Luka Dončić to Lakers made big waves, but who were NBA trade deadline's winners & losers?

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Kevin Durant had to read rumor after rumor about him going back to the Warriors all week, but what made him break was Kendrick Perkins calling himself the leader of those early 2010s Thunder teams.

KD is so good at social media.

38 total All-Star, 20 All-NBA selections traded The trade deadlines buzzer sounded yesterday at 3 p.m.

ET, and we truly never saw a deadline like this weeks.

Weve had big deals and surprises.

But we never had this .

The madness started on Saturday night and didnt really subside until there were no more trades allowed.

Lets get through the winners and losers of our own ( Joe Vardon wrote about his winners yesterday! ).

Advertisement The Lakers (30-19) brought in Luka Doncic and Mark Williams as their primary acquisitions, while sending out Anthony Davis, Max Christie, Dalton Knecht and a couple of first-round picks.

They went from their ceiling being a second-round exit and possibly wasting the end of LeBron James career to setting up their next decade with Doncic .

They get an A for Doncic and an A- for Williams .

Cavaliers (41-10): I was hoping the Cavs would go for some significant wing help, and they did exactly that.

Yesterday, they brought in Atlantas DeAndre Hunter in exchange for Caris LeVert, Georges Niang and a good amount of secondary draft capital.

In the process, they actually lowered their luxury tax commitment.

Its a perfect trade for them.

Their A+ was the easiest high mark to give .

Jimmy Butler: Will he be happy on the Warriors? Maybe.

Could he get the Warriors out of their funk and into a good playoff position? He could.

Hes a winner because he got what he wanted from this entire ordeal: his two-year max extension for $112 million.

The Warriors get a tepid B .

Kyle Kuzma: After toiling in Washington for years and recently deciding he was done playing Wizards basketball, he got moved to the Bucks (27-22).

Hell have a real chance to remind people he can be an excellent role player.

The Bucks get a solid B here .

Wizards (9-41): I didnt love a lot of the individual moves the Wizards made.

But in the aggregate, they acquired Milwaukees Khris Middleton and Memphis Marcus Smart to eventually flip, AJ Johnson (who could develop), a pick swap, two first-rounders and two seconds.

The Mavericks (27-25) didnt become bad, but its hard to make a move that your entire fan base throws a mock funeral over.

Dallas is gambling on Anthony Davis being the defensive presence it needs to win a title.

It cost the team everything, but the deal did receive a C from me .

Suns (25-25): It cost them a first-round pick to send Jusuf Nurkic and his contract away.

They may have alienated Durant by putting him in trade rumors all week.

They didnt end up with Butler and had to watch a division rival get him.

Everybody in their division made moves to improve except them.

Advertisement Middleton and Smart: They join Malcolm Brogdon as veterans the Wizards hope to flip for draft assets some day.

Both players went from being on good teams in their respective conferences to a Wizards squad that has won consecutive games for just the second time this season.

Cameron Johnson: He was supposed to be one of the most attractive role players to acquire for a contender at this deadline.

Instead, hes still on the Nets (17-34) until at least this summer, when they can try to get someone to meet their asking price.

Hawks (23-28): They moved Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic (to Clippers), somehow got more expensive in the process and became worse when they should be adding to the roster to make a run at a top-six spot in the East.

I guess losing nine of their last 10 has changed some goals around Atlanta.

Make sure you check out all of our great trade deadline and buyout market coverage from this week! Thunder star returns to action tonight! Chet Holmgren is back.

We havent seen him play since Nov.

10.

That changes tonight .

KD and Ant.

The Wolves tried to trade for Durant before the deadline.

How close was it ? Tension in Miami.

Are you interested in learning about Butlers final weeks with the Heat? Weve got you covered right here .

Breaking news.

Read about Jared Weiss interviewing the fan who broke the Butler trade to Miamis players .

Jimmy and the Dubs.

The Warriors (25-26) and Butler really need each other.

We love mutual desperation .

K-Dot and hoops .

Ahead of Kendrick Lamars halftime show on Sunday, heres one more mention of him being inspired by Compton basketball.

