NBA trade deadline winners and losers — and why the Lakers are somehow both

Who were the biggest winners and losers of the 2024 NBA trade deadline?

There was a flurry of activity in the 24 hours before the deadline passed Thursday afternoon, albeit without any current star players changing teams. The biggest trades completed during the 2023-24 season came earlier, with James Harden going to the LA Clippers in November and the Toronto Raptors dealing forwards OG Anunoby (to the New York Knicks) and Pascal Siakam (to the Indiana Pacers) well before the deadline.

The biggest name considered likely to be traded this week, Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, ended up staying put. And the team reported to have interest in him, the in-season tournament champion Los Angeles Lakers, ended up not making any moves.

Still, the trades teams did make leading up to the deadline have the potential to swing the 2024 postseason and beyond. Playoff teams filled important holes, including the league-leading Boston Celtics, who added frontcourt depth with Xavier Tillman Sr., and the rebuilding Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, who stockpiled draft picks.

Let’s break down who helped themselves the most at the deadline and who might regret moves made or not made.

Winner: New York Knicks

Even if we don’t include the Anunoby trade, struck in late December, it’s possible no team upgraded more than the Knicks. New York was able to add a pair of quality contributors in Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, filling a long-term need for second-unit scoring and a short-term need in the frontcourt with Anunoby and All-Star Julius Randle currently sidelined by injury.

Assuming Anunoby and Randle are able to return, the Knicks go eight deep in quality rotation players, all of whom have playoff experience. They’re now overflowing with shooting around center Isaiah Hartenstein. And New York accomplished all that without surrendering a single first-round pick or hampering the team’s ability to match salary in a possible trade for a star next season.

Loser: Los Angeles Lakers

After dreaming of adding Murray to the superstar duo of Anthony Davis and LeBron James, Lakers fans ended up with the same roster that started the day. It’s unclear whether a big trade would have been the best option for the Lakers long-term if it cost them a precious first-round pick. However, upgrading the roster would have strengthened the Lakers’ chances of escaping the play-in tournament and making another run like last year’s trip to the Western Conference finals.

The Lakers are still in position to add a buyout candidate because their salary is below the luxury-tax apron. Point guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Lowry would be massive additions with Gabe Vincent still sidelined by arthroscopic knee surgery. However, the Lakers must contend with a new team entering in the buyout market after the Philadelphia 76ers ducked the tax with their trades Thursday. The Sixers can offer more money using their non-taxpayer midlevel exception, the vast majority of which the Lakers spent on Vincent last summer.

By the way, one of the most surprising outcomes of the trade deadline was one move that didn’t happen: the Lakers dealing Christian Wood, which could have allowed L.A. to avoid paying the luxury tax.

Winner: Lakers’ trade offers this summer

The upshot of the Lakers’ decision not to trade a first-round pick now is they will have three available to trade by draft night. If the New Orleans Pelicans choose to defer the pick the Lakers owe them to 2025, the Lakers can trade this year’s pick as soon as it’s officially made. (The Lakers could make that pick on behalf of another team as part of a prearranged trade.) Otherwise, the Lakers would have their first-rounder in 2025 available in addition to picks in 2029 and 2031, giving them far more draft capital to trade than they had now.

The downside is that LeBron James holds a player option for next season, one he won’t have to exercise until June 29 — two days after the draft concludes. LeBron has never been shy about using leverage to encourage his team to go all-in, which could force the Lakers to overpay for upgrades at draft time to lock in James for another season in L.A.

Loser: Dejounte Murray, still a Hawk

Surely, Murray was hoping to join fellow Klutch Sports clients James and Davis in L.A. Instead, he remains stuck in an ill-fitting backcourt with All-Star point guard Trae Young. When Young is on the bench, Murray has produced at an All-Star level himself. According to data from PBPstats.com, Murray is averaging 26.0 points and 7.4 assists per 36 minutes with a .598 true shooting percentage (TS%) without Young. Those marks compare closely to All-Star starter Damian Lillard’s production this season with the Milwaukee Bucks: 25.4 points and 6.9 assists per 36 minutes on identical .598 TS%.

When he plays with Young, Murray’s production dips to 19.5 points and 4.0 assists per 36 minutes with a poor .534 TS%. Had Murray not agreed to a four-year extension last summer, he would have been an unrestricted free agent this summer, and perhaps the best gettable one in a free agency landscape thinned by extensions and players traded to destinations where they’re likely to re-sign.

Winner: Boston Celtics

As much activity as there was at the deadline, little of it involved the championship front-runners. Of the four teams with odds lower than plus-1500 of winning the title at ESPN Bet, neither the defending champion Denver Nuggets nor the LA Clippers made deals involving players on their roster. The Milwaukee Bucks made minor moves, reshuffling their backcourt by swapping the ineffective Cameron Payne for Patrick Beverley and clearing a roster spot by dealing Robin Lopez.

That all leaves the Celtics in the strongest position to win the title. Tillman fills Boston’s biggest need — a relative term — for depth behind centers Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis. The Celtics might still fall short of their first championship since 2008, but it won’t likely be because of anything that happened this week.

Loser: Post-Luka Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks’ urgency to build a contender around Doncic before he can test unrestricted free agency in 2026 by declining a player option is starting to feel like desperation. In order to add Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington to their frontcourt, Dallas gave up a 2027 first-round pick that’s protected only if it lands in the top-2 picks as well as a 2028 first-round swap with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Add in the unprotected 2029 first-rounder send to the Brooklyn Nets in last year’s predeadline deal for Kyrie Irving and the 2030 first-round swap the Mavericks executed with the San Antonio Spurs last summer (to land Grant Williams, who was sent to Charlotte as matching salary in the Washington trade) and suddenly Dallas does not control any of its tradable first-round picks after Luka’s potential free agency. If these moves aren’t enough — consider me skeptical on that count — the Mavericks could be staring at a bleak future post-Doncic.

Winner: Charlotte Hornets

It turns out when the Hornets try to accumulate draft picks, they aren’t half-bad at it.

Charlotte got a first-round pick from the Miami Heat for Terry Rozier, while the Dallas pick the Hornets got for Washington might be the best one to change hands all season because of its light protection. Charlotte also nabbed a pair of second-round picks from the Thunder in exchange for taking on $18 million of 2024-25 salary in the Gordon Hayward trade.