The NBA trade deadline has come and passed. Gone with it are the plethora of rumors surrounding some of the best players in the league.
This year's deadline day turned out to be a dud. No superstar talent changed hands, although the Houston Rockets tried mightily to move Dwight Howard and the Cleveland Cavaliers at least entertained the thought of trading Kevin Love.
That doesn't mean movement didn't happen. Multiple teams fortified their postseason positioning, most notably the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Clippers. There were teams that shed salary cap and are positioned to make a real run in free agency, where things may get a little crazy.
All of that being said, we break down the winners and the losers of a busy week.
WINNER • Stan Van Gundy, in a few short years in Detroit, has put the Pistons back on the map. He shipped Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova to the Orlando Magic and returned Tobias Harris, the perfect stretch power forward to provide spacing for Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond. He then shipped out a first-round pick and brought back Marcus Thornton and Donatas Motiejunas from the Houston Rockets. Thornton will provide instant scoring off the bench and Motiejunas is another stretch-four. The Pistons are now one of the more dangerous in the Eastern Conference and clear trade deadline winners.
LOSER • When Dave Joerger coaches his team, he looks into his huddle at the following people: Lance Stephenson, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen, Matt Barnes. If you made an all-mentally fragile team, at least three of those guys may be at the top of the list. But the Memphis Grizzlies made this bed when they traded Jeff Green to the Los Angeles Clippers for a future first-round pick and Stephenson, who has struggled to find a steady home since his days with the Indiana Pacers. Maybe it all works, because those guys are still really talented. But if it goes bad? It has the potential to go spectacularly bad.
WINNER • Speaking of trading for emotionally challenged players, the Wizards parted with a first-round pick, Kris Humphries and DaJuan Blair for Markieff Morris. It's certainly worth the gamble. Morris has his issues, but he's supremely talented and fits the Washington roster like a glove. He'll be able to play off the talent of John Wall, spot up and make jumpers. He'll use his versatility to provide the Wizards with a low- and mid-post threat. Obviously, given his history in Phoenix, Morris is a risk. But he's a risk worth taking, if Washington wants to make a playoff run.
WINNER • The Phoenix Suns also won in the Morris trade. Why? Because not only did the franchise finally get him off the roster — where he had been the definition of toxic — they were able to flip him for a first-round pick. Whoa. Great work by the Suns' front office. Phoenix also clears a bit more cap space, as Blair and Humphries come off the books following this season. That was some fine work by the Suns.
LOSER • The Houston Rockets in general, who still have Dwight Howard and Ty Lawson on their roster, despite dangling both in very public fashion. Now, they have to re-integrate them into the locker room, make them feel wanted and try to get the most out of them for the second-half playoff push, which is no small task. And they risk losing both in free agency, anyway. Howard is said to be able to command as much a $30 million on the free-agent market this summer. Pretty sure Houston doesn't wish to pay that freight.
WINNER • The Golden State Warriors sat this one out, and look like geniuses in doing so. Nobody made a move to pass them up, nobody figured out a way to get better than them.
WINNER • NBA free agency, which has a chance to be wild because of the relative lack of deadline movement. In free agency, you may see more trades than usual, and see more movement than usual. Usually when one is quiet, the other explodes. You could see that this season.
WINNER • The Los Angeles Clippers added Green, a sneaky good pickup for them. He'll be able to slide into Blake Griffin's power forward spot, and then move to small forward when Griffin returns. He has star talent, but he'll never be a star. What he can do is be an elite role player, and a versatile elite role player to complement the talent of Griffin and Chris Paul is exactly what the Clippers need right now.
tjones@sltrib.com
Twitter: @tjonessltrib