Sports
5 NBA Trades That Should've Happened This Offseason – Bleacher Report
The 2023 NBA offseason wasn’t exactly hurting for activity.
The draft welcomed potential difference-makers like Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller. The trade market saw players like Bradley Beal, Marcus Smart, Chris Paul, Kristaps Porziņģis and John Collins get moved around. Free agency witnessed nine-figure payouts to Jerami Grant, Fred VanVleet, Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green.
Despite all of this activity, though, the Association could have been more…well, active. That’s why we’re firing up the trade machines and laying out five swaps that should have gone down this summer.
Golden State Warriors receive: Dorian Finney-Smith
Brooklyn Nets receive: Jonathan Kuminga and Gary Payton II
While this deal would have effectively ended the Dubs’ two-timeline strategy, that plan barely has a pulse at this point. In this calendar year alone, Golden State has traded away James Wiseman, Jordan Poole, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins. The Warriors are fully committed to winning right now, as they should be.
A talent like Stephen Curry only comes along once in a lifetime, so Golden State should do everything it can to maximize what’s left of his prime. If that means jettisoning a potential future star for a solid role player, that’s a worthwhile swap if it increases the Warriors’ championship odds for the upcoming season.
This deal would have done that. Kuminga might still have a sky-high ceiling in front of him, but the Warriors don’t trust him to contribute to a title pursuit. That much was made clear in their last playoff run, when they gave him just 61 minutes over 10 games and never brought him off the bench in three different tilts.
Golden State wouldn’t have the same reservations with Finney-Smith, who’s exactly the kind of shape-shifting defender this group needs more of. Outside of a shooting slump this past season—33.7 percent from distance, 38.9 percent the three seasons prior—he has established himself as one of the top three-and-D role players around.
His defensive versatility and ability to space the floor could earn him nearly 30 minutes per night in Golden State. That’s almost certainly more floor time than the Warriors would expect to squeeze out of Payton, a brilliant defender with major offensive limitations, and Kuminga, whose growing pains have proved more than the Dubs are willing to take.
The Nets don’t face the same championship-or-bust urgency, though, so they could see the appeal in allowing Kuminga to spread his wings. If he developed quickly enough, he might have plenty to contribute with Mikal Bridges still in his prime. Payton would mostly be included here for salary-matching purposes, although Brooklyn could see value in him as a defensive tone-setter.
Boston Celtics receive: Tyus Jones and Ryan Rollins
Washington Wizards receive: Malcolm Brogdon and 2024 first-round pick (top-four protected, via GSW)
The Celtics and Wizards linked up for maybe this summer’s biggest swap in the three-team deal that sent Marcus Smart out of Boston and brought back Kristaps Porziņģis. But they could have better scratched the other’s back by joining up for another deal.
That trade was initially supposed to involve the subtraction of Brogdon instead of Smart. The fact that’s public knowledge at this point hasn’t sat well with Brogdon, potentially creating a distraction this team doesn’t need.
“He was not happy in July,” Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe said on CLNS Media’s Celtics Beat podcast. “Is he the same level of unhappiness in September? We don’t know. He hasn’t talked all summer. … Malcolm Brogdon was not happy about the deal or being potentially dealt. He was pissed.”
If the Celtics knew they could count on Brogdon, maybe they wouldn’t have tried to trade him. But they can’t, since he’s topped the 70-game mark only once in his seven-year career, so they deemed him expendable. They also may have sensed he’s a less-than-ideal fit for this core since he’s a better scorer than table-setter.
That’s why Jones may have been the better choice. The floor general is perpetually looking to pass and is allergic to turnovers. A team looking to up its playmaking and offensive organization would surely be blown away by the canyon sitting between Jones’ career 2,108 assists and 400 turnovers.
Upping his appeal is the fact he’s become more of a scoring and shooting threat in recent years. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, he has averaged a solid 14.4 points per 36 minutes while shooting 36.9 percent from three. Boston could have gotten serious mileage out of Jones, and the Celtics could have given Rollins a chance to carve out a niche on the perimeter.
As for Washington, the incoming first-round pick would’ve mattered more than any of the players involved. The Wizards also could have looked to effectively extract more assets out of this deal by shopping Brogdon around to win-now buyers.
Indiana Pacers receive: Pascal Siakam
Toronto Raptors receive: Buddy Hield, Daniel Theis, Obi Toppin, 2025 first-round pick (top-five protected) and 2027 first-round pick
The Pacers were wise to invest in their power forward rotation this summer, as Toppin (the No. 8 pick in 2020) and Jarace Walker (this year’s No. 8 pick) both have a chance to eventually handle what has been a problematic position for this team. Then again, this core may have needed a more urgent solution, as the rest of the roster looks ready to roll.
When Indiana had all three of Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin last season, it went 26-22 with a plus-6.4 net rating. That’s a 44-win pace with a net efficiency only bettered by the Boston Celtics.
Now, imagine adding Siakam, a two-time All-NBA selection, to the mix. He is skilled enough to co-lead this offense with Haliburton, as Siakam can be a primary scorer (24.2 points per game last season), a secondary playmaker (5.8 assists) or even a spot-up shooter (38.1 percent on catch-and-shoot threes in 2018-19, when he was playing off of Kawhi Leonard).
