We may have just lived through the most active trade deadline in NBA history, but it’s not as though everyone participated equally. Four teams didn’t make a single trade: the Nuggets, Magic, Trail Blazers and Timberwolves, and whether or not doing so was feasible, there are certainly fans in all four cities sitting around and grumbling about how the Lakers managed to steal Luka Doncic while they couldn’t even find a decent backup small forward.

That is the nature of the trade deadline, though. All 30 teams are operating under different circumstances. They have different needs, different assets, different financial constraints and different relationships around the league. It’s possible to have a good deadline with only minor moves. It’s possible to whiff on a deadline with blockbusters. 

So let’s go through all 30 teams and grade their performances at the 2025 trade deadline. Keep in mind that the baseline here is a “C,” so if your team stood still, don’t be surprised to see it land in this area. As one last note, we aren’t simply evaluating the moves made during the immediate buildup to the deadline. We are considering every move made during the season as well as how those teams handled the circumstances behind them. With that in mind, let’s begin with the teams that did well and work our way down to the disappointments.

Los Angeles Lakers: A

Rob Pelinka could have traded the Hollywood sign to Phoenix for Bradley Beal’s contract and he was still getting an “A.” That’s how transformative the Doncic trade was. In a single stroke, he sidestepped what likely would have been an ugly downward trajectory for the LeBron James-Anthony Davis era and gave the Lakers the face of their franchise for the next 10 years. That he found an ideal center for him in Mark Williams is just the cherry on top. The Lakers still have work to do. This offseason will be critical, and there are risks associated with Williams as well, from his injuries to his inconsistent defense. But who cares? The Lakers got a 25-year-old MVP candidate. That’s all that matters here.

The Spurs, like the Lakers, still have work to do. There are a lot of iffy shooters on this roster now, for example, and there is still plenty of evaluation needed on some of their young players. But San Antonio grabbed De’Aaron Fox, a 27-year-old All-Star, at their biggest position of long-term need and they did so without giving up a single core young player or piece of this year’s rotation. They sacrificed four first-round picks in the process, but one of them was fake and two of the others were of somewhat limited value. The Fox trade was a coup on balance, and it wasn’t the only thing that went right for San Antonio. The Spurs are on such a hot streak right now that they are winning trades they aren’t even participating in. On Thursday, the Atlanta Hawks effectively dumped the contracts of De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic for minimal asset return. The Spurs happen to control Atlanta’s next three first-round picks… and the Hawks just made themselves worse. It’s all smiles in San Antonio right now, and it won’t be long before the Spurs are back atop the Western Conference.

Should they have moved veterans like Collin Sexton and John Collins for value? Yeah, probably. But from a pure asset perspective, Utah’s January trade with Phoenix is one of the strangest deals in NBA history. Yes, the Jazz gave up three first-round picks to get one… but the three they gave up were almost certain to come in at the bottom of the first round. The one that they got, however, is one of the most valuable outstanding draft picks in all of basketball: Phoenix’s unprotected 2031 pick. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see how I feel about Phoenix’s future right now. The Jazz did other things, but this deadline ultimately boils down to the fact that the Suns offered them a $10 bill in exchange for three singles. That’s an easy “A.”

In pure basketball terms, the De’Andre Hunter trade was a win for Cleveland. It consolidated a crowded rotation, created a bit more role clarity for the bench, gave the Cavaliers a significant upgrade in the frontcourt and somehow improved the shooting on one of the NBA’s best shooting rosters. But that trade did more than make the Cavaliers better. It also got them below the luxury tax. For a team that figures to be as good and expensive for as long as the Cavaliers do, that is enormous. The new luxury-tax formula that kicks in next season is enormously punitive to repeaters, so delaying the tax clock as long as possible really matters. Cleveland has now pushed the tax back a year, and because they’re below the first apron, they have the freedom to go shopping on the buyout market for any available free agent. They managed to do all of this without sacrificing a single first-round pick outright or last year’s first-round pick, the promising Jaylon Tyson. Cleveland’s dream season is going just as well off the court as it is on it.

