While the NBA’s 2020 trade deadline wasn’t the busiest in recent memory, there were some moves that may affect the Boston Celtics playoff picture.
Boston, which stood pat at the deadline, saw several East teams make moves that could conceivably impact playoff seeding and team ceilings.
Several Western conference teams did as well, but we’ll restrict our analysis to the East, seeing as there will only be one team coming out of the West that could collide with the Celtics in the postseason, and if they get that far, midseason trades probably won’t be a major factor for the outcome.
We’ll keep it simple, with a basic framework of each trade East competitors made and whether their aggregate changes made the team better, worse, or to be determined.
That rubric in place, let’s take a look at what the Joneses of the Eastern Conference have been up to.
THE TRADES
Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks started the day one of the league’s worst teams, and ended it…one of the league’s worst teams, though certainly taking some steps forward.
They dealt wing Evan Turner away to the Minnesota Timberwolves along with their 2020 first-round pick, sent their 2024 second-round pick to the Houston Rockets, waived forward Chandler Parsons and landed centers Clint Capela and Nene Hilario for their troubles in one deal that was part of a four-team blockbuster taking place a few days before the deadline.
They also sent big man Alex Len and forward Jabari Parker to the Sacramento Kings for old friend Dewayne Dedmon in another, and sent a 2024 second-rounder to the Portland Trailblazers in exchange for center Skal Labissiere.
While these deals should help the Hawks get better when they can address the big man glut they now have on their roster, it remains to be seen if it will actually help the team this season, particularly now that they have no reason to tank.
Grade: TBD — with Capela’s health a bit of a question mark with ongoing tendonitis, this move will likely need another season to truly judge the value of.
Cleveland Cavaliers
In a move reminiscent of the Hawks, the Cavs also loaded up with a high-profile center, Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond. They sent out just a second round pick and the contracts of forward John Henson and guard Brandon Knight in an apparent move to kick the tires on the UConn product.
With two other expensive big men on the roster in Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love, it will be very interesting to see how the team moves forward if it truly plans to avoid buying out one of the three.
This move could help Cleveland in future seasons to know if they’d like to keep the prodigious rebounder on the team, but Drummond very well could opt-out of his current deal and leave this summer, so it may simply end up being a means of lowering the cost of a roster not going anywhere soon.
Grade: Mostly TBD, but the Cavs may get a little better if they can navigate another surprising big man glut.
Detroit Pistons
For whatever reason, the above deal with the Cavaliers is the only move they made. It will give more time to center Christian Wood to develop, but not fast enough to make up for the loss of Drummond’s boards.
Henson will be a useful player, and Knight too, if he can stay healthy — but as rotation players at best.
Grade: This team got a little worse, and likely will continue on their path to miss the postseason.
Miami Heat
This team likely made the biggest improvements in the East over the deadline, and despite the hype resulting from the holdout which ended as a result of their trade, may not have taken as big a step forward as they’d initially hoped.
The Heat tried — and failed — to land the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Danilo Gallinari as part of a three-team trade, but still managed to make a solid exchange with the Memphis Grizzlies after that fell apart.
The sent out forwards James Johnson and Justise Winslow along with guard Dion Waiters in exchange for a trio of forwards — said holdout Andre Iguodala, ex-Celtic Jae Crowder and veteran Solomon Hill.
Hill doesn’t do too much at this stage of his career, and despite his pedigree, Iggy may not either. He hasn’t shot especially well for some time, and with eight months off and another year past, his defense may not be what it used to be for some time — if ever.
Crowder may very well prove to be the best player added, and he hasn’t shot anything like the 39.8 % he shot from deep in Boston since, or even close.
Grade: The Heat should be better given the players they dealt weren’t playing much anyway, but will need Iguodala to return to something close to the player he’s been in the past for this to be much more than a small boost overall.
New York Knicks
The Knicks actually made some wise moves at the deadline, perhaps lending credence to the team finally starting to move in the right direction after firing their general manager just days before.
But the wisdom is to get worse in getting some assets for Marcus Morris, who won’t be involved in any New York resurgence at his age and on his current contract.
They sent the former Celtic to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for forward Maurice Harkless, a 2020 first-rounder, swap rights in 2021 and 2023, a second-round pick in 2022 and draft rights to guard Issuf Sanon from the Washington Wizards as part of the touching requirements for multi-team deals (which this was part of).
Grade: New York probably got worse this season without Morris’ shooting with so many bigs on their roster (what is going on with this trend?), but they got a haul for Mook that will help them if James Dolan doesn’t find a way to much things up midstream.
Orlando Magic
The Magic picked up wing James Ennis from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a 2020 second-round pick.
That’s it — they made no other moves.
Ennis will be an okay rotation player for Orlando, but isn’t a good defender and may not play too much with seven wings on the Magic’s roster.
Grade: TBD, but this probably doesn’t do much either way for Orlando’s prospects.
Philadelphia 76ers
Boston’s Atlantic division rivals made some moves around the margins to add shooting in the form of the Golden State Warriors’ Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III in exchange for a trio of second-round picks conveying in 2020, 2021 and 2023.
They also sent Ennis packing to the Magic as a cost-cutting measure with more-recently accurate shooters on board, and cut point guard Trey Burke to make space.
It’s not entirely clear why the 76ers cut a 42.1 % 3-point shooter and dealt away another in Ennis shooting 34.9 from deep in exchange for Burks (37.5 % from three) and Robinson (40 % beyond the arc), but if nothing else may provide some cover for sorting out the team’s bruised morale.
Grade: TBD, but this isn’t likely to impact Philly’s postseason ceiling much.
Washington Wizards
The Wiz sent old friend Isaiah Thomas packing in part of a three-team deal sending Marcus Morris to the Clippers, with word he’ll be cut by his “new” team. While he could pose an interesting buyout candidate to Boston, his replacement, UConn product Shabazz Napier, is a clear upgrade.
Napier was sent from the Denver Nuggets in a separate trade that moved guard Jordan McRae to that franchise, while Thomas and the rights to Sanon mentioned above brought on guard Jerome Robinson from the Clippers.
Grade: Napier is a minor improvement over IT given the respective state of each’s career, and will possibly even start over Ish Smith. But neither he nor second-year Robinson will change the ‘Zards fortunes much in their unlikely quest for the eighth seed.
Summary
The Miami Heat are probably the only team to have truly raised their playoff ceiling via the moves they made on Feb. 6, but likely not as much as some have suggested.
The Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers both made small improvements at the deadline, but only Philly will make the playoffs — and the moves they made aren’t likely to have a big impact on the reeling franchise.
The Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks made moves for the future (and perhaps also the Heat if they can land a helpful player with the future cap space they’ll have opened) that aren’t likely to change their current fortunes very much, and the Orlando Magic made such a small move as to be negligible.
Only the Detroit Pistons got notably worse as a result of deadline day action, and apart from more minutes to develop younger players, primarily benefit from avoiding another season of Drummond on the books when he’s too old to likely be of much use to any rebuild.
Boston comes out looking a bit better for making no moves.
No teams above them in the standings (the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors) made any moves at the deadline, and with the Indiana Pacers also sitting the deadline out, only the Heat improved.
Boston has beat Miami both times they’ve played, so barring a big resurgence from Andre Iguodala, no moves indeed may have been the wisest to make for the Celtics given the rumored cost and available names.
