6 Teams That Still Need to Make a Move Following the 2015 NBA Trade Deadline
Pat yourself on the back, loyal NBA fan. You survived a crazy and confusing trade deadline. Feel free to kick back, pop a squat and relax for a moment.
Moment's over.
The trade deadline has come and gone, but there is still fine-tuning to be done. Teams are not finished searching high and low for improvements. Overseas players can still be signed, and the buyout market promises to explode eventually.
Unfinished squads will use this time as an opportunity to deepen rotations and land emergency contributors. Although there are no star players to be added, they can have an impact on the playoff race—provided they're signed by March 1.
That's where we'll turn our attention to: the playoffs. Only teams with something to play for will be discussed here. They could be guaranteed a postseason appearance or chasing one. It doesn't matter.
Look at this as a comprehensive guide to which relevant teams need the most help. The Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks are perfection personified. They are not here. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers addressed their biggest issues before now. They are not here, either.
This space is solely dedicated to those who need an extra push and have a hope of improving enough to make something happen (so, not the Brooklyn Nets or New Orleans Pelicans). And with this in mind, we press on, into the post-deadline world.
Miami Heat
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Picking up Goran Dragic instantly vaulted the Miami Heat back into the "Hey! We're here too!" Eastern Conference playoff conversation, but there is still work to be done.
With Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Hassan Whiteside and Dragic, the Heat have one of the NBA's most promising starting fives at full strength. Thing is, they may not be at full strength.
According to Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald, the Heat fear that Bosh has blood clots in his lungs after he was admitted to a Miami hospital. If their fears are confirmed, Bosh will be done for the season—though the Heat aren't going that far yet.
"Everybody's jumping the gun," head coach Erik Spoelstra said of Bosh, per Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. "Frankly, there's not a full diagnosis."
Hopefully, Bosh winds up being just fine. Either way, the Heat still need assistance. They were thin before the Dragic trade, with their second unit ranking as one of the league's least efficient, according to HoopsStats.com. Now they're down three more game-ready contributors in Shawne Williams, Norris Cole and Danny Granger.
Adding some frontcourt help will be the key. Miami is an undersized team and owns one of the NBA's six worst rebounding rates. Chris Andersen and Udonis Haslem haven't been enough thus far, so the situation only stands to worsen if Bosh is unavailable.
Reinforcements will be necessary if the Heat are to expand upon the one-game gap sitting between them and a pick-less lottery.
Possible Target: Andray Blatche. He's done playing in China for the season and is already generating interest from the Heat, per NetsDaily.com.
Detroit Pistons
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Acquiring Reggie Jackson will work wonders for the Detroit Pistons' playoff push. They're two games back of the East's final postseason slot and needed another hyperactive point guard after losing Brandon Jennings for the season.
But the Pistons still have spacing issues, and Jackson isn't much of a shooter. He's hitting just 31.2 percent of his shots outside 16 feet, and converting only 21.9 percent of his catch-and-shoot opportunities.
Coach and president Stan Van Gundy also shipped out two defense-stretching wings in order to land Jackson: Jonas Jerebko and Kyle Singler. Although Jerebko was seldom-used, he's tossing in 36.8 percent of his long balls. The more frequently used Singler, meanwhile, gets buckets 40.6 percent of the time from long range.
Floor-spacing forwards are a pivotal part of Van Gundy's offense—the same one that ranks fourth in points scored per 100 possessions since ditching Josh Smith. Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond are averaging just 16.8 minutes of nightly court time together since then; the remaining 30-something are typically devoted to running one-in, four-out lineups.
If the Pistons want to turn their once-lost season into a playoff appearance, they need to keep pace with the retooled Heat, stingy Charlotte Hornets, still-alive Brooklyn Nets and "How did we end up here?" Boston Celtics.
Stuffing the roster with even more shooters—preferably at either forward spot—gives them a better chance of doing just this.
Possible Target: Shawne Williams (aka Anthony Tolliver 2.0). Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski says the New Orleans Pelicans plan to buy out his contract, at which point Williams and his 39.5 percent three-point clip will be free to sign elsewhere.
The Pistons should send along a singing telegram comprised of Van Gundy lookalikes conveying their interest.
Boston Celtics
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Accidentally ending up in the playoff race doesn't excuse the Boston Celtics from going for it.
On a day in which their offense took a step in the right direction by adding Isaiah Thomas, the Celtics lost their leading scorer and rebounder, Jared Sullinger, to a stress reaction in his left foot. Per The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn, Sullinger is expected to miss extensive time, leaving the Celtics incredibly thin up front.
Kelly Olynyk hasn't played since Jan. 22 while dealing with a right ankle sprain, so Boston needs to beef up its frontcourt rotation. While Jerebko replaces some of Sullinger's floor spacing, the Celtics won't survive on heavy doses of him, Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller alone.
They need to scour the skies for imminent assistance.
Scoring and rebounding are the priorities. The Celtics are already a sound defensive team (15th in efficiency), but they rank 23rd in points scored per 100 possessions. Their rebounding rate also drops by 1.2 percentage points when Sullinger is off the floor.
No, the Celtics won't supplant Sullinger's production in full. Nevertheless, they need to gear up for their postseason push with an extra body.
Possible Target: Andrea Bargnani. (Ducks for cover.) ESPN.com's Marc Stein says the New York Knicks are less than $3 million from dipping under the luxury-tax threshold, and Bargnani has long been a buyout candidate, according to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck.
If the Celtics sign Bargnani and run him beside Olynyk, they can finally lead the league in stretch 7-footers who don't play defense.
Los Angeles Clippers
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The Los Angeles Clippers did not make any moves ahead of the trade deadline. Do not confuse this to mean they're perfect. They certainly aren't. Holes abound.
