NBA Trade Deadline: Grading all 30 teams on their trades

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 16: Derrick White #4 of the San Antonio Spurs dribbles around the pick by Thaddeus Young #30 of the San Antonio Spurs as Amir Coffey #7 of the LA Clippers attempts to defend during the second half of a game at Staples Center on November 16, 2021 in Los Angeles, California, NBA Trade Deadline: Grading all 30 teams on their trades. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

NBA Trade Deadline Grades: East Middle Class

Charlotte Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets are hovering around .500, with an exciting offensive attack and a questionable defense. They have made it work at center the last couple of years with players like Mason Plumlee and Cody Zeller, and long have been rumored to be players for some of the best centers available, players such as Myles Turner or even Clint Capela.

They finally jumped in for a center, but in this case, it was undersized offensive force Montrezl Harrell. They sent Ish Smith, one of their many project bigs in Vernon Carey Jr., and a second-round pick to add the former Sixth Man of the Year.

He will help their offense while not doing much for their defense; that’s apparently the Charlotte strategy right now. They gave up relatively little to address a weakness, so it was a solid move.

Grade: B

Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors have been on fire of late, blazing their way up the standings with a switch-everything collection of long athletes. Recognizing center to be a relative place of weakness, especially without a lot of size down low, they traded with the San Antonio Spurs to add Thaddeus Young.

They sent Goran Dragic to the Spurs and sent their first-round pick in exchange for the Detroit Pistons’ second-round pick, effectively a trade-down of 10-to-15 spots.

They were reportedly in the mix for other center targets such as Turner or Jakob Poeltl, but the cost was too high. They have their core under contract for multiple seasons so they don’t need to rush things, and center is the most replaceable position.

Still, Dragic and a draft pick drop feels steep for a player who wasn’t playing for the Spurs and may not move the needle significantly. This deal was fine.

Grade: B-

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics have been neck-and-neck with the Raptors in rising up the standings after a shaky start, leaning on a smothering defense to take down opponents even while the offense still sputters at times.

If Charlotte leaned into its score-first mentality, then Boston leaned into its lockdown ideals. They made a pair of minor moves to get under the luxury tax, but the two main moves both boosted their defense.

The biggest move saw Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a 2022 first and a 2028 first-round pick swap go to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Derrick White, a tough-nosed defensive guard with underrated playmaking and scoring chops. He isn’t the high-level distributor that the Celtics truly need, but he will contribute to their nasty defense and should help run things more than Dennis Schroder did.

The other move is the big head-scratcher. Deciding that Schroder had little-to-no value, they flipped him, Enes Freedom, and Bruno Fernando to the Houston Rockets for Daniel Theis.

Reuniting with their old starting center now sees them swap out Freedom for a better defender on the bench. The cost was nearly zero, but paying Theis for the next few seasons when they already have Robert Williams III and Al Horford seems superfluous. Two “meh” trades, a good one, and a bad one equals a fairly middling overall grade.

Grade: B-