Way-Too-Soon 2025 NBA Trade Deadline Regrets

The 2025 NBA trade deadline already appears a truly transformational moment for the league.

Not all of the changes were for the better, though.

Sure, there are a handful of executives still taking victory laps around the front office. The Golden State Warriors energized themselves with a bargain-priced blockbuster for Jimmy Butler. The Los Angeles Lakers found their LeBron James succession plan through their stunning swap for Luka Dončić. The Cleveland Cavaliers nabbed an apparent difference-maker in De'Andre Hunter without coughing up any draft capital.

There were monumental moves made, and the fortunate franchises involved could be reaping the rewards of them for years to come. On the other side of the coin, though, there are also a handful of teams already second-guessing their regretful steps taken.

Mavericks Limiting the Luka Market

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The Dallas Mavericks clearly were uninterested in a long-term future with Luka Dončić, at least at the cost it would have taken to keep him. If he still called DFW home, he would've been eligible for a five-year, $345 million supermax extension this summer. The Mavericks, however, "were never going to offer" it, per Christian Clark, Mike Vorkunov and Fred Katz of The Athletic.

That wasn't necessarily where Dallas went wrong (though splitting from a then-25-year-old on a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame track seems like a strange way to run a basketball team). Where the Mavericks really mangled things was with their disinterest in sparking a bidding war for Dončić.

Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison hoped his club could avoid the messiness of a superstar divorce with this approach. As ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon relayed, Harrison thought that by restricting trade negotiations to a single suitor, Dallas might "avoid Dončić and his agent exerting their own leverage" and also "the crippling fan backlash that might influence the deal."

Well, the backlash came in droves anyway, in part because this ploy greatly reduced the Mavericks' return. In exchange for Dončić, a top-eight finisher in MVP voting each of the past five seasons, they landed only Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a future first-round pick. That's it.

Davis is a brilliant player, but he is closing in on his 32nd birthday and once again battling the injury bug. Christie is a fine three-and-D option, but he's also a role player in his first season as a full-time rotation regular. The future first is only one of two the Lakers were allowed to trade, and it looked a lot more valuable when L.A. lacked a long-term blueprint for its post-LeBron era.

"The return sucks," one Western Conference executive told The Ringer's Howard Beck. "Your job is to get the best return."

Hindsight wasn't needed to know the Mavs could've gotten more. That said, this passage of time has painted a clearer picture of the precariousness of their new core. Davis is hurt, Kyrie Irving just suffered a scary knee injury and a roster built to win right-this-second (only a title would justify a move of this magnitude) is left limping to the finish line.

This already has all the makings of a disaster deal, which is baffling when considering what Dallas could have demanded had it opened up negotiations for a Dončić megadeal to the entire NBA.

Dallas Selling Low on Quentin Grimes

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Not to add insult to...well, insult, but the Dončić debacle wasn't the Mavericks' only misstep at the deadline. They also managed to mishandle their Quentin Grimes trade (which, perhaps fittingly, was set in motion by Christie's arrival in the Dončić deal), which somehow cost them a second-round pick and delivered only Caleb Martin.

As notable deadline deals go, this maybe didn't make the radar of most fans at the time, but it's certainly become a big talking point (and another regret for Dallas) since.

Martin, a 29-year-old who's never hoisted enough perimeter shots to fully fit the three-and-D mold, has yet to debut for the Mavericks while still working his way back from a mid-January hip injury. Grimes, a 24-year-old who keeps changing teams for some reason but produces anywhere he plays, has meanwhile dramatically raised his profile since the deadline.

Grimes is 10 games into his 76ers tenure and already breaking out in a big way. He has twice popped for 30-plus points with his new team, averaging 16.5 points on 50.4 percent shooting (37.7 percent from distance) along with 5.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in his 32.1 minutes.

Why did Dallas need to make this move again? And why on earth were the Mavericks the ones who had to sweeten the trade package?

Grimes, it's worth noting, has restricted free agency awaiting him this summer, but he has building-block potential if he keeps this up. Martin, on the other hand, is helpful to have for his hustle and defense, but he has never posed the biggest threat on the offensive end (save for a few sporadic outbursts in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals).

Orlando's Offensive Neglect

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Ever hold that old adage about how sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make? Well, it should probably come with the caveat that at other times, the moves you don't make are simply missed opportunities.

The Orlando Magic's offense was a mess long before the deadline arrived. Still, this felt like a salvageable season given the strength of this defense (second in efficiency) and the fact Orlando's injury issues were, at the time, largely behind it.

Maybe things could have been salvaged had the Magic done literally anything. Instead, they snoozed through trade season. As president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman explained, they felt as if teams were trying "to squeeze you" and didn't "regard ourselves as having to panic right now."

Obviously, no one wants to be on the wrong end of a lopsided deal, but if this offensive ineptitude isn't cause for panic, then what would be? The Magic sit 28th in offensive efficiency and are dead last in both three-pointers made (10.8 per game) and three-point percentage (30.5, the worst conversion rate among the 416 teams to ever average 20-plus attempts).

The Magic, of course, can (and hopefully, mercifully will) always address this at a later date, but what's the holdup? It's not like these are issues this core is encountering for the first time. And while time appears on Orlando's side with Wagner and Banchero both members of the under-25 club, windows for winning seldom stay open as long as you'd think.