The Best In-Season Trades of the Past Five Years...

[Roy H.]

The Athletic ranked the top in-season deals for the past half-decade.  Not at all surprisingly, one of ours made the list.

1.  (2020) The Golden State Warriors trade D’Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans III and Omari Spellman to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins and 2021 protected first- and second-round picks

2. (2022) The Sacramento Kings trade Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to the Indiana Pacers for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a 2023 second-round pick.

3.   (2021) The Denver Nuggets acquire Aaron Gordon and Gary Clark from the Orlando Magic for R.J. Hampton, Gary Harris and a protected 2025 first-round pick.

4. (2021) The Magic trade Nikola Vučević and Al-Farouq Aminu to the Chicago Bulls for Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., a 2021 first-round pick and a 2023 first-round pick.

5. (2019) The Memphis Grizzlies trade Marc Gasol to the Toronto Raptors for Jonas Valančiūnas, CJ Miles, Delon Wright and a 2024 second-round pick.

6. the James Harden trade 1.0.

7. The Nets trade Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns for Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, first-round picks (2023, ’25, ’27 and ’29), a 2028 first-round pick swap and second-round picks (2028 and ’29).

8. The Spurs trade Derrick White to the Celtics for Romeo Langford, Josh Richardson, a top-four protected 2022 first-round pick and a top-four protected 2028 first-round swap.

If the Celtics win a title or two, the basketball world may consider the acquisition of White as the move that put them over the edge. But there’s another reason why this swap makes the list.

The White deal inspired rapid inflation in the NBA’s trade market, which eventually forced front offices to redefine how they valued first-round picks. Because the Spurs landed not just one first-rounder but also a first-round swap, they were able to leverage the package from Boston in a trade a few months later, when they sent Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks. Murray was the superior player, so he commanded a superior offer.

Once San Antonio got two unprotected first-round picks, a protected first and a first-round swap back for Murray, first-rounders began to fly around the NBA every which way. The Jazz famously traded Rudy Gobert for 947 draft picks that summer. They received a massive haul for Donovan Mitchell. The market stalled enough that the Nets, who had received a trade demand from Durant, couldn’t find a worthwhile offer for the former MVP because no one could beat what Minnesota got for Gobert, and you can’t trade Durant for less stuff than Gobert cost.

So with the White trade, I am also drafting loads of other NBA trades that occurred the way they did indirectly because of a Spurs-Celtics first-round swap. Beat that.

9. (2019) Markelle Fultz to the Magic.

10.  With the 10th overall pick, Team Edwards selects … (2023) The Jazz trade Mike Conley to the Timberwolves; the Timberwolves trade D’Angelo Russell to the Los Angeles Lakers; the Lakers trade a 2027 first-round pick to the Utah Jazz.

11.   (2021) Houston Rockets trade P.J. Tucker, Rodions Kurucs and a 2022 first-round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks for D.J. Augustin, D.J. Wilson, a 2021 first-round pick and a 2023 first-round pick.

12. (2019) Kristaps Porziņģis to Dallas

The long-term lesson of this trade is that not everything is as it appears when a trade gets done. The New York Knicks shockingly traded Porziņģis away in 2019 after he made a trade demand, and there was some queasiness about giving him a rookie max extension. It didn’t look good for the Knicks at the time as they sent away a homegrown All-Star for cap space.

Then it got worse that summer when the cap space didn’t net them Durant and another star, as they hoped, and instead landed Julius Randle, Marcus Morris and a few centers. But the trade did work out in New York’s favor. Dallas thought it was getting Luka Dončić’s long-term BFF, but instead, he and Porzingis were frenemies and an odd fit before the Mavericks traded him to the Washington Wizards. Tim Hardaway Jr. has become the best player out of this deal and he’s still around. Randle has since made two All-NBA teams, and Morris was eventually traded for a pick that became Immanuel Quickley.

13. The Portland Trail Blazers trade CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr. and Tony Snell to the New Orleans Pelicans for Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Josh Hart, Didi Louzda, Tomáš Satoranský, a 2022 protected first-round pick, 2026 second-round pick and New Orleans’ 2027 second-round pick.

14.  All the remaining James Harden trades.


15.  (2022) The Miami Heat trade KZ Okpala to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a second-round pick.

OK, you’re probably thinking, I thought these guys weren’t doing gag trades here. We’re not. This is an iceberg trade: The big stuff is underneath the surface. Okpala for the second-rounder is just the icing here. The real stuff is that the Thunder and Heat agreed to trade the timing and protections on the first-round pick the Heat owed OKC.

