Winners and losers at the deadline

Despite the lack of big names, there were quite a few trades over the last 24 hours — twelve in all. I’m going to list my winners and losers, but before we get into that, here is a list of all twelve transactions:

Houston traded Patrick Patterson, Toney Douglas, and Cole Aldrich to Sacramento for Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia, and Tyler Honeycutt.
Houston traded Marcus Morris to Phoenix for a future 2nd round pick.
Toronto traded Hamed Haddadi and a protected 2nd round pick to Phoenix for Sebastian Telfair.
Washington traded Jordan Crawford to Boston for Leandro Barbosa and Jason Collins.
Miami traded Dexter Pittman and a 2013 2nd round pick to Memphis for the rights to Ricky Sanchez.
Orlando traded J.J. Redick, Gustavo Ayon, and Ish Smith to Milwaukee for Beno Udrih, Tobias Harris, and Doron Lamb.
OKC traded Eric Maynor to Portland for a $2.2 million trade exception.
New York traded Ronnie Brewer to OKC for a future 2nd round pick.
Atlanta traded Anthony Morrow to Dallas for Dahntay Jones.
Orlando traded Josh McRoberts to Charlotte for Hakim Warrick.
Golden State traded Jeremy Tyler to Atlanta and Charles Jenkins to Philadelphia, both for 2013 2nd round picks.

Winners

Milwaukee Bucks

Using very simple methods — only using this season’s numbers and not accounting for minute allocation, positions played, depth charts, etc — the Bucks had the biggest net gain in wins at the trade deadline. Beno Udrih is the most productive player leaving town, and he’s been slightly below average over the course of his career. In contrast, the Bucks are adding J.J. Redick and Gustavo Ayon, both of whom have been above average players over the course of their careers. Milwaukee also got rid of Doron Lamb, who’s been one of the worst players in the league this year, saved $0.9 million in salary for this season, and didn’t add significant salary past next year. And bringing in Redick makes it very possible that the Bucks are about to part ways with Monta Ellis, who has been an overrated score since the 2007-08 season.

Houston Rockets

The Rockets did not really win their trades because of who they traded for. In fact, in the trade with the Kings, the Rockets gave up the most productive player in the deal — Patrick Patterson, who has been below average across his career so far — and most of the other players in the deal will probably not have much of an impact for either team. They also added $1.8 million in salary for this season (although they will save $0.7 million next season). So why do I think they are winners? The Rockets are clearing out the dead weight on their roster; while this might not mean much for many teams, Houston has some very productive and very underplayed backups (Greg Smith at PF/C, Patrick Beverley at PG). Moving these players into bigger roles is likely to help the team’s win totals. They are also taking a shot on two young players (Thomas Robinson, Tyler Honeycutt) who might end up becoming productive players, given enough minutes. These are the types of moves that well-run franchises make.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder traded away Eric Maynor, who has been very unproductive since he returned from the serious injury he suffered last season. Despite his potential, Maynor has never produced at an average level, and in exchange the Thunder received a $2.2 million trade exception that might come in handy in the future. OKC also managed to get Ronnie Brewer from the Knicks in exchange for a 2013 second round draft pick. While the second round pick could turn into a productive player, Ronnie Brewer has been a productive player for eight seasons now. Even though most people prefer potential to actual results, the Thunder made the right choice. Did I mention that Brewer is only making $1.1 milllion this season and his contract expires this year?

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors took two unproductive players on rookie deals and turned them into second round picks. While that may not scream “winner!” to you, it’s a great way to rid the team of dead weight and helps the team retool during the draft. Even if they don’t hit with these draft picks, the salaries of the future rookies won’t be very big and it will be easy to either cut them or trade them away. And if they do hit on the picks, they would have productive players on very cheap deals. What’s not to like?

Losers

Orlando Magic

Things are rotten in the Magic kingdom. Using the simplest of methods (again, only using this season’s numbers and not accounting for minute allocation, positions played, depth charts, etc), the Magic suffered the largest swing in wins at the trade deadline. They traded away the most productive player in the day’s deals (J.J. Redick), and sent him away with two normally productive and currently underused big men (Gustavo Ayon and Josh McRoberts). In return, they recieved Doron Lamb and Hakim Warrick, who rank 9th and 16th in losses produced this season (that’s bad). They added salary for this season and saved practically nothing in the long run. At least they didn’t trade away Vucevic.

