NBA's Biggest Winners and Losers from February
February is a massive month for the NBA.
Between the trade deadline, All-Star Weekend and the unofficially official opening of the stretch run, the calendar's shortest month runs long on hoops significance.
Let's look back on the campaign's biggest month to date, then, by rounding up quintets of winners and losers.
Winner: LeBron James
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The second LeBron James' fadeaway jumper swished through the net and cemented his place as the Association's all-time-leading scorer, he was guaranteed top billing here.
The scoring record is absurd for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the fact that scoring arguably isn't the strongest part of his arsenal. His longevity is also a different level of dominance than we've ever seen. In the 20 games he's played since his 38th birthday, he's averaging 31.9 points (on 50.5 percent shooting), 8.9 rebounds and 7.5 assists.
The record alone makes him a massive winner this month, but he has more to celebrate.
The Lakers, who erased a 27-point deficit while winning their fourth game in five tries Sunday, used trade season to finally make better sense of their roster. They made a trio of transactions to scratch itches for shooting, defense, length, athleticism and shot-creation. Anthony Davis has also hinted at a return to his early season form with a three-pack of 30-point double-doubles.
It wasn't quite a perfect February, since the foot injury he suffered Sunday could sideline him multiple weeks, but this will forever be a month to remember for the new scoring king.
Loser: Miami Heat
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All season, many have waited for the Miami Heat to turn up the temperature and start bearing more resemblance to their group that snagged the East's top seed and reached Game 7 of the conference finals last season.
But maybe it'll just be a frigid campaign in South Beach. Saturday's loss to the lowly Charlotte Hornets dropped Miami's record this month to 3-6, and even the triumphs underwhelmed: a five-point win over the Indiana Pacers, a two-point victory against the Houston Rockets and a four-point overtime win over the Orlando Magic.
"I'm tired of losing," Jimmy Butler said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. "... We've got to figure this out very, very quickly."
If figuring it out is possible, it'll start with Miami fielding a competent offense. The Heat have averaged an anemic 108.4 points per 100 possessions this month, a mark that betters only those of the Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. Miami is shooting a league-worst 30.1 percent from three and an atrocious 32.6 percent on wide-open threes.
Winner: De'Aaron Fox
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De'Aaron Fox has suited up nine times this month. He netted 30-plus points in eight of them.
He's at 32 points per game this month, slotting him second to only Damian Lillard, who erupted for a bonkers 71 points his last time out. Fox is also shooting 56.7 percent in February, which ranks third among this month's top-30 scorers and puts him only behind centers Kristaps Porziņģis and Nikola Jokić.
As per usual, Fox is also doing his best work in the (third-seeded!) Sacramento Kings' biggest moments. He sits atop the monthly leaderboard in clutch points and assists, and he shares top billing in clutch steals and free throws.
"Big-time players play big-time games. [Fox] is a big-time player," Sacramento skipper Mike Brown told reporters. "He's doing what he's supposed to do for us."
The Kings are 7-4 in February and 3-0 since the All-Star break. Fox is keeping the beam-lighter busy and positioning Sacramento to not only snap its record-setting playoff drought but quite possibly host a first-round series.
Loser: Brooklyn Nets
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The Brooklyn Nets entered February with two of history's greatest isolation scorers on the roster in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The mere presence of that pair gave Brooklyn no worse than a puncher's chance of escaping the Eastern Conference.
Well, neither player made it to the trade deadline with the Nets. Durant is in Phoenix now (more on that in a minute), Irving is in Dallas and the Nets are lugging around more February losses than everyone but the Rockets and Spurs (3-7). They've suffered three losses by 18-plus points in that span.
Watching a team struggle after trading away two stars isn't super surprising, but Brooklyn's situation is different. The Nets won too many games with those stars to bottom out now, and even if they miraculously struck draft-lottery gold, the Rockets have swap rights on their first-round pick, anyway. In fact, Houston has control of Brooklyn's first-round picks through 2027.
The Nets have no centerpiece, even though they're paying Ben Simmons to fill that very role. They snagged some valuable long-term draft assets, but the good picks won't convey until years down the road. They theoretically have enough chips to broker a blockbuster trade, but they might be hesitant to chase stars given how poorly things played out with Durant, Irving and James Harden.
Winner: Phoenix Suns
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Is it premature to declare the Phoenix Suns big winners without knowing how their championship-or-bust wager will play out? Not. At. All.
Phoenix needed a spark and found one in the form of a Hall of Fame-bound, unguardable scorer who happens to be utilizing his 7'0" frame better than ever on the defensive end. No, Kevin Durant hasn't debuted for this franchise just yet, but his presence helped the Suns rise back to the elite ranks overnight.
"We got a chance to be really good," Suns coach Monty Williams said, per ESPN's Nick Friedell. "... Kevin can play with anybody. Any team in the league he can find a way to play. Same with [Devin Booker]. Same with Chris [Paul]."
This looks like a championship roster on paper, and maybe it can stay that way. The new ownership's willingness to immediately increase its luxury tax bodes well for future expenditures.
Phoenix absorbed both short- and long-term risks, but it landed Kevin bleepin' Durant. That's a massive win.
