The NBA trade deadline ended up being very active, with almost every team in the league making at least one deal. But surprisingly, we didn’t see a lot of top teams making big moves to push themselves over the hump. The biggest moves were made by teams that aren’t looking to compete this season, like the Wizards, Jazz, and Pacers, and the only contender to give up a first-round pick was the Thunder, who dumped a late first to pick up Jared McCain.
But as we sit and reflect on the deadline as a whole, there weren’t a lot of moves that you can see making a massive impact in this year’s playoffs. On a recent episode of The Mismatch, Dave Jacoby and Chris Vernon, of The Ringer, asked which player traded at the deadline has the best chance to make a big impact in the playoffs this season.
They mentioned James Harden in Cleveland and Ayo Dosunmu in Minnesota, but they both agreed that the guy they could actually see swinging a playoff game is Nikola Vucevic for the Celtics.
Vucevic has the skill to come in and swing a playoff game for the Celtics
Verno talked about Vooch randomly blowing up for 28 points in a Game 5 when all the attention is on the Jays and Derrick White, and he ends up hitting a bunch of threes. Jacoby added he could picture Vooch getting Karl-Anthony Towns in early foul trouble and taking advantage of a matchup with Josh Hart.
It’s notable coming from Jacoby, a self-proclaimed “die-easy” Knicks fan, who may have to live through this playoff series in a few months. Verno is famously a Grizzlies fan, but both guys have been covering the entire league for many years.
Eastern Conference is there for the taking
In part, it’s a reflection on the lack of major buying at the deadline. Teams made marginal upgrades here and there, but nothing that’s striking fear into their opponents. The Pistons added Kevin Huerter, the Knicks got Jose Alvarado, and the Cavs swapped Garland for Harden.
Those are all solid moves that should help those Eastern Conference contenders, but nobody pushed their chips all-in or really came close.
The East was wide open before the deadline, and it remains that way after. The Vooch acquisition felt more like a lateral move and a pseudo salary dump than anything else. Still, taking a step back and analyzing the entire landscape, it looks like one of the most impactful moves made at the deadline.
Couple that with the fact that the Celtics may be adding Jayson Tatum to the lineup any day now, and the 2nd-place team in the East has the best chance to take a transformative leap over the next few months of anyone in the NBA.