Phoenix Suns

The Suns added Hamed Haddadi, a protected 2013 second round draft pick from Toronto, and Markieff Morris‘ twin brother, Marcus Morris. Not surprisingly, the twins are very similar players and offer redundant skillsets, which would be a good thing if they were productive, but they aren’t. Haddadi has been okay across his career, but it’s hard to say if he will get any minutes. The real problem is that Phoenix added money to both this season’s payroll as well as next season’s payroll, without making the team any better (maybe even worse).

New York Knicks

The Knicks traded away the perennially productive and underrated Ronnie Brewer in exchange for a second round draft pick. While second round draft picks can be quite useful and valuable, a healthy and young player with many productive seasons under his belt is always the better bet. To top it all off, apparently the Knicks went out and signed 35 year old Kenyon Martin to a 10 day contract after the trade. After a few good seasons, are the Knicks already sliding backwards?

Meh

Portland Trailblazers

The Blazers got Eric Maynor, who isn’t productive and probably won’t play too much behind Damian Lillard. At least he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season.

Washington Wizards

The Wiz traded away the overrated Jordan Crawford, but in exchange received another overrated scorer (Leandro Barbosa) who is out for the season with an ACL injury and has an expiring deal, and the expiring Jason Collins. This adds to their salary this season but saves money for next season. Yay, I guess?

Dallas Mavericks

Swapped Dahntay Jones for Anthony Morrow. Morrow’s probably a bit more productive, and the deal adds to the Mav’s payroll for this season. Morrow expires at the end of the season, so this might help the Mavs a tiny bit in their attempt to make the playoffs.

Memphis Grizzlies

Got Dexter Pittman and a 2013 second round pick for nothing. Shrug.

Philadelphia 76ers

Got Charles Jenkins for a 2013 second round pick. Personally, I’d try using the pick on an underrated college player, but there probably isn’t much of a difference here.

Toronto Raptors

Saved a bit of money for next year, added that third-string point guard the team needed after trading away Jose Calderon. But Bargnani is still in Toronto? Now we have to wait until at least the summer.

Atlanta Hawks

Swapped Anthony Morrow for Dahntay Jones and picked up Jeremy Tyler for a 2013 second round draft pick. Saved a tiny bit of money this year, added a little bit next year. Definitely meh.

Miami Heat

Tried to save money and created a roster opening — very exciting.

Charlotte Bobcats

Traded away a bad player for an average player, saved money, and didn’t add any salary past this season. Not bad, but you’ll have to do better than that to get out of the terrible hole you put yourself in, MJ.

Boston Celtics

Got rid of two unproductive players, added one younger overrated player; saved money this season, add money next season. After what’s transpired with the other teams fighting for those last two Eastern playoff spots, it looks like the Celts will probably make it to the postseason, but this move won’t make much of a difference.

Sacramento Kings

Is there any semblance of a plan in Sacramento? Other than cutting payroll for the inevitable move to Seattle? Because the Kings just added a bunch of expiring deals and swapped Thomas Robinson for Patrick Patterson.

- Devin

10 Responses to "Winners and losers at the deadline"

Joshua Perry says:

February 22, 2013 at 12:02 am

This is the move that puts the Heat over the top.
Ty Hicks (@Ty_Hicks) says:

February 22, 2013 at 4:03 am

Clearly, the real losers were fans who sat around following trade deadline coverage all day. Also the Magic, who effectively turned Ryan Anderson into Beno Udrih. Nice job guys.
Tommy Grand says:

February 22, 2013 at 8:50 am

Short-term win for OKC, without a certain long-term cost.

Thunder v. Spurs in Western Conference Finals, winner to face Miami. Healthiest team wins.
Jesse Ren Stöek Muratli says:

February 22, 2013 at 9:31 am

Please note that Maynor is replacing Ronnie Price on the Trailblazer bench. Without even suiting up yet, Maynor has produced more wins for the Blazers than Price has this season.
Devin Dignam says:

February 22, 2013 at 10:11 am

Jesse,

That is true, but in OKC Maynor also produced almost double the losses in fewer minutes when compared to Price in Portland. So I don’t think I’d call that an improvement.

