Six NBA Teams That Made A Huge Splash At The Trade Deadline

Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports

Boy did the flood gates ever open right around 3 p.m. While the trade deadline looked to be all but a bust at around 2:45 p.m., general managers started making moves as if they were a bunch of kids trading basketball cards. It was wild, crazy and has left most of us scratching our heads just waiting for new depth charts to come out. 

Any way you look at it though. all of the NBA teams are officially saddled up and ready to ride into the playoffs with whatever players they have on their current roster. The deadline has come and gone and some of the deals that went down have the potential to drastically alter the landscape of the Eastern and Western Conferences. Here are the top six teams that were heavily involved in the trade deadline and what it all means once you finally sort through this mess and discover who now plays for what team. 

1. The Phoenix Suns

Acquired from Miami: Two first-round picks, Danny Granger, Justin Hamilton

Acquired from Milwaukee: Brandon Knight

Acquired from New Orleans - John Salmons

Traded: Goran Dragic, Zoran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas, Miles Plumlee, Tyler Ennis

Not a bad day for the Suns. They had to move Dragic and managed to get a pretty decent return on a guy that would have walked for nothing in a few short months. Besides that, the acquisition of Brandon Knight in addition to Eric Bledsoe means the Suns still have a formidable back court and now have two first-round picks to work with in the future. Not bad at all. 

2. The Miami Heat

Acquired from Phoenix: Goran Dragic, Zoran Dragic,

Traded: Two first-round picks, Norris Cole, Shawne Williams, Danny Granger, Justin Hamilton

The Heat must not have wanted to take a chance on being able to woo Dragic in free agency. Riley must believe that Dragic could be the missing piece for the Heat this season or he must be confident that he can get Dragic to re-sign when it's all said and done. The Heat gave up somewhat of a king's ransom for him and it would be hard to imagine they would do that with a losing record for a four-month rental. Still, this does change the complexion of the East greatly and makes Miami an interesting team to watch down the stretch.

3. The Milwaukee Bucks

Acquire from 76ers - Michael Carter-Williams 

Acquire from Suns - Miles Plumlee, Tyler Ennis 

While Carter-Williams hasn't exactly built upon last year's rookie of the year season he has still been the lone bright spot in the 76ers organization and should be able to, at the very least, fill the role now vacated by Brandon Knight. 

4. The Philadelphia 76ers

Acquire from Suns - Protected (top 5) first-round draft pick from Lakers 

Acquire from Nuggets - Protected (top 18) first-round pick from Thunder, JaVale McGee

Traded - Michael Carter-Williams, K.J. McDaniels

The 76ers are giving a new meaning to the word "tanking." They're stockpiling draft picks and trading away all of their assets - even the ones that they were supposed to build a future around - for the future, which conceivably will arrive in Philadelphia eventually. Michael-Carter Williams' departure is somewhat of a shock but the focus is all on drafting well for the 76ers. 

5. The Detroit Pistons

Acquire from Thunder - Reggie Jackson

Acquire from Celtics - Tayshaun Prince

Traded - Kyle Singler, D.J. Augustin, Jonas Jerebko, Luigi Datome

The Pistons capitalized on Reggie Jackson's desire to get out of Oklahoma and filled a gaping Brandon Jennings-sized hole in their lineup as the point guard recovers from season-ending ruptured Achilles tendon. Jackson should be able to help this team win games in the interim, but might not mesh with Jennings if the two have to share the back court. This was the same problem that Jackson faced with Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City so problems could arise but maybe this could work out. 

6. The Oklahoma City Thunder

Acquired from Utah - Enes Kanter, Steve Novak

Acquired from Pistons - D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler

Traded - Kendrick Perkins, Reggie Jackson

This was truly the deal that made all of the disgruntled superstars happy once again. Reggie Jackson got out of OKC and Enes Kanter got out of Utah. Kanter is going to make a big impact in Oklahoma and he will more than fill the void of Kendrick Perkins, whose play has declined in recent years exponentially. The Thunder also have a great deal of depth with the acquisition of D.J. Augustin, Steve Novak and Kyle Singler who can all play valuable minutes and help the Thunder make a late-season push towards the playoffs. 

Other Notable Deals:

Kevin Garnett is heading back to Minnesota where he started his illustrious hall-of-fame career and Thaddeus Young is off to Brooklyn. On the surface this deal doesn't seem to make as much sense for the Timberwolves as it does for the Nets. The Nets dump an aging Garnett who's making roughly $3 million more per season and is statistically a much lesser player at this point in his career than Young. The only thing the Wolves assured themselves of is that Young can't pick up his nearly $10 million player option next season and leave the T-Wolves holding the bill. The Nets get a solid player for a potential playoff push.

Pablo Prigioni is out of New York as the Knicks have traded the 37-year-old point guard to the Houston Rockets for Alexey Shved and two second-round picks. That's a pretty good deal for the Knicks who are officially doing battle with the 76ers for the NBA's worst team and the services of Jahlil Okafor. 

Isaiah Thomas has been traded to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Boston will send Marcus Thornton and a 2016 first-round pick that goes from Cleveland to Phoenix. On any other day trying to figure out where that draft pick came from might be confusing. 

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