It's A Wrap(-up)

I’ve been down in New Orleans for the Super Bowl this week, so I don’t have time to do a full-on trade deadline deep dive just yet. I’ll dig in on Jimmy Butler and the Warriors on a deeper level once I get home, but for now I just have some more scattered thoughts on some of the more notable deals that went down within 24 hours of the deadline.

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Kyle Kuzma to Milwaukee

I said this on the ole Twitter machine in the immediate wake of the deal, but the theory of Kuzma as a player has been quite a bit better than the reality for like 85% of his career. He had the like 1.5 seasons in L.A. where he played exactly the way you want a player like him to play, and the Lakers won the title in one of them. He has not been that guy any time other than that. He’s only shot better than 34% from three once, for example, and he’s only defended at an appropriate level something like twice.

If the guy from 2020 and 2021 is still in there somewhere, then this can work for the Bucks because he can be the big wing/combo forward type who can make the Giannis-at-center lineups work, and the Bucks have been searching for that since forever. But I think expecting that guy to be in there is a little misguided. I understand that Khris Middleton’s knees and ankles don’t work right anymore, but I don’t love this either on the court or from a price perspective. (And no, it doesn’t matter to me that Giannis was OK with it. He was also OK with hiring Adrian Griffin. Pushed for it, even.)

Brandon Ingram to Toronto

I’ve got to admit that I am very confused by the Raptors. They’ve got Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and R.J. Barrett locked in on decent-sized deals, and are presumably about to re-sign Ingram to another. So they’re rebuilding, technically, but they don’t have much flexibility now, and will have even less in a few months. I’m also not in love with the fit with Ingram alongside either Barnes or (especially) Barrett. Maybe they decide to pivot in another direction, but they also seem to be kind of flailing around at this point.

Side note: I’m surprised that, despite being out of contention at the deadline, the Raptors used Bruce Brown to be a buyer rather than shopping him to a contender as a seller. I had that pegged the other way this past offseason.

Mark Williams to L.A.

Fascinating trade here. Did you know Williams is younger than Dalton Knecht? (I thought Knecht would be better in L.A. given the similarities of his skill set to that of his now-former coach. Whoops.) That’s fun.

But he’s also perennially injured. And only vaguely interested in defense. But he’s a high-level lob threat to pair with Luka and LeBron, there is at least defensive potential there (he was good in college), and the Lakers badly needed a big man. If he can stay healthy for the next year and a half, he can also earn himself a nice payday. The Hornets, meanwhile, get a shooter to put around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller (when he gets healthy), and more important get draft capital way down the line. Apparently that stuff was available! Somehow, the Mavs did not get it in the Luka deal.

De’Andre Hunter to Cleveland

I like this! I feel better about Hunter as the fifth guy for the Cavs than I have about any of the other various options they’ve tried over the last several years. (You could make an argument for Dean Wade, but the guy is never on the court.) He’s got great size and can really shoot. He gives the Cavs some more small-ball flexibility than they had with Georges Niang, who went out in this deal. And the way he’s been scoring this season helps them replace Caris LeVert, who might have been leaving in free agency this summer. Hunter is at least under contract.

Bogey to the Clippers

It’s interesting to me that during Norm Powell’s breakout year, the Clips are trading for a guy who has essentially been Norm Powell East for a few years. I like getting Bogdanovic as a microwave bench guy, and you can never have enough shooting. Bogey has shot like absolute garbage when available this season (37.1% from the field and 30.1% from deep), but he's a career 38% three-point shooter. That (typically) doesn't just suddenly go away.

The Terance Mann saga ending this way is … well, it’s something. It never seemed like he was in Ty Lue’s circle of trust, and his minutes constantly being yanked around seemed like it affected his confidence. I still think there’s a useful player in there, but it probably wasn’t going to happen for him in L.A.

Oh, and the Clippers ducked the tax here after paying it for (approx) 137 years in a row.

Marcus Smart salary-dumped to Washington

Memphis traded two firsts to get Smart last offseason in the three-way Kristaps Porzingis-to-Boston trade, and now just attached yet another first to Smart to get rid of him. Y-I-K-E-S. It’s been a pretty steep decline, very quickly, for Smart. He played only 39 games for the Grizzlies and was only occasionally effective. He was supposed to be a replacement for Dillon Brooks, but Memphis instead landed that guy in the draft this past year in Jaylen Wells. This move probably frees up money to extend Jaren Jackson Jr. and perhaps re-sign Santi Aldama this summer.

The Kings nabbing Jake LaRavia in this deal is interesting. He’s a solid player but after Memphis declined his fourth-year option, it wasn’t going to be able to keep him. Can the Kings? They can’t offer more than around $5 million. It’s a low-cost gambit for a back-end rotation guy, at least.