Dont miss this game tonight.

76ers (20-30) at Pistons (25-26), 7:30 p.m.

ET on ESPN or Fubo ( try for free ).

Did you expect the Sixers needing to prove themselves to the Pistons? Has Dallas put everybody else on notice anyway? We still havent seen Anthony Davis make his Mavericks debut, and yet his new squad made everybody raise an eyebrow with intrigue last night.

The Mavs went into Boston and smacked the Celtics (36-16) around for a good portion of the game.

Bostons reserves made a big run in the fourth quarter to make this a tight one, but it was the Mavs depth that proved to be too much in the 2024 NBA Finals rematch.

Advertisement Klay Thompson led the Mavs with 25, Kyrie Irving had 19 and the trio of Naji Marshall (20), Spencer Dinwiddie (22) and newly acquired Max Christie (15) accounted for all 57 of Dallas bench points as Dallas won by the score of 127-120.

Now, we wait for Davis to likely make his debut on Saturday when the Mavs host Houston.

This franchise has a lot of credit it must build up with its fan base after trading away a 25-year old Doncic (sans trade request).

But maybe we surround the Mavericks in bubble wrap and make sure theyre healthy for the playoffs? Lakers 120, Warriors 112 (25-26): LeBron James had 42 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists to help stave off a furious comeback from a Warriors team that was almost down by 30 at one point.

LeBron also became the youngest (19 years, 88 days) and oldest player (40 years, 38 days) to score 40 points in a game .

Wolves 127 (29-23), Rockets 114 (32-19): Dillon Brooks decided to poke the bear...

or wolf, I guess.

And what it did was ignite Anthony Edwards to put a hurting on the Rockets defense.

He had 16 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter and let Brooks know about it after each bucket.

The Rockets fell apart in the fourth quarter again, as the Wolves moved into sixth in the West.

Blazers 108 (23-29), Kings 102 (25-26): The Blazers are still the hottest team in basketball, winning their sixth straight game.

Anfernee Simons had 30, Shaedon Sharpe had 24 off the bench and Portland is now 2.5 games out of the Play-In Tournament.

Pacers 119 (29-21), Clippers 112 (28-23): LA outscored Indiana 42-22 in the first quarter.

The Pacers had a 42-19 advantage in the second period.

Eventually, Pascal Siakams 33 points and Bennedict Mathurin adding 25 led Indiana to the win.

Nuggets 112 (33-19), Magic 90 (25-28): No Jamal Murray, no problem.

Nikola Jokic had a casual 28-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound triple-double, and Michael Porter Jr.

had 30 points again.

Orlando left all that offense in Sacramento apparently.

Chuck, Shaq and Kenny selected their squads Remember the new All-Star format? We have four teams of eight with three teams compiled with eight of the 24 All-Stars and the fourth team coming from the winner of the Rising Stars Game.

Last night on TNT, Shaquille ONeal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley drafted the three teams of All-Stars .

These were the picks.

Kenny definitely has the worst team of the bunch, but went with four of the six first-time All-Stars because theyll play hard.

Barkley got every single international player available.

Shaq went for a lot of the veterans, and he put LeBron James and Anthony Davis back as teammates.

Give me Chucks team all day.

The All-Star Game is Feb.

16 on TNT.

Most of the 2025 first round is on the move The 2025 NBA Draft is supposed to be a banger of an opportunity to fix your team.

It goes beyond Cooper Flagg, although thats who the bad teams in the league are dying to employ.

In the aftermath of this trade deadline, I was actually shocked to see that more than half of the first-round picks are owed to other teams.

There are actually only nine first-rounders that dont have any trade protections on them at all.

But as of right now, 17 of the 30 first-round selections would be conveyed to another team .

Lets run through what these old trade debts are currently sending out: Thankfully for the Wizards, their pick is top-10 protected for 2025.

Otherwise, their own Westbrook trade would have routed that thing eventually to the Knicks this year.

And yes, of course, the Thunder had it at one point.

OKC executive Sam Presti owns all drafts.

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(Top photo: Harry How / Getty Images ).

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