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4 big-picture takeaways from NBA deadline day – theScore

Published

9 months ago

February 9, 2024

Though the NBA’s trade season started with a bang, as OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Terry Rozier each found themselves on playoff contenders in the span of three weeks, that head start left deadline day without much star power. Still, 18 trades were completed between Wednesday and Thursday, with ripple effects felt across the league. Here are four big-picture takeaways from this week’s movement.

Find analysis on every deadline-day deal here.

So much for a seller’s market

Jeff Haynes / NBA / Getty Images

With so many flawed playoff teams in need of reinforcements and so few teams with an impetus to take a step back this season, it seemed like the small number of would-be sellers were poised to cash in at this deadline.

So much for that.

While the Pistons and Hornets made the trades they needed to make, they acquired just one first-round pick between them. Meanwhile, a ton of other players who appeared to be (or at least should’ve been) on the block wound up staying put, including Bruce Brown in Toronto, Dejounte Murray in Atlanta, Alex Caruso and Andre Drummond in Chicago, and Kyle Kuzma and Tyus Jones in Washington. You can argue that those teams – which range from mediocre to exceedingly awful – should’ve taken the best offers available, but it seems like the markets for their players never really developed.

Chalk it up to risk-aversion on the part of the buyers, unrealistic asking prices on the part of the sellers, or the fact that so many of the league’s first-round picks are concentrated with a few teams (the Thunder, Jazz, Spurs, and Pelicans) that weren’t inclined to trade them. Whatever the reason or confluence of reasons, we ended up with a deadline in which most of the upgrades made by competitive teams were marginal. Of those teams, only the Knicks and possibly Thunder (pending Gordon Hayward’s health) made moves of real significance.

Of course, a big part of the reason for the quiet deadline day is that a bunch of higher-profile moves went down in the lead-up to it. Anunoby, Siakam, Rozier, and James Harden have already changed teams this season. Teams will also have the opportunity to go shopping on a robust buyout market that’ll include Kyle Lowry and Spencer Dinwiddie. It was still surprising to see teams with clear needs, like the Kings, Lakers, Warriors, and Pelicans, come away with nothing. – Joe Wolfond

Knicks the big winners

I know the 2012-13 Knicks won 54 games and a playoff series, and I understand the need for cautious optimism given injuries to Mitchell Robinson, Anunoby, and Julius Randle (plus Jalen Brunson’s recent ankle ailment), but I’m already convinced this is now the best Knicks team since the turn of the century.

Though the Celtics are still overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference, the 2024 Knicks represent New York’s most realistic shot at a Finals berth in a generation. The team’s late-December move for Anunoby better balanced the roster, gave the Knicks the type of big wing defender every contender needs, and broke up the redundant combination of Randle and RJ Barrett. In turning Quentin Grimes, expiring salaries, and a couple of second-round picks into Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks on deadline day, the front office has now put the finishing touches on a formidable team that can build on a 2023 trip to the East semis and on a 16-3 run in 2024 that has the Knicks in a race for the conference’s No. 2 seed.

New York already boasts top-seven marks on both ends of the court, but its seventh-ranked offense was much less playoff-proof than its sixth-ranked defense. Bogdanovic and Burks help address that.

With Randle and Anunoby out, Bogdanovic will serve as a solid secondary scorer alongside Brunson. At full strength, the Knicks will likely bring Bogdanovic off the bench, but his combination of self-creation, shooting, and veteran know-how will be a major boost for New York’s attack, opening up valuable space for Brunson and Randle to work with. As a 40% shooter from deep, Burks could become a key weapon off Tom Thibodeau’s bench and team with Bogdanovic to help juice what has thus far been a below-average shooting team.

With two All-Stars, three 20-point scorers, an all-world defender, and plenty of depth, the Knicks have just about every piece in place you could ask for outside of a bona fide superstar, and some would argue Brunson’s play has him knocking on that door. Again, they need to get healthy, but while everyone was waiting to see what New York would do with a boatload of extra draft picks and potential 2025 cap space, the Knicks have gone about building something that looks pretty darn close to a genuine contender in the present. – Joseph Casciaro

There’s no saving the Lakers this year

After a flurry of midseason transactions took last year’s Lakers from play-in afterthought to Western Conference finalists, much was expected of the league’s glitziest franchise this season. When the Lakers failed to live up to expectations, blindly optimistic fans assumed general manager Rob Pelinka could simply pull another deadline-day rabbit out of his hat. The only question was, who would it be? Dejounte Murray? Tyus Jones? Collin Sexton? A reunion with Alex Caruso?