Would Golden State have preferred Kevin Durant? Probably. As a general rule you should always unite top-15 players of all time if the option presents itself and the players are on board with it. But getting Durant would have cost a fortune in assets. It only cost Golden State one likely mid-first-round pick to turn Andrew Wiggins and some middling bench pieces into Jimmy Butler. Despite Butler’s moping this season, the statistical gap between him and Wiggins remains significant, and think about the circumstances here. Wiggins went from playing on a contract many viewed as untradeable in Minnesota to becoming the second-best player on a champion with the Warriors. That’s the sort of difference Stephen Curry can have for a teammate. Now apply the Curry effect to Butler, an angry All-Star that does everything Golden State currently lacks that hasn’t played with a true star point guard since… post-injury Derrick Rose? Goran Dragic? This is a match made in heaven.

The Sixers didn’t do anything major at the deadline, but the minor moves they made all added up. One of the oldest teams in the league turned a 29-year-old Caleb Martin into a 24-year-old Quentin Grimes. Nice work. Philadelphia turned one bad first-round pick into four potentially good second-round picks. I know we just finished reaming the Suns for making a similar trade, but it makes far more sense in this case because the pick the 76ers sent out is attached to the Thunder and comes up soon. It’s going to be late. Finally, the Sixers managed to duck the tax and give themselves a fighting chance to open up the non-taxpayer mid-level exception this offseason. They’ll need it if they plan to retain breakout free-agent signing Guerschon Yabusele. All in all, it was a productive deadline in Philadelphia.

The Clippers have had two shot-creators all season. Either James Harden or Norm Powell generated offense, or the Clippers were just going to score 80 points that night. Getting Kawhi Leonard back has obviously given them a third, but now, with the addition of Bogdan Bogdanovic, they have a fourth and got significantly more lineup flexibility in the process. The Clippers can play big or small, offense-centric or defense-centric. They can mix and match pairings that work or just throw unique groups at opponents. In the process, they got off of Kevin Porter Jr., who has been one of the worst rotation players in the NBA this season as Harden’s backup, and also managed to get out of the remaining three years and $47 million owed to Terance Mann. Even if Bogdanovic’s health is a question mark, that’s a successful deadline. The Clippers needed more offense and got it at a reasonable price while cleaning their books up a bit in the process.

Mark Williams is probably going to thrive in Los Angeles. Luka Doncic and LeBron James both have a history of lifting players like him, but it still made sense for the Hornets to get out of the Williams business now because of the health risks he posed. The Hornets aren’t the Lakers. They can’t afford to pay someone starter money if he can’t stay on the floor. Nobody is dropping Doncic in their lap. They seem to have settled on Moussa Diabate as a long-term piece at center, and his stellar defensive metrics support that decision. The priority for Charlotte throughout this rebuild as been to stack first-round picks and maximize flexibility. They’ve done that here. So seeing Williams succeed in purple and gold might sting, but that doesn’t take away from what the Hornets are building without him.

There are still very real questions about Toronto’s overall direction. There’s not a superstar here, and unless the lottery gods smile on the Raptors, there probably isn’t one coming any time soon. But as a simple value proposition, turning what will probably be a mid-first-round pick into a 27-year-old former All-Star at the NBA’s scarcest position is just a worthwhile idea. Now, this grade gets worse if they overpay Brandon Ingram this summer, but with so little cap space out there, the likeliest outcome here is probably a reasonable, short-term deal that gives both sides a chance to feel out this partnership. This deal doesn’t offer much clarity on Toronto’s future, but in a vacuum, the cost was low enough to take the chance and could yield major benefits down the line.

The Wizards didn’t exactly get paid a king’s ransom to offer their services as a financial facilitator. Yes, they got a first-round pick from the Grizzlies, but they also gave up their own second-round pick in the deal, which will be at the top of the round. The pick swap they got from the Bucks was a secondary swap after Milwaukee settles its business with Portland in 2028, so the value was limited. But a few years ago, the Thunder made a habit of getting paid to take in expensive veterans, rehabilitate their value, and then trade them for more assets down the line. Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart both seem like prime candidates for that process in Washington. If the Wizards can get them healthy and showcase them next season, there’s a chance they’re getting good draft value to deal them to contenders in 2026. If not? Both should at least be nice veterans to have in their young locker room.

At one point, it looked as though the Pistons might be able to use their cap space to extract a first-round pick out of someone desperate for a financial facilitator. In the end, though, nobody proved that desperate. That’s OK. Dennis Schroder is a nice addition for them. He functions somewhat similarly to the injured Jaden Ivey as a speedy secondary ball-handler, but his expiring contract means the Pistons can move off of him harmlessly after the season. He struggled mightily in Golden State, but plenty of role players do (remember the Kelly Oubre year there?) Schroder was never meant for a complicated motion offense. Just give him the ball and let him score. The Pistons are equipped to do that, so it’s a nice little addition for their playoff push.

