Where were the contenders at the NