NBA Trade Deadline Recap

Oh the trade deadline. It's always one of the more interesting dates on a sports schedule, to see what players are going to get moved, and to where. When you hear the words trade deadline, as a sports fan, it gets you excited. Usually that means that something big is going to go down, and its usually done in a flurry right at the deadline. This year, the NBA didn't really have that. As a matter of fact, the deadline itself was relatively quiet. Sure there were a couple of big moves. So here's a breakdown of all the trades that were made heading into the deadline, both major and minor.

Trades:
-New Orleans gets DeMarcus Cousins, and Omri Casspi. In exchange Sacramento picks up Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a 2017 first-round pick and Future second-round pick

-Lakers get Corey Brewer and a 2017 first-round pick (unprotected). In exchange, Houston picks up Lou Williams

-Washington gets Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough. In exchange,Brooklyn gets Andrew Nicholson, Marcus Thornton and a 2017 first-round pick (lottery-protected)

-Atlanta gets Ersan Ilyasova and Future second-round pick. In exchange, Philadelphia gets Tiago Splitter and Draft considerations.

-Philadelphia gets Andrew Bogut, Justin Anderson, and a Top-18 protected first-round pick. In exchange, Dallas gets Nerlens Noel.

-Oklahoma City gets Taj Gibson, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second-round pick. In exchange, Chicago gets Anthony Morrow, Joffrey Lauvergne, and Cameron Payne.

-Denver gets Roy Hibbert in exchange for sending a protected future second-round pick to the Bucks.

-Brooklyn gets K.J. McDaniels and in exchange, Houston gets Cap space.

-Houston frees up cap space by trading Tyler Ennis to the Lakers

-Atlanta gets a protected second round pick and cash from the Suns in exchange for Mike Scott

-Phoenix gets Jared Sullinger, a 2017 and 2018 second-round picks in exchange for P.J Tucker going to Toronto

So those are the trades that went down heading into the deadline. Fascinating. Because those deals were made, and there were plenty of moves that weren't made but only rumored. With that being said, here's what I feel are the winners and losers from the deadline.

Winner: New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans is just two and a half games back of the last wild card spot heading into all-star weekend. Once they came out of the weekend, they may have done a major bolster job to their roster. By adding a guy the talent of DeMarcus Cousins and having him playing on the same floor at the same time as Anthony Davis, it makes the Pelicans potentially dangerous. Sure, Cousins is a free agent at the end of the year, and this COULD potentially be just a rental player situation (he could resign with the Pelicans too so you never know). Still this makes them a good team and a threat in the West for the last playoff spot.

Loser: Sacramento Kings
The Pelicans won this trade, so obviously this makes the Kings t a loser at the deadline. They were only a game out of the last playoff spot when they made this deal. Buddy Heild is going to be a good player but all you could get form Cousins was him and one promised pick? That is so sad. Cousins is a uber talent and you couldn't get a whole hell of a lot for him. To make this deal sting even worse is what Vlade Divac said in the press conference. He said that the Kings had a better offer on the table, tehy passed it up and went with this trade. What the hell is he thinking? Bad trade that's going to hurt the Kings for a long time.

Winner: Toronto Raptors
This move didn't happen at the deadline but the fact that the Raptors got Serge Ibaka will help push them into the upper level in the East. It will be a bigtime help for the Raptors when it comes to challenging the likes of the Celtics and Cavaliers. Not only did they land him, the picked up PJ Tucker as well. Both can stretch to 3-point range, both are tough competitors, both are versatile and both can play multiple positions. The Raptors didn’t land huge names, but they added to their arsenal while giving up almost nothing for them outside of Terrence Ross. Not only that, but they watched the Celtics pass up every offer and the Wizards only add Bojan Bogdanovic. The rest of the top of the East didn’t improve while Toronto did. This was a very good week for Raptors fans.

Loser: New York Knicks
Couldn't pass up throwing this in here, I had to. The Knicks reportedly almost had a deal for Ricky Rubio, sending away Derrick Rose. Would have made perfect sense because Rubio would fit in nicely to the Knicks plans I think and Rose, it seems to me, doesn't want to be here much. It fell apart because they apparently wanted too much. The problem is that Rubio is better than Rose right now, and Rose is set to be a free agent and won't get a masx deal from the Knicks because he isn't worth it. So instead of getting a defensively questionable player with a terrible injury history off the books to add a good player, they stood pat and, as seems to be the Knicks style, there’s a decent chance they’re the team that gives him that big contract. The Knicks almost did something that wasn’t Knicks-ish, but then Knicked hard at the last second. Plus Melo is still here, which you could see was coming when he didn't bother trying to wave his no trade clause. So once again its going to be a long road to close out the season for the Knicks