Now that the dust has settled on perhaps the busiest week of in-season trading in NBA history, it's time to take stock of who came out ahead and who might regret making their deadline moves -- or doing nothing.
Saturday night's shocking deal sending superstar guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package headlined by fellow incumbent All-NBA pick Anthony Davis set the tone for what was to come. De'Aaron Fox (San Antonio Spurs), Zach LaVine (Sacramento Kings), Jimmy Butler (Golden State Warriors), Brandon Ingram (Toronto Raptors) and Andrew Wiggins (Miami Heat) are all former All-Stars still playing near that level who moved teams.
Notably, the league's best teams were relatively quiet. Only the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers, who acquired De'Andre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks, made a significant trade from near the top of the standings. Unless Doncic and fellow newcomer Mark Williams can jell with LeBron James more quickly than expected or Davis lives up to the Dallas Mavericks' expectations for pairing him with Kyrie Irving, the title race probably didn't shift much over the past week.
Nonetheless, there's a lot to unpack as we consider winners and losers of the NBA trade deadline -- starting, of course, with the Doncic trade.
Winner: The new-look Lakers
Let's not overthink this.
