1 Trade Still Haunting Every NBA Franchise In 2025

The NBA owns spooky season.

The new campaign is just getting into full swing, optimism remains elevated in most corners of the hoops world and given how much time is left on the 82-game marathon, every club can afford to look ahead.

Just not here.

Instead, we're looking back on regrettable deals from the recent past that not only hurt teams in the moment but also continue to haunt them right through to the present day.

So, grab whatever comfort item helps you get through scary stories. We'll revisit trades that went so awry that the damage is still felt by every franchise.

The trade: Danilo Gallinari, two first-round picks (2025, 2027) and a 2026 first-round pick swap to the San Antonio Spurs for Dejounte Murray and Jock Landale

The Hawks, who weren't playoff participants the past two seasons and last won a postseason series in 2021, should be at least waist-deep in a youth movement right now. And that development-focused journey could be all kinds of fun considering the young talent on this roster, like Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and 2024 No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher.

Yet, this ill-fated attempt to build an All-Star backcourt with Dejounte Murray and Trae Young took that option off the table. The Hawks ceded control of three consecutive first-rounders, and since they've yet to pay off two of those draft debts, they can't collect the normal benefits of bottoming out.

So, they're instead left attempting to accrue some win-now talent around Young while still balancing the developmental needs of that young core. To this point, though, the veteran core isn't clicking, Young doesn't sound too happy (or sure about his future with the franchise) and a lot of the young players are struggling to find the floor time and touches they need to further their growth.

It's wild that Atlanta drafting and dealing Luka Dončić isn't the obvious answer here, but at least the Hawks came away from that exchange with an All-Star (Young) and no long-term costs. The history books will probably hold the Young-Doncic trade in harsher regard, but for now, this swap still stings the most since it basically put handcuffs on the Hawks.

The trade: Desmond Bane to the Memphis Grizzlies and Enes Kanter Freedom to the Portland Trail Blazers; Grizzlies trade 2023 and 2025 second-round picks to the Boston Celtics and cash to the Portland Trail Blazers; Blazers trade Mario Hezonja to the Grizzlies

While Boston made financially driven subtractions to its core this summer, it'll eventually try to build back up a championship roster. Whenever Jayson Tatum makes it back from his torn Achilles, he, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White should immediately form one of the league's top trios.

The Celtics could find out they don't have enough two-way support players around their stars, though. And that's a massive bummer since Boston managed to find that exact skill set at the back end of the 2020 draft.

The problem was the Celtics didn't keep the 30th pick, which they spent on Bane, but instead sent it out for a couple of second-round picks they didn't hold onto. So, while Bane has since emerged as a perimeter sharpshooter, near-star scorer and willing-and-able team defender, Boston has reaped exactly none of the rewards from his ascension.

The trade: Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries, Kris Joseph, Gerald Wallace, three first-round picks and a first-round pick swap to the Boston Celtics for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, DJ White and a future second-round pick

The Nets once flipped a first-round pick later spent on Damian Lillard for a season-and-a-half of Gerald Wallace. They also once parted with four players (including Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert), three first-round picks and four first-round pick swaps for just over a calendar year of James Harden.

Astonishingly, though, neither trade goes down as Brooklyn's worst of the worst. That's because while other teams have some skeletons in their closet, the Nets' holds an entire graveyard.

This trade, which netted Brooklyn a single playoff series win, gave Boston—among other assets—the first-round picks later spent on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, i.e., the centerpieces of its 2024 title team.

And while the Celtics were busy parading through the streets, the Nets were nosediving into a playoff drought that's certain to extend to three seasons by April and, based on their overall trajectory, feels like it could run indefinitely.

The trade: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Los Angeles Clippers for Miles Bridges and two future second-round picks

The Hornets had the No. 11 pick in the 2018 draft. That's the exact selection spot where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a three-time All-Star and the reigning MVP (and Finals MVP), was taken.

But SGA obviously doesn't reside in Buzz City, so what happened? Well, the Hornets, who were still following the lead of Kemba Walker back then, apparently felt Miles Bridges, the No. 12 pick, was the better fit, so they grabbed him and a couple of second-rounders that later yielded Vernon Carey Jr. and Scottie Lewis, who played a combined 25 games in Charlotte.

