Although it has not even been a week since the NBA trade deadline went by, we believe that we already have a pretty good idea of who won and who lost.
Dallas Maverick’s decision to send Franchise Center Luka Doncic to Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis has already backfired, as Davis is expected to be sideways for several weeks due to a left adductor stem.
Doncic will certainly be a star in Los Angeles, but he has not really reached that status yet, since he only went for 14 points on 5-AV-14 shooting in his Lakers debut on Monday night.
At the same time, Jimmy Butler is at a strong start with Golden State Warriors, Kyle Kuzma establishes herself as a service start with Milwaukee Bucks and De’andre Hunter will surely make Cleveland Cavalier’s 43-10 better than they already are.
But no team has been favored by the trade deadline more than San Antonio Spurs.
San Antonio acquired De’aaron Fox from Sacramento Kings as part of a three-day agreement involving Chicago Bulls, and the 27-year-old sees at home with Spurs.
In four matches with its new team, Fox has an average of 21.3 points, 3.5 returns and 8.5 assists. The San Antonio crime has posted 121.0 points per competition with Fox in the mix, and by putting its new acquisition together with Victor Wembanyama, Spurs has created a formidable duo that few teams will be able to contain.
Getting Fox was really the best of both worlds for San Antonio. The spurs not only got better for this season, but they also gave themselves a Bona Fide 1-2 Stans for many years to come. There are plenty of young talents surrounding Fox and Wembanyama-as both are still on upsets-so it should not be surprised when San Antonio plays deep in the spring in the near future.
It’s not like Sacramento got the short end of the stick in the store either. Sure, they gave up a big weapon in Fox, but they managed to make that loss to stick a little less by taking in Zach Lavine from Chicago.
Lavine still finds her foot with the kings and goes only 5-for-26 from 3-point intervals (19.2 percent) in its first four matches with Sacramento. He has an average of 18.5 points, 3.3 boards and 3.3 assists.
It comes a day where everything starts to click for Lavine, and it is when it becomes easy to see that both Spurs and Kings can consider themselves a deadline winner. However, San Antonio will be the team that has more success in the long term.
As long as Fox remains healthy, there is a very good chance that the spurs will stop having the best step for this year’s deadline. We have already seen injuries come to Davis, and there is nothing that says how long Doncic will be able to stay healthy.
