The 2023 NBA Trade Deadline was one last chance for intrepid NBA contenders to separate themselves from the pack and for a select group of sluggish teams to stow a stimulant onto their rosters. Unless you’re John Collins still stuck on the runway in Atlanta, it didn’t disappoint. The relative parity throughout the league gave this year’s annual NBA realignment an extra oomph. The NBA’s axis tilted right as the clock turned to midnight on the East Coast as Phoenix edged back into the title discussion, Brooklyn re-designed its roster on the fly and Los Angeles shuffled the stairs on its Titanic.
Dealing second-rounders became all the rage at the deadline as trades involving Jae Crowder, Gary Payton II, and Devonte’ Graham netted 14 of them. This many second-rounders being exchanged so casually was a bit disorienting. Miami didn’t make a single trade amid the flurry of moves, which is especially surprising given how much value they’ve derived from obscure picks in the last decade. Here’s how the deadline set the stage for the final frame of the season.
Gary Payton II’s signing was intended to give a lift to a Portland Trail Blazers defense that’s always lacked a killer instinct. Instead, he barely touched the floor and was routinely injured. Well, Payton II (pictured) is back in Golden State and all they had to give up was a future G-League lineup (five second-round picks, although they received two of their own from Atlanta) and James Wiseman to get him. Ironically, Payton’s last appearance in a Trail Blazers uniform was a 125-122 win over Golden State on Wednesday night. The Wiseman experiment ended without fanfare as he was shipped to Detroit as part of the four-team deal involving Payton. The organization is much more ecstatic about regaining Payton than it was about losing their former No. 2 overall pick.
Payton (pictured) wasn’t just a cog for the Warriors; he was an integral member of the Warriors’ culture, shooting 65 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from beyond the arc for Golden State in the 2022 postseason. Having him back goes beyond plus-minus, although he will be a huge boost to their struggling second unit. Portland quickly replaced The Mitten with Matisse Thybulle, a suffocating defender who is unplayable on offense. Golden State whiffed on OG Anunoby after emerging as a late buyer for his services, but Toronto wouldn’t budge.
Trading Thomas Bryant for Mo Bamba (pictured) — a ridiculously long, paint protector who never truly made a mark in Orlando — might seem like a step backward, but Bryant was also one of the NBA’s most feckless rim defenders. The Lakers are hoping they can get the same value out of Bamba in a more prominent roles as they did in the Rui Hachimura trade. Bamba’s rim protection is likely his greatest strength as is his ability to stretch the floor. In that sense, he’s an upgrade over Bryant.
Los Angeles also hopes they can salvage Malik Beasley’s season off the scrap heap. He’s slumped throughout this season, but then again, who didn’t in Minny? However, Beasley’s shooting was only one component they gained in the trade that brought fringe All-Star D’Angelo Russell back to L.A. as a starting point guard and rid the Lakers of Westbrook.
D’Lo’s return to Los Angeles got buried by the Kevin Durant news — more on that later — but he returns as a vastly improved player than the one who left so Magic Johnson could draft Lonzo Ball. Since 2017, Russell’s rattled between Brooklyn, Golden State, and Minnesota, but in his return as the starting point guard of the Lakers, Russell (pictured) has an opportunity at redemption. Quietly, he has the NBA’s second-best shooting percentage from midrange and is more efficient this year than he’s ever been from distance, on 2-pointers, and from the charity stripe.
Not only did Los Angeles jettison one of the least self-aware, bricklaying point guards in league history in the process, but they also replaced him with a promising weak-side defender in Jarred Vanderbilt, and the aforementioned Beasley could bring much-needed shooting to the Lakers. The Lakers tinkered with the formula and improved their bench and spacing, but they still have an uphill climb just to reach the play-in tournament.
John Wall (pictured) returning to the Houston Rockets sounds more like a career funeral homegoing than the next chapter. First of all, he was one of the league’s least efficient guards this year; his burst was non-existent. After he’s most certainly waived by the Rockets for the second time this season, he’ll likely shuttle off of the mortal hoops coil to Ice Cube’s Big 3 Tournament. He just doesn’t provide much beyond a practice body at this point in career. In exchange for firing Reggie Jackson cross country, the Charlotte Hornets returned Mason Plumlee to the Clippers.
Not only does that give L.A. another offensive rebounding dinosaur along with Ivica Zubac, but Plumlee’s passing out of the high post was a revelation for the Charlotte Hornets offense. Seriously, when did he start doing this? Dribble handoffs by bigs are becoming the contemporary trend to free up shooters, and the addition of Eric Gordon and Hyland gives the Clippers another pair of sharpshooters. Plumlee’s vastly improved ball handling and vision from the high-post could add another wrinkle to a staid Clippers offense that ranked 27th in assist-turnover ratio while relying heavily on their All-Star wings generating offense in isolation sets.
Reggie Jackson and John Wall’s departures left a vacancy in the Clippers’ backcourt. Enter Bones Hyland (pictured). In the span of a year, Hyland went from promising young, breakout point guard to flawed defender on the outs in Denver’s rotation. Hyland wasn’t enough of a difference-maker on the offensive end to cancel out his defensive warts. Lineups that included him saw their defensive ratings worsen by 10.8 points. Bruce Brown’s emergence as a versatile switch defender pushed Hyland further down in the rotation. Hyland will probably never be the heady distributor Kawhi Leonard and Paul George need as their offensive table-setter, but Hyland still has room to grow in replacing two of the streakiest point guards in the league.
This was the gravity-altering trade of the deadline. Kevin Durant reportedly had the Suns atop his list of trade destinations this summer, and they pursued him heavily in 2019. The third time was finally the charm. Offensively, they’re going to be a blinding supernova led by a slew of three-level scorers with load-managed Chris Paul orchestrating the show.
Brooklyn did right by Durant, and skyrocketed him back to the upper echelon of the Western Conference. The only tangible loss for Phoenix was Mikal Bridges, who often disrupted the opposing team’s top perimeter playmakers as a prototypical All-NBA 3-and-D wing.
Phoenix also had to surrender Cam Johnson (pictured) whose sweet stroke from outside gave opposing teams cavities. He’ll join Yuta Watanabe, the NBA’s most accurate shooter this season, Joe Harris, and Seth Curry in a stretchy Brooklyn offense that’ll be able to pour it in from anywhere on the floor. Since recovering from a torn meniscus he suffered in early November, Johnson has shot 45.6 percent from downtown, the fourth-highest rate in the league.
However, one of the newest Suns, Damion Lee signed with Phoenix after spending the last four years with the Warriors and has thrived in his current role. Steph Curry’s brother-in-law is currently the NBA’s third-most efficient shooter from distance in the league, doing just enough to make the younger Cam Johnson expendable in the short term.
A year ago, the Suns were a regular-season juggernaut that fizzled out in the postseason. Despite Devin Booker missing half the season, the Suns are still in a position to claim a top-3 seed. But Kevin Durant raises their playoff ceiling.