The Pelicans didn’t get nearly as much for Ingram as they could have had they moved a few years earlier, but in fairness, there wasn’t much of a reason to believe they needed to back then. Ingram was mostly great in the 2022 playoffs and then he followed that up with arguably the best season of his career. The stars just aligned against him and the Pelicans. The league started to value the pure scorer archetype less than ever, Ingram dealt with injuries, and then the CBA changed and scared everyone out of spending. In the end, it just made sense for these two sides to split. Ingram’s dribbling will no longer get in the way of New Orleans’ preferred, Zion Williamson-centric offense, and the Pelicans got a first-round pick for their troubles. Both sides get to move on in peace. Oh, and in what has become an annual tradition, the Pelicans ducked the tax during the season. This time, it took a Daniel Theis trade to Oklahoma City.

Inaction was probably the right course for New York, outside of the minor Jericho Sims-for-Delon Wright swap. Their only two feasibly movable salaries were Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiuwa. Achiuwa is playing too well to justify a move at his meager $6 million salary, and the Knicks were never going to get reasonable value for the perpetually injured Robinson. Ultimately, Robinson should be treated as their deadline addition. The ability to legitimately play two-big and defense-centric lineups, which this current roster lacks, is a meaningful upgrade in itself. The Knicks don’t get credit for that since Robinson was already on the team, but they probably navigated this deadline correctly.

2025 NBA trade deadline was insane — and we might never see another one like it

Bill Reiter

There were rumors of a Myles Turner trade out of fear of his next contract. There were rumors of an Obi Toppin cap dump to open up a bit more money for Turner. The Pacers elected — correctly — to stand pat aside from their earlier fringe addition of Thomas Bryant (who’s been fine for them) and their James Wiseman dump. Indiana is playing well right now. The financial situation is not so dire that the Pacers should have been willing to break up a team that is only now hitting its stride. Good job by a typically stingy organization to recognize that.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Sam Presti got paid a second-round pick to take on someone’s contract. He proceeded to waive the contract (in this case, Theis) and toss the pick on his pile. That’s all Oklahoma City wound up doing, and it’s hard not to be a bit disappointed by that. The Thunder have so many assets to work with that a minor upgrade would have been warranted given how strong their championship odds are. Cam Johnson to shore up their shooting would have helped, or Coby White to give them a bench ball-handler. Ultimately we won’t ding the Thunder too much, though, because of how good they are. Who are we to question Presti? An upgrade could’ve helped, but Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein haven’t played a game together yet. They’re probably already the NBA‘s best team.

Orlando Magic: C

The Magic are the first of our four teams not to make a single trade. Eventually, they’ll cash in some of their draft capital to go get a guard who can put the ball through the hoop. Considering the injuries they’ve dealt with this season, though, waiting to do so is understandable. A lot of their young players have benefitted from more on-ball reps, and now the Magic have to get everyone comfortable playing with one another again over the next few months before the postseason. Introducing a new, high-usage ball-handler into the mix would have made that harder. Check back in a year. If they haven’t added a guard by then, we’ll grade them more harshly for it.

Swapping Jaden Springer out for Torrey Craig is almost certainly going to prove inconsequential to Boston’s title defense. Springer barely played. Craig will barely play. Springer is just younger and more promising. A recent four-steal effort against the Clippers helped swing a game the Celtics otherwise would have lost. Having young, springy athletes like that around is useful for bored champions just trying to make it through the regular season. They can wake teams up on quiet nights in the regular-season doldrums. The Celtics will be fine, but as a Springer fan, I’m dinging them slightly.

The Kyle Kuzma trade was questionable but defensible. He has been one of the worst high-minutes players in the NBA this season, but he’s been a valuable and versatile role player in the past. This team badly needed an injection of pace, athleticism and rebounding. Kuzma can provide those things. His success or failure in Milwaukee will come down to whether or not he makes open 3s. He’s always been overrated as a shooter, but he’s about to get some of the easiest looks of his career. Where the Bucks get dinged, though, is in their failure to maximize the flexibility the Kuzma trade gave them. Getting below the second apron mattered on several levels, but in the short term, it gave them the ability to aggregate salaries again. This team was not a Kyle Kuzma away from the championship. It needed multiple upgrades, yet the Bucks failed to use the Bobby Portis or Pat Connaughton salaries to add another piece. Could they not have gotten in on the Smart cap dump? Was there not a 3-and-D wing out there worth dangling their 2031 pick for? There’s an element of deck chair-shuffling going on here. The Bucks weren’t a championship team with Middleton and probably aren’t with Kuzma either. They just have slightly different strengths and weaknesses. A team this old and this invested in the present needed to make that last push, but they came up short.