Alas, Pelinka appears to be out of tricks, and adding Spencer Dinwiddie off the buyout market won’t change the fact that this team simply isn’t good enough to compete in a stacked West.

Injuries to Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish, and Rui Hachimura have hurt the team’s depth, but the Lakers have to confront reality. LeBron James remains an All-NBA caliber superstar defying the laws of aging, and he’s missed only six games. Anthony Davis is playing some of the best basketball of his Hall of Fame career and has missed only four contests. Austin Reaves has suited up for all 52 of Los Angeles’ games. The recently improved D’Angelo Russell – L.A.’s third-leading scorer – has missed only four. And yet, the Lakers find themselves languishing in ninth place, closer to 11th (two games) than they are to sixth (3.5), with a 20th-ranked offense and a 14th-ranked defense.

Even in 1127 minutes with both James and Davis on the court, the Lakers are a pedestrian plus-1.3 per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. In other words, the Lakers are so wholly uninspiring as a collective that even with two top-15 players sharing the court, they play at a level somewhere between the Pacers and Rockets.

In that light, perhaps it’s easier to understand why Pelinka didn’t make a short-sighted move to boost the Lakers’ 2024 title odds. But how will that play with James, who’s rarely had a contending-level supporting cast around him since winning the 2020 championship? He can opt for free agency if he declines his ($51.4-million) 2024-25 player option.

Those same blindly optimistic Lakers fans will tell you the team can use up to three first-round picks in trade talks this summer, but if a game-changing star becomes available, good luck pitting that modest collection of draft assets up against the treasure trove of picks teams like Oklahoma City, Utah, San Antonio, New Orleans, Brooklyn, and New York, among others, can cobble together. – Casciaro

Raptors continue to confound

Even though they ostensibly picked a direction by trading Anunoby and Siakam weeks before the deadline, the Raptors’ team-building approach remains a bit of an incoherent mess. For the second straight year, despite being positioned as a clear seller, they dealt a first-round pick while holding onto their most prized trade chip on deadline day.

To be clear, the trade they made today was far more defensible than the one they made for Jakob Poeltl last year. Moving a pick that’s likely to land 28th or later in a maligned draft in exchange for Ochai Agbaji (a lottery pick in 2022) and Kelly Olynyk (a useful vet on an expiring deal) is perfectly fine in a vacuum. But for a rebuilding team, you can argue that four years of rookie-scale production from a 2024 draft pick, even a late first in a purportedly weak class, would be preferable to two more years of rookie deal Agbaji, whose shooting hasn’t translated to the NBA level and is already almost 24.

Even if you prefer Agbaji to a lottery ticket at the tail end of the first round (which, again, is a perfectly defensible opinion given Agbaji’s 3-and-D potential), Toronto’s moves wind up feeling pretty scattershot in totality. Bruce Brown, one of the most desirable players known to be available at the deadline, stayed put despite the Knicks reportedly offering a first-rounder along with Evan Fournier’s expiring contract before pivoting to Burks and Bogdanovic. Brown will still have suitors in the offseason, but with a $23-million team option for next season, this was the time to trade him to get something of value back and create a huge chunk of cap space. Now, it looks like they’ll have to choose between value and cap space.

If they wind up going the cap-space route, that’ll likely mean just declining Brown’s team option, which will close the book on the Siakam trade return at two first-round picks, Jordan Nwora, Agbaji, and Olynyk (if they choose to re-sign him). If they choose to keep Brown into next season or trade him for an equivalent salary, then they’ll already be close enough to MLE territory that operating as an over-the-cap team (and re-signing Olynyk and Gary Trent Jr.) will make more sense. In that case, trading Dennis Schroder in a straight salary dump will look a lot worse in hindsight.

Clearing Schroder’s 2024-25 money off the books was eminently sensible when it still looked like Brown would get dealt and might still work out in the Raptors’ favor if they open up cap space and convince a quality free agent like Malik Monk or Nic Claxton to take their money. But keeping Brown and Trent Jr. made that move feel like more of a half measure.

The Raptors are still generally on the right track – or at least a track – in collecting young pieces and building around Scottie Barnes. (Even the 32-year-old Olynyk, as a playmaking stretch big, can fit into that plan.) But there’s a certain sense of clarity that continues to elude them. Their deadline wasn’t necessarily good or bad; it was just all over the place. – Wolfond

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

17 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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