Now that the NBA’s trade deadline has come and gone and there’s been time to analyze every move that was and wasn’t made, the trade landscape has become much clearer. It’s safe to say there weren’t a lot of marquee players truly available, and most interested buyers didn’t have a lot to offer.
This combination, along with the fact that (in part due to the play-in tournament) more teams than ever fancy themselves alive for playoff contention, saw a deadline with plenty of movement, but very few star-caliber players changing teams.
No blue-chippers were moved and there were only a handful of impact starter-level players who even got swapped at the deadline. The four biggest names who were traded this season were James Harden, Terry Rozier, OG Anunoby, and Pascal Siakam, and those deals were all weeks and months before the actual deadline.
Still, there were plenty of players and picks moved at the deadline, and surely a number of those guys will thrive and break out in new roles, some may even help win playoff games and potentially even a championship for their new team.
There were good values to be had, and there were some players who may make people look back at what steal they ended up being in these trades. All in all, the Hornets were very active and seem to have done well for themselves at the deadline. But here are three players who got moved to other teams that the Hornets should have made a play for.