Walker, by the way, spent just one more season after this trade in Charlotte before the Hornets sign-and-traded him to the Celtics. Bridges has been an almost perfectly average player for the Hornets (career 15.4 player efficiency rating), while Gilgeous-Alexander has joined the league's inner circle of all-caps ELITES.

The trade: Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. and two first-round draft picks to the Orlando Magic for Al-Farouq Aminu and Nikola Vučević

With Josh Giddey posting near-star numbers and fueling the club's fast start to the new season, the 2024 decision to make him the sole return for uber-valuable trade chip Alex Caruso looks less damning. It still feels like questionable asset management given their trajectory at the time—Giddey had just lost his starting spot amid a brutal playoff showing, while Caruso was coming off of a second consecutive All-Defensive selection—but it at least shouldn't keep the Bulls' brass up at night.

This March 2021 trade might, though. This is when Chicago made the miscalculation that all it needed was a co-star for Zach LaVine to solidify itself as an Eastern Conference contender. But the puzzle pieces never aligned the right way, and the Bulls have since sold off most of that roster (usually at deeply discounted prices).

Vučević is at least still on the roster, although he has long loomed as one of the league's most logical trade candidates. The haunting part of this trade, though, was the cost. Both of the outgoing picks landed in the lottery, including the No. 8 pick in 2021, which became Franz Wagner, a 24-year-old borderline star who entered this season as B/R's 32nd-ranked player in the league.

The trade: Ricky Rubio, a lottery-protected first-round pick and two second-round picks to the Indiana Pacers for Caris LeVert

At the time of this Feb. 2022 trade, the Cavaliers had little reason to second-guess it. They needed perimeter depth, and they found it in LeVert, who capably handled support scoring and secondary playmaking duties over parts of four seasons in Cleveland.

Looking back, though, LeVert's play style was never the snuggest fit with Darius Garland, and it grew even less complementary once Donovan Mitchell joined the backcourt. They needed players capable of doing different things—like the one later selected with one of those second-rounders.

That player was Andrew Nembhard, the 31st pick of the 2022 draft who played a pivotal role in the Pacers' push to this year's NBA Finals. The other second-rounder hasn't conveyed yet (it will in 2027), while the first was spent on Ben Sheppard, a 6'6", three-and-D swingman who was also part of Indiana's playoff rotation.

The trade: Luka Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers or Max Christie, Anthony Davis and a 2029 first-round pick

The wounds are still fresh from this internet-breaking, 2025 deadline blockbuster, but the blow was also cushioned a bit by Dallas' improbable lottery win and the subsequent arrival of Cooper Flagg.

Still, segments of this fanbase continue to berate Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who continues to say he stands by the trade (which included the Utah Jazz and a few more minor moving parts) for a specific reason.

"We targeted AD with our philosophy of defense wins championships," he told reporters in April. "We wanted a two-way player to lead our team and that was Anthony Davis."

Critics, of course, can point out that then-Dončić-led Mavericks played plenty of championship-caliber defense during their trek to the 2024 NBA Finals. That's sort of beside the point, though, at least as things pertain to the team's haunting memories.

For one, the asset management here was pretty awful. Dallas confined itself to dealing with one team, restricting the market for a 25-year-old centerpiece. The Mavs could have started a bidding war and perhaps gotten much more, but they didn't want word of their trade talks to leak. That was shortsighted—and looks even worse when you realize they failed to extract more from L.A., including its 2031 first-round pick.

The other issue is the Mavs not only shortened their window by flipping a 25-year-old Dončić for a then-31-year-old Davis, but they also upped their risk factor by building around the oft-injured tandem of Davis and Kyrie Irving, who have played all of one game together.

If Dallas was so concerned about Dončić's conditioning, why did it build its return package around a player with arguably even greater availability issues? Truly bizarre, scary stuff.

