In the weeks leading up to the 2025 NBA trade deadline, the prevailing wisdom among the basketball punditry held that we wouldn’t see much transaction action, what with the big, bad collective bargaining agreement restricting stars’ freedom of movement, and all those high-spending teams bound tightly by the strings of the first and second aprons. A funny thing happened on the way to all that boredom, though: LIKE EIGHT FRIGGIN’ ALL-STARS GOT TRADED.

It turns out that, in an environment in which 20 teams participate in the postseason, with just a handful of wins separating home-court advantage and the fringes of the play-in, NBA decision-makers found plenty of ways to hustle and flow within the CBA’s confines, which ultimately proved less restrictive than some had feared. It turns out there were still plenty of front offices committed to trying to add talent for the stretch run. And, of course, it turns out there were plenty of others eager to balance their ledgers and bolster their draft-pick war chests in the hope that tomorrow they’ll find better things.

The result was a breathtaking sprint from Saturday’s mind-melting blockbuster all the way through the approach to Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET buzzer. And as the pencils-down buzzer drew nearer, the rumors rolled in and the deals got done, I sat here, like Frank T.J. Mackey, quietly judging them.

What follows are my first-draft-of-history impressions of which teams scored and which ones stumbled in this season’s grand NBA roster reshuffling. There will likely be more winners than losers because, between you and me, the world’s tough enough right now, man. Might as well find a scrap or two of joy where you can, you feel me?

We begin with them continuing to get away with it.

Winner: Los Angeles Lakers

Actually, hold up one second …

Loser: Anyone Who Hasn’t Already Read My 4,000-Word “Winners and Losers of the Luka-AD Trade” Column

Dude, it went up Sunday. What the hell are you waiting for?

As I Was Saying — Winner: Los Angeles Lakers

I wrote last week that deadlines tend to serve as truth serum for NBA decision-makers, and that if Lakers vice president Rob Pelinka felt his team really was “right there” and “potentially a piece or two away,” we’d see him crank up the franchise’s level of aggression in negotiations before Thursday afternoon.

I think we can safely consider it cranked.

Whatever your feelings about the various arguments proffered for trading away Luka Dončić, I think we can agree that the case for trading for him — he is, at minimum, one of the five best basketball players on the planet, and he is 25 years old — is simple, elegant and powerfully persuasive, and not something that requires much further explication. (Again: Like 4,000 words on this four days ago, people.)

The one downside: Adding Luka left the Lakers with only Jaxson Hayes, the injured Christian Wood and two-way signees Christian Koloko and Trey Jemison to man the 5 spot vacated by Anthony Davis. Enter Mark Williams, a 7-foot, 240-pound center out of Duke who’d been playing good ball far away from the prying eyes of media members and fans who wouldn’t do something as crass as watching the Charlotte Hornets — and who, at just 23 years old, is both cost-controlled with a couple of years left on his rookie-scale contract and potentially a tidy match with the 25-year-old Dončić. (Williams is extension-eligible after the season; it seems like a good bet L.A. will try to sign him for the long term.)

Williams is averaging 15.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks in 25 minutes per game, shooting 58.8% from the field and 78% from the foul line. He’s a monster on the offensive boards, and he gives Luka, LeBron James and JJ Redick a shiny new toy to play with in the pick-and-roll for what could be a devastating Lakers offense:

As is often the case for a young center with fewer than 2,000 career minutes under his belt, Williams’ defensive work can be adventurous, with the Hornets defending at a bottom-three clip with him manning the middle and opponents shooting a robust 68.1% against him at the rim, according to Second Spectrum — 109th out of 157 players to guard at least 100 up-close shots this season. But he has strong physical tools to work with and wouldn’t be the first ex-Hornet to find religion on that end in a new context (hello, P.J. Washington).

The most glaring concern is health: An array of injuries has limited Williams to just 85 of a possible 212 games as a pro, most notably a lower back contusion that cost him the final four months of last season. If Williams can’t stay on the floor, the Lakers’ post-AD size issues become all the more concerning … and if he’s a frequent scratch, the sticker price of 2024 first-round pick Dalton Knecht, a 2030 first-round pick swap, an unprotected 2031 first-round selection and Cam Reddish could wind up stinging quite a bit. (Though the value of those ’30 and ’31 picks drops considerably if Luka sticks around L.A. for the long haul.)

