Resetting after the NBA Trade Deadline: Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks reinvent themselves
By Phil Watson
With the NBA trade deadline behind us, some teams chose to do nothing while others underwent an extreme team makeover. What’s left after the fallout?
The NBA trade deadline produced a lot more activity than anticipated, with a total of 13 trades comprised of 41 players (two were dealt twice) and 16 draft picks moved (although some of those picks were heavily protected and are thus unlikely to actually be conveyed).
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The festivities kicked off late Tuesday with a 12-player, four-team mega swap between the Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves and didn’t finish until the 3 p.m. Eastern deadline on Thursday.
Two of the teams involved in the NBA’s largest trade of the 21st century — and the biggest overall since the four-team deal in September 2000 that, among other changes, sent Patrick Ewing from the New York Knicks to the Seattle SuperSonics as one of 12 players and five draft picks to be swapped — were not even close to being done.
The Timberwolves and Hawks kept on dealing, with the Memphis Grizzlies also making multiple moves as what was expected to be the first season of their all-out rebuild after trading Marc Gasol at last year’s deadline and Mike Conley over the offseason has instead turned into a push for playoff contention.
Minnesota turned over roughly half of its roster, sending seven players out in three separate deals and bringing in eight new faces, while Atlanta was involved in four trades that send out three players and brought in five new faces — with three of the new guys already placed on waivers.
In the wake of all that activity, what does the NBA look like after the deadline? In some cases, significantly different. Here’s a team-by-team breakdown of what to expect after the dust has settled.