11 Takes on the Explosive NBA Trade Deadline
NBA Substack on what just happened and what it all means
We asked 11 leading NBA voices on Substack:
Your take on the 2025 NBA trade deadline?
Check out their answers and subscribe!
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It was my 32nd NBA deadline and probably would have gone down as the wildest and most unforgettable just because of the shock that still reverberates in the wake of the Luka Donฤiฤ/Anthony Davis blockbuster.
That four more days of nonstop major deals followed should make it go down as The Deadline I'll Never Forget for a lot of us. Trades rather than free agency had already emerged as the mechanism for change in the modern NBA โฆ but this was next level.
Due to a convergence of factors that are very explainable and also completely and totally unforseen, we saw mayhem. So much to analyze and unpack and dissect in coming days after what just erupted.
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I don't see how anyone could have any reaction to this deadline that doesn't start with some variation of "WHAT THE Fโโโ????"
Luka's a Laker? The Bucks really traded Khris Middleton? Jimmy Butler is going to the Warriors? The Hawks don't own their own draft pick and are trading multiple rotation players anyway? Zach LaVine finally got traded, and in a year where he's playing well, the Bulls didn't get much in return?
Actually wait, that last one makes a lot of sense. But everything else, wow!
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I canโt stop thinking about emotional fallout. Interviews of shocked players! Mavs fans screaming about betrayal! I would watch a 30 for 30 following the families of traded players around the deadline.
There is an unseen human component behind the *content.* Luka looked genuinely burdened on the Lakers bench last night. All the money in the world clearly doesnโt make it less upsetting! Videos of players finding out about trades on the bench during a game is good TV, but thereโs a dark side to what is a ruthless transactional business.
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As the clock strikes 3 pm (Eastern Time) every trade deadline, I take a deep breath and feel my body perceptibly loosen. Itโs not that I hate the trade deadline. As a construct, I understand its purpose, but I donโt like it as an exercise. More specifically, the permission it gives people for a couple weeks (and then a few frantic, ratcheted up days) to discuss other people in abstract โ their bodies, what those bodies can or canโt do, their past limits and breaking points, their upside.
But you did ask for thoughts on the action around the deadline so, Iโm thinking of guys cleaning out lockers, whether they do it in company of their teammates or in private, if they even have time to make that choice. Iโm thinking of packing, moving, switching time zones, the action of adjusting your internal clock. Of arriving in cold climates from warm ones and the action of procuring good boots. The act of sitting down in a hotel room or temporary apartment in a new city after the flurry of goodbyes and arrivals in 24-48 hours and taking a breath, alone.
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I've often heard it said that the NBA putting its trade deadline smack in the middle of Super Bowl week is an unforced error by the league. Am I the only one who thinks this year's edition has gone some way to explaining that scheduling decision?
Anecdata, sue me, but I've seen a lot of sports media that would otherwise be singularly focused on the NFL this week talking a whole lotta hoops. Some of that is obviously the seismic shock of the Luka Donฤiฤ trade, but maybe this really is a relatively quiet period that the NBA has been right to try and exploit.
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This was the most incredible trade deadline I can remember. The volume of moves was higher than normal, but the level of talent moved was what made it remarkable. There were some small moves and salary dumps, but they were overwhelmed by blockbuster trades on a near-daily basis during deadline week.
Itโs going to take a while for the fallout from this deadline to settle. But teams loading up to go for it is something we should always welcome in the NBA.
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The last few days have proven that no amount of CBA constraints can stop teams from creating havoc. You never know when a team will shoot itself in the foot, for example. Complexity can breed creativity, and we saw several teams make very clever under-the-radar moves (particularly Charlotte!).
Chaos is a good thing in the aggregate. Unless youโre a Dallas fan, you have to admit that this last week has been absolutely thrilling. Iโve never been more excited to write 10,000 words worth of trade grades in my life!
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Last year, I asked whether Clevelandโs inactivity would haunt them. This year, the Cavs didnโt let me ask that question, making a stellar move to grab DeโAndre Hunter from Atlanta. He isnโt the biggest name to be moved โฆ or second โฆ or third โฆ but this might still be the most important deadline deal for the NBA this season. Lovely work from the Cavs, who now have โฆ zero weaknesses?
Overall, Iโm cherishing the last bits of serotonin from the most surreal week I can remember as an NBA fan. That rocked. I literally don't remember who plays where now.
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As Ian Malcolm once said, โTrades find a way.โ
After all the talk about how onerous the new aprons would be toward making deals, we have, by my last count, witnessed seven All-Stars change teams since Saturday.
Yes, because of the challenges in moving big-money deals, multiple trades included stars being dealt for each other, but that only furthers my point.
If general managers have the profound will to get a deal done, they will find the means to make it so.
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If thereโs one thing that this trade deadline showed, itโs that teams are more scared of the NBAโs rulebook than ever before.
Luka Donฤiฤ (Luka freaking Donฤiฤ!) was traded away for reasons still unknown, though it seems that his supermax eligibility played a role. The Bucks traded away Khris Middleton not to compete at a higher level but to dip under the second apron and avoid a hefty luxury tax payment. And getting De'Andre Hunter actually saves the Cavs money.
Cap space appears to be king now, and it might shape the next few years of star trades in the process.
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After the LA/Dallas earthquake of Saturday night and the Fox/LaVine aftershock, I wrote about how like-for-like player trades are back!
For about a decade, it was very uncommon for teams to exchange players of similar levels, but now we've seen it with the KAT, Luka, and Fox trades.
Mavs fans definitely disagree right now, but it makes trade season more exciting when actual good players are involved instead of draft IOUs that go seven years into the future.
The theory I have around this is that โthe trade deadlineโ should really be even more of a thing in the NBA. The suspense building up to it and the way it plays out is dramatic. As someone who is genuinely beginning to worry about the future of the league, the deadline, itโs stakes, and drama, feel like something you can build a story around. Iโm not totally sure if this is viable or would fly in the league, but the ethics of it feel okay to me, especially in a league where there is a significant amount of player power. I feel for the players who are on the move, as Katie pointed out in her blurb, but itโs the nature of the beast, and something that benefits the league, 360 all across the board. Almost wondering if the Trade Deadline should be what the first half of the season is built around. The narrative potential of that is super interestingโฆ
Mixed emotions. I love a good blockbuster trade - it takes skill and guile to reroute your teams future in the middle of a season under a deadline. But players are human beings that should have some say in the place they make a living or at least be compensated. The no trade clause is the golden fleece of the contract and rightfully so. The trade kicker needs to be more commonplace.
Are Luka and Jimmy thinking of the homes they just built where their babies were to grow up? Did PJ and Schroeder pull up to the airport and just sit in the parking lot, awaiting their fate? How do Kenny Atkinson and Caris Levert, having the success they missed out on in Brooklyn, say goodbye in Cleveland?
Yeah they get paid tons more than a middle manager or an IT engineer that corporate sends to the new plant in the Midwest but nobody's dreams fit in a moving van.