Fringe Playoff Teams That Will Regret 2025 NBA Trade Deadline
Self-improvement and self-destruction are both in play at the NBA trade deadline, and that's especially true for teams occupying the league's middle class. The choices they make can mean the difference between a playoff push and a nosedive—both being defensible options depending on the circumstances.
The squads we'll cover here made miscalculations they'll regret. In fact, some are already feeling serious pain.
Three weeks after the trade deadline, these fringe playoff squads are facing the consequences of their actions.
Dallas Mavericks
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We've already seen a mass exodus of fans on social media, legitimate protests and vocal dissent inside the arena, and that'll only be the beginning for the Dallas Mavericks, a team that pulled off the "what were they thinking?" trade against which all future inexplicable deals will be measured.
For years.
The big-picture concern, that the Mavs may never win back the supporters they lost by trading Luka Dončić, controls here. It's almost impossible to imagine a scenario that converts a mountain of ill will into renewed trust. At a minimum, the Mavs would need to win a ring without Dončić over the next couple of seasons.
There's also the fact that Dallas' deadline moves, combined with multiple injuries to incumbent big men, effectively blew up a team that made the Finals last year.
In the short term, Anthony Davis could get healthy in time to join Kyrie Irving in an improbable postseason surge. In the long term, Dallas may be remembered for making the worst trade in NBA history.
Chicago Bulls
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Critics could argue the Chicago Bulls should have waited until the summer to trade Zach LaVine if the best return was headlined by their own 2025 first-round pick and mostly unpalatable salary filler.
Even if that's true, the Bulls' larger failures are tied to the deals they didn't make.
Nikola Vučević should have gone out the door, along with Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey (assuming anyone would have given up even neutral value for him) and everyone else on the roster not named Matas Buzelis. Chicago undertook half-measures again, and it seems to have no issue spending another handful of years unambitiously sauntering along in lazy pursuit of a low playoff seed.
Chicago has hesitated to start its rebuild for far too long, and fans' biggest fear heading into the deadline was that the cowardly status quo would persist.
Vice president of basketball operations Artruas Karnisovas can say he's "not OK with being in the middle," but that's exactly where the Bulls find themselves.
Portland Trail Blazers
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The Portland Trail Blazers ran hot in the weeks before the deadline, going 10-1 in 11 games between Jan. 19 and Feb. 6. That stretch may have convinced them that a postseason trip, probably through the Play-In, was possible and that dealing away some of the veterans leading that charge was the wrong move.
That's exactly the kind of shortsighted thinking that can set back rebuilds.
Anfernee Simons averaged 20.0 points and 5.1 assists while shooting 43.9 percent from deep during that 10-1 run. Couldn't the Blazers have capitalized by flipping him to, say, the Orlando Magic for a protected first-rounder?
Jerami Grant, Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams III all stayed put through the deadline, and while the first two might not have returned positive value, Williams almost certainly would have. Jonas Valančiūnas netted the Wizards two second-rounders and, not that anyone would argue the package was rational, Charlotte netted two first-round assets and Dalton Knecht in the rescinded deal for Mark Williams.
Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan are the core of this roster, and everyone else should have been aggressively shopped.
The Blazers' inaction was a choice, and it'll go down as the wrong one.
Orlando Magic
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The Orlando Magic are the right kind of fringe playoff team. They've got two core pieces in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner locked into long-term deals and only fit into this mid-tier group because both of them missed significant time with injuries.
Had both stayed healthy, the Magic might be in position to have home-court advantage in the playoffs.
That ceiling is exactly why they might regret standing pat at the deadline.
Few teams had a clearer single need than the Magic, whose three-point shooting percentage is on pace to be the the worst in NBA history among teams that attempted at least 20 triples per game.
Orlando might have believed its chances of making real noise this postseason were slim, but this team is within striking distance of a top-six seed right now—despite all its injuries. Why not make even a modest attempt to add shooting and see what might be possible?
Phoenix Suns
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If the Phoenix Suns can trade Kevin Durant this summer, a seeming inevitability based on reporting from ESPN's Brian Windhorst (beginning at the 3:50 mark), maybe all's not lost.
But why would anyone trust the ownership group and front office that got Phoenix into this mess to get it out of it?
The Suns grossly mismanaged the entire deadline. They didn't seem to understand the power of Bradley Beal's no-trade clause, they misjudged the massive risk of publicly shopping Durant without his knowledge and they dealt away their only available first-rounder for shares of three less-valuable ones...and then did nothing of consequence with them.
The deadline was a continuation of the slapdash style that has defined owner Mat Ishbia's tenure, and the only things that prevented the Suns from taking more absurd action were the CBA restrictions self-imposed by their past recklessness.
Phoenix is going to lose Durant, but it has already sacrificed its reputation as a rational, functional franchise any player around the league would want to join.
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