There’s some risk here, but there’s also staggering upside; an offense built around Dončić, James and Austin Reaves on the perimeter, with Williams as a screen-and-dive hub and one of Rui Hachimura or Dorian Finney-Smith spacing the floor could quickly become one of the most potent in the NBA. In the short term, that could be the kind jolt that can lift the Lakers — who are just a game and a half out of fourth place in the West — into more serious contention. And in the long term … I mean, they just got Luka friggin’ Dončić, man.

Loser (Though Maybe Not As Much of One As Everybody Says): Dallas Mavericks

I don’t consider myself a contrarian by nature, but I’ve been trying to remain open to the possibility that the overwhelming, volcanic eruption of invective heaped on Mavericks GM Nico Harrison over the last five days is missing something. I will admit: It gets hard to do that when even the dictionary is dunking on the dude.

It just seemed to me that, given what we know about who Dončić is as a player — the force of nature he is on the floor, the degree to which he can elevate a franchise — there’s no way a rational front-office actor would proactively look to get him out of Dodge unless there was a damned good reason. Based on the reasons offered, though, and in the absence of additional reporting that uncovers fresh ones, I think I have to conclude that — while he’s made strong moves at the last three deadlines to help Dallas reach the Finals — maybe Harrison just wasn’t operating as a rational actor in this case. Maybe he just got his Sonny Weaver on, opened a folded-up Post-It note and read the message he’d sent to himself long ago: “ANTHONY DAVIS, NO MATTER WHAT.”

Who knows? Maybe this will work out as well for the Mavs as that choice does for Sonny in my as-yet-unproduced sequel screenplay (working title: Dr2ft D2y). Davis has been phenomenal this season — a lot better than many critics seem to be giving him credit for — and I remain bullish on the prospects of a now positively massive Mavericks roster turning in what could be a near-top-of-the-league defense over the final two-plus months. Keep Davis fed, keep Kyrie Irving healthy and maybe the offense stays potent enough to roughly replicate the physical formula that fueled last season’s Finals run.

Even if the Mavs do high-roll those wagers, though, they’ve put themselves in the uncomfortable position of essentially needing to win the NBA championship just to take some of the heat off. Stumble before the title round — eminently possible in a conference where Dallas is scratching and clawing just to stay in the play-in mix — and the longest, sharpest knives will come out. Harrison won’t have to wait 10 years for his critics to bury him; they’ve already started.

Winner: Jimmy Butler

The problems started in Miami because Pat Riley made it clear he didn’t feel comfortable offering Jimmy a full-freight, maximum-salaried contract extension, at age 35, after he’d missed an average of 20 games a season for five years running. And after everything that happened over the last six weeks, after all the lost joy and lost game checks … Jimmy got a two-year, $111 million maximum-salaried contract extension, at age 35, after he’d missed an average of 20 games a season for five years running. And now he plays with Stephen Curry.

Loser: The Concept That You Can’t Just Act However You Want and Get Paid

Maybe we should hold off on driving that final nail into the coffin of player empowerment. Rules of propriety and social mores, it turns out, still work a little bit differently when you’re as good at what you do as Jimmy Butler is.

Winner: Golden State Warriors

And amid all the off-court sturm und drang and dank memes, we shouldn’t lose sight of that last part: Jimmy Butler is really, really freaking good at what he does.

The shocking revelation that Luka was available put a bit of a crimp in the hypothesis that Tom Haberstroh and I advanced in December on The Big Number — that Jimmy was the best actually gettable player on the market — but maybe not by that much. I’m aware of the reported concerns about how Butler will weave himself into the fabric of Steve Kerr’s locker room. And of the on-court issues that could arise when trying to plug in another infamously infrequent 3-point shooter alongside the likes of Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Kevon Looney, Trayce Jackson-Davis or Gary Payton II. And of the general queasiness that must come along with committing an estimated $139.6 million next season and $148.7 million in 2026-27 to three players entering their late-30s.

Color me optimistic, though, that Butler, having spent most of the last six weeks on ice and gotten a nine-figure bag’s worth of motivation, will be ready to hit the ground running when he arrives at Chase Center in a “marriage of convenience” to provide the infusion of talent and adrenaline that .500 Golden State so desperately needs — and, crucially, a second star-level scoring and playmaking threat to hopefully ease the shot-creation burden on Curry when he’s on the floor and keep the offense afloat when Steph hits the bench.

The Warriors are betting that an extremely smart two-way player — one adept at working on the ball or moving off it, who can operate either end of the pick-and-roll, who barely ever turns the ball over, who hunts early offense in transition with hit-ahead passes, leak-outs and deep seals, who can guard every position in a pinch and apply the sort of ball pressure that creates turnovers — will be able to better figure out how to fit into their flow than, say, Dennis Schröder did. They’re also banking on Butler’s gift for pressuring the rim and getting to the foul line — no player to log at least 750 minutes has a higher free-throw attempt rate than Jimmy, and only two teams have a lower one than Golden State — providing a new and vital source of efficient points for what has been a bottom-10 offense.

The extension is massive; no two ways around that. But it still sets Joe Lacob and Co. up to pull something like a factory reset in 2027 around Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and whatever other young pieces they want to keep in the fold, because it lines up with the remainder of Curry and Green’s deals — which, it is now abundantly clear, is the only timeline that has ever really mattered.

“Biggest thing is just it creates expectations, which I love,” Curry told reporters on Wednesday. “I want to be in that kind of environment, whether you get it done or not, that is meaningful basketball that we all love and thrive in. I think we’re all going to be up for the challenge.”

Jimmy might not be a hand-in-glove fit, and he doesn’t suddenly turn Golden State into title favorites. But no player the Warriors could’ve added would have done that, and he might be the one best equipped to restore their puncher’s chance in a thickly settled Western Conference where three games separate fifth from 11th and where nobody outside of maybe Oklahoma City feels insurmountable in the right circumstances. A lot could go wrong here. But given the position the Warriors were in, this feels to me like a worthwhile gamble that could also go right.

Winner: Miami Heat

Before we turn and face the strange, a moment of appreciation for the era that just concluded:

In the summer of 2019, the Heat were coming off of a disappointing 39-win season. In the five years since LeBron James had returned to Cleveland, they’d won one playoff series and gone to the lottery three times. Their leading scorer was Josh Richardson. At best, they were treading water; at worst, they were drowning.

And then they turned Richardson, Hassan Whiteside and a 2023 first-round pick — that they actually wound up getting back, in the form of Jaime Jaquez Jr.! — into Butler. What followed was one of the most successful stretches in franchise history: five straight playoff appearances, with three Eastern Conference finals berths and two Finals runs; iconic heavyweight showdowns with the Bucks, Lakers and Celtics; the resuscitation of the Miami Heat, and their vaunted culture, as a venerated brand across the NBA. And at the heart of it all was Butler, who turned into a postseason folk hero by authoring some of the most remarkable individual performances the playoffs have ever seen.

Yeah, the ending was messy, because endings typically are. But as rancorous as his exit is, Butler still exits Miami on the short list of most decorated, most important and most impactful players in franchise history. That ain’t nothing.

Also not nothing: the return the Heat wound up extracting for Butler. Miami walks away with Andrew Wiggins, a lower-wattage but arguably more effective 3-and-D wing who is six years Butler’s junior and on the books for barely half of what Jimmy will earn in the Bay over the next two seasons; Kyle Anderson, another versatile (though largely non-shooting) big wing whose role dwindled in Golden State but was a plus defender and complementary playmaker on a conference finalist all of eight months ago (and whose $9.7 million salary in 2026-27 is non-guaranteed); Davion Mitchell, an absolute dog of a defender at the point of attack who has shot 36% from 3-point range over the past two seasons and was in the midst of his best season as a facilitator in Toronto; the Warriors’ top-10-protected 2025 first-round pick, which, if it doesn’t convey this June, becomes a top-10-protected 2026 first-rounder and, if it somehow doesn’t convey by then, becomes unprotected in 2027; and the Heat get below the first apron and are thus eligible to add a player on the buyout market.

What’s left is a team with Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro as its All-Star cornerstones, complemented by credible wing defenders, more and better shooting, some exciting young talent in Kel’el Ware, Nikola Jović and Jaquez, and more draft assets and financial flexibility. I don’t think this iteration of the Heat has as high a ceiling as the one led by a fully bought in, and stupidly locked in, Butler. But I do think this Miami team — which sits sixth in the East, has gone .500 without him and can now just exhale and move forward — is still in pretty good position to make the playoffs … which would mean avoiding the double-whammy of seeing the lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick they owe the Thunder roll into an unprotected 2026 first, prompting the protected 2027 first that they owe Charlotte to roll into an unprotected 2028 first.

All told, then: Miami punctuates the Jimmy saga, gets most of what it reportedly wanted — “players who can help now, young talent, draft capital and salary that expires by the summer of 2026” — and improves its chances of avoiding draft-pick disaster. Pretty good day.

Winner: Journalism, Sharing Resources and Asking Follow-Up Questions

Shouts out to staying informed. Shouts out to making sure your fellow citizens are informed. And shouts out to Kevin Love for making sure to try to get pertinent information like details on the specific draft compensation, including which years the picks might be coming in. An informed populace is indispensable in an enlightened society; we’ve all got to pitch in and do our part.

Winner: Playing Friggin’ Huge

The new-look Lakers will run out the 7-foot Williams, 6-8 James, 6-7 Dončić and 6-5 Reaves joined by either the 6-8 Hachimura or 6-7 Finney-Smith.

The post-Jimmy Heat will roll with the 7-foot Ware, 6-9 Adebayo, 6-7 Wiggins, 6-7 Duncan Robinson and 6-5 Herro, with the 6-10 Jović, 6-7 Haywood Highsmith and 6-6 Jaquez coming off the bench.

The shuffled-up Mavericks, when healthy, will have either the 6-10 Daniel Gafford or 7-1 Dereck Lively II alongside 6-10 AD and 6-7 PJ Washington, with one of the 6-5 Klay Thompson, 6-5 Caleb Martin, 6-7 Naji Marshall and 6-6 Max Christie flanking Kyrie Irving.

The revamped Spurs (who we’ll get to) might keep Chris Paul in the starting five for a bit, until De’Aaron Fox gets up to speed, but they can also choose to switch it up and surround their new point guard with the 7-4 Victor Wembanyama, 6-8 Jeremy Sochan, 6-8 Harrison Barnes, 6-6 Stephon Castle, 6-5 Devin Vassell and 6-8 Julian Champagnie if they want.

Add them to the ranks of established multi-big teams like the Cavaliers, Celtics, Thunder, Grizzlies and Nuggets, and it sure seems like team-builders — a lot of smart ones, anyway — are renewing their commitment to a time-honored bit of old-head wisdom: Big is beautiful.

Speaking of big:

Winner, Almost Without Doing Anything: Oklahoma City Thunder

I say “almost” out of an abundance of respect for Daniel Theis, whom the Thunder took off the Pelicans’ hands in a luxury-tax-avoidance move that netted the Thunder a 2031 second-round pick. (You know, because the Thunder were looking a little light on picks.) But even if Sam Presti didn’t make or answer a single call, this alone would make West-leading OKC one of the biggest winners of the week:

Here’s where we remind you that Chet Holmgren was playing like an All-Star before his hip injury, and that Oklahoma City owns the NBA’s best record and best net rating and has performed like one of the most dominant teams in NBA history, despite getting zero seconds with Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein playing in the same game, let alone on the floor together. The rest of the NBA spent this week feverishly trying to play catch-up with the league-leading Thunder; Chet’s return might mean that OKC’s about to shift into a new gear and leave everybody eating their dust.

Mega Super-Huge Loser: Phoenix Suns

Even though everybody knew the Heat needed to move Jimmy Butler, Miami was still able to get a reasonable return for him before Thursday’s buzzer. The Suns, on the other hand, had been signaling for more than a month that they were eager to move Bradley Beal … but wound up unable to do so.

I think there were probably three main reasons why:

• Bradley Beal, while still quite good, is not as good as Jimmy Butler;

• Bradley Beal, who is not as good as Jimmy Butler, makes even more money than Jimmy Butler, and his contract ran a year longer;

• Bradley Beal, who is not as good as Jimmy Butler and makes more money over a longer period of time than Jimmy Butler, has a full no-trade clause that no other team in the NBA wanted to touch, which is something that everybody knew back when Phoenix traded for him in the first place!

You’re not going to believe this, but there wasn’t much of a trade market for a very good sixth man owed $110.8 million over the next two seasons, who could veto any move he didn’t like and who would bring that veto power with him to any team that acquired him, as he did when he went from Washington to Phoenix. Interest, it turns out, was tepid — most notably from Miami.

That resulted in the Suns’ widely discussed pursuit of Butler fizzling out … and, fascinatingly, transitioning into Phoenix reportedly entertaining conversations centered on moving Kevin Durant, despite owner Mat Ishbia telling anyone who would listen a few months back that he had no interest in that and despite the fact that the former MVP and 11-time All-NBA selection had no interest in going anywhere. News of those conversations reportedly “blindsided” Durant, which does not sound like the kind of verb you want to hear associated with your lone All-Star representative a few months before he becomes eligible for a new extension … and, if he doesn’t work one out, enters the final year of his contract.

