In the last hours before the trade deadline, the sporting events in the NBA almost become a minor matter. Instead, what feels like an endless stream of rumors dominates the discussions. Alleged agreements and failed negotiations are discussed here, surprising changes are marveled at and the conditions for long-awaited transfers speculated on. US sport is open to not only offering top performance, but also providing the best in entertainment. The trade deadline plays a major role in this.
It’s the last day of the season that the 30 NBA teams can change their rosters by making trades with other teams. To strengthen themselves in the fight for the championship and the playoffs, to gain financial flexibility for the future, to break up supposedly hopeful but unsuccessful squad constructions – or to initiate a complete rebuild. An overview of the most important developments of the Trade Deadline 2023.
Brooklyn’s super team fantasy ends abruptly: Expectations were high when the Brooklyn Nets signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, two absolute superstars at once, in the summer of 2019. Around three and a half years later, the dream of initiating an NBA dynasty finally burst. “It didn’t work,” admitted manager Sean Marks bluntly. Irving, whose refusal to vaccinate temporarily turned him into a part-time professional and who most recently made headlines for his promotion of an anti-Semitic film, now plays alongside Luka Don?i? for the Dallas Mavericks. Durant joins the Phoenix Suns from New York. In return, the Nets will receive a number of extremely solid role players such as Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and Mikal Bridges – but the regression of the title candidate, currently fifth in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race, is unmistakable.
Both Irving and Durant had asked for a change in the days leading up to the deadline, and both got their wish granted. Irving led Dallas to victory in his first game, while Durant has yet to recover from a knee injury before he joins Devin Booker and Chris Paul to make Phoenix a championship contender. The 34-year-old is one of the best attacking players in La Liga history and unstoppable once he’s fit and finding his rhythm. The Brooklyn Nets have only Ben Simmons on their squad, who was once traded as a rising superstar but is now contributing far less to the success than a five-year, $177 million contract would suggest.
Phoenix plays “all or nothing”: In July 2021, the Phoenix Suns led the NBA Finals 2-0 against the Milwaukee Bucks and gave up the first title in the club’s history, which was believed to be almost certain, with four losses. In the previous season, the team from Arizona went into the playoffs with the best main round record, but failed spectacularly there at the Mavericks and conceded a disastrous 90:123 smack in the decisive game in their own hall. With the signing of Kevin Durant, the Suns now say it’s now or never.
Chris Paul will be 38 in May, the point guard keeps struggling with minor ailments and is slowly but surely losing the race against “father time”. That’s what they call the aging process in the USA, in which performance decreases. Devin Booker can carry the team offensively in the regular season, but they need reinforcements for the playoffs. And for that, Kevin Durant is probably the greatest possible upgrade. Capable of creating danger from any position on the field, the forward is almost impossible to defend at six feet tall. To bring in the 34-year-old, the Suns gave up three players and four first-round draft picks in 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029. (The reason why first-round picks can only be dropped every two years is Incidentally, Ted Stepien, perhaps the worst manager in the history of the league. You can read his story here.) Hoping to have found the decisive piece of the puzzle for reaching the final and winning the title.
Dallas finds its second star: Luka Don?i? is unbelievable. The NBA regularly announces that the Slovenian playmaker has again set some absurd record, most recently the first 60-20-10 game in 77 years of the NBA: 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, statistics like in a video game. What the Dirk Nowitzki successor as the face of the Dallas Mavericks lacked, however, was a reliable second option in attack. That was still enough for the final of the Western Conference last year, but far too often the 23-year-old had to carry his team alone in crucial phases and hope that the role players would have a good day.
With Kyrie Irving, that should be a thing of the past. Scandalous off the field, the 30-year-old belongs to the absolute elite on the floor. He currently has an average of 27 points with good throwing rates and 5.1 assists. Nobody dribbles as elegantly as Irving, who can use it to free himself from almost any situation. It should be exciting to see what antics and gaffes the eight-time All-Star uses to distract from his sporting class.
The bitter fall of a legend: Russell Westbrook has played a triple-double 198 times, double-digit values ??in three static categories. Points, rebounds, assists. NBA record, as well as the four seasons over which he also averaged a triple-double, was otherwise only achieved by Oscar Robertson in 1961/62, in a completely different era of basketball. Nonetheless, Westbrook will most likely go down in history as an unfinished one. His erratic style of play with lousy throwing quotas, especially from the three-point range, has not allowed him to find a home with either the Houston Rockets or the Washington Wizards – now the Los Angeles Lakers have also separated from him.
According to US media, “addition by subtraction” was the motivation for this, loosely translated: without Westbrook is better than with Westbrook, especially since he is one of the top earners in the league with an annual salary of 47 million US dollars. The 34-year-old will be sent to the Utah Jazz, in a three-team trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers will receive three players in return to strengthen the roster behind LeBron James. In the case of Westbrook, on the other hand, it even seems conceivable that his new team will buy him out of the contract – i.e. pay him off so that he does not play because he could hinder the development of the team. The maximum penalty for a former superstar who could then theoretically join a new team.
The Golden State Warriors are giving up their big project: James Wiseman came to the Golden State Warriors as the second pick in the 2020 NBA draft with high hopes. They had won three championships in previous years, but then experienced a lousy season and now have the chance to find a large reinforcement in the talent distribution to extend the era of their superstar Stephen Curry. Surprisingly for many observers, the choice fell on Wiseman – and the concerns were confirmed. Since then, the center has played just 60 of 219 regular season games, on the one hand because of injuries and on the other hand because it was obviously just not enough in terms of sport. Now the 21-year-old ends up with the Detroit Pistons and has to prove that he has what it takes for the NBA. The Warriors, on the other hand, are bringing back an important player from last year’s championship team in the course of further trades: Gary Payton II, son of the legendary Gary “The Glove” Payton, comes from the Portland Trail Blazers and is primarily intended to strengthen the defense. He left Golden State after winning the title because the Warriors were reportedly unwilling to invest the penalties for exceeding the salary cap to keep him.
In other deals: John Wall had hoped to get his career back on track with the Los Angeles Clippers after protracted injuries and a severe depression, but it didn’t happen. Instead, the Clippers send him back to the Houston Rockets, who immediately say they want to fire him. The 32-year-old point guard would be free for another team, but has to hope that one of the 28 remaining coaches sees a role for him. Derrick Rose, who was the youngest NBA MVP in 2011 but then, like Wall, was thrown off track by serious injuries, could find himself in this market in the near future if the New York Knicks part with him. This buyout market usually opens immediately after the trade deadline – and is of particular interest to teams whose wishes have not yet been fulfilled.
