The biggest trade deadline winner is..........

[hpantazo]

Agreed, Who. Barring a catastrophic injury, it'll be an enormous shock if the Cavs don't cruise to the finals.

I still think the lakers will win it all this year, cavs are extremely good on paper, maybe the best, but there are definitely other factors at play.

Cavs will have to go through any 2/3 of boston/orlando/atlanta/charlotte

don't count the celtics out, they can take the cavs in 7, mark my words

the big winners are the Rockets and the Mavs, both teams now have enough to legitimately challenge the lakers.As for teams vying for cap room, going for the title is always the goal, and if it's in sight you have to go get it instead of building for an uncertain future. Most of those teams will not smell a title for 20+ years.

Mavs I thought were actually quasi-losers. 

Butler is an improvement on Howard due to health - but both of them are pretty much a wash abilitywise.  Howard is better defensively. 

Haywood is a good player - but a second center is not a huge priority when the team is at least as good off playing Dirk as a smallball center for 10 minutes a game.  (I have not checked 82games to see how often they have used that alignment)  But more important, the question is whether the Mavs REALLY cracked the Nuggets-Lakers true upper crust in the conference.  It's hard for me to argue that they did.

Furthermore they had that gigantic chip to play with Erick Dampier's contract and did not do anything with it.

Haywood is a beast, and the Mavs need good big men for the playoffs, small-ball doesn't win playoff series, especially against Bynum and Gasol. Haywood plus Dampier helps them battle the lakers big men. Caron Butler is a huge improvement over Josh Howard. Howard was terrible this year, Butler is a warrior. Also, as we found out, big expiring contracts like Dampier's or Ray's don't necessarily bring back great players.

[lon3lytoaster]

Dallas wins for me. Thinking about it now, I'd feel a lot better with Caron and Haywood on this roster. They can both defend and rebound really well. Would have loved to have both of them.

[Brickowski]

1. Dallas
2. Sacramento

[sk7326]

Haywood is really no better than Perk - the gem Perk put together last night is really about Haywood's ceiling also.  Butler represent a dropoff defensively.  A smallball lineup with Dirk = Dirk, Marion in the 5 and 4 spots ... both excellent rebounders anyway.  I am not sure the marginal improvement is enough to catch the Jazz, let alone Lakers and Nuggets.  And that is the whole point of making a move, right?

[Brickowski]

Haywood is considerably better than Perkins offensively. Perkins is a little better at opost defense.  Rebounding is about the same, with a slight edge to Haywood, I think.

Certainly Haywood is a significant upgrade over Erick Dampier, who is overpaid and getting long in the tooth.

[birdwatcher]

Sacramento really got better under the radar. Carl Landry is a player that can play a the 3 or 4 and can really do a bit of everything. Tyreke Evans needs the ball in his hands a lot, so the less touches he needs to give Kevin Martin, the better for his game.

[sk7326]

Haywood is considerably better than Perkins offensively. Perkins is a little better at opost defense.  Rebounding is about the same, with a slight edge to Haywood, I think.

Certainly Haywood is a significant upgrade over Erick Dampier, who is overpaid and getting long in the tooth.

Not sure about the offense, both are clunky in the post but effective and smart shooters.  Perkins sets screens better ... Haywood's superiority over Perk is a matter of the grass being greener on the other side.  Their results this year are no comparison.  

Dampier 65% FG, 59% FT, 26 minutes per game, 7 pts, 8.5 reb
Haywood 56% FG, 65% FT, 33 minutes per game, 9.8 pts, 10.4 reb
Perk 61% FG, 59% FT, 29 minutes per game, 11.1 pts, 8.2 reb

Really not much to separate.  Dampier is overpaid - but that's a matter of sunk cost, and not relevant to the Mavericks equation.  

[Brickowski]

Yes, but they are free to use Dampier as trade bait at next year's deadline, when he will be expiring.  Plus the Mavs now have the beef to go up against LA's big front line.

[Fafnir]

Yes, but they are free to use Dampier as trade bait at next year's deadline, when he will be expiring.  Plus the Mavs now have the beef to go up against LA's big front line.

They're going to cut/trade Dampier before that, his salary next year is only partially guarenteed.