The trade: Donovan Mitchell to the Utah Jazz for Tyler Lydon and Trey Lyles

For all of the attention given to real-time draft analysis, the value of the picks and trades made during the talent grab typically takes years to reveal itself. That point has been driven home time and again, but this 2017 draft-night deal is one of the more obvious examples.

Folks weren't exactly skewering the Nuggets at the time for flipping Mitchell, the 13th pick, for Lydon, the 24th pick, and Lyles, the 12th pick of the 2015 draft. ESPN's Kevin Pelton, for instance, gave Denver a C-minus for the swap but only granted Utah a B.

Hindsight has, of course, since revealed that the Nuggets were totally fleeced here. Lyles spent two seasons in Denver before bolting in free agency, Lydon was gone (from the Nuggets and the league at large) by 2019 and Mitchell has become an offensive force while riding a six-year All-Star streak that seems like it could stretch to another half-decade.

The trade: Khris Middleton, Brandon Knight and Slava Kravtsov to the Milwaukee Bucks for Brandon Jennings

Detroit has mostly made shrewd moves of late, so we're bouncing all the way back to this July 2013 trade for a major regret. While the Pistons may not miss the current version of Middleton, a 34-year-old finding it increasingly difficult to duck the injury bug, they surely wish they wouldn't have had to miss out on his prime.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened, since he was included in a trade that was supposed to be all about the Brandons. Instead, Middleton started climbing the ladder almost as soon as this deal went down (he was a nightly starter midway through his sophomore season), while Jennings and Knight both fell short of the heights he'd ultimately hit.

In Milwaukee, Middleton became a three-time All-Star, Giannis Antetokounmpo's super reliable sidekick and a crunch-time closer on its 2021 championship team. Jennings, meanwhile, spent just two-plus seasons in Detroit and was out of the Association entirely by 2018.

The trade: A top-20 protected first-round pick and a 2021 second-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Kelly Oubre Jr.

It's been a while since Golden State guessed completely wrong on a trade, but this panic move made in Nov. 2020 comes pretty close.

Now, the Warriors may have felt they had no other choice, since they'd just recently lost Klay Thompson to a ruptured Achilles, but Oubre never felt like a great fit in Golden State's read-and-react system. Throw in the sneakily sky-high price of this deal—the picks became Miles McBride and Aaron Wiggins, while the financial investment topped $82 million due to the luxury tax hit for renting Oubre.

Since Golden State went on to win the 2022 title (without Oubre, obviously), you might think the franchise has long forgotten this misfire. In reality, the Warriors have used it as a reminder not to rush into any panic-driven moves.

The trade: Chris Paul, two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Russell Westbrook

In July 2019, the Rockets were clinging to fading hopes of making a championship run with James Harden and tried this deal out of desperation. It effectively flatlined those dreams for good and shifted everything for the franchise.

Westbrook was always a strange choice to slot alongside Harden. The bearded baller did his best work with off-ball shooters, and Westbrook is very much an on-ball player (without a reliable jumper). The partnership predictably failed—Houston was knocked out of the second round in just five games—and everything cratered shortly thereafter.

Westbrook, Daryl Morey and Mike D'Antoni all exited Houston that offseason, and Harden demanded his ticket out shortly into the 2020-21 campaign. While the pick swaps didn't convey, one of the firsts was spent on intriguing playmaker Nikola Topić while the other holds only top-four protection in next summer's draft.

The trade: Kawhi Leonard, Dāvis Bertāns and Erazem Lorbek to the San Antonio Spurs for George Hill

The Pacers probably should've sensed something was up when discussing this 2011 draft-night deal. Legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had an obvious fondness for Hill, so their willingness to give him up for an unproven 15th pick surely hinted at the upcoming prospect being potentially special.

And that's exactly what Leonard has become. Look beyond his availability issues, and you'll find star-level scoring, strong efficiency marks from every level and some of the stingiest, most disruptive defense this league has ever seen.

The Pacers got decent mileage out of Hill, who helped pilot five playoff series wins over five seasons in the Circle City, but the cost of acquiring him was a full-fledged two-way star. That's tough—and haunting to this day.

The trade: Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George

Even in hindsight, this trade must be graded on a curve. Because L.A. never made it solely to land George, but also to use the star swingman as the negotiating point to convince Kawhi Leonard to come in 2019 free agency.

