Winners and losers from the NBA trade deadline

Winners

Los Angeles Lakers: They added one of the best players in the NBA in Luka Doncic, who is only 25. Then they added 23-year-old seven-footer Mark Williams to be their center of the future. Does losing Anthony Davis hurt? Of course, but the Lakers are suddenly a title contender this season, they have a superstar to succeed LeBron James — and they set themselves up to add another superstar in a year.

San Antonio Spurs: The Spurs gave up a ton of draft picks to pry De'Aaron Fox away from the Sacramento Kings, but they didn't surrender a single one of their promising young players. They kept rookie Stephon Castle, defensive ace Jeremy Sochan and three-and-D wing Devin Vassell and got an All-Star point guard to pair with Victor Wembanyama long-term. And they still have this year's Atlanta Hawks first-rounder that looks bound for the lottery.

Cleveland Cavaliers: The Cavs didn't relax despite leading the Eastern Conference. They got aggressive and creative in trading from their depth of wing players to upgrade with Atlanta's De'Andre Hunter. The key to the move? Trading pick swaps in two drafts where they already owed pick swaps, virtually creating tradeable first-rounders out of thin air.

Washington Wizards: The Wizards traded Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valanciunas, then took on the contracts of Marcus Smart, Khris Middleton and Alex Len. For their trouble, they came away with two first-round picks and a pick swap, and ended up down three second-round picks. They could keep Smart as a veteran leader next season or trade him for more stuff. A perfect tanking deadline for the Wiz.

Charlotte Hornets:  They may regret trading Williams, but overall the team acquired future picks from the Phoenix Suns in three separate trades. It's like the Charlotte front office is shorting a stock. Given the direction the Suns are heading, that looks like a savvy strategy.

Golden State Warriors : The team's trade for Jimmy Butler is undoubtedly risky. They traded their best perimeter defender in Andrew Wiggins and agreed to pay Butler over $120M for his age-36 and age-37 seasons. But the team was 25-25, and worse than that, they were boring. Giving Steph Curry a legitimate star — and someone his own age to hang out with — should make his team much more watchable at the very least. 

Things will get ugly in 2027 for Golden State, but they were getting ugly whenever Curry retired anyway. They might as well spend the next two years sipping Big Face Coffee and dyeing their hair — the only cost is the owner's money.

Losers

Dallas Mavericks: The team reportedly had issues with Luka Doncic's conditioning, weight gain and defense, and didn't want to give him a $345M supermax extension this summer. Even if they were done with Doncic, who made five straight All-NBA first teams, it's borderline criminal that they didn't get more than Anthony Davis, Max Christie and one first-round pick. And whatever Doncic's issues might be, it didn't keep him from leading the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season.

Phoenix Suns: The Suns had big ambitions of adding Jimmy Butler, but they couldn't find a taker for the nearly-untradeable  Bradley Beal. As a result, they  ended up shopping future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant unsuccessfully to the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat, only to fall short. 

They settled for two separate trades with the Charlotte Hornets, trading Josh Okogie and Jusuf Nurkic, their 2026 first-round pick and two seconds to get center Nick Richards, forward Cody Martin and 31-year-old guard Vasilije Micić.

The worst part was that the Suns mortgaged their future ahead of the deadline. They got three certain-to-be-late first-round picks, to help facilitate deadline deals, in exchange for their unprotected 2031 first. That trade could be a disaster, they alienated two of their stars and got a very minor upgrade.

Memphis Grizzlies: The Grizzlies were engaged in efforts to add a star like Butler or Durant. Instead, they made their team worse at the deadline to save money, while the Lakers and Spurs got way better. 

They traded Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia in separate deals, along with a first-round pick and got two lottery busts in Marvin Bagley and Johnny Davis in return. 18 months ago, they traded Tyus Jones and two firsts to get Smart. Now they've traded another first to get rid of him. This isn't good business for a supposed contender.

Tim MacMahon: Eight weeks before the publication of MacMahon's Luka Doncic book, meticulously researched and put together for years, Dallas traded the star. Perhaps that's the Mavericks' revenge for MacMahon asking too many tough questions during pressers, but it's horrible luck for one of the NBA's best reporters.