Which teams came out looking good at the trade deadline? Which ones didn't? And which surprised us most?
Our experts give their best, worst and most surprising moves from the NBA trade deadline.
1. Which East team had the best trade deadline?
Tom Haberstroh, ESPN Insider: Cleveland. Jimmy Butler and Paul George stayed put, which keeps the East champs firmly in the driver's seat. Toronto and Washington made moves but no blockbusters that closed the gap. If we include Kyle Korver and the expected waiver add(s), the Cavs are the easy answer here.
Chris Herring, FiveThirtyEight/ESPN.com: Raptors. Toronto lost 11 of 16 heading into the break and was quietly at risk of losing home-court advantage in the first round after having been in second place just a month ago. The Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker trades are solid pickups that address key needs and flaws. They probably aren't enough to take down the Cavs, who look vulnerable at the moment, but crazier things have happened.
Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Insider: Toronto's pickups of Ibaka and Tucker put the Raptors into position to seriously challenge Cleveland in the East finals. By real plus-minus (RPM), I've got the Raptors in the top 10 on both ends of the floor now. They're two-deep at every position and can play any kind of lineup you'd want, all with quality players.
Jeremias Engelmann, ESPN Insider: I'm torn between the Magic and Hawks. The Magic turned Ibaka, who was very likely to leave in summer free agency, into a decent young wing on a good contract (Terrence Ross is making $10 million per season through 2019) and a future first-rounder.
The Hawks, meanwhile, turned Tiago Splitter, who hasn't played a single minute this season, and two second-rounders into a very serviceable player in Ersan Ilyasova (RPM: 1.3).
Chad Ford, ESPN Insider: Raptors. Masai Ujiri sees that the Cavs are vulnerable, and the additions of Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker address two of Toronto's biggest weaknesses. The fact that the Raptors gave up so little to get them is an even bigger bonus. Although I'm not sure this puts the Raptors over the top, I think they are closer to an Eastern Conference championship than they were two weeks ago.
2. Which West team had the best trade deadline?
Herring: New Orleans and Dallas. Both surrendered very little yet added major pieces that could be integral to their futures. Most of us are still in disbelief over how little the Pelicans had to part with to land the NBA's best center while he's in his prime. The Mavs now have a chance to see what 22-year-old Nerlens Noel can do in a different environment and less crowded frontcourt.
Haberstroh: New Orleans. I still can't believe Dell Demps added a top-10 player in his prime for the measly price of a limited shooter and some midtier picks. Small-market teams such as NOLA rarely have the luxury of one superstar. Now they have two of them.
Doolittle: If Boogie Cousins was the best player moved at the deadline, Lou Williams might have been the most valuable. The Rockets are the one team in the league now that looks like it can score with Golden State. In freeing up money, Houston is perfectly positioned to add defense from the buyout market -- from among Matt Barnes, Andrew Bogut, et al.
Engelmann: The Rockets. Williams might have his deficiencies on the defensive side of the ball (defensive RPM: minus-1.8), but his offensive impact is so good that he still ranks in RPM's top 40. The Rockets have so many great shooters on the roster now -- Williams made 7 of 11 3-pointers in his first game with the Rockets -- that defenses will have major difficulties figuring out whom to focus on.
Ford: The Mavericks. Mark Cuban has struggled with the idea of rebuilding, and that has left the Mavs with very little in the cupboard to start the process when Dirk Nowitzki is done. Adding Nerlens Noel was a nice start. He has his warts, including an injury history and concerns about coachability. But considering what the Mavs paid to get him, I think this was exactly the type of gamble Dallas needed to make. Noel and Harrison Barnes now become the anchors of the rebuild.
3. Which East team had the worst trade deadline?
Haberstroh: Indiana. The Paul George situation feels like it's rotting from the inside out. George has been grumbling all season about the team's makeup, and the Pacers failed to make him happy, either by sending him to a contender or surrounding him with contender talent. This seems like an ugly breakup waiting to happen.
Herring: What are the Bulls doing at this point? Trading Taj Gibson made sense, given his expiring contract. But it's a head-scratcher to watch them deal him and Doug McDermott -- who, when the dust settled, essentially cost Chicago five picks (three to get McDermott, two to dump Anthony Randolph) -- and still give away a second-rounder in the trade with Oklahoma City. Especially because Cameron Payne is the only player Chicago is getting who is under contract after this season.