That being said, hindsight only forgives so much. The George-Leonard tandem never measured up to the sum of its parts. Injuries impacted what it could accomplish, leaving its ultimate playoff tally at just three series wins over five seasons.

For that "prize," the Clippers lost out on Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, and a bushel of draft first-round picks that have already produced Jalen Williams (an All-Star, All-NBA third-teamer and champion) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (a 2023-24 All-Rookie first-teamer) and still feature an unprotected 2026 selection.

The trade: Ivica Zubac and Michael Beasley to the Clippers for Mike Muscala

The Lakers seem unconvinced that Deandre Ayton is definitely their long-term answer at center. Unfortunately, this never needed to be a question asked in the first place. Because in an alternate universe, they'd have Zubac manning the middle right now instead of this laughably bad trade on their resume.

While Zubac hadn't played a ton during his two-plus seasons with the Lakers, his per-36-minutes stats suggested he was ready for a bigger opportunity. Rather than handing one over, L.A. inexplicably shipped him out for Muscala, a specialist shooter (who didn't shoot great for the Lakers), and an open roster spot that never amounted to anything.

Muscala played just 17 games for the Lakers, left in free agency the following summer and is now part of the Phoenix Suns coaching staff. Zubac, on the other hand, snagged a starting role with the Clippers, has basically held onto it ever since and made the All-Defensive second team this past season.

The trade: Brandon Boston Jr., Trey Murphy III and Jonas Valančiūnas to the New Orleans Pelicans; Tyler Harvey to the Charlotte Hornets; Ziaire Williams, Steven Adams, Eric Bledsoe, Jared Butler and two future second-round picks

From their grit-and-grind days to the trio of Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane, Memphis has fielded multiple teams that have felt one difference-making wing away from capturing the crown.

Maybe that's what motivated the front office to make an aggressive move up from No. 17 to No. 10, a pick they'd use on Williams, a tools-y but raw wing prospect. For years, the Grizzlies waited and hoped that his natural gifts would transform him into the player they needed, but they finally ditched that dream and essentially salary-dumped him onto the Nets during the 2024 offseason.

During that same summer, Murphy, the player taken at No. 17, inked a four-year, $112 million extension with the Pelicans, basically rewarding him for becoming the kind of wing the Grizzlies had always coveted. He's a marksman from three, a highlight-waiting-to-happen around the rim and a versatile stopper at the other end.

The trade: Kyle Lowry and a 2027 first-round pick to the Hornets for Terry Rozier

Would anyone consider the Heat already locked into the 2026-27 playoff picture? Because if that answer is anything other than a full-throated "Yes!", this deal could get really dicey.

Look, it's already a big whiff. Rozier hasn't played ton in Miami, but what he has shown clearly hasn't been worth this kind of cost. In 64 games last season, he averaged 10.6 points (his fewest since 2018-19) while shooting just 39.1 percent overall and 29.5 percent from three.

What's truly haunting here, though, is that the outgoing first-round pick carries lottery-protection in 2027 and then no safety net in 2028. So, again, the Heat's big loss in this deal could be freakin' huge when this pick actually conveys.

The trade: Jrue Holiday, a 2029 first-round pick and first-round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030 to the Portland Trail Blazers for Damian Lillard

Because so much has changed in Milwaukee, it almost feels like this blockbuster was a blast from the distant past. Instead, this mega-deal (which featured more moving parts and the Phoenix Suns) only went down a little over two years ago, in Sept. 2023.

With the Bucks perpetually doing everything in their power to convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to stick around, they bet big on Lillard's ability to serve as his championship-level running mate. That never happened. The stars' chemistry never fully clicked, each suffered untimely injuries and Milwaukee ultimately gave up after Lillard's Achilles tear in April, waiving and stretching his remaining salary in order to acquire Myles Turner this summer.

So, what was supposed to be a title-winning tandem actually managed just three playoff wins—not series wins, just games—over a two-season stretch before being disbanded. In other words, the Bucks didn't actually help their chances of keeping Antetokounmpo but did a haunting amount of damage to their long-term outlook, which would get doom-and-gloomy in an instant if he ever decides he wants out.

