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NBA Trade Deadline Roundup – Dissecting Southwest Division Deals

By Tamberlyn Richardson

Feb 23, 2017; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward DeMarcus Cousins (0) in the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 23, 2017; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward DeMarcus Cousins (0) in the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /
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Feb 23, 2017; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward DeMarcus Cousins (0) in the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 23, 2017; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward DeMarcus Cousins (0) in the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /

With the NBA Trade Deadline over, it’s time to review the moves and assess how each team is positioned for the stretch run.  This article will focus on the moves made prior to the NBA Trade Deadline by the Southwest Division.

Entering the NBA Trade Deadline the Southwest Division had three teams securely locked in playoff seeds, one deciding whether to tank and one who blew up the internet with the steal of the century. For the purposes of this article let’s look at each team in the division, review their activity (or idle stance), and how their moves may affect the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Moving into NBA Trade Deadline day there was a feeling it might be one of those insanely busy days akin to the 2014-15 event where 39 players changed teams. Especially with big moves occurring in both Conferences just prior to the deadline.

Related: OKC Thunder trade for Gibson and McDermott

In hindsight, perhaps it wasn’t a foregone conclusion given the depth of the upcoming draft and rising caps for teams. Moreover, teams needing more than a single tweak in order to usurp the Warriors were hesitant to make brash moves. Why shuffle your roster if it wasn’t going to move the needle in that direction?

Not surprisingly, the San Antonio Spurs made no moves, nor did the Memphis Grizzlies. Both teams are content to remain status quo heading into their playoff push.

With that let’s look at three Southwest Division teams who were active at the deadline.

Legend:

C = Center, PF = Power Forward, SF = Small Forward, SG = Shooting Guard, PG = Point Guard

PG (in all cases = per game), P = points, A = assists, R = rebounds, Blk = blocks, Stl = steals

FG% = field goal percent, 3PFG% = three point field goal percent

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