Thursday's NBA trade deadline was one of the last chances for teams to make significant changes to their rosters this season. This year's deadline lacked the star power of recent seasons, but some contenders did not hesitate to make moves. The New York Knicks were extremely active, adding two more solid role players to what has become one of the best teams in the NBA. By contrast, the Los Angeles Lakers elected to stand pat, hoping continuity will help them regain the magic that led them to the Western Conference Finals last year.
None of the big names that we expected to see on the move -- Dejounte Murray, Kyle Kuzma, Andrew Wiggins -- ended up changing teams, but that doesn't mean that Thursday's trades won't have an impact on the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Here's a look at every deal that was made this week.
Let's take a look at some winners and losers from the 2024 NBA trade deadline.
Winner: New York Knicks
In a matter of a couple months, the Knicks added OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks to an already solid roster. The latter two might not be as splashy as Anunoby, who has displayed transformative value in New York, but both Bogdanovic and Burks are knock-down shooters who will help space the floor for Jalen Brunson and the currently injured Julius Randle. They're also both capable of creating their own offense when necessary, landing in the 80th and 70th percentile in jumpers off the dribble, respectively, per Synergy Sports. With Joel Embiid's injury and the Bucks' coaching change, the Knicks saw an opportunity to perhaps seize a top-three seed in the East and made their moves accordingly. They've also done all this without surrendering a single future first-round pick. Pretty impressive.
Loser: Los Angeles Lakers
The plan in Los Angeles is apparently to wait until the summer, when they'll have three first-round picks available to go after a superstar. That's fine, but it means that the team is content riding out this season with a roster currently fighting for a play-in spot -- one that has certainly not proven itself capable of winning a title. The Lakers (27-25, ninth place in the West) could essentially be wasting productive, healthy seasons from LeBron James and Anthony Davis for the prospect of future success. Who knows how James will perform as a 40-year-old next season, but it's certainly a risk. We will never know exactly which deals were there for the taking, but none must have moved the needle enough for Rob Pelinka and the front office to pull the trigger. We'll see how James reacts and how the team performs for the rest of the season.
Winners: Role players
It may be a star's league, but Thursday's trade deadline was all about the role players. Backup point guards, spot-up shooters, defensive specialists and locker room leaders all went flying around the NBA. Not one player we'd consider a "star" was traded. Instead it was a host of solid supporting pieces, some of which we'll be seeing deep into the playoffs.
Look, it's hard to call anyone making tens of millions of dollars a year a loser, but in this context, Williams didn't exactly come out on top. He signed with Dallas with the hopes of being an integral part of a team with a puncher's chance at an NBA title. Instead, he was shipped off to Charlotte, whose soonest shot at a championship may be in the 2030s. Williams was a borderline disaster with the Mavericks, shooting just 41% from the field while averaging 8.1 points per game. He's the type of player who could be rerouted to a contender at some point, but he can't be too enthused to be joining up with the struggling Hornets, even if he is from the area.
For the same reasons Williams might be perturbed by heading to a losing team, Hayward -- heading to the Thunder -- has to be ecstatic to have a chance to contribute to a title contender once again after three-and-a-half seasons of floundering in Charlotte. When healthy, Hayward was turning in a solid season, averaging 14.5 points and 4.6 assists on 36% 3-point shooting. He'll likely get a shot to compete for bench minutes with OKC while bringing some much-needed leadership and playoff experience to one of the youngest teams in the NBA.
The Wizards had several players who were reportedly receiving interest on the open market, but the only deal they were able to make was to send Daniel Gafford to the Dallas Mavericks for a late first-round pick in the 2024 draft. Kyle Kuzma, Tyus Jones and Corey Kispert all remain on the Wizards, and all of whom could have been useful on other teams and could potentially serve to negatively affect Washington's number of ping pong balls come lottery time. It's hard to imagine they couldn't have flipped one or more of those players into future assets.
Winner: The Pat Bev Pod
Social media newsbreakers rule the NBA trade deadline, but Patrick Beverley decided to take things into his own hands on Thursday. The 12-year NBA vet slyly announced that he would be heading to the Milwaukee Bucks via his podcast's social media account.
Talk about controlling the narrative.
We wish Hayes all the best in his future endeavors, but going from the No. 7 overall pick to being released by the worst team in the NBA in a span of four years is rough. Hayes reportedly wanted to be traded, and apparently nothing materialized that the Pistons front office felt was worthwhile. After being released, Hayes will likely catch on somewhere. At just 22 years old, he's shown flashes of scoring and playmaking ability, averaging 10.3 points and 7.3 assists per 36 minutes this season.
Not exactly the most impactful deal that went down, but for Tillman to go from one of the worst teams in in the league in the Grizzlies to the Boston Celtics, the favorites to take home the NBA championship, is a huge win. Here's more on how the backup big man can help the Celtics.
Dinwiddie will likely get to pick his next destination on the buyout market after being traded to and waived by the Toronto Raptors, but he'll also reportedly miss out on a significant chunk of change. The 30-year-old veteran point guard won't receive his $1.5 million games played bonus after the Raptors part ways with him, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. Seems unfair for a player who almost certainly would have hit the mark were it not for Toronto wanting to save some money.