The trade: A 2031 first-round pick and a 2031 first-round pick swap to the San Antonio Spurs for Rob Dillingham

This is a bit tricky. For a lot of reasons.

We're still weary about the massive cost Minnesota paid to land Rudy Gobert, but consecutive trips to the Western Conference finals suggest it was maybe, possibly worth it. (A championship would end that conversation, but the franchise is still pursuing its elusive first title.)

We're also wondering whether Donte DiVincenzo, Julius Randle and a first-round pick (later spent on raw center Joan Beringer) were the right return for Karl-Anthony Towns. Still, the Timberwolves have won plenty since that trade, so it's hard to say things definitely aren't working out for them.

But this move, brokered during the 2024 draft, has yet to deliver any kind of positive return, all while restricting what Minnesota can do since it was light on assets even before it. Yes, it's still early in Dillingham's career, and it'd be awesome if he can turn things around, but it's frankly alarming that he's struggling to crack a point guard rotation featuring 38-year-old Mike Conley, journeyman Bones Hyland and combo guard Donte DiVincenzo.

The Wolves, who were already in win-now mode when they brokered this deal, clearly believed Dillingham could contribute right away. So far, that belief seems painfully, hauntingly misguided.

The trade: A 2025 first-round pick and a 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Derik Queen

Queen is 20 years old and has yet to even begin the baby-steps portion of his NBA journey. It should be too early to cast any kind of judgment regarding a trade involving him, and it almost certainly would be under any other circumstance.

But he can blame the Pelicans' brass for the fact the move-up to get him during this summer's opening round already looks ghastly. This hyper-aggressive move "had execs around the league already chortling in the moments after the draft," per The Athletic's John Hollinger, who dubbed the outgoing pick a "superfirst," since it's totally unprotected and will be the more favorable of either New Orleans' own first or Milwaukee's.

If either of those teams land in the lottery—a plausible scenario given the West's oppressive depth and Giannis Antetokounmpo's unsettled future—the Hawks could potentially collect a jackpot prize for a 2026 draft that looks loaded at the top. New Orleans might have a bigger cloud hanging above its head than anyone this season, since failing to win big could directly lead to an enormous loss next summer.

The trade: Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson, a future first-round pick and two second-round picks to the Toronto Raptors for Andrea Bargnani

We'll learn sooner than later whether we should be spotlighting a much more recent deal for the 'Bockers. But since we don't yet know whether the prices they paid for Mikal Bridges (five first round picks) or Karl-Anthony Towns (Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, a first-round pick and two seconds) can get this club over the championship hurdle, we'll give those trades a wait-and-see pass for the time being.

So, let's instead jump all the way back to this July 2013 trade, which, believe it or not, continues to hold one reminder for Knicks fans of how badly their front office botched this.

Bargnani, the top pick in 2006, clearly wasn't a needle-mover by the time this trade went down, but New York still paid a premium to get him. Naturally, he never moved the needle for the Knicks, but that first-round pick eventually reshaped the basketball landscape. That's because it was spent on Jakob Poeltl (No. 9 in 2016), who served as one of the principal pieces the Raptors used to acquire Kawhi Leonard ahead of their run to the 2019 title. Poeltl has since gone back north of the border and continues to serve as a rock-solid starting center for the Raptors.

The trade: Alperen Şengün to the Houston Rockets for two future first-round picks

One of the early highlights of the new campaign was watching Şengün, an all-systems-go level of rising star, go toe-to-toe with the defending champs. What's scary to realize, though, is these two didn't actually have to be on opposing sides.

During the 2021 draft, the Thunder held the very pick used to select the skilled center. They just didn't bother to keep it, flipping it to the Rockets for a couple of first-round picks they'd later use as part of a package to acquire Ousmane Dieng, a fourth-year forward still trying and failing to lock down a regular rotation spot.

As for Şengün, he's dropping all kinds of hints that last season's All-Star selection was merely the first of many. He is picking up the playmaking slack created by Fred VanVleet's ACL tear while sharing primary-scoring duties with Kevin Durant and showing off a new quality-plus-quantity three-ball.

