NBA Trade Deadline: Winners, Losers & NBA Championship Odds (2024)

Line Movement Favors Boston, New York

Before we get into our winners and losers from today’s trade deadline, let’s talk about how the NBA Championship odds have moved since last week — after all, deadline winners are likely teams that have seen their odds shorten in the last 10 days.

Few teams have made up more ground over the last 10 than the New York Knicks. Sure, they’re still waiting on Julius Randle to come back from an injury, but adding both Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic at the trade deadline gives them a scary core. Their NBA Championship odds have more than doubled.

The other story here is less obvious. The Boston Celtics, who were trading at +310 just a week ago, are now trading at +260. While they didn’t double their odds, they increased their advantage by a 3.4% margin, which is actually worth more than what the Knicks added to their odds (3%).

The Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns have all seen their odds lengthen, but not all that movement falls on events at the trade deadline. Joel Embiid is now out for the foreseeable future, after all. Let’s get into the winners and losers of the 2024 NBA trade deadline.

NBA Championship Odds 1/29
+3400
NBA Championship Odds 2/8
+1600

Let’s hear it for New York! The Knicks had a banger trade deadline, adding role two more players to their rotation in the form of Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks. Bogdanovic provides a scoring burst at wing, while Burks offers solid perimeter shooting and tight defense. New York may not have a single superstar option at the two or three, but their two new players, combined with OG Anunoby, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart present a scary committee at the position. The only question is who Tom Thibodeau will play for 40-plus minutes.

NBA Championship Odds 1/29
+310
NBA Championship Odds 2/8
+260

Jaden Springer and Xavier Tillman Sr. are shipping up to Boston, as the Celtics acquired both players — and for a surprisingly low price. They gave up a total of three second-round picks for the combo-guard and versatile big. Tillman gives them an excellent defender who should help them keep Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford fresh for the playoffs — and who should keep Luke Kornet and his patented Kornet contests off the floor in the postseason. I’m not sure if Springer needs to fit into their rotation at this point, but he’s an upside piece who can provide solid bench minutes.

NBA Championship Odds 1/29
+1200
NBA Championship Odds 2/8
+1600

OK, so the Suns didn’t sell some oceanfront property in Arizona to get David Roddy and Royce O’Neale — they paid a fair price to get them — but I still like the move. They got rid of Keita Bates-Diop, Chimezie Metu, Yuta Watanabe and Jordan Goodwin, along with three second-round picks, to acquire the two pieces. O’Neale offers efficient 3-point shooting and offers solid wing defense. O’Neale has a value over replacement (VORP) of 0.4 this season, but the trio of players Phoenix moved for him sit at a VORP of -0.2. The lack of any big moves in the West helps, too.

NBA Championship Odds 1/29
N/A
NBA Championship Odds 2/8
N/A

I find it kind of funny that my favorite Detroit-adjacent song, “Wolves,” off Big Sean’s Detroit 2 mixtape, shares a name with another NBA team, but the Pistons are so irrelevant at this point that it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Pistons were already out of the NBA Championship hunt this year — not mathematically, but, you know, logically — and they still managed to make some terrible moves. How do you not get a first back for Bojan Bogdanovic? Why are you buying 28-year-old Simone Fontecchio just to bring him back as an RFA? What a joke. Detroit deserves better.

NBA Championship Odds 1/29
+3000
NBA Championship Odds 2/8
+5000

The Los Angeles Lakers did nothing at the deadline. Sure, they’ll probably be active on the buy-out market, but would Spencer Dinwiddie or Kyle Lowry elevate this roster at all? That’s a hard no. The Lakers could’ve shipped off some second-round picks for Tillman or Bogdanovic (because that was their market price) or tried to move their future first-round picks to get the most out of 39-year-old LeBron James. Instead, they’ll likely wait another year to contend, as the role players they brought in to help out the superstar have gotten hurt or are underperforming.

NBA Championship Odds 1/29
+1100
NBA Championship Odds 2/8
+3000

The Philadelphia 76ers shipped off Patrick Beverley for Cameron Payne, brought in Buddy Hield for Furkan Korkmaz, Marcus Morris Sr. and three second-round picks and shipped off Jaden Springer for a second-round pick. As they wait for more news about when Joel Embiid will return, the moves feel more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic than anything else. These moves don’t elevate their roster, and the disadvantage the 76ers now find themselves at relative to the Celtics, Bucks and Knicks will leave them wasting away in the postseason.