Doolittle: The Bulls are really getting hammered, and I can understand why. It comes down to whether their assessment of Payne turns out to be right. If so, dealing Gibson for him made sense. I don't know why they had to throw in McDermott, though. And I especially don't understand why Chicago was the one sending away a pick. But more than anything, it feels like the Bulls are still making a ham-handed attempt at rebuilding and competing at the same time.
Engelmann: Probably the Bulls. Their job should have been to try to trade some of their overpaid stars. Instead, they traded away a hard worker in Gibson who was fine with getting limited touches and who would probably have stayed with the team for a below-market deal next summer. The players the Bulls got in return barely look like rotation players.
Ford: Pacers. They needed to either get Paul George significant help or trade him now, while they can get significant assets in return. They did neither and annoyed him in the process. Their chances of keeping him long-term went down significantly this week. As the Kings learned with DeMarcus Cousins and the Sixers with Nerlens Noel, wait too long, and the return becomes pretty pathetic. I think they waited too long.
4. Which West team had the worst trade deadline?
Haberstroh: Sacramento. There's little if any evidence that Buddy Hield is better than Nik Stauskas, the guy Sacramento drafted No. 8 overall and then dumped with a 2019 first-rounder for essentially nothing two years ago. That's the big get for the Kings' only All-Star since 2004. That's it.
Herring: Sacramento. Simply put: You can't give up a franchise centerpiece -- even one as flawed as Cousins -- for that sort of return. And if for some reason you do, you can't go to the media and admit that a better offer was on the table two days earlier. The whole process, including the vows that Cousins wouldn't be dealt, seemed flawed.
Doolittle: The Kings are a disaster. Bad moves are one thing, but harebrained reasoning is another. You can't fix that.
Engelmann: Undoubtedly the Kings. If you trade your superstar for a single first-rounder and below-average players -- Hield is one of the 10 worst players, according to RPM, and is already 23 years old -- you probably did something wrong. As Tom Haberstroh has pointed out, Hield is a statistical copy of Nik Stauskas, whom the Kings dealt in 2015 to dump salary.
Ford: The Kings. Because, you know, they did what the Kings do. That said, it's too early to say much about how good or bad Buddy Hield is. Nor do we know exactly what that Pelicans' pick will be this year. The draft is very deep at the top. If it's a top-12 pick, I think they might come out fine because there are 12 potential All-Stars/high-level starters in this draft.
But from a culture and process standpoint, that front office and ownership group look like the biggest mess in the NBA. They did nothing to disprove that this week.
5. Which team surprised you most at the trade deadline?
Herring: I wasn't expecting to hear the Nuggets try to get into the mix for someone such as George. It ended up not happening, obviously -- and then reality set in, when all they finished the day with was the ghost of Roy Hibbert -- but I like the fact that Denver was proactive and threw its hat into the ring. That would've been even more of a stunner than Cousins' ending up in New Orleans.
Haberstroh: Boston. I really thought Danny Ainge would go all-in for Butler once Cousins went off the board. With Kevin Love's health in question, I thought this would be the time to strike. Tim Duncan might not be walking through that door come draft night, but chances are someone very special will be. The Celtics will be fine.
Doolittle: I thought the Jazz would make a move for some backcourt help. Deron Williams would have made a lot of sense, and if that deal was close, Utah should have pulled the trigger.
Engelmann: Maybe we should be used to the Kings' making nothing but horrendous deals by now, but I'm still flabbergasted Vlade Divac pulled the trigger on such an awful deal. I'm sure better deals would have materialized if Kings management had stayed patient for a little while longer. With this deal, the Kings finally fell below Brooklyn as the team with worst long-term outlook.
Ford: The Bulls. Does anyone know what the Bulls are doing? I'm not asking about the media. I'm asking about their front office. This team keeps sending out conflicting messages that started this summer. Are they rebuilding? Trying to compete? Getting younger? Getting older?
It appears that John Paxson and Gar Forman are trying to rebuild while keeping their jobs. That might be the best move for them personally. But for the organization, it's a disaster. They needed to blow this thing up in the summer. They needed to blow it up again at the deadline and take Boston's assets. They did neither, and the future is looking murky.