Late-Season Moves That NBA Teams Wish They Could Take Back
For the most part, the basketball gods were a generous bunch at this season's NBA trade deadline.
They gave the Miami Heat a point guard for the present (and ideally for the future) in Goran Dragic. They gifted the injury-riddled Oklahoma City Thunder a second scorer (Enes Kanter) and reliable backup (D.J. Augustin) to support MVP candidate Russell Westbrook. They found some offensive punch for the Boston Celtics (Isaiah Thomas) and a two-way guard for the Portland Trail Blazers (Arron Afflalo).
But not all of the deadline deals pushed the participating parties in the right direction.
More than a month removed from that flurry of transactions, several teams already seem in desperate need of a mulligan. Faulty on-court fits and sagging statistics help shine a light on the most regrettable late-season moves.
Pistons Trade Shooters for a Tayshaun Prince Rental
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Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond's offensive range doesn't extend beyond the restricted area. Power forward Greg Monroe does his best work on the low block. Point guard Reggie Jackson is only a scoring threat if he's attacking the basket.
Assuming the Pistons are moving forward with at least two of those three—both Monroe (unrestricted) and Jackson (restricted) are headed to free agency at season's end—they're going to need shooters to clear up congestion in the paint.
They had a pair of rangy forwards in 28-year-old Jonas Jerebko and 27-year-old Luigi Datome. But they sent both to the Boston Celtics for 35-year-old Tayshaun Prince, a free-agent-to-be who might already be plotting an offseason move to a contender.
Go ahead and file this deal under the "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" category.
Prince's awkward return to his former club included confusion over whether a buyout was coming. With Detroit having dropped 12 of its 18 games since his debut, it's obvious this franchise can't scratch his itch for title contention.
Jerebko and Datome, meanwhile, have given Boston the spacing that Detroit needs. The pair have hit 42.7 percent of their three-point shots with the Celtics.
And unlike Prince, Jerebko and Datome are young enough that either could have played a role in the Pistons' future. But Detroit took that card out of its own hand and may have cost itself a simple solution to its shooting problem.
Rockets Fall Short in Lofty Point Guard Pursuit
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As much as the Houston Rockets appreciated Patrick Beverley's tenacious defense and ability to play off the ball-dominant James Harden, they always saw room for an upgrade at the lead guard spot. With the gauntlet of prolific point guards potentially awaiting them in the Western Conference playoffs—Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Tony Parker, to name a few—it wasn't hard to see why.
The Rockets tried getting Rajon Rondo before he landed with the Dallas Mavericks, per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Then, Houston eyed deals for either Deron Williams or Goran Dragic, according to Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher.
But when the trade deadline passed, the Rockets were only able to come away with 37-year-old reserve Pablo Prigioni. And even that required parting with two second-round picks and combo guard Alexey Shved to pry Prigioni away from the New York Knicks. Houston also gave up 23-year-old point guard Isaiah Canaan and another second-rounder to get K.J. McDaniels from the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Rockets aimed high but had to settle low. And they've since lost their security blanket in Beverley, who's out for the year following surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist.
Houston's once-promising point guard plan now entails an emergency scramble to hide a massive void at arguably the league's most important position.
"In a Western Conference loaded with star point guards, the Rockets will have to make do without the defender they chose for the job, relying instead on veterans Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni and another round of rotation juggling to put defensive-minded Trevor Ariza or Corey Brewer on point guards," wrote Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle and Bleacher Report.
The Rockets obviously couldn't have planned for Beverley's injury. But considering they were already seeking superior options before he went down, they might wish they had tried harder to bring in a better backcourt mate for Harden.
The Nuggets' Fire Sale That Wasn't
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The Denver Nuggets did something at the trade deadline, but it's hard to tell exactly what that was.
They didn't blow up the roster, because guys like Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari are all still around. But they didn't hold things together, as Arron Afflalo, JaVale McGee and Alonzo Gee all found new homes.
Did they stockpile assets? Not really. They brought back a first-round pick for Afflalo but sacrificed another one to get rid of McGee. They waived Thomas Robinson and Victor Claver, and they could opt against bringing back impending restricted free agent Will Barton.
Did they retain their core to see how it might look under someone other than deposed coach Brian Shaw? Maybe, but why wouldn't they have let their next coach work with Afflalo and McGee if that was the case? Buying more minutes for rookies Jusuf Nurkic, Joffrey Lauvergne and Garry Harris makes some sense, but that seems like the motivation of a rebuilding club—and Denver has yet to embrace a total reset.
This roster has responded to interim coach Melvin Hunt. They are 8-7 under his watch, a far cry from the 20-39 mark they posted under Shaw.
"These guys, they are reaching inside themselves and they are pulling things out of themselves that they didn't even know they had," Hunt said, per Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post.
But what is the end game for the Nuggets? They have already torn down part of their roster, and Faried said he expects more changes to come this offseason, per Dempsey.
The question, then, is why didn't Denver do more at the deadline when trades were surfacing all across the league? Delaying demolition risked both worsening its draft position (which has already happened) and seeing the value of its trade chips decrease.
The iron was hot, and the Nuggets didn't strike like they could have.
Suns Sacrifice Coveted Lakers Pick
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Just a few weeks back, the Phoenix Suns held one of the most valuable assets in the league. The 2012 sign-and-trade that sent Steve Nash to the Los Angeles Lakers netted Phoenix a pair of future first-rounders. The Lakers safeguarded their risk to a certain extent, but the pick only carries top-five protection this year and top-three protection in 2016 and 2017 (unprotected in 2018).
That's the quality of asset Phoenix possessed. And it gave that up in a three-team trade that sent the pick to Philly, Michael Carter-Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks and Brandon Knight to Phoenix.
In Knight, the Suns acquired a scorer trapped in a point guard's body who could command an eight-figure salary when he hits restricted free agency this summer. He's a good player, but the Suns may have sacrificed a great asset to get him—possibly as a half-season rental.
What was Phoenix thinking? Suns general manager Ryan McDonough offered some insight to Bright Side of the Sun's Bryan Gibberman. The executive doesn't see the pick changing hands this year and has no clue where it might fall in 2016.
"I think analyzing the Lakers situation there's pretty high variance there as to what the pick could be," McDonough said. "If you ask me how the Lakers are going to be a year from now i have no idea."
Two problems with that take. The Lakers have the fourth-worst record, but they're only 1.5 games up on the Orlando Magic. If L.A. falls to fifth and one team leapfrogs it at the lottery, that pick will move this year to the sixth overall selection. In the last decade, Brandon Roy, Danilo Gallinari, Damian Lillard and Nerlens Noel have all by taken at the No. 6 spot. It's a valuable position to hold.
And if the pick doesn't move this year, the Lakers don't have many quick-fix options available to them. Kobe Bryant is set to collect $25 million next season, and the new TV money won't kick in until the following summer. The Lakers might lure in one notable name (remember, they struck out last summer), but who sees this club as being one player away from escaping the cellar?
Not the 76ers, who wisely pounced on an asset that should not have been available.
Bucks Add Michael Carter-Williams, Lose Winning Touch
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Credit the Milwaukee Bucks for not letting their surprise climb up the standings disrupt their future plans. By shedding Brandon Knight and acquiring Michael Carter-Williams, Miles Plumlee and Tyler Ennis at the deadline, the Bucks cleaned up their financial books and found a short-term replacement for dismissed center Larry Sanders.
This was not a move made for the present. But the Bucks have yet to see evidence that it will help in the future.
Prior to the Carter-Williams' Feb. 25 debut, Milwaukee had a .554 winning percentage and sat tied for 12th in net efficiency rating (plus-2.4 points per 100 possessions). Since the reigning Rookie of the Year took over, the Bucks have gone 5-13 and posted the fifth-worst net rating (minus-4.6).
Milwaukee doesn't have the floor-spacers to support the non-shooting MCW. The team has only cracked triple digits in six of his 17 games (two of which went into overtime). With Giannis Antetokounmpo having already abandoned his perimeter shot (7-of-40 from deep), the Bucks have struggled to integrate Carter-Williams (a career .395/.253/.699 shooter) into the offense.
Shooting flaws can be corrected over time, as Bucks head coach Jason Kidd knows firsthand. But not all shooting woes disappear.
"As Rajon Rondo and Ricky Rubio have demonstrated over recent years, there's...no guarantee that a poor jump-shooter does ever develop along the Kidd trajectory," wrote Bryan Toporek of BBall Breakdown and Bleacher Report. "And if he doesn't become a somewhat legitimate threat behind the three-point line, MCW is liable to crush the Bucks' offensive spacing."
The Bucks bought themselves some time to figure this out. But their otherwise bright future will be clouded in uncertainty as long as Carter-Williams' shooting problems persist.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