With neither the Heat nor Warriors getting anywhere with Phoenix, they pivoted to dealing with each other, scuttling the Suns’ dreams of Jimmy and leaving them without a major move to make. All they could do was use a first-round pick freed up by the deal they made where they got three in exchange for the unprotected 2031 first that they sent the Jazz without having a major move lined up to dump the $19.4 million contract of on-the-outs center Jusuf Nurkić in exchange for Hornets reserves Cody Martin and Vasilije Micić — a move aimed less at improving the Suns’ on-court outlook than at reducing the burden on Ishbia’s bank book:

So: After months of frantic maneuvering to try to thread the needle on a move that seemed all but impossible to execute (because it was!), the Suns wind up having lost out on their preferred target to a team they’re tied with in the standings; angering the guy they moved heaven and earth to get two years ago; making no significant improvements to a .500 team with a negative net rating (though defensive havoc-wreaker Martin, the twin brother of Caleb, might help some) that has lost four of five and just got annihilated by Oklahoma City; fostering what sounds like a not particularly chill locker room vibe; making ominous proclamations about the future; putting themselves squarely on the clock with KD; and probably hearing the flapping wings of vultures circling overhead, asking if they’ve got a second to chat about Devin Booker.

It’s almost like constantly tripling-down on your last double-down is not a viable strategy for sustained success. Huh. Imagine that.

Winner: Bradley Beal

Hey, if you’ve got a no-trade clause, you might as well use it. You like where you live, your family feels settled, and the direct deposit keeps coming in? Then you keep doing you, Brad — this fellow working stiff applauds you enjoying the fruits of your labor. Solidarity; solidarity.

Winner By Association: Houston Rockets

Here’s where we remind you that Rafael Stone and Co. have swap rights on Phoenix’s first-round picks in 2025 and 2029, and own the Suns’ first-rounder outright in 2027. Oh, and that Houston is currently seven games ahead of Phoenix in the standings. NBD.

Winner: San Antonio Spurs

I’m with Mort and Ben: I thought the Spurs did brilliantly to land De’Aaron Fox without letting go of 2024 lottery pick Stephon Castle, swingman Devin Vassell, defensive energizer Jeremy Sochan and while retaining most of their most valuable future draft picks. (More on that in a sec.)

As much as anything, though, I love what the willingness to move aggressively for an All-Star-caliber young guard says about how San Antonio sees itself a year and a half into the grand Victor Wembanyama experiment. The Spurs know better than anyone just how nuclear and unprecedented the Frenchman is; they know just how valuable the golden ticket they’re holding really is.

They also know, though, that the next step for any respectable future monarch is to begin going through the hero’s journey — that step-by-step climb from precocious neophyte to swaggering conqueror that starts by first making a serious bid to contend for the postseason. Enter Fox, who chipped in a tidy 24 points, 13 assists, five rebounds and three steals in his Spurs debut, a 126-125 victory over the Hawks that marked San Antonio’s 22nd win of the season — as many as they managed in either of the last two campaigns — and drew them within two games of the West’s final play-in spot.

It also dropped the Hawks to 23-28, just 2.5 games ahead of an 11th-place 76ers team that just got Joel Embiid back. With Atlanta seemingly operating largely as a seller at the deadline, bidding farewell to De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanović in deals that returned a handful of second-round picks, it’s looking at least possible that the value of those Hawks first-rounders that San Antonio got in the Dejounte Murray deal — including the 2025 pick, currently slated to be 10th overall — might just continue to appreciate.

And speaking of the Hawks …

Potential Future Loser: Your Trae Young Hawks Jersey

From a sober analytical perspective, Atlanta’s moves make sense. The Hawks’ chances of making real postseason noise likely ended when Jalen Johnson tore his labrum, and while there’s no incentive to go into the tank when another team owns your first-round draft pick free and clear, there is some incentive to continue your already-in-process roster retooling if you can find some pieces you think fit.

The Hawks leveraged Hunter’s career year into shedding the remaining two years and $48.2 million on his deal in favor of the more manageable contracts of Caris LeVert ($16.6 million expiring) and Georges Niang ($8.5 million this season, $8.2 million next), plus three second-round picks and first-round pick swaps in 2026 and 2028. They moved the 32-year-old Bogdanović, who has struggled mightily with his shot this season, in favor of Terance Mann, who’s four years younger, who’s on a bargain contract through 2028, and whose defensive work fits much better in the context of what Atlanta’s building through big athletes like Johnson, Dyson Daniels, center Onyeka Okongwu and No. 1 overall draft pick Zaccharie Risacher; Atlanta also got three more second-round picks from the Clippers.

