5 Contenders We Still Don't Trust After 2024 NBA Trade Deadline
With no true difference-makers on the market, NBA teams used the 2023-24 trade deadline to focus on finding potential finishing pieces.
Role players may not make the same level of impact as stars, but they can be critical for making deep playoff runs. No one moved at this deadline will turn his new team into a contender if that team wasn't one before, but those additions can definitely still increase their new squad's championship chances.
Yet, for all the good work done during this trade season, we're still skeptical the following five championship hopefuls have enough to make their dream a reality.
Los Angeles Lakers
1 of 5
Some might quibble with the notion that the Lakers—a barely above .500 team seemingly barreling toward the play-in tournament—are contenders. That might be understandable if the combined presences of LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn't give L.A. at least a puncher's chance in any postseason series. Booking two lengthy playoff runs (both of which lasted until at least the conference finals, one of them yielding a title) in a four-year span essentially cements that fact.
Saying that, skepticism of this squad is absolutely warranted. The Lakers aren't great on defense (14th in efficiency) or even good on offense (20th), which is a big reason why this club was so often connected with the biggest names on the market. That the deadline came and went without a deal meant meaningful roster reinforcements aren't on the way.
The Lakers' flaws, in other words, aren't going away.
Austin Reaves has yet to launch into stardom. D'Angelo Russell isn't effective without the ball in his hands. Rui Hachimura may forever be consistently inconsistent. And while we'd love to grant L.A. a clean bill of health, it's worth noting neither James nor Davis have yet suffered what have seemingly been perennial injury problems.
The Lakers can level up for a quality win here or there, but the absence of a go-to strength has forced them to search for different solutions on a nightly basis. Great teams have an established identity by this point, but L.A. doesn't, because it just isn't one.
Miami Heat
2 of 5
History has seldom been kind to those who doubt Erik Spoelstra and the Heat. Despite having...uh...less than an abundance of talent lately, Miami has appeared in three of the past four Eastern Conference Finals—and won two of those series.
Track record aside, though, there's no evidence this club is capable of another postseason switch-flip. The Heat have had their share of injuries, sure, but even when health has been on their side, it hasn't amounted to much. To wit, they've gone a wholly unimpressive 9-11 in the 20 games that Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro have played together.
Deadline acquisition Terry Rozier hasn't given the offense the spark it sought, and now he's slated for an MRI after hurting his knee Sunday. Caleb Martin has yet to replicate the formula that made him a breakout star in their last playoff run. Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. has yet to get back on track since missing six games last month with a groin strain.
This is, ostensibly at least, a team built to win with dominant defense and good-enough offense. It has underperformed on both fronts, sitting a good-not-great ninth in defensive efficiency and a not-nearly-good-enough 23rd on offense.
Spoelstra is a master problem-solver, and Butler clearly has a knack for rising to the occasion, but those are reasons to grant Miami a contender status it otherwise wouldn't deserve. They aren't arguments for buying this team as a credible championship threat.
Milwaukee Bucks
3 of 5
The Bucks had a mostly quiet trade deadline—swapping Cameron Payne and a future second for Patrick Beverley; salary-dumping Robin Lopez—which always felt like the most logical outcome given their lack of assets. Still, there's a reason they were aggressively searching for upgrades ahead of the buzzer.
Just like there's a reason they didn't use their 30-13 start as a reason to keep first-year coach Adrian Griffin around. When you're facing championship-or-bust expectations—which you absolutely are when you unite Giannis Antetokounmpo with 33-year-old Damian Lillard—then being really good isn't good enough.
Milwaukee's decision to quickly hire veteran skipper Doc Rivers was a clear attempt to fix this Swiss cheese defense, and Rivers has been able to somewhat patch things up on that end (10th in efficiency since his debut). However, the offense falling off a cliff (second before his debut, 22nd since) obviously wasn't part of the plan, meaning this group has even more to clean up than anyone imagined.