The trade: Jonathon Simmons, a second-round pick and a future first-round pick to the Philadelphia 76ers for Markelle Fultz

This past summer, Orlando grew so desperate for perimeter scoring and long-range shooting that it forked over four first-round picks, two rotation players (Cole Anthony and Kentavious-Caldwell-Pope) and a pick swap to land Desmond Bane from the Grizzlies.

Had Orlando handled things differently at the 2019 deadline, it could have acquired a perimeter net-shredder for no cost. And a younger, higher-upside one at that.

Instead, the Magic included the pick that later became Tyrese Maxey for the chance to try (and ultimately fail) to revive Fultz, the No. 1 pick in 2017. Maxey, meanwhile, looks better than ever despite already having won a Most Improved Player award and booked an All-Star spot.

The trade: Jayson Tatum and a future first-round pick to the Boston Celtics for Markelle Fultz

The Sixers were played like a grand piano ahead of the 2017 draft. They held the third overall pick in a draft that would go on to produce six All-Stars, but they felt that wasn't enough. So, they sent out that pick plus a future first (later used on Romeo Langford) to climb into the No. 1 spot for the chance to take Fultz.

Here's the thing, though: Boston wasn't taking Fultz at No. 1. Tatum was the Celtics' choice all along. That's how he tells it, at least, and they've said the same.

Fultz battled injury issues and saw his shooting mechanics go haywire, fading out of Philly in less than two full seasons and having since slipped out of the league, entirely. Tatum, of course, quickly emerged as a perennial All-Star and has already led one championship charge.

The trade: Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara to the Portland Trail Blazers for Keon Johnson, Nassir Little, Grayson Allen and Jusuf Nurkić

This is, from the Suns' standpoint, the extent of their involvement in the Sept. 2023 three-team trade that sent Damian Lillard from Portland to Milwaukee. While the Blazers collected draft picks and young talent, and the Bucks landed what they hoped would be the ideal running mate for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Suns sort of just collected a lot of salary-filler.

They were hoping for more, obviously. They needed depth around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, and they thought they could find that with Nurkić and Allen. And if Johnson or Little showed signs of life, even better.

While Allen found a fit in Phoenix, no one else did. Johnson was waived shortly after the trade, Little was handed his walking papers the following August and Nurkić was salary-dumped onto the Hornets at this past trade deadline. The true haunt, though, has been Camara's rise as an all-league defender and, last season at least, a 37.5 percent three-point shooter.

The trade: Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Bledsoe, Keon Johnson, Justise Winslow and a 2025 second-round pick

The Blazers have made a few nightmarish signings in free agency, but their trade work has been generally positive.

This Feb. 2022 trade was a clear flop, though. Granted, Portland wasn't expecting much, as it was engineering a roster reset at the time. Still, the Blazers should've gotten more for these players, Powell in particular.

While folks maybe didn't expect him to age as miraculously as he has—who breaks out at 31 and ups the ante the following season?—he was already a proven shot-maker, a helpful support scorer and an established veteran with championship experience. The fact he looks like a legitimate All-Star candidate three-odd years later only highlights how little Portland received in return.

The trade: Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to the Pacers for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a 2023 second-round pick

In Nov. 2020, the Kings liked Haliburton enough to make him the 12th overall pick of the draft. Then, they watched him spend a season-plus of posting pristine shooting rates and some of the best assist-to-turnover numbers in the Association.

And then, they decided they'd seen enough and turned him into this package. What?

Obviously Sacramento sensed fit issues between Haliburton and De'Aaron Fox and opted to build around the latter (who'd eventually force his way out—whoops!). And the Kings have seen some good things from Sabonis, who booked an All-Star trip and helped snap their 16-year playoff drought.

Still, this trade made them older, less dynamic and probably capped how much this core could accomplish. Indiana, in turn, put Haliburton front and center of its franchise and then followed his lead all the way to the 2025 Finals.