There have been a wide range of opinions on the return Miami got for Butler, but part of what we’re grading them on is the circumstances that led to that trade. Pat Riley expressed his hesitance to extend Butler at his end-of-season press conference last year. At that point, the die was cast. This was never going to end well and they should have traded him then. The Heat let this fester, it got ugly, and they traded him for less than they should have gotten. Frankly, considering the relatively low-upside first-round pick they got from the Warriors in the deal, it’s worth wondering if they should have kept an open mind about absorbing Bradley Beal’s contract. No, we don’t know if Beal would have accepted a trade to Miami, but Phoenix’s 2031 first-round pick is more valuable than any asset the Heat got in the actual Butler trade. Beal would have clogged their books in the summer of 2026, but if Wiggins picks up his player option, he will too. Considering Miami’s need for shot-creation, Beal likely would have helped them more on the court as well. The trade they made wasn’t bad, per se. They did the best they could given difficult circumstances. It’s just that they themselves were responsible for those circumstances, and they drew a hard line in the sand on what they were willing to accept from Phoenix in a way that might have cost them a better return for Butler.

Jimmy Butler trade grades: Warriors get ‘B+’ for major swing, Heat sell low after saga with star

Sam Quinn

The real sin here was committed over the summer. The Nets knew they were tanking the moment they traded for control of their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks back. At that point, they needed to start trading every valuable player that wasn’t nailed down. Getting maximum value wasn’t the point. Keeping Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton allowed the Nets to win games they otherwise would have preferred to lose. Sure enough, the Nets currently have only the sixth-best lottery odds. That would be acceptable for a normal tanker, but the Nets paid a premium to get their picks back. Doing so only made sense because they themselves could have intentionally maximized the value of those picks. They didn’t because they insisted on maximizing the value of their players. It’s too early to say for certain how much that will matter, but it’s possible, and perhaps likely, that the lottery balls they sacrificed by keeping their players for too long prove more valuable than anything any of them do on the court. That they failed to land a first-round pick for either Dennis Schroder or Dorian Finney-Smith is just the icing on the cake. Brooklyn is headed in the right direction overall, and Jordi Fernandez has been a great rookie coach. They just didn’t tank hard enough.

We’ll give the Grizzlies some credit for trying. They asked about players ranging from Kevin Durant to Dorian Finney-Smith. They just couldn’t make a deal. Ultimately, they probably needed an upgrade if they plan to meaningfully compete in the playoffs. Their regular-season success is based in large part on depth that means less in the postseason. They need some sort of consolidation trade, ideally for a wing who can shoot and defend. Instead, they went the other way, trading a player off of their own roster who, when healthy, actually does those things in Marcus Smart just to save some money. Doing so could potentially open up cap space for Memphis this summer, but in all likelihood, they won’t use that space to improve, but rather, to renegotiate-and-extend Jaren Jackson Jr. It’s nice to reward your own players, but the Grizzlies aren’t good enough to pass on chances to improve. They’re going to regret the way they handled this deadline in April or May.

Denver Nuggets: C-

Denver didn’t have much to work with at the deadline. The Nuggets have spent most of their draft capital, and their matching salary is attached to bad players in Zeke Nnaji and Dario Saric. Still, it’s a tad disappointing that Denver couldn’t at least duck under the first apron just to open up the buyout market for themselves. This is a team that still needs a backup center and could probably use another shooter or two as well. Maybe getting real reinforcements was unrealistic, but it’s disappointing nonetheless. 

Minnesota Timberwolves: C-

As with the Grizzlies, applaud the Timberwolves for trying. They also made a last-second push for Durant. Getting him was basically impossible financially, but who knows, maybe they laid some groundwork that they could revisit over the summer. In more immediate terms, it’s a bit disappointing that the Timberwolves couldn’t find a taker for Julius Randle. It’s unclear how hard they looked, but his player option for next season has a chance to detail their offseason. Getting off of his money will be essential to whatever they plan to do next summer, whether it’s re-signing Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker without racking up a huge tax bill or trying something more aggressive and creative. The fit hasn’t worked, and now the Timberwolves have to ride out an underwhelming season with him at power forward.