Haliburton, an 87th percentile pick-and-roll ball-handler last season, could orchestrate countless screen plays with Siakam and Turner. The bigs could cover an absurd amount of real estate together defensively. Mathurin could thrive as a slasher, attacker and long-distance shooter. Bruce Brown would fill in all of the remaining cracks in the same glue-guy role he aced with the defending champion Denver Nuggets this past season.
The fit makes a lot of sense—even if Siakam bolted after this season, Walker might be ready to fill that void—which is probably why Indiana “reached out” to Toronto regarding Siakam earlier this offseason, per Sportsnet’s Michael Grange. The Pacers’ future looks bright, but its present would be a lot more interesting with Siakam involved.
As for Toronto, this swap would have shifted the long-term outlook into the forefront. With Siakam off the roster, the Raptors could have revolved around Scottie Barnes, whose up-and-down sophomore season did nothing to permanently damage his towering two-way ceiling.
Toronto wouldn’t get a lot back in terms of players—Hield could be a trade chip, Theis would be salary-filler—but Toppin’s finishing could’ve made him a fit with a playmaker of Barnes’ caliber. Plus, the two picks (one lightly protected, the other not at all) would have been a decent haul for Siakam, who’s slated to reach unrestricted free agency after this season.
New York Knicks receive: DeMar DeRozan
Chicago Bulls receive: RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes and 2024 first-round pick (top-10 protected)
Outside of signing Donte DiVincenzo, the ‘Bockers are basically running it back. Assuming they’re aiming for something beyond mediocrity, though, they likely still need an external lift to join the Eastern Conference’s top tier.
With no obvious star candidate among their prospect collection, it’s unlikely that internal improvement will be enough to fuel the jump from pretty good to great. However, adding a proven late-game performer like DeRozan, who supplied the second-most clutch points in each of the past two seasons, might have done the trick.
New York let a number of close games get away from it in 2022-23, posting a dreadful minus-10.7 points per 100 possessions in clutch situations (final five minutes with a scoring margin of five points or less). Steady the ship on that front, and it might be the difference of a win total in (or above) the mid-50s instead of the high 40s.
DeRozan wouldn’t help the Knicks’ spacing issues, but he, Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle are all accustomed to navigating through narrow lanes. Plus, it’s not like the Knicks are getting loads of long-distance shots out of Barrett anyway, so they might as well switch to someone who’s more capable of making things happen in the mid-range, both as a scorer and shot-creator.
Meanwhile, the Bulls would have accepted what everyone else has seen for a while: That a rebuild became inevitable as soon as Lonzo Ball suffered a knee injury that is expected to sideline him for the 2023-24 season. Investing in this core—the path that this front office chose instead—is an attempt to ignore all of the evidence that it can’t push its ceiling past mediocrity.
Dealing DeRozan would’ve put Chicago’s focus firmly on the future, which is where it belongs. Supplementing a young core already featuring the likes of Patrick Williams, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and (fingers crossed) maybe Dalen Terry with Barrett, Grimes and an upcoming first-round pick would have given this franchise the direction it needs.
Brooklyn Nets receive: Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkić
Portland Trail Blazers receive: Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie, Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead, Day’Ron Sharpe, 2025 first-round pick (via PHO), 2027 first-round pick (via PHO) and 2029 first-round pick (via DAL)
This trade could still take place, as Lillard remains stuck in the Pacific Northwest more than two months removed from his initial trade request. Had it gone down earlier this offseason, though, it would clarified both Brooklyn’s win-now intentions and Portland’s long-term focus.
The Nets may not be Lillard’s team of choice, but they are led by rising star Mikal Bridges, whom Lillard has expressed affinity for before. They’d also have a chance to quickly ascend the Eastern Conference ladder with an offensive maestro like Lillard, whose presence would bump Bridges into a more natural second-star role and up the potency of all the catch-and-launch perimeter shooters they’d have around this uber-talented twosome.
Brooklyn saw firsthand that Bridges has a higher gear than anyone knew he possessed. In 27 games after his trade-deadline deal to the Nets, he pumped in 26.1 points on 47.5/37.6/89.4 shooting. To contextualize that production, only three players averaged 26-plus points on 47/37/89 shooting last season: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, three of the best flamethrowing scorers on the planet.
However, the Nets also learned they didn’t have enough to properly support Bridges. After the deadline, they went just 13-15 the rest of the way and were swept out of the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers. Bridges needs more help to maximize his prime, and Lillard, who averaged 32.2 points, 7.3 assists and 4.2 threes per game last year, could give him a lift like few others could provide.
Meanwhile, the Blazers could have gotten a huge head start on their post-Lillard era with this mountain of incoming assets (plus the salary relief of shedding the money still owed to Lillard and Nurkić). All three firsts would come from vet-heavy, championship-chasing clubs with uncertain futures, while Clowney, Whitehead and Sharpe are all young enough to cement themselves among the club’s long-term core.
Dinwiddie would be a salary-filler, as would Simmons in a lot of respects. Still, if the three-time All-Star is ever going to get back on track, this situation could bring out his best. In Portland, he could fly up and down the floor with explosive, young athletes like Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons, and the front office would have the time to carefully flesh out the rest of this roster with players who could complement Simmons’ game.