Loser: Houston's Defense
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It feels a little icky spotlighting any on-court struggle of the rebuilding Rockets. If their embrace of the race to the bottom nets them an all-galaxy prospect like Victor Wembanyama or Scoot Henderson, this season may forever be remembered as a smashing success in Space City.
Still, if Houston hopes it has some long-term keepers already, then alarm sirens should be blaring over the state of this defense. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, someone will probably have put a Rockets defender on a poster.
Houston has played 10 games so far this month. The opposition has piled up more than 115 points in all but two and has 130-plus points in five contests. The Rockets have allowed a wholly atrocious 125.2 points per 100 possessions. For context, the Kings, who are on course to have the most efficient offense in league history, average 118.0 points per 100 possessions.
It's one thing for a team in Houston's position to stockpile losses. It's another to let the roster develop brutally bad habits. Hemorrhaging points to this degree helps absolutely no one—well, other than the Rockets' opponents.
Winner: Julius Randle
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There was a real chance that Julius Randle's 2020-21 breakout—during which he was named an All-Star, an All-NBA second-teamer and the league's Most Improved Player—may have been a one-year anomaly. He crashed back to earth last season, and since he'd never been nearly as impactful before that single-season surge, it was fair to wonder whether he'd ever bounce back.
Well, his sizzling play in February—outside of the three-point contest, at least—effectively silenced those doubts.
Randle, who played in his second All-Star Game earlier this month, and Jalen Brunson have put the New York Knicks on their backs and carried them to an 8-2 record. Randle has wowed with equal parts volume and efficiency, buoying his per-game averages of 27.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists with a 49/36.6/84.3 shooting slash and a top-20 raw plus/minus (plus-72 in 354.8 minutes).
"More than anything, I just got back my joy and love for playing the game," Randle told Yahoo Sports' Jake Fischer. "And the results are showing, obviously with me being [an All-Star] and our team winning games."
Loser: John Wall
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John Wall opened the calendar year as a rotation regular for the championship-chasing Los Angeles Clippers.
Barring a last-minute signing, he'll end the month of February off an NBA roster and facing a very uncertain future in this league.
The 32-year-old posted decent counting stats for the Clippers (11.4 points and 5.2 assists in 22.2 minutes), but his efficiency waned (40.8/30.3/68.1 slash). He had the club's worst offensive rating (105) and, at the time, its lowest net differential (minus-9.1 points per 100 possessions). At the deadline, the Clippers sent him to the Rockets, who promptly waived him.
It's been crickets for Wall ever since, and his list of potential landing spots is dwindling with other point guards like Russell Westbrook (Clippers), Reggie Jackson (Denver Nuggets) and Patrick Beverley (Chicago Bulls) being plucked off the buyout market.
It's too soon to say we've seen the last of Wall, but not too soon to wonder whether we'll see him again this season.
Winner: Cam Thomas
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In 10 February outings, Cam Thomas has nine double-digit scoring outbursts. He erupted for 20-plus points six different times, including a streak of three consecutive 40-plus-point performances.
Prior to this month, he had 100 career appearances under his belt. He scored double-digit points in 37 of those games, reaching 20 points in 13 and clearing 30 points twice.
He's never had close to a net-shredding stretch like this, and considering we're talking about a 21-year-old sophomore, this could certainly be a sign of even better things ahead. Saying that, though, he still needs to shore up the rest of his game—scoring is the lone constant in his arsenal—and his role could be condensed until that happens.
"What I think Cam can be is a bona fide, efficient and productive scorer for us when asked upon," Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said, per The Athletic's Alex Schiffer. "He's a guy that can shot-create, but we don't anticipate him playing 40 minutes as he did in those games."
Thomas has time on his side, but these flashes of point-producing proficiency shouldn't be ignored. The next time the Nets are hurting for hoops, #FreeCamThomas better be trending.
Loser: Bones Hyland
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Are you confused about how quickly Bones Hyland, an All-Rookie second-teamer last season, went from being a potential building block for the Nuggets to someone Denver discarded for a pair of second-round picks at the deadline? So is he.
"Who knows? Don't know, man," Hyland told ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk. "I feel like it's just miscommunication. ... But it just changed up so fast. It's hard to put in words because I'm so lost like everyone else."
Hyland's role had greatly diminished in Denver before the deadline, and he looked as much in need of a scenery change as anyone. In that light, his deadline move to the Los Angeles Clippers potentially put him in better position.
However, once the club snatched up Russell Westbrook off the buyout market, that immediately muddled Hyland's role. After seeing 16 minutes in each of his first two outings with the team, Hyland never made it off the bench during Westbrook's Clippers debut.
Hyland is a shifty shot-creator and tons of fun to watch when he has it rolling, but efficiency isn't his strong suit. Neither are defending or distributing. He is young enough to potentially iron out some of those weaknesses, but it's telling his trade value wasn't any higher. His trajectory looks totally different than it did last season, and it will only get foggier if he gets lost in the shuffle in L.A.
Statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference and NBA.com and accurate through Sunday.
Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @ZachBuckleyNBA.