The Rockets have made it clear all season that they do not want to break up their young core with a major trade. They want to see how this team looks in the playoffs before charting a course. That’s fine for the most part… but upgrading on the fringes wouldn’t have violated the sanctity of the experiment. Houston has plenty of usable matching salary (Jeff Green and Jock Landale come to mind). They have a ton of draft picks as well, and at the very least, they could have easily upgraded on the Aaron Holiday slot in their rotation. Sitting still could be the difference between reaching the Western Conference finals and losing in the first round. The margins are that thin in the West. Houston has now lost five games in a row. Adding reinforcements could have sent a message to the locker room that the front office believes in this team and wants to invest in it. In the long run, sitting still won’t mean too much. This was never going to be a championship season for Houston anyway. But it’s disappointing for a team that could still make real noise.

Atlanta Hawks: D+

De’Andre Hunter is 27 years old, plays the league’s scarcest position and has a real case for Sixth Man of the Year this season. The Hawks traded him for three second-round picks and two first-round swaps that they almost definitely won’t be in a position to utilize. That’s a bad decision on the surface, but it gets worse in context. The primary goal here was, seemingly, to get off of Hunter’s contract. It’s not a bad contract, but ok, the Hawks aren’t going anywhere in the near term, maybe the flexibility would be helpful… except for the fact that they took back Terance Mann’s contract in a separate deal, and while he doesn’t make quite as much as Hunter, his contract is a year longer. It just isn’t clear what the Hawks were actually trying to accomplish here. They traded a good player at what should have been the peak of his value for a minimal return. They barely cleaned up their books in the process, and now, Trae Young‘s future with the team is murky, according to Chris Haynes. There was a lot of goodwill surrounding Atlanta earlier in the season, but the Hawks are 1-9 in their last 10 and floundering without Jalen Johnson. This deadline won’t help.

No, they were never going to get ideal value back for De’Aaron Fox once it became clear that he did not plan to re-sign. That doesn’t mean that they needed to rush to get a deal done now. Had they waited until draft night, for instance, they might have been able to target a specific prospect they liked with one of San Antonio’s many first-round picks. Who knows. Maybe another team would have surprised them with a better offer. Two of the three picks they got back in the deal were pretty underwhelming. The third, Minnesota’s first-round pick in 2031, is so far away that predicting its value to the Kings is almost impossible. Sacramento isn’t Utah. Its front office doesn’t have the job security or limited interference from ownership to bet on picks like that. The Kings could cycle through two or three more regimes by then. In the interim, they’re attempting to reload around Zach LaVine. If the LaVine-DeMar DeRozan duo was going to make any playoff noise, it would have happened in Chicago. The Kings turned a star guard into a star guard with serious injury concerns. There was no ideal path available to the Kings, but at the very least, the Fox trade was a chance for them to reimagine their team moving forward and perhaps find a different formula entirely, or kickstart a probably-needed rebuild. Instead, they chose to keep chasing No. 8 seeds.

Portland Trail Blazers: D+

Portland’s recent success may have been a bit blinding. The Trail Blazers have won nine of 10, but they needed to do a better job separating the outcome from the components of it that actually mattered. Their young players are thriving. Great! Nobody was suggesting a Scoot Henderson trade. Moving some of their veterans, though, was probably necessary. Robert Williams III is healthy now. His track record suggests that may not last much longer. Jerami Grant‘s contract is a time bomb, but he’s still useful enough to good teams that he probably could have been moved for value. But Portland, as it has done for several transaction cycles, continues to overvalue its veterans. Having Grant around isn’t going to do those youngsters any good in two years if his contract prevents the Blazers from improving around them. A decent return for Williams now might have looked great later if he gets hurt again. With Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe starting to come into their own, it might even be time to explore Anfernee Simons trades. Maybe the Blazers clear some of the veterans out over the summer, but the longer they wait, the harder it could be.

