The 2017 NBA offseason didn’t feature any stars like LeBron James or Kevin Durant signing with new teams in free agency, but it was still one of the most eventful summers in recent memory. Trades played a big part in the offseason excitement, with NBA teams completing a total of 39 swaps since the 2016/17 season ended.
Not all of those deals were blockbusters. The Rockets, for instance, made several moves that saw them pay cash to acquire players on non-guaranteed salaries in the hopes of flipping them in later trades — most of those players were ultimately waived.
Still, there was no shortage of big-name players on the move. Five Eastern Conference All-Stars changed teams in trades, with Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas involved in the same deal, and Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Carmelo Anthony all being sent to new homes in the West.
With opening night just two weeks away, 29 of 30 NBA teams have completed at least one trade this offseason, leaving the Spurs as the only club not to make a deal. Of those 29 teams that made a trade, most completed more than one — the Cavaliers, Heat, Suns, Warriors, and Wizards each finalized just one deal apiece, while the league’s 24 other teams made multiple trades.
Here’s the breakdown of the teams that made the most trades this offseason:
- Houston Rockets (8): Houston’s total was artificially inflated by those aforementioned deals involving non-guaranteed contracts. Six of their eight trades saw the Rockets trade cash or a draft pick for a player with a non-guaranteed salary. The team did complete one massive deal though, acquiring Chris Paul from the Clippers.
- Los Angeles Clippers (5): The CP3 swap was the Clippers’ biggest move, but it was hardly their only trade. The team also acquired Danilo Gallinari in a sign-and-trade and acquire multiple second-round picks on draft night.
- Philadelphia 76ers (5): Most of the Sixers’ trades were draft-night deals, though the biggest one happened a few days earlier, when Philadelphia acquired the first overall pick from Boston in order to snag Markelle Fultz.
- Atlanta Hawks (4): The rebuilding Hawks made a handful of trades with an eye toward the future, including taking on Jamal Crawford‘s contract to land a first-round pick, and getting rid of Dwight Howard and his $23MM+ annual salary.
- New Orleans Pelicans (4): The Pelicans essentially completed a pair of salary dumps when they traded Tim Frazier to Washington and Quincy Pondexter to Chicago, since the pick acquired for Frazier was later sold. The team’s most notable deal came on draft night, when New Orleans traded up to No. 31 to select Frank Jackson.
The other NBA teams that made the most trades this offseason are as follows
- Boston Celtics (3)
- Brooklyn Nets (3)
- Chicago Bulls (3)
- Dallas Mavericks (3)
- Indiana Pacers (3)
- Memphis Grizzlies (3)
- Orlando Magic (3)
- Portland Trail Blazers (3)
- Toronto Raptors (3)
- Utah Jazz (3)
- Charlotte Hornets (2)
- Denver Nuggets (2)
- Detroit Pistons (2)
- Los Angeles Lakers (2)
- Milwaukee Bucks (2)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (2)
- New York Knicks (2)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (2)
- Sacramento Kings (2)
Note: The Magic sending the Raptors a draft pick for the right to hire Jeff Weltman and the Knicks sending a pick to the Kings for the right to hire Scott Perry are both considered trades for our purposes.
This stuff is nuts
Spurs is always a contender in the west, they position themselves most of the time in the 1-3 spot in the Western conference, without trades or with very minimal changes, it just shows how effective the team works developing the players they have. They don’t depend on the skill of the player. A very principled systematic organization, if your an employee you would definitely choose a stable company, in the nba the Spurs would be that company.