10 Biggest Winners and Losers From a February Frenzy of Trades
I can’t recall a day with more off-the-court drama than last Sunday.
As we all remember, the NBA world was sent haywire when Shams Charania announced the most shocking trade in NBA history—Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. I’m still in awe. It’s like trying to imagine if the universe didn’t exist; I can’t imagine Luka spending the next 15 years of his career wearing purple and gold. The trickling reports throughout the last few days of why this trade was made have been fascinating, and now, all that’s left to see is how both teams look after the blockbuster deal.
While I’m not sure we’ll ever see a trade as monumental as the Doncic trade again, there was another deal over the weekend that might actually have heavier implications on the future of the league. The Spurs have been in cautious mode with Victor Wembanyama. They’ve been letting him cook with subpar cooking tools and seeing how far he can take them. But on Sunday night, the Spurs officially announced themselves to the world by trading for De’Aaron Fox. He’s Wemby’s first career All-Star teammate and looks to be the projected number two on championship teams for years to come.
ESPN frequently releases a winners and losers article after big trades, so that’s what we’re going to do here. These are the five biggest winners and five biggest losers of Sunday, February 2nd—a day that will be forever remembered in basketball history.
Winner: De’Aaron Fox
Fox is undoubtedly one of the two biggest winners of the weekend. Do you realize how many players are going to want to team up with Victor Wembanyama in the next 15 years? Fox just beat every one of them to the punch. He escapes a stagnant situation in Sacramento and joins a team that has the potential to skyrocket in the next few seasons with their extra-terrestrial superstar.
Fox moves to Texas where he is just three hours away from his high school and a short flight from his hometown of New Orleans. Moving to Texas also means he won’t have to pay state tax—something that will be very beneficial when he signs his next contract this offseason.
The fit with Wemby is undeniable. The lefty-righty combination in pick-and-roll sets will be lethal, and their juxtaposing paces of play will give defenses a headache. Additionally, Fox gets to learn from the best teacher in Chris Paul. Paul has elevated the level of play of just about every guard he’s played with including James Harden, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and most recently, Devin Booker.
Life is good for De’Aaron Fox right now.
Loser: Nico Harrison
I genuinely wonder if Nico Harrison feels safe when he wakes up in the morning. By trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers, he’s turned the whole city of Dallas against him and has received threats from Mavs fans who are distraught about the thought of moving forward without their beloved superstar.
Harrison will almost certainly be on the hot seat if this trade blows up in his face which is unfortunate for him because, to this point, he’s actually done a terrific job of assembling a championship-level roster by acquiring Kyrie Irving, P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford as well as adding Klay Thompson in free agency.
In all likelihood, Harrison will not be forgiven for his sins and even though they say, “Ball don’t lie,” I’m not even sure the Mavs having success with Davis will be enough for the fans to come around on this gigantic decision.
Winner: Rob Pelinka
The executive on the other side of the bombshell trade is the second obvious winner of the weekend. Pelinka has been repeatedly thrashed by Laker fans for breaking up the 2020 championship roster in favor of adding Russell Westbrook and several players far past their prime. Pelinka wasn’t the enemy like Harrison now in Dallas, but few were singing his praises from the mountaintops. Until yesterday.
Pelinka might have just pulled off one of the greatest heists in sports history and as reports of the trade continue to reveal themselves, it sounds as if conversations between him and Harrison lasted several weeks. Somehow, Pelinka managed to convince Harrison that the trade was a good idea. Wizardry, I tell you.
The Lakers GM might have just positioned himself as the favorite for executive of the year and most definitely bought himself more time as the lead man in the front office. He should be beaming ear to ear right now.
Loser: Luka Doncic
Doncic is moving to LA, but that’s just about the only thing that’s warm in his life. The NBA is a cold business and the Slovenian prodigy just learned that the hard way.
Doncic was apparently blindsided by the trade. Like all of us, he believed he would live in Dallas for the remainder of his career, and one day watch his jersey be raised to the rafters next to the championship banners he’d win. None of that will happen now. Doncic’s dreams of being the greatest Maverick of all time are officially crushed.
The worst part is that he was going to be eligible to sign a $345M supermax extension at the end of this season which is exactly why the Mavericks traded him. The largest deal Doncic can sign is now worth $228M, meaning he just lost out on $117M. First world problems, but still.
I believe Doncic will settle into Los Angeles nicely, but as a young teen from Europe, Dallas was his home. He was loved by the fans and he loved the city back. Money can’t buy happiness and I just hope that Doncic doesn’t lose his love for the game as he transitions to the next stage in his career.
Winner: Victor Wembanyama
The trade for Fox suggests that the Spurs have officially switched gears into contending mode. By my projection, the Spurs now go from a fringe Play-In team to a favorite to reach the postseason. Wemby will get his first crack at the playoffs this year which is fun for any young player.
