With the NBA trade deadline in the past, many are calling it easily the best in the 77 years of the league. The trading started off with the biggest trade in NBA history-the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christe and a first-round pick. On February first at 11:30pm, the basketball world was shocked! Every person’s first reaction was they thought someone hacked a reporters account and made the announcement as a joke. Ater it was confirmed by both franchises that the deal went through, people were still in staring in disbelief. The Mavs’ excuse for this horrid transaction was that Luka was overweight and not committed to winning. This just doesn’t make sense-he was the one led the team to the Finals last year, all while playing on an injured foot during the playoffs. From the Lakers perspective though, this is a no brainer because the kind of talent Luka possesses, is one that only comes once in a lifetime.
Its been a few days since this trade and people are still outraged at the Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison. Protests have taken place outside of the arena for three days in a row, fans have been threating to boycott the team, and will no longer attend games. This trade only got the spotlight for a couple of days as, just a few days after this fiasco, all-star De’Aaron Fox was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs. This trade was a little more predictable, as Fox asked to go the Spurs two weeks before the deadline. The consensus about this trade is that the Spurs fleeced the Kings, but I think the Kings got the most they could have out of this trade. They had little to no leverage on the Spurs. By calling the Chicago Bulls to make a three-team trade, they took Zach Lavine and a plethora of picks from them by giving them just one first rounder and some role players.
The Spurs did give up a lot to land Fox, but they are set up to be contenders for years to come, as they have the future face of the League, Victor Wembanyama ,and Rookie of the Year front-runner Stephon Castle. By adding Fox, they’ve made this an excellent trio for the foreseeable future.
With just 9 hours before the deadline ending, the third superstar to be moved around this week was Jimmy Butler, going from the Miami Heat to the Golden State Warriors. Heat fans let out a sigh of relief when they heard the news, as Butler’s 2-month long antics came to an end, he was packing his bags, see you later, goodbeye! These antics caused him to get suspended by the team on 4 separate occasions. Somehow Miami got a very good deal from Golden State, acquiring All-star and champion Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and world class defender Davion Mittchell. This makes Miami a real threat to come out on top of the East as they got better on both ends of the ball and added much needed guard help of the bench. This trade did make the Warriors significantly worse on both ends of the ball and shortens the rotation by a considerable amount.
As I said, it was a crazy trade!