Forget finding someone to soak up the minutes Blake Griffin left behind. He'll eventually recover from surgery on his right elbow. Until then, the Clippers should be perfectly content watching Spencer Hawes jack up ill-advised jumpers and Glen Davis make uncomfortable-looking faces.
Small forward continues to be the position of desperate need. Consider the following, courtesy of 82games.com:
| 21.7 | 15.9 | 11.3 | 19.6 | 20.8 | |
| 13.8 | 13.7 | 14.5 | 16.1 | 18.3 | |
| 7.9 | 2.2 | -3.2 | 3.5 | 2.5 |
Surprised? Didn't think so. This is what happens when your small forward carousel consists of Matt Barnes, Hedo Turkoglu and playing Jamal Crawford out of position. This is also why the Clippers need to hope and pray the buyout market yields a semi-serviceable wing—head coach Doc Rivers' pessimism be darned.
"Some of these teams are in the playoff race," he said, per the Los Angeles Times' Ben Bolch. "You're not just going to buy out guys."
For the Clippers' sake, Rivers needs to be wrong. They're 3-1 since Griffin went down, but this is no time to be complacent. They're one game off a top-four playoff spot in the ultra brutal Western Conference, so they can't settle yet.
Possible Target: Andrei Kirilenko. After the Philadelphia 76ers failed to move him ahead of the trade deadline, he is expected to be bought out, according to ESPNNewYork.com's Mike Mazzeo.
Signing Kirilenko helps the Clippers deepen their skeleton small forward rotation with a capable defender. As a bonus, it also gives them a firsthand glimpse at what Dolph Lundgren would look like with Carol Brady's haircut.
Toronto Raptors
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Like the Clippers, the Toronto Raptors did absolutely nothing ahead of Thursday's deadline. And like the Clippers, this does not imply they're a polished product.
Because like the Clippers, they are not.
Porous defensive sets have killed the Raptors for most of this season. They rank 18th in points allowed per 100 possessions, 21st in catch-and-shoot defense and 23rd in points allowed inside the paint, according to TeamRankings.com.
Undersized and not particularly fast, the Raptors struggle against mobile wings and passing-packed offenses. They don't hit the defensive glass hard, and their top-five offense is mitigated by a dearth of talent up front.
Compounding matters is their inaction at the deadline. Eric Koreen of the National Post explains why:
"By doing nothing as Thursday’s trade deadline, the Raptors probably hurt their odds of winning one series. At least one potential opponent — Miami, who acquired Goran Dragic from the Phoenix Suns — got better in the short-term.
Milwaukee, another potential matchup, got even longer and more athletic (but not necessarily better) by trading Brandon Knight for Michael Carter-Williams and Tyler Ennis. And the Raptors did nothing to make a victory over Cleveland, Chicago or Washington, should they end up in the 4-5 series, more likely.
"
Clinging to a 3.5-game cushion for second place in the Eastern Conference, the Raptors are not in promising position. The Cleveland Cavaliers are surging, the Chicago Bulls look like they know what they're doing again and the Washington Wizards are still hanging around.
Shaking things up at the expense of draft picks or Terrence Ross may not have sat well with the Raptors, which is fine; they're still in line for a top-four playoff seed. But if they hope to improve upon last season's first-round exit, they need to nab an able body up front.
Possible Target: Thomas Robinson. He was tossed into the deal that landed the Portland Trail Blazers Arron Afflalo and has since reached a buyout agreement with the Denver Nuggets, per ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman.
Playing time has alluded Robinson his entire career, but he is averaging a double-double per 36 minutes and brings rebounding and explosion the Raptors don't presently have. Along with Tyler Hansbrough, he ensures Toronto meets its annual quota for pulsating forehead veins.
Washington Wizards
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Flipping Andre Miller for Ramon Sessions is not where the Wizards' roster-finagling should end.
Bradley Beal has not yet recovered from a stress reaction in his right leg, and there is still no timetable for his return, per The Washington Post's Jorge Castillo. Losing him further handicaps what is an already mediocre offense. Beal is the Wizards' second-leading scorer, and the offense is five points worse per 100 possessions when he steps off the floor.
Even with a healthy Beal, though, the Wizards need offensive help. Their depth up front is impressive, but they're short on perimeter weaponry despite being one of the NBA's most accurate teams from beyond the arc.
Any guard who can help move the needle is a necessity, because these Wizards, as currently constructed, are just a different-looking version of last year's team: good, but not good enough.
As WTOP.com's Noah Frank writes:
"Washington has done its job against the league’s bottom-feeders, torching teams currently outside of playoff position to the tune of a 23-4 record. But in the other half of their games, played against teams currently in position to make the NBA’s second season, the Wizards are just 10-17.
And half of the four losses against non-playoff clubs have come against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a squad likely to find their way to the postseason now that their stars are healthy.
They’re also 0-6 against the top two teams in the East (Atlanta and Toronto) and have yet to play any of their four contests against the top two teams in the West (Golden State and Memphis).
"
More than half of the Wizards' final games come against playoff squads, and their top-four seed has come under siege amid the Cavaliers' uprising. If they're going to make a postseason push that spans longer than a series or two, the Wizards must find a way to improve a roster and offense that has plateaued.
Possible Target: Will Bynum. Per RealGM's Shams Charania, the Wizards have already showed interest in Bynum, who elected to play in China this season. Bynum is undersized (6'0"), but both Beal and Wall have the height and length to defend shooting guards.
Besides, the instant offense and playmaking Bynum provides is well worth the matchup problems he poses. That Wall has a man crush on his offensive arsenal counts for something, too.
*All trade information from the Feb. 19 deadline comes courtesy of NBA.com unless otherwise cited.
*All stats via Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com and are accurate leading into games for Feb. 20, 2015 unless otherwise cited.