The press conference Bulls lead executive Arturas Karnisovas had after Thursday’s deadline was about as distressing a public address as any NBA executive has delivered in recent memory. This team has no plan whatsoever. Consider the following quote: “There’s different structures that you can try to get to a championship,” Karnisovas said. “There’s 2-3 star players and then a lot of role players or you can build it as 9-10 very good players.” The premise is almost entirely faulty, but I suppose the 2004 Pistons exist, and the restricting CBA might open doors for teams to try winning with depth over star power. Fine. But here’s the problem: the Bulls don’t have nine or 10 very good players. They don’t have two or three very good players either. Karnisovas set the standard of a championship in that quote. The Bulls, right now, do not have a single player on their roster who would have started for either team that played in the 2024 NBA Finals. The only thing that should matter to this franchise right now is talent acquisition. The first step in acquiring talent is acquiring the assets used to land that talent. So why is Nikola Vucevic still on the team? Or Lonzo Ball? Or Coby White? These are players that teams with two or three stars, or those that aim to build around nine or 10 players instead, might have been able to use. Instead, they’re hanging around on a Bulls team going nowhere for reasons that remain unclear, hurting Chicago’s draft pick in the process. Speaking of Chicago’s draft pick, it was the only asset of value the Bulls got back in the LaVine trade. The only reason they needed to trade for that top-eight protected pick back was because they didn’t tank well enough to keep it in the first place, which either suggests that they were incapable of executing a proper rebuilding plan, or more likely, they wanted control of their pick either way so they could chase the Play-In in peace. Karnisovas all but admitted that, saying that sacrificing draft position for a shot at the postseason is “worth it to me.” Whether it’s Karnisovas pulling the strings or the Reinsdorf family, there is just no reason to trust the people making decisions here.

Phoenix Suns: F

The trade Phoenix made with Utah would have been bad even if it had led to Jimmy Butler. With or without him, this Suns team had too many holes to seriously contend for a championship this season, but if the Jazz trade had led to Butler, it would have at least suggested that Phoenix was capable of designing an executing a plan. It just would have been a bad one. What’s worse here is that the Suns somehow elected to make that trade without having a Butler deal, or some other worthy follow-up, lined up and ready. That suggests that the Suns aren’t even executing a plan here. They’re flying by the seat of their pants. Their handling of the Durant situation supports that notion. By all accounts, they were prepared to trade to Durant to Golden State if he was willing to go there. While the return on a trade is a critical component of whether or not to execute any deal, this suggests that the Suns made the organizational decision that they were ready to move on from Durant. That could have been to try to retool the team with youth, depth and picks, or that could have been because they preferred to turn Durant into Butler and other things. Both of these options were still on the table even after Golden State exited the picture. Several other teams aggressively pursued Durant, and if Phoenix had wanted to, it likely could have flipped those assets to Miami for Butler. But, again, there doesn’t seem to be a cohesive plan or vision here. They kept Durant and had a quiet deadline when, days earlier, they looked ready to blow things up. In the end, they elected to use one of the three picks they got from the Jazz to dump Jusuf Nurkic. Cody Martin can help them now, but more importantly, both he and Vasilije Micic do not have guaranteed salary next season. That could potentially help the Suns duck the second apron and have more flexibility to make moves elsewhere. It’s just fair to be skeptical of the people making those moves. The Mat Ishbia-James Jones tandem has stripped a Suns team that played in the NBA Finals four years ago of all of its assets and youth in exchange for a .500 roster. Nothing they did at this deadline suggests they’re ready to fix this.

We started with the Doncic trade and we’re ending with the Doncic trade. Dallas somehow managed to turn its MVP candidate into a player who is older, worse and more expensive. There’s just no justifying that decision. Even if Doncic had wanted to leave Dallas, Nico Harrison’s best course would have been to open the floor for a bidding war. Instead he negotiated with one other team and got fleeced. He followed that decision up by swapping impending restricted free agent Quentin Grimes into the cost-controlled Caleb Martin, who is five years older. They’re similar players in a vacuum. Martin, however, is dealing with a hip injury. Dallas reportedly had the option to void the trade upon finding out about its severity, but instead elected to move forward with another second-round pick added to the deal. If you’re trying to win now, as the Doncic trade suggests, wouldn’t you rather have the healthy, younger player than the injured older one, even if the older one will be cheaper in the long run? Probably, which suggests that deal was more about cutting costs. To cap all of this off, the Mavericks failed to land a secondary ball-handler to replace Doncic in their offense. Kyrie Irving may be a star, but he’s a star who has almost never had to serve as his offense’s primary ball-handler. He jumped from playing with LeBron James to James Harden and Kevin Durant to Luka Doncic, with only a brief stop on a very strong Boston team unaccounted for. Defenses are about to key in on him in ways they never have before, and he’s 32 now. If Dallas was going to make good on this win-now plan, it had to get him some offensive support. Harrison didn’t, and the Doncic trade looks worse and worse by the day.