This past Thursday, the trade deadline for the 2017-2018 NBA season passed with a lot of activity featuring a lot of surprising names. Nineteen teams were active on the trade deadline day, and they combined for twelve total trades. This marks the busiest trade deadline since the 2014-2015 season.

To examine how drastic the changes to the team rosters are, one first needs to go back to January 29th. In an unexpected move, the Los Angeles Clippers traded the face of the franchise, Blake Griffin, along with Brice Johnson and Willie Reed to the Detroit Pistons for Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, Avery Bradley, a protected 2018 first round draft pick and a 2019 second round draft pick. This move brought into question whether or not the Clippers are planning on going into a rebuild in the near future. Griffin was the number one overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, and became the Summer League MVP for the Clippers. He injured his kneecap in the final Summer League game, delaying his professional career start until the following season. However, from 2010-2018, Griffin shined for the Clippers, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in the 2010-2011 season, and being voted as an all-star from 2011-2015. While his career has been laden with injuries, the five time all-star helped lead the Clippers to a playoff appearance in every season since 2012. This opened the floor for many big names to be traded.

His teammate Deandre Jordan was expected to be traded as well, which would signal the complete rebuild of the franchise, as they would have dealt all three of their stars, the third being Chris Paul who was traded to Houston in the offseason. The Clippers were also expected to shop Lou Williams, who has had a career year in Los Angeles, and currently has career highs in points and assists per game. Another starting caliber player in talks to be traded was Tyreke Evans. The Memphis Grizzlies sat Evans for five consecutive games before the trade deadline, and were actively seeking trade partners. Even Evans was sure he was being traded. The Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace stated "Basically, we felt that the offers weren't sufficient for a player of Evans’ caliber and potential…So, we decided not to do anything." The Charlotte Hornets also were potentially shopping Kemba Walker. While owner Michael Jordan stated he did not have plans to trade him, Walker’s contract is of high value for the two time all-star, who was just listed as a replacement for Kristaps Porzingis in this year’s All-Star Game. Between the talent and value of Walker, and the Charlotte Hornets needing some help to move up from 10th place in the Eastern Conference, a deal looked like a real possibility.

One of the real surprises of the trade deadline, however, was not the inactivity of other teams, but rather the activity of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Starting last summer, the Cavaliers started making moves to bolster their roster around LeBron James. The Cavaliers signed Jose Calderon, Jeff Green, Cedi Osman and Derrick Rose. In the biggest trade of the summer, they traded Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and a first round draft pick. These picks built the Cavaliers to have a lineup that could challenge Golden State in the NBA Finals. The Cavs also signed Dwyane Wade off of the Bulls, completing their roster buildup. This “experiment”, as it has been referred to, did not have the desired effect the Cavs expected. Especially with Thomas being out recovering from a hip injury for most of the year, Cleveland ended up in a tailspin, falling from contending with the Celtics for the conference lead to barely holding the division over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Cavs looked over the roster they had built and decided to move a lot of their pieces at the deadline. Within a few hours of the deadline, the Cavs traded Wade to the Heat, executed a three team trade to move Iman Shumpert, Crowder and Rose, and moved Thomas and Channing Frye to the Lakers. Cleveland received Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., Rodney Hood and George Hill. This revitalized lineup is 2-0 since the trade deadline, and the new lineup beat the Boston Celtics by 22 points the other night.

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Elsewhere, the Utah Jazz waived Rose, and the Lakers, while on a hot streak, lost their only game with their new roster, despite 22 points from Thomas off the bench. Thomas only had two twenty point games in his time at Cleveland. In fact, Thomas said in a post game interview “I got my powers back.” of his current situation.