Miami originally owed Oklahoma City a top-14 protected 2023 first-round pick. This trade pushed it back to 2025 and made it so if it didn’t convey in 2025, then OKC would receive an unprotected 2026 first-rounder from the Heat.

The Thunder, as you might have heard, own a lot of future first-round picks, from teams all across the nine realms. So they pushed this one back a few years to give themselves more time, and it gave Miami the ability to possibly trade their 2023 pick. But the Heat didn’t trade the pick. They kept it. And then with the No. 18 overall pick, they chose Jaime Jaquez Jr., who has become one of the most impactful rookies of the 2023 draft and given Miami another possible cornerstone player.

Due to the paywall, I edited out a lot of the analysis, which can be found here:

https://theathletic.com/5207192/2024/01/17/nba-best-trades-five-years/?access_token=6385178&redirected=1

In terms of results, right now I'd rank the White trade 4th, behind the listed top three.  The GSW and Denver trades yielded championships, and you can't argue with landing Haliburton.  If we win a title or two, I think the trade would be in the top-two, and perhaps #1 regarding impact.

[Kernewek]

Have let my Atlantic subscription lapse, but out of curiosity - how are they defining best? Most impactful for one team, I'd wager? Although the White paragraphs seem to imply 'biggest reverberations around the league', which is an interesting angle.

[BitterJim]

I'd probably put the Raptors trade above the White trade as well, though that would change if White helps us win a championship. Gasol was a big part of that 2019 championship team. Maybe the Tucker trade, too, since he had a significant role on the 2021 Bucks. The White deal might even eclipse that one already, but a ring gets them the edge

[Donoghus]

That White trade will continue to move up after the C's win the title in June.

[Vermont Green]

That White trade will continue to move up after the C's win the title in June.

It is interesting to see how the perception of this trade has evolved.  I admit that I was OK with the trade but did not love it.  I saw White as a good get, but felt like we overpaid.  It doesn't seem like that now.  The draft pick ended up being Blake Wesley.  You never know with picks.  I was never worried about the swap (a lot of people were).

It is interesting how that trade kind of set the market for a while.  Look what CLE ended up trading to get Mitchell for example [ Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, 2025 first-round pick, 2026 pick swap, 2027 first-round pick, 2028 pick swap, 2029 first-round pick ].  Mitchell is a better player, has more value, but that is way more than what we gave up for White.  Sexton and Markkanen are starters plus all those picks.

[Moranis]

The Kings/Pacers trade should be #1.  Both teams got rapidly better after that trade, which sets it apart from the other trades where only 1 team did well. 

[Roy H.]

Have let my Atlantic subscription lapse, but out of curiosity - how are they defining best? Most impactful for one team, I'd wager? Although the White paragraphs seem to imply 'biggest reverberations around the league', which is an interesting angle.

With the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline nearing, The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III, Mike Vorkunov and Fred Katz drafted the top 15 most impactful/consequential in-season trades of the last five seasons. The goal wasn’t necessarily to select the “biggest” one or the trade that involved the most star power, but instead examine the in-season trades that significantly benefited or hindered an organization, either in the short term, long term or both.

[Neurotic Guy]

One thing I didn’t realize is that the 2028 swap is top-4 protected. That’s decent protection at least from the most disastrous outcome. So if the Cs are awful 2028 and the Spurs are great, we might be able to avert the swap.

[Roy H.]

One thing I didn’t realize is that the 2028 swap is top-4 protected. That’s decent protection at least from the most disastrous outcome. So if the Cs are awful 2028 and the Spurs are great, we might be able to avert the swap.

I think that may be an error, as it was reported at the time that it was protected for #1 overall only.  That's what RealGM lists as well.

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed

[celticsclay]

One thing I didn’t realize is that the 2028 swap is top-4 protected. That’s decent protection at least from the most disastrous outcome. So if the Cs are awful 2028 and the Spurs are great, we might be able to avert the swap.

I think that may be an error, as it was reported at the time that it was protected for #1 overall only.  That's what RealGM lists as well.

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed

Man us being in the lottery in 4 years would be a crazy turn of events. We would have somehow lost JB and Tatum probably and got nothing in return for them. I get that is a long time off, but our situation is so much different from a team like the Clippers or Lakers.

[johnnygreen]

If the Celtics win a title or not, it shouldn't effect the impact White has had on the Celtics. That trade was a home run. The Celtics championship dreams rest on the playoff success of Tatum and Brown.

Porzingis may be the trade that puts the Celtics over the top. When he plays, the team is just different. I can easily see him being their first or second best player in the playoffs.