix gain: Isaiah Roby, you got to love a freebie, right? Taking advantage of Toronto needing a roster spot they jumped at the chance to gain Rollins, no wait Roby, no wait, who was going where? Roby just needs an NBA team, and the free player pays off.

 

Here we are at the big one! The deal that saved the deadline from being a boring no show of role player swaps.

 

Cleveland sends: Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder

Minnesota sends: Jrue Holiday, Kyle Kuzma, OKC 2023 1^st, Philly 2027 1^st.

 

Cleveland got just what they were looking for, they got a star back in Jrue Holiday and filled their hole at the PF position bringing in Kuzma as well as gaining draft capital which was an added bonus to their haul. Cleveland intends to continue to contend this season with a new deeper line-up. Jimmy Butler moves to his 4^th team this season after only playing 9 games for Cleveland.

Minnesota gets their man! All without moving LaMelo Ball or Scottie Barnes to do it. They had been chasing a superstar to come to town for a while to play alongside their young duo and refused at every turn to move one of them for it (pretend you never saw that Spurs deal). With LaMelo out they won�t be as dangerous this year, but Jimmy will steady their team plane from the apparent steep nosedive they were taking when they moved Rudy and Caruso.