Breaking Down The NBA Trade Deadline, Team By Team

The NBA Trade Deadline is kind of like a game of Risk. You have several territories to conquer (or players to add), some of which are more valuable than others. You have different number of pieces (i.e. trade assets) depending on your performance in the game, and you have the ability to control how you use such pieces. You have to make sure you don’t leave currently-owned territories uncovered, which is kind of like making sure you don’t lose anything in the present or future with any potential trades. And while there may not eventually be one winner, there is a cost/benefit analysis each team must make that’s very similar to what you do in Risk.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at where every teams stands, what they have to offer, what they need and what players and teams are potentially good trade targets. We at SB Nation have already talked about some trades we’d love to see, but we’ve yet to take that step back and really analyze the full picture. Here, we attempt to do that in as systematic a way as possible, with five categories to separate teams and a comprehensive breakdown of all the factors that would influence their thinking. I’ve enlisted the help of several SB Nation team bloggers to help me with this project, so where relevant, you’ll see them mentioned or quoted.