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.
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
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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
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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
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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
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
