Cavs part with Thomas, Wade, Rose in trading frenzy.
From Isaiah Thomas to Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose, the Cleveland Cavaliers loaded up on big names last summer.
None will be there if the Cavaliers get back to the NBA Finals.
In what felt like an unprecedented do-over for a contending team, the Cavaliers simply changed the pieces that weren’t fitting for new ones Thursday at the trade deadline.
Fans who usually marvel at LeBron James were instead praising his general manager, as Koby Altman used a series of swaps to strengthen a sputtering team and leave open the possibility for more moves.
“They got better. They made the moves they wanted to make, and I’m sure they’re going to make it work over there,” Golden State’s Kevin Durant said. “It’s fun for all the fans and the media to kind of see what’s going on with the trade deadline.”
Cavs’ fans likely had the most fun, and for good reason. Cleveland was the story Thursday .
The Cavaliers acquired Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. in the deal with the Lakers, who also got Channing Frye and a first-round pick from Cleveland.
George Hill came from Sacramento and Rodney Hood from Utah as the Cavaliers dealt away Rose, Wade, Jae Crowder and Iman Shumpert — changing nearly half their rotation.
All that wheeling-and-dealing stole headlines even with nearly two-thirds of the league making deals.
Los Angeles was the other newsmaker on deadline day — though its moves were to try to win this summer, not this season. The Lakers’ deal with the Cavaliers, in which they acquired Thomas, got them out of future salary and set themselves up to offer perhaps two maximum contracts in free agency.
“This is what I came here to do, was to create flexibility for our organization,” Lakers president Magic Johnson said, “so that one day we can have a superstar or two come to this organization with our incredible young talent that we have, that we will continue to grow.”
Wade returned to Miami, mending fences with Pat Riley and finding a soft landing in a place where he won three championships following the fallout in Cleveland. The Heat struggle to score and used a second-round pick to bring back the player who did that more than anyone else for their franchise.
Most of the moves outside Cleveland on Thursday were minor, for a few reasons.
One is so many differencemakers had already been traded, from Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Jimmy Butler in the summer to Blake Griffin last week. There simply weren’t many blockbusters left to be made.
Some players traded Thursday were immediately waived. Players who are on NBA rosters have to be waived by March 1 to be eligible to play for another team in the postseason.
That means the high-spending contenders can try to add talent without giving any up by signing veterans who took buyouts to become free agents. Boston did that Thursday when it signed Greg Monroe, and the Warriors and Cavaliers — who will have open roster spots after Thursday’s moves — will surely be watching to see if players like Tyreke Evans or Joe Johnson become available in the coming days.
There were some teams that didn’t want to wait and did some tinkering Thursday.
Detroit, unbeaten since acquiring Griffin from the Clippers, got point guard Jameer Nelson from Chicago. Denver brought in Devin Harris and sent out Emmanuel Mudiay in a three-team trade with New York that landed Doug McDermott in Dallas.
The Warriors stayed put at the deadline, as did the Rockets and Oklahoma City. DeAndre Jordan remained with the Clippers and Evans didn’t get a trade out of Memphis, meaning two of the names receiving heaviest speculation ahead of the deadline will be right back where they started.
But things were far from boring.
The Cavaliers made sure of that.