NBA teams stay busy, trade up to deadline
First it was Kyrie Irving to Dallas. Then came Kevin Durant to Phoenix.
The breakup in Brooklyn is rebuilding some contenders in the Western Conference.
The NBA’s trade deadline for the 2022-23 season was Thursday, and the final days and hours before it hit featured plenty of notable moves, with the Suns making the biggest splash in pursuit of the first championship in franchise history.
They acquired Durant by sending Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, first-round draft picks in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029, plus a first-round pick swap in 2028 to the Brooklyn Nets, who also sent T.J. Warren back to his original team in Phoenix.
Mat Ishbia, who took over as owner of the Suns just this week, called it a “transformative day” for the team.
“Not only is Kevin one of the greatest and most accomplished players in the history of the sport, but his character also embodies the world-class commitment to excellence we are instilling across every facet of this organization,” Ishbia said in a team release.
Jae Crowder, who didn’t play this season in Phoenix as the Suns sought a trade destination for the veteran forward, was moved to Milwaukee in the four-team trade. The Bucks sent Jordan Nwora, George Hill, Serge Ibaka and three future second-round picks to the Indiana Pacers.
Bridges, Crowder and Johnson helped the Suns reach the NBA Finals in 2021, and a return trip looks possible this summer with their lineup adding Durant, a 13-time All-Star who won back-to-back titles with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018.
“It’s a close group,” Phoenix coach Monty Williams said. “You can imagine that’s a tough blow to the group for the human side of it, but also exciting about what could be.”
A day earlier, the Los Angeles Lakers agreed to send Russell Westbrook to the Utah Jazz as part of a three-way deal including the Minnesota Timberwolves that brought D’Angelo Russell back to L.A.
“Just like that it’s a war in the West!” Sacramento Kings guard Terence Davis II wrote on Twitter.
The Lakers stayed busy up until the deadline with a couple more moves as they try to build a contender around four-time NBA Finals MVP LeBron James, who took over as the league’s all-time leading scorer Tuesday night. They added another big man in Mo Bamba from the Orlando Magic for Patrick Beverley, a secondround pick and cash considerations. The Magic said they would not require Beverley to report to the team.
The deadline was 3 p.m. Eastern, though most of the deals weren’t approved by the league office until much later as teams swapped not only players, but plenty of draft picks.
“I’ll show you how wrong I was,” said Koby Altman, president of basketball operations for the Cleveland Cavaliers — one of the few teams that made zero moves.
“I thought it was going to be a quiet, quiet deadline. But this is the NBA, and the NBA never stops. And it’s really fragile. It’s a really fragile industry, and you don’t know what’s going to tip one way or the other.”
Phoenix could end up being more powerful than last season, when it won an NBA-best 64 games in the regular season, then flamed out by losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Suns just got Devin Booker back from a groin injury that had sidelined him since Christmas and soon will add Durant to the lineup when he recovers from a sprained knee ligament. That’s on top of Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul.
Phoenix had won nine of its past 11 games and was tied with the Mavericks for the conference’s fourth-best record entering its game Thursday night in Atlanta.
In another move, the Suns dealt Dario Saric, a 2029 second-round pick and cash to the Oklahoma City Thunder for forward Darius Bazley.
Dallas also may be stronger after acquiring Irving to pair with Luka Doncic. Irving asked out of Brooklyn last week, frustrated by his negotiations for a contract extension, and he was headed west a few days later.
Then it was Durant, who had gone to Brooklyn with Irving in 2019.
“I just love the competition now that we can be in the same conference,” Irving said.
The Lakers hope they can still make some noise. They acquired Russell — who began his career with the franchise — from Minnesota, plus guard Malik Beasley and forward Jarred Vanderbilt from the Jazz. The deal sent Westbrook to Utah after the 2017 NBA MVP never thrived alongside James and Anthony Davis.
Minnesota got Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Mike Conley from Utah, along with three second-round picks.
The Lakers made yet another move Thursday, sending center Thomas Bryant to Denver and getting back Davon Reed and a second-round pick from the Nuggets. Bryant, who started 25 games and is averaging 12.1 points, could be a good backup to two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.
The other team in Los Angeles was also busy. The Clippers landed Bones Hyland from Denver for two second-round picks as the third team in the swap with the Lakers and Nuggets, and they also acquired center Mason Plumlee from the Charlotte Hornets for point guard Reggie Jackson and a 2028 second-round draft pick in another deal.
The San Antonio Spurs added more assets to their rebuilding project by trading center Jakob Poeltl back to the Toronto Raptors for Khem Birch plus a first-round pick in the 2024 draft and a pair of second-round selections.
Poeltl was one of the most wanted centers on the market. He averaged 12.1 points and a team-high 9.0 rebounds this season for the Spurs, who acquired him from the Raptors as part of the Kawhi LeonardDeMar DeRozan trade in 2018.
The Philadelphia 76ers are set to acquire forward Jalen McDaniels from Charlotte and send forward Matisse Thybulle to the Portland Trail Blazers as part of a multiteam trade that also involves multiple draft picks.
Thybulle twice made the NBA All-Defensive second team, but he has averaged just 4.4 points over four seasons with the Sixers. The 25-yearold McDaniels has averaged a career-best 10.6 points for the Hornets in his fourth season.
It was the second move in two days for the Blazers, who sent Josh Hart to the New York Knicks on Wednesday for Cam Reddish and a protected firstround draft pick.