Ty Hicks,

I just spent about an hour and a half on twitter right around the deadline. Sure, I probably could have spent my time more wisely, but it didn’t consume my day. As for the lack of excitement…I could be wrong on this (I’d have to do some research to know for sure), but usually the trade deadline is pretty boring and involves the swapping of bit players for financial reasons. I certainly wasn’t very surprised, although perhaps a tiny bit disappointed.
Mitch says:

February 22, 2013 at 12:19 pm

The Knicks have now managed to put together 4/5 of the old Nuggets team: Melo, JR, Camby and now KMart; with.the emphasis on old. I’m pretty sure they’d have bit at Andre Miller but had nothing the Nuggets wanted.
Andrew says:

February 22, 2013 at 1:20 pm

I am not quite as down on the Magic/Bucks trade, Tobias Harris has some potential.

Give Hollinger a win on the Miami trade, they had to add a player per the CBA. Getting anything for for fulfilling a contractual obligation seems like a win.

I think this brings the Celts under the luxury tax for this year. If that’s right, it’s a win (as far as ownership is concerned) because it avoids the repeat offender penalty on the luxury tax.
Julien says:

February 22, 2013 at 4:27 pm

I like the Thomas Robinson acquisition for the Rockets. For now, he is bad because he can’t shoot. But he is a very good rebounder. If the Rockets coach him well (“rebound the ball and give to Harden, you’re only allowed to shoot if it’s a dunk”) he can be much more efficient. Sacramento is such a mess, in a good organization he could be the next JJ Hickson.
nichoberte says:

February 25, 2013 at 12:27 pm

Crawford is intriguing still. It will be interesting to see how Boston uses him. If they pair him with Bradley- while Avery runs point and takes the better guard on D, it could work well for them. Crawford is a player who looks sporadically great and a little bit moresporadically hideous when tasked with running an offense. It just brings out his worst qualities. Playing off ball is another matter though, he has shown a great ability to get into good places at the right time for his shots- something he has zero ability to do while dribbling. He is a solid shooter 3-9, 10-15, 16-23 and on corner treys. Not above average, but without serious deficiencies as a spot up shooter. He’s also a shockingly good and sonetimes even willing passer IF he sees a guy who can get an easy 2. He’s good at identifying those situations.

DC has two major problems which seem to be tied in with all their issues.

1) Overrating their own talent. In the past 3 years, these are some players with over a 22% usage rate in DC, Jordan Crawford, Andray Blatche, Kevin Seraphin, Javale McGee, Josh Howard, Nick Young. Yikes. I’m also pretty sure they proclaimed all of them besides Howard to be part of a “Big 3″ at one point or another. They put these guys in over their heads and let them run wild. When it predictably doesn’t work out, they take all their minutes away and give them to D Leaguers and coming soon, Jason Collins.

2) this is the 2nd straight year this manufactured drama has played out right before the trade deadline. It’s like the Wizards want to tell prospective trade partners “well Javale was OK as a bench guy, and mediocre as a starter until we tried to bring some structure and discipline to him, then he fell apart. He’s just in a bad chemistry situation. But the price of acquiring him is Blatche. why dont you want both??? youngtalent infusion!! Jesus.”

With Crawford, it was even weirder. They finally proved to themselves that he isn’t a major piece, but he showed a pretty significant uptick in efficiency and rebounding. So then he slumped horribly while adjusting to a smaller role and they gave up. Lets bench him for a d leaguer, then act like he was a malcontent.people have no attention span and will forget how his Steezy attitude was the engine that kept the team going, even if they sucked. Seemed like his teammates utterly adored the kid and looked to him when they started wanting to give up and mail it in. Weirdly, for a Defender as putrid as Crawford, I always saw him as the main realm their D was solid despite losing so much. Guys tried for him.

I’d take him over Monta Ellis any day. Faint praise to be sure, but Monta will probably get 7-8 million a year to be worse at everything. I think Steez is going to be a valuable role player now that he’s finally on a team where the leadership is ironclad. Wall hasn’t accomplished a thing yet. I always thought the team appreciated how Crawford pushed Wall, but apparently not.

Oh well. We really WERE better with him in the bench. Just a shame that they never put any effort into changing his role into one that fits his skills and the teams goals better. Pretty easy to assume that John Wall didn’t like him as much as everyone else.
Golden State Warriors Blog And Forum | Warriorsworld.net » Blog Archive » Smooth’s Starting 5- Tobias Harris, Brooklyn, Evan Fournier’s emergence, Birdman in South Beach and C.C. at the Garden says:

April 16, 2013 at 6:41 pm

[...] Beno Udrih to the Orlando Magic for Gustavo Ayon, J.J. Redick, and Ish Smith, it was lauded as a major victory for the Bucks. Tobias Harris’ name was barely mentioned – seemingly a throw-in in the J.J. Redick trade. [...]

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