[Cactus Jack]

Has officially come & gone now. Probably won't be many post on here about this, but I know one that will. 

@Cactus Jack what do you think about some of the moves that happened? There were sure a lot of them.

That one is going to take more time than I have right now, but to say it's been a whirlwind is an understatement. Definitely one of the most interesting trade deadlines in recent memory.

Moves Everyone Knows About:
De'Aaron Fox to San Antonio
Luka Doncic to Los Angeles
Anthony Davis to Dallas
Jimmy Butler to Golden State
Kyle Kuzma to Milwaukee

Moves More People Should Know About:
Andrew Wiggins to Miami
De'Andre Hunter to Cleveland
Davion Mitchell to Miami
Mark Williams to the LA Lakers
Marvin Bagley to Memphis
Sidy Cissoko, Marcus Smart, Reggie Jackson, Khris Middleton, and AJ Johnson to Washington


Quick and dirty:

Lakers management either knows where someone in the Dallas front office has a body buried or the Mavericks organization knows something that no one else does. I can understand why other teams are upset that the Lake Show was the only team who ever got to discuss acquiring an MVP candidate in his 20's that was just coming off an NBA Finals appearance. Anthony Davis was an MVP candidate at one time, and he's not terrible, but his best days are behind him. I also don't see what he adds to the Mavericks that doesn't result in some diminishing returns for guys like Gafford.

San Antonio went into "let's see what we have right now" mode. Popovich's health has been in question. They are a small market team that has to depend on homegrown talent and smart draft decisions. I've never been a fan of Chris Paul (seems like a snake) so I wonder how this pairing is going to play out. The analytics say that Fox and Wembanyama are going to be a fierce pick and roll tandem. I just worry about Fox's injury history and willingness to gut it out, especially given what the Spurs will have invested in him. It's going to work great or they'll be recalibrating in two years. For San Antonio to come out of this trade without having given up Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, or any consequential portion of the arsenal of draft picks that they have is further evidence of why Sacramento is one of the worst-run franchises in the league. Still, the financial position that this leaves the Spurs in probably means that they're going to have to rely on hitting out on more draft picks and/or making more strategic acquisitions of guys that they've been able to pick up on some type of discount (e.g., Michael Finley, Malik Rose, Robert Horry, Avery Johnson, LaMarcus Aldridge... the list goes on and on).

Jimmy Butler to Golden State. Butler seems like a guy who comes in and is great right up until the moment he isn't. Put him on some lowly teams like Chicago, Minnesota, and Miami and watch his grit carry them. Then get all you can out of it before things self-destruct. That's probably the mindset Golden State had going in. I think Miami comes out of this one better. Riley will find a way to incorporate Wiggins and get a lot out of him.

If you are wondering what the Washington Wizards' end-game is here-- they have 9 wins. They didn't take on these names to sell tickets & they also got two 1st Rounders ('25-MEM & '26-Worst of LAC/OKC/HOU), two 2nd Rounders ('28 & '29 - Sacramento), $1 million in cash, and a 2028 pick swap.

The most telling thing might be the teams who didn't make moves-- Denver, Boston, and Minnesota.

Also mildly surprised that Houston didn't move Reed Sheppard. I thought that them sending him to the G-League was to get his value up to fleece the Kings in a trade to bring De'Aaron Fox home. Thought his getting lots of minutes and opportunities in a recent NBA game seemingly out of nowhere once he'd been called back up was also a showcase for someone they were trying to trade with. If his minutes and opportunities keep picking up, that's a good sign that I was wrong about that. If not, then I might have been on to something.