From a dollars, cents and asset-management perspective, it all more or less tracks. It might seem less acceptable, though, if you see it not from a removed perspective but rather from within the locker room; that’s where Trae Young’s sitting, and from that vantage point, it sounds like he might not like what he’s seeing:

Now, to be clear: “He’s a fierce competitor,” “He wants to win,” and “They know where he stands and what he wants to accomplish” don’t necessarily mean “This dude wants out of here on the next thing smokin’.” Maybe Young sits down with Atlanta brass, everybody gets on the same page and the should-have-been-an-All-Star goes right back to spoon-feeding his Hawks teammates without so much as a grumble.

That said: The Spurs probably feel even better about all that Hawks draft capital they’re holding on to today than they did yesterday.

I Mean … OK, Winner, I Guess: Sacramento Kings

I’ll be honest: The Fox trade just kind of bums me out, even if it’s something that Tom and I did a whole Big Number episode about three weeks before the news that it might be coming broke.

Fox’s All-NBA breakthrough in that first season under Mike Brown — and the entire Light the Beam movement, and eventual playoff drought drenching — was one of my favorite stories in the league in recent years. It felt like a handsome reward for a player who richly deserved it. Like years of productive work put in under cover of sub-.500 darkness finally coming to light for the broader basketball-watching world to appreciate. The nature of the end of his tenure in Sacramento frustrates me, for multiple reasons: because I thought the Kings were better than their record at the time of Brown’s firing; because I thought it pretty unfair that Fox was left to twist in the wind as the ostensible face of said firing, despite his repeated insistence that it wasn’t his idea; because it felt like he was made the scapegoat for the West getting better around the Kings after their third-place finish, and for Sacramento’s front office not being able to find any more 3-and-D helpers beyond Keegan Murray to flank Fox and Domantas Sabonis. (Surely there are more Champagnies out there somewhere?)

That said: If the situation had reached the point of no return, and Fox wasn’t going to be convinced to sign a long-term extension in California’s capital … well, this doesn’t feel like too rough a landing.

The Kings come away from the deadline with a roughly commensurate offensive All-Star-level performer in Zach LaVine, who isn’t Fox’s equal as a pick-and-roll playmaker but is several galaxies above Fox as a 3-point marksman, which should help better space the floor around Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan in the half-court. They add three first-round picks and four seconds — really two first-rounders and five seconds, since Charlotte’s protected 2025 first won’t convey, thus turning into 2026 and 2027 Hornets seconds — to their coffers, for use as they try to retrofit the roster around Sabonis, DeRozan, LaVine and newly minted full-time starting lead guard Malik Monk. (For what it’s worth, the Kings have outscored opponents by 12.3 points per 100 possessions with Sabonis, DeRozan and Monk sharing the floor without Fox this season, according to PBP Stats.)

In separate deals, they also landed per-minute scoring and rebounding monster Jonas Valančiūnas from the Wizards and slick small forward Jake LaRavia from the Grizzlies. The former provides a nifty answer to try to plug the black hole of Sacramento’s minutes when his Lithuanian national teammate Sabonis hits the bench. (The Kings have outscored opponents by 4.2 points per 100 possessions with Sabonis on the floor, and have been outscored by 9.3 points-per-100 with him off of it, according to Cleaning the Glass — roughly equivalent to the gap between the Nuggets and the Nets.) The latter offers a 6-foot-8 playmaker with 3-point range and a knack for connective-tissue playmaking, which could prove useful as interim head coach Doug Christie searches for the right balance of passing, scoring and size in lineup construction.

I’m not sure I see a way for the Kings to turn in a league-average defense as presently constructed (though I’d heartily support a liberal application of defensive dynamo Keon Ellis to treat the problem). But if Valančiūnas and LaRavia can help narrow that second-unit gap, if LaVine can help lift Sacramento out of the bottom-10 in 3-point attempt frequency, and if the Sabonis-Monk two-man game continues to prove as fruitful a full-time battery as the Sabonis-Fox partnership was, then Sacramento could come away from this deal with a strong chance of staying in the postseason mix in the crowded West, with a fresh coat of paint and a fresh pack of draft picks. We might come to celebrate something gained, even as we mourn something lost.