Beyond this season though, the Spurs might have found the Frenchman’s running-mate for at least this next half-decade. As I’ve already touched upon, the Fox and Wemby fit is delectable and as Charles Barkley might say as soon as tomorrow, the new duo will feed the big ol’ women of San Antonio for years to come—a nice alternative to Churros.
The addition of Fox will take some pressure off Wemby on offense, who Bill Simmons compared to a baby deer on ice when he has the ball. Wemby will be able to operate in true offensive sets more often than before and won’t have to bail the Spurs out at the end of the shot clock when nobody can find offense.
Loser: Stephen Curry
Even Curry, who denied that the Warriors need to make a groundbreaking move at the trade deadline, knows that the Warriors are dead in the water if they keep their current roster. They are 12-21 in their last 35 games and incredibly, have a below-average offense for the first time in over a decade as long as Curry has been healthy.
Their most likely acquisitions appeared to be Jimmy Butler and Zach LaVine. Well, over the weekend, Butler stated that he would not re-sign with the Warriors if traded there. And LaVine, who was probably an even better option given age, skillset, and lack of drama, was traded to the Sacramento Bulls as part of the Fox deal.
There are still options on the table for the Warriors such as Nikola Vucevic and Myles Turner, but neither of those guys solve the Warriors’ ball-handling problems and will take very little pressure off of Curry.
Curry’s chances of having a last-gasp chance of contending for a championship are beginning to fade.
Winner: Anthony Davis
It’s gone under the radar, but I think Anthony Davis is quietly thrilled with this trade. I believe Davis thinks he has a better chance of contending with the Mavs than the Lakers. It’s been rinse and repeat for the Lakers year after year—they are a fringe contender at their best and a low Play-In team at their worst. They were going nowhere. Dallas might not be headed anywhere either, but we are yet to see what they are capable of.
Davis waiving his $5.9M trade kicker shows that this move might have been somewhat pre-meditated on his part, too. Plus, he knows he can survive without the kicker because there is no (wait for it) state tax in Texas.
AD has been adamant about playing power forward for years but the Lakers have never given him the opportunity. He’ll most certainly play the four in Dallas which had to be a motivating factor after he told Shams Charania in an ESPN interview last week that the Lakers need to trade for a center.
Davis did great things for the Lakers, but even he’d tell you that the ship had run its course.
Loser: Zach LaVine
I thought that once the trade deadline was passed, LaVine would be playing for a contender in a big market with a much-needed change of scenery after seven years on some of the most forgettable Bulls teams ever. He got none of those things.
The Kings are not a contender. They are stuck in neutral and will be a Play-In team at best this season. They are not a big market either. LaVine was rumored to play for the Warriors or Lakers. Instead, he’s in Northern California in a city with 15% of the population of Los Angeles. And he doesn’t even get a change of scenery. He’s back with DeMar DeRozan, who stunted his offensive growth in Chicago, with a similar center to Nikola Vucevic in Domantas Sabonis.
As I referenced at the top of the article, LaVine has essentially been traded from the Bulls to the Bulls. I’m betting that he’s not too happy about it.
Winner: Rookies on Trade Teams
According to reports, Dalton Knecht was originally in the trade package for Luka Doncic, but somehow Rob Pelinka gained the leverage in the deal and forced Knecht out of conversations. Now, he’ll get to play alongside Luka Doncic for years to come and might even be the starting shooting guard if Austin Reaves is traded.
The same can be said about Stephon Castle. In an alternate universe, Castle would be stuck on the Kings or the Bulls. Instead, the Spurs managed to retain him and he should be deeply involved in the Spurs’ bright future for years to come.
Finally, Devin Carter and Matas Buzelis should get some more run after the Kinga sn Bulls both traded their primary ball-handlers and scorers.
Loser: Jimmy Butler
Butler is a loser simply because nobody cares about him anymore. After the Doncic and Fox trades, the general opinion of NBA fans is that there are bigger fish to fry around the league than the fate of an aging former star who is frankly making a fool out of himself with the clownery down in Miami.
Over the weekend, Butler declared that he would re-sign with the Warriors if they traded for him. Guess what, Jimmy? You can’t always get what you want. You haven’t played good enough basketball for three years straight for the Heat to trade you to your preferred destination. So, when an offer is put on the table about playing San Francisco next to the greatest shooter of all time, you don’t whine about it. Maybe I’m the real loser for being salty about Jimmy’s behavior, but I think that’s fair.
Either way, he’s running out of suitors after many teams filled their roster holes this weekend.
Subscribe to listen our full thoughts about the trade deadline on the ATA podcast with Ben this Wednesday!
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