Antetokounmpo remains at the peak of his powers, but Lillard has had trouble establishing a rhythm in his first season away from the Portland Trail Blazers. His counting stats figured to fall with his new team (and they have), but who saw his connection rates from the field (42.7 percent) and from three (34.5) sagging, too? Khris Middleton was only recently seeing his typical workload, and now the 32-year-old is faced with yet another injury, this time "a bad ankle sprain" in Rivers' words.
For a team with so much to prove after being ousted in the first round as a No. 1 seed last season—and failing to advance past the conference semis the year prior—Milwaukee is inspiring zero confidence about its chances to emerge triumphant in the championship race.
Minnesota Timberwolves
4 of 5
The Timberwolves likely weren't on anyone's short list of contenders entering this campaign, so kudos to them for joining the discussion. Still, they've had too many offensive misfires in major moments to think they're on the cusp of capturing the franchise's first NBA title.
While their second unit is in better hands with the deadline addition of Monté Morris, they weren't a backup point guard away from fixing their offensive issues. History holds that you generally need top-10 efficiency ranks on both ends of the floor to win it all. Minnesota maybe has some extra breathing room thanks to its top-ranked defense, but not enough to overcome its 18th spot in offensive efficiency.
More worrisome than that ranking, though, is the way things completely run off the rails when the Wolves can least afford it. They are 19th in offensive efficiency in clutch situations—final five minutes with a scoring margin of five points or less—and 27th in that category during the fourth quarter. Too many of their wounds are of the self-inflicted variety, as their offense produces one sloppy giveaway after the next (15.1 turnover percentage, 28th).
That's why blown big leads are becoming a thing in the Gopher State, and there isn't an obvious way to fix this on the fly. Morris is a great decision-maker, obviously, but he's not unseating Mike Conley, another expert processor. The issue is Minnesota's best players have buckled under the bright lights. Karl-Anthony Towns is shooting 39.5 percent overall and 27.8 percent from three in clutch situations. Anthony Edwards owns a 46.8/30/72.2 slash line in crunch time while coughing up 3.4 turnovers per 36 minutes.
If the Wolves' stars—who've played a combined 27 playoff games—are already feeling the pressure in the regular season, what's going to happen when things really ratchet up in the playoffs? You can't trust these players to come through in big spots when they haven't done it consistently to this point.
Philadelphia 76ers*
5 of 5
This is a bummer to write, so much so that an asterisk felt needed. The 76ers have done everything they can to instill confidence in their championship hopes—including their deadline deal for sharpshooter Buddy Hield—but the injury bug has once again threatened to derail this team.
Reigning MVP Joel Embiid, who arguably appeared on course to claim that hardware again, recently went under the knife to address a meniscus injury in his left knee. The Sixers have predictably struggled mightily without their star, posting a 2-4 record with the seventh-worst net rating (minus-8.8) since he went down.
Philadelphia obviously has zero shot at the crown without a healthy Embiid manning the middle. The Sixers are optimistic he'll return in time to lead them into the playoffs, but it's not at all a sure thing.
"We're hopeful," 76ers president Daryl Morey told reporters. "Feedback has been more good than bad since we first heard about what led to his procedure. So, we're hopeful, and we're building the team to make it better this year. Obviously, it's not at 100 percent."
If not for the injury, Philadelphia would have certainly commanded our trust going forward. A healthy Embiid is in the thick of the best-player-on-the-planet discussions, Tyrese Maxey is a surging star, Hield essentially creates optimal spacing by himself, Tobias Harris is a rock-solid third option and the Sixers have sufficient depth all over.
With no promise of Embiid returning to full strength now, it's impossible to buy into this team. Hopefully that changes between now and the curtain dropping on this 82-game campaign, but until it does, it's more than justified to be highly skeptical of this squad.
Statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference, and NBA.com and current through games played on Sunday.
Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on X, @ZachBuckleyNBA.
