NBA Teams Ready to Move on from Last Summer's Pickups

The NBA season is way past its formal halfway point and nearing its ceremonial midseason break for All-Star Weekend, but before we can take that weekend off, one more important event on the league calendar is taking place: the NBA trade deadline, set this year at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Following several action-packed summers in a row, this season has been close to dead so far when it comes to significant trades. The Kings and Blazers exchanged distressed assets several weeks ago, shuttling Trevor Ariza, Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver around the Pacific Northwest, and the Jazz helped jumpstart their season by trading for Jordan Clarkson in December, but otherwise, nearly nothing has occurred.

While no All-Star-caliber players are expected to be moved this week, numerous teams that have disappointed are likely to look at their rosters, pinpoint players they'd like to jettison (especially those from last summer, because admitting defeat early on is a valuable skill) and act accordingly.

Here are some teams ready to move on from their most recent mistakes.

Charlotte Hornets

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Given that he's in the first year of a widely derided three-year, $58 million contract with the Hornets, Terry Rozier is likely not going anywhere. But his tenure in Charlotte has not gone well thus far.

Signing Rozier to replace Kemba Walker made sense when it happened. The Hornets overpaid for him, but he was probably as good as they were going to do in the point guard market. However, the emergence of Devonte' Graham as a competent point guard in his second season has complicated things.

Graham has a far better net rating than Rozier and is much closer to a true point guard, recording a 35.1 assist percentage, a top-20 mark. They also aren't a great fit together, as the Rozier-Graham two-man lineup has a minus-6.9 net rating and plays at a glacial 98.2 pace, which would rank 28th in the NBA for an entire team.

Now, it's unlikely that Charlotte will move Rozier by Thursday. His name is not in the rumor mill, and even if it were, his contract would make him a tough pill to swallow for most teams, so let's forget about a deadline deal. However, a trade could easily occur next summer. Teams exchange sunk costs all the time, and a player's situation is often the most important factor to his success.

Rozier is quickly becoming irrelevant with the Hornets, but as a third guard for a good team, he could shine brighter than ever.

Minnesota Timberwolves

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The Timberwolves didn't make a lot of flashy acquisitions last summer. Players like Jake Layman, Shabazz Napier, Noah Vonleh and Jordan Bell don't move a team into contention. But marginal roster moves can have nearly as major an impact on a team's performance as signing big-ticket stars, something Minnesota has quickly discovered this season.

That quartet hasn't actually been bad. Vonleh is one of four Wolves with an above-average player efficiency rating (PER), Layman has the second-best net rating on the roster, Napier has proved a steady hand since Jeff Teague's departure, and Bell is shooting 52.5 percent from the field in limited playing time. But all that is the problem.

Players like Layman and Napier are meant to be 10th or 11th men for serious contenders, not playing 20 minutes per game on a team rapidly approaching the mediocre middle of the NBA. The fact that the Wolves spent their 2019 offseason signing those kinds of players instead of chasing another starter to complement Karl-Anthony Towns is where this organization's problems start.

Of course, their pursuit of D'Angelo Russell ended quickly, and Andrew Wiggins' contract is prohibitive, but trying to attract a mid-level free agent like Davis Bertans or Delon Wright would have been a better strategy.

Thankfully, none of the aforementioned four players have large contracts, so they can be moved fairly easily. Don't be shocked if Minnesota makes an under-the-radar deal this week that pays off down the road.

New York Knicks

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Of course the New York Knicks are in this position.

Who could have predicted that signing four power forwards in one summer and creating a roster hostile to young talent would have gone so poorly? Oh, just every basketball fan.

To the Knicks' credit, they've been a reasonable NBA team since Mike Miller became interim head coach, going 10-18 after a 4-18 start under David Fizdale. But that progress doesn't negate extremely poor roster construction, something Knicks management may slowly be realizing.

They may be able to get a first-round pick for sweet-shooting forward Marcus Morris, but losing his three-point stroke will only make the team's spacing worse, with poor shooters like RJ Barrett, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson potentially sharing the floor for more minutes per game.

Morris is far from the only Knick who could be moved this week. Randle has popped up in rumors from time to time this season, while Dennis Smith Jr. and Bobby Portis have both been the subject of recent speculation as well. For all of the Knicks' trouble in building a cohesive team, they have quite a few players who could be useful in the right set of circumstances.

Obviously, the Knicks are not going to make the playoffs, and selling off veterans like Morris will only make that reality clearer. Hopefully, decluttering the roster and giving more playing time to young guys like Barrett, Robinson and Kevin Knox will help clarify New York's immediate and long-term future.

Philadelphia 76ers

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Hold your horses now, Sixers fans. No, this is not yet another clarion call to trade Ben Simmons for literally anybody with a jumper. We're talking about teams that want to move on from their summer 2019 acquisitions, so this has to do with Tobias Harris and Al Horford.

Coming into this year, Philly was considered a co-favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals next June alongside Milwaukee. At 42-7, the Bucks have held up their end of the bargain, but the Sixers are currently the sixth seed in the East, five games behind second-seeded Toronto.

What happened?

In short, a combination of injuries and chemistry struggles among that uber-talented starting five assembled last summer has made reaching this team's potential a nearly Herculean task thus far. Two of the team's most out-of-sorts players have been Harris and Horford.