The trade: Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick

This might be partly unfair. Leonard had demanded a trade, which surely cut into the Spurs' leverage in trade talks. He was also coming off of an injury-riddled, nine-game season and approaching the final season on his contract. The situation was less than ideal for San Antonio.

Still, it's all too easy to look back on this package and think, That's it? That's all San Antonio managed for a player who, when healthy, looked like the top two-way talent in the sport? A player who, upon his arrival in Toronto, immediately carried his new club to a championship?

The Spurs, for some reason, seemingly coveted a stay-competitive package rather than the pile of assets you'd normally expect a team to receive for giving up an-prime star. But a couple of above-average-to-good players couldn't mask the absence of a great one, leaving San Antonio toiling near (or just out) of the back end of the playoff picture before finally bottoming out just in time to win the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.

The trade: Kyle Lowry to the Miami Heat for Precious Achiuwa and Goran Dragić

Give the Raptors a do-over for the 2021 trade deadline, and they might put Kenny Rodgers' The Gambler on repeat before going into it. Because while there are obviously times in which it makes sense to hold your assets, this was a clearly a case of folding them being the only advisable action.

Toronto, by the way, didn't make the above mentioned deal at the deadline. And that's part of the problem. Because even though the Raptors were free-falling down the standings, and Lowry, then 35, was ticketed for unrestricted free agency, they kept their franchise face around and missed out on an incredible opportunity.

Toronto aimed for the fences, with ESPN's Brian Windhorst noting the Raptors' ask from the 76ers for Lowry included "all of" their 2021 and 2023 first-round picks, plus Tyrese Maxey and Matisse Thybulle. Windhorst added that Philly stopped short of putting "that whole package in there," but it clearly would've parted with some pieces, and one report put Maxey in the mix.

If the Raptors could've turned an aging and declining Maxey and didn't, that's the kind of nightmare that may never be forgotten. Toronto wound up letting Lowry leave by way of this wholly uninspiring sign-and-trade, and Maxey, now sharing a locker room with Lowry in Philadelphia, looks like he could be on the cusp of superstardom.

The trades: John Collins to the Clippers, and Collin Sexton and a 2030 second-round pick to the Hornets for Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love, Jusuf Nurkić, a 2027 second-round pick and cash

OK, we're cheating a bit here, since the Collins and Sexton trades were separate transactions. They were, however, both shipped out within about a week of each other this summer as part of Utah's future-focused attempt to clear up both the financial picture and the floor time available for developmental work.

It made (and still makes) sense for the Jazz to prioritize their young players, but this was really the best they could do? Sexton averaged an efficient 18 points each of the past two seasons. Collins pumped in 19 a night this past season while posting a 52.7/39.9/84.8 shooting slash. There was literally no interest in either one?

That's hard to fathom, even while acknowledging teams are keeping a closer eye on their spending in the second-apron era. If markets never materialized, would it have really hurt the Jazz to keep them around and try again closer to the deadline? It's not like they would've pushed the win total higher (Utah won 17 games last season), and the Jazz could've found minutes for their young players anyhow. It just seems like Utah was so hellbent on making subtractions that it never bothered to consider what it was (and, more importantly, was not) getting in return.

The trade: Kristaps Porziņģis to the Celtics for Tyus Jones (from the Grizzlies), Danilo Gallinari, Mike Muscala and Julian Phillips

When this June 2023 deal went down, Porziņģis' trade value couldn't have been in the best shape. His injury issues were well-documented, and his future was unsettled. It was also clear that his utility to Washington had extinguished, as the franchise was rolling into an overdue youth movement.

All of that said, this feels like a pretty paltry return. When Porziņģis is healthy, he is a legitimate unicorn, protecting the paint, spacing the floor and punishing smaller players in the post. At the time of this trade, he was coming off of a campaign in which he averaged 23.2 points on 49.8/38.5/85.1 shooting, plus 8.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 blocks.

Those are big numbers. This is a tiny return. Phillips was quickly rerouted to Chicago, Gallinari and Muscala were gone during the 2023-24 season, and Jones, who should've had value at the 2024 deadline as a reliable decision-maker, stuck around for a 67-loss season and then left for nothing in free agency.