With the trade deadline approaching on February 6th, multiple blockbuster trades have happened with plenty more on the way. These trades include an unpredictable three team trade between the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, and Utah Jazz that sent a MVP-level talent in Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Alongside Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers, which cost the team the Defensive Player of the Year candidate Anthony Davis, as well as Max Christe and, it’s 2029 first-round pick leaving the team unprotected. With all this happening, the Jazz was able to sneak in the trade by getting two second round pick, along with Jalen Hood-Schifino.
With all the chaos surrounding other teams, the reports of this trade was able to fly under the radar. When the news broke that two of the top players in the league were being swapped, many assumed that it was a fake report as this type of trade where teams swap stars very rarely occur. It was reported that the Mavericks pulled the trigger on this trade, thinking Luka Doncic was not working with the team’s training staff to lose some of his offseason weight, it was also reported that he was asking for too much money in his super-max extension. The other league-altering trade was between the Chicago Bulls, Sacramento Kings, and the San Antonio Spurs. In this trade, the Kings traded for 2-time All-Star Zach Lavine, alongside a plethora of picks including three firsts and seconds. To get all of this, they had to trade their franchise player in De’Aaron Fox to the Spurs and a key role player in Kevin Hueter and first-round pick in 2028 to the Bulls. This trade has been a long time coming for the Kings as De’Aaron made it known that he wanted to be moved to the Spurs for the past couple of weeks.
What was unexpected about this trade was the involvement of the Bulls and the team trading it’s best player Zach Lavine, and the lack of young talent the Spurs had to give up landing Fox. Many experts covering this trade assumed one the young promising players on the spurs where going to get sent to Sacramento. The NBA trade deadline has passed, it will be determined in the games whether the trades paid off.