Speaking of mourning something lost …

Loser: Milwaukee Bucks

I get the argument for moving on from Khris Middleton and bringing in Kyle Kuzma. (Hell, I made it.) I’m just skeptical that leaning on Kuzma will get the Bucks where they hope to go.

Yes, you’d hope Kuzma will experience a revival at joining a proper team after muddling through by far the worst season of his career for the impoverished Wizards. It would have to be one hell of a bounce-back, though, considering we’re talking about somebody who’s shooting 42% from the field, 28% from 3-point land and 60% from the foul line with a barely positive assist-to-turnover ratio. (And it’s not like Kuz is exactly making up for it with his work as a defensive demon.)

In the absence of other significant moves to maximize this year’s team — and I’m sorry, I don’t think that adding Jericho Sims and Kevin Porter Jr. qualifies — then it seems like the Bucks traded away the third-leading scorer in franchise history, a beloved cornerstone for more than a decade, primarily to prioritize getting under the second apron, thinking about future flexibility and lowering their luxury tax payments. Reminder: Giannis Antetokounmpo is 30, Damian Lillard is 34, and the Bucks have won one playoff series since the 2021 championship — a title Milwaukee does not win without Middleton’s heroics.

I understand that years of injuries have limited Middleton, and that Giannis is the one who’s the prime mover. But if you’re not actually trying to put the most competitive roster you can around him right friggin’ now, then sacrificing someone who got you to the top of the mountain for tax savings feels … well, cheap. Unseemly.

Really, When You Get Right Down To It, Who Can Say What “Winning” and “Losing” Actually Mean?: Toronto Raptors

As we near the 24-hour mark since I wrote my initial grades on the trade that landed Brandon Ingram in Toronto, I’m still somewhat nonplussed by the outcome for the Raptors. (I think it’s more or less fine for New Orleans, which had reached the end of the line with Ingram, ducked the luxury tax by moving Theis, and now returns to the regularly scheduled programming of trying to get its main dudes healthy FOR LIKE A SECOND.)

Ingram is very good when healthy (which isn’t as often as you’d like) and would, in theory, help the Raptors climb out of the bottom-10 in offensive efficiency toward something like league-average scoring. How much you like Toronto’s deadline — which also included taking a flyer on James Wiseman’s recovery from a ruptured Achilles, and shipping Davion Mitchell to Miami for old pal P.J. Tucker, a future second-round pick and cash — likely depends on whether you think Ingram is a bona fide All-Star or a fringier talent (and on what the Raptors need to pony up to retain him once he hits unrestricted free agency this summer). Sending out a first-round pick for questionable veteran upgrades is a Raptors trade deadline tradition, at this point; it’s not clear if it’s leading anywhere, but hope springs eternal in the Great White North. (Just so long as a healthy Ingram doesn’t improve the 16-35 Raps enough to mess with what could be a top-four pick in what profiles as a loaded 2025 NBA draft.)

Winner: Cleveland Cavaliers

The main thing you could ding the Cavs for amid their breathtaking start to the season was that, as incredible as Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland are, and as incredible as Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen have been, you could sometimes really feel their lack of a good big wing. So, Cleveland went out and got one.

I mean, De’Andre Hunter isn’t, like, LeBron or Kawhi or anything; he’s a decent-but-not-great defender, he doesn’t rebound all that well, and at least part of the credit for his career season belongs to the acknowledgment (whether from him or from the Hawks’ coaching staff) that he’s probably best suited to a more circumscribed role as an attacker and finisher than in trying to stretch his game out as a creator. But for the price of LeVert, Niang, three future second-round picks and a pair of pick swaps, the Cavs got a 6-foot-8, 225-pound combo forward who’s filling it up better than ever now that he’s accepted the gospel of trading long 2s for 3s, averaging a career-high 19 points in 28.8 minutes per game on 46/39/86 shooting splits.

Hunter is bigger than LeVert and better than Niang, a knockdown-shooting wing with some muscle on a rising-cap-friendly contract through 2027, giving Cleveland a long runway to see how he fits alongside its core four. He joins Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro and Max Strus in giving Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson a number of viable options on the wing depending on postseason matchups.

Taking on the balance of his extension could lead to luxury-tax pain down the line, but I commend the Cavs for considering that the cost of doing business. For the first time since LeBron left, and the first time without him since Mark Price and Brad Daugherty were demigods, Cleveland has a team that can credibly contend for a championship. If you’re not going to be aggressive in trying to add talent when that’s true, then what the hell are we even here for?