After a career year in 2018-19, Harris has declined in nearly every major statistical category despite being second on the team in scoring, while Horford has been openly frustrated by his diminished role throughout this season.

Both big men are on nine-figure deals over the next several seasons, so trading them is rather unlikely, and this is not necessarily a suggestion that they should do so. But Philly coach Brett Brown needs to start making some drastic lineup adjustments before a trade starts to seem less like just an option and more like a necessity for this team to make noise in the playoffs.

Portland Trail Blazers

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The Blazers are already starting to get ahead of their July 2019 mistakes, sending Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver to Sacramento several weeks ago.

But there is more work to be done on that front.

Portland's splashiest move last summer was trading for big man Hassan Whiteside, a trade whose purpose was obvious: hold down the fort until incumbent center Jusuf Nurkic recovered from a broken leg suffered last March. Nobody could have anticipated the Blazers' second-most important big man, Zach Collins, would separate his shoulder three games into this season, sidelining him indefinitely as well.

So, considering all that, it may seem counterintuitive to trade Whiteside, especially given that he's been solid this year, recording the highest net rating on the team among regular contributors.

However, there's a two-word explanation as to why Whiteside has been a legit starting center: contract year. Before earning the current $98 million deal that nearly sent the Heat into Eastern Conference purgatory, Whiteside put up elite stats in 2015-16, leading the NBA in blocks per game and recording a 60.6 effective field-goal percentage. After three years of subpar performance, he's once again leading the NBA in blocks per game, and this time he has an even better 61.3 effective field-goal percentage.

A pattern seems to be emerging here, and Portland should try to sell high on Whiteside before he suckers yet another promising team into an expensive commitment.

Sacramento Kings

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Last summer, the Kings doubled down on a surprising 2018-19 campaign, re-signing deadline acquisition Harrison Barnes on a four-year, $85 million contract and bringing steady veterans Trevor Ariza, Dewayne Dedmon and Cory Joseph in for over $100 million total.

You don't need to look hard to figure out that almost none of those signings has been successful thus far.

Sacramento moved Ariza to the Blazers in January, but all three remaining acquisitions have been troublesome as well. Dedmon has struggled mightily this season and requested a trade over a month ago, Joseph has been one of the worst offensive players in the NBA, and Barnes, despite a solid statistical season, continues to be an awkward fit next to the dynamic playmaking of De'Aaron Fox and spot-up shooting brilliance of Buddy Hield.

Barnes' nearly-nine figure contract likely ensures he'll be in Sacramento for the next two seasons, but Dedmon and Joseph can and should be moved. Both have been excellent role players in recent years—Joseph in particular has been a member of numerous deep runs into the postseason for the Spurs and Raptors—and could help a contender once again under the right circumstances.

A team like the Celtics or Clippers could use Dedmon, and clubs like the Grizzlies or Sixers would benefit from Joseph's experience guiding a second unit.

San Antonio Spurs

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As is typical, the San Antonio Spurs kept a relatively low profile last offseason, signing just DeMarre Carroll and Trey Lyles in free agency. That doesn't mean their summer was productive.

Lyles has been fine this season. He often starts as a small-ball center for Gregg Popovich in his 17.5 minutes per game and does the little things, which is acceptable for a player on a two-year, $11 million contract. Carroll, however, is another story.

After signing the veteran swingman to a three-year deal worth nearly $21 million, the Spurs have buried him on their bench. Despite being healthy all season, he has played just 15 games, averaging nine minutes per outing.

Granted, Carroll has only shot 31 percent from the field in that time, so it's not like he's proved worthy of a significant role, but it's strange to sign a player for almost $7 million annually and sideline him less than half a season into his contract.

Whether Carroll's bad shooting stats are indicative of his current form or just a small sample size is a legitimate question. It's easier to lean toward the latter, especially because he has the third-highest net rating on the Spurs, even in that limited playing time.

Perhaps San Antonio's depth has forced him out of the rotation, and he'd be his usual self somewhere else.

Utah Jazz

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Bojan Bogdanovic has been great for the Jazz this season, so he is exempt from this criticism. Besides him, the Jazz signed Mike Conley, Ed Davis, Jeff Green and Emmanuel Mudiay this summer, and all have declined this season.

Green was waived, Davis has been outplayed by Tony Bradley, Mudiay remains one of the worst point guards in the NBA, and Conley has been demoted to the bench thanks to career-worst shooting splits. To Utah's credit, the team has won 19 of its last 25 games despite these issues. But for the Jazz to reach their full potential, they'll need a few things to happen.

First, Conley has to start playing better. Despite his season-long slump, he is not going anywhere, as Utah made a big investment in him, so the Jazz better hope he reverts to his peak form.

Second, and more importantly, they can try to shop players like Davis or Mudiay and try to get a sneaky-good return. A desperate or curious team might buy Davis' struggles as a slow recovery from injury (he broke his leg in November) or Mudiay's as a shaky attempt to acclimate to a changing backcourt (Conley got hurt, Donovan Mitchell moved to point guard, the team traded for Jordan Clarkson, etc.).

The Jazz are still a threat in the West if they don't make any moves this week, but it can't hurt to gauge the market on some of their more disappointing players.