During the week leading up to the NBA’s trade deadline the league just dives as deeply as possible into transactional chaos. It can be a bit funny in the moment, sure. Seeing the Suns players react to the Luka trade, for example, doesn’t seem like a particularly meaningful or harmful moment.

The 3 p.m. ET deadline was a moment in time, but this 2025 version qualified as a “trade week” at least, almost as a “trade season” if we look back to Dec. 15 when Thomas Bryant moved from Miami to Indiana and Dennis Schröder went from Brooklyn to Golden State.

The Dallas Mavericks’ shocking trade of 25-year-old superstar Luka Dončić to the Lakers for 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis is one example of the power starting to sway back in the other direction. So was the not-as-stunning-but-still-consequential trade of Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat to the Golden State Warriors.