Which brings us to …

Loser: Chicago Bulls

OK, in fairness, we have to give Arturas Karnišovas credit for doing something. After three straight deadlines without a single transaction, the Bulls boss did consummate a deal, flipping LaVine to Sacramento in the three-team deal that landed Fox in San Antonio.

But while doing something is better than doing nothing, the something the Bulls actually did — sending out their best player while taking on more than $36 million in 2025-26 salary for Kevin Huerter and Zach Collins without getting any draft capital back besides control of their own top-10-protected 2025 pick — wasn’t that much better than nothing.

Especially considering the Bulls couldn’t get across the finish line in negotiations for stretch-5 Nikola Vučević rather than seizing an opportunity to capitalize on his outlier-excellent season by expunging the rest of his contract and getting some draft picks for him. And that he didn’t push to move guards Coby White or Ayo Dosunmu before they wind up in an untenable contractual middle ground where the Bulls can’t effectively extend them for what they’re worth. And that, rather than moving the finally-healthy-and-looking-great Lonzo Ball while the iron was hot, he instead extended Ball for a still-moveable two years and $20 million … and then didn’t move him.

Yes, trades are hard, it takes two to tango, etc. But the Bulls just, like, never tango. They are the guy in the “They Don’t Know” meme, standing in the corner at the party, talking to themselves about how nobody knows that Patrick Williams is totally still going to become Kawhi Leonard someday, just you wait. Meanwhile … everybody else is dancing and having a good time, you know?

“There’s more to come,” Karnišovas told reporters after the deadline. “We’re committing to building a sustainable, competitive team. We’re not OK with being in the middle.”

Just for the record: The Bulls are 22-30, on pace to finish between sixth and 11th place in the East for the sixth straight season. If they’re not OK with being in the middle, they should probably, at some point, try to stop being in the middle.

Hey: You know who’s not trying to be in the middle?

Winner (Without, You Know, Many Actual Wins): Washington Wizards

The deconstruction phase continues apace!

Washington worked its way into four deals ahead of this deadline, moving Kuzma, Valančiūnas, former No. 2 overall pick Marvin Bagley III, guards Johnny Davis and Jared Butler, and forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. in exchange for veterans Middleton and Marcus Smart, 2024 first-round pick AJ Johnson and a slew of draft picks, including a pair of future firsts. Under new personnel chiefs Michael Winger and Will Dawkins, the Wizards are working through a to-the-studs rebuild, accumulating as many young players and as many draft picks as possible — and now, with Middleton and Smart joining Jordan Poole and Malcolm Brodgon, adding some credible veterans with playoff experience to try to help the likes of Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George learn the ropes.

(Riding a similar wave: The Hornets, who are now up to 11 first-round picks under their control after their deals with the Suns and Lakers.)

If those vets play well enough to rehabilitate their value, then great; Washington can move them for young talent, more draft capital, or both. In the meantime, though, the Wizards are taking a Hinkie-esque longest view in the room, stacking chips while they do it, and trusting their own flavor of the process. Say what you will about it, but at least it’s an ethos.

Speaking of:

I’m Not Mad, I’m Just … Disappointed: Memphis Grizzlies

I was bullish on the decision to trade for Smart after bidding farewell to Dillon Brooks, but injuries and inconsistency led to Memphis’ bet on Smart going bust. Trading two firsts to get him, and another to get off of him, is a rare rough bit of business for a Grizzlies team that has nailed so many other transactions over the years.

Beyond that, though … like, the Grizzlies are awesome again! They’re second in the West, a half-dozen games behind the Thunder! And, yet again, they couldn’t find their version of the De’Andre Hunter trade — the maybe-not-that-massive-but-still-notable improvement on the wing to connect the dots between Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane and Ja Morant, and better fortify them for what they hope will be a long playoff run.

Evidently unable to pull off the Jimmy Butler or Cam Johnson deal of my dreams, the Grizz instead stayed low and built, stacking expiring contracts to give them more flexibility this summer to be able to renegotiate and extend Jackson, currently in the midst of an All-NBA-caliber season, up to what could be his maximum salary. That is a perfectly fine use of resources and funds; I would just really, really love to see these Grizzlies go all in at some point.

Winner: Myles Turner, Trade Deadline Champion

No matter how many years in a row you float his name for a bigger market or flashier partnership, NBA rumormongers, you’ll never pry Myles Turner out of Indiana. The man’s planted in the soil deeper than like cornstalks, and the Pacers are more than happy to keep him around. (Unless you’ve heard something? OK, we’ll revisit this in the summer.)