Top 5 N.B.A. Trades at the Deadline
Fears of an underwhelming N.B.A. trade deadline were washed away on Thursday, when at least 11 separate deals came to fruition before the league’s 3 p.m. Eastern time buzzer.
Further fears that the most significant action of the week would belong to Major League Baseball — after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ deal with the Boston Red Sox to acquire Mookie Betts and David Price — were at last somewhat alleviated by the Golden State Warriors’ willingness to trade away D’Angelo Russell on such a frenzied day.
In all, there were 12 N.B.A. trades this week involving more than 40 current players and numerous future draft picks. Here are five major takeaways from the league’s latest transactional storm:
The Biggest Trade
In strict numerical terms, it doesn’t get much bigger than the four-team, 12-player blockbuster on Wednesday that landed Clint Capela with the Atlanta Hawks and Robert Covington with the Houston Rockets.
On deadline day, however, Minnesota managed to pull off something even bigger: The Timberwolves persuaded the Warriors to part with Russell.
The Warriors, truth be told, had always intended to trade Russell for a better-fitting player after acquiring the point guard in a sign-and-trade deal last summer with the Nets as part of Kevin Durant’s free-agent move from the Bay Area. But it happened even faster than the Warriors planned; they figured Russell would spend one full season as a Warrior while Klay Thompson (knee) — and eventually Stephen Curry (hand), as well — recovered from serious injury.
The Wolves, after missing out on Russell in free agency, sped up that timetable by agreeing to send Golden State their first- and second-round draft picks in 2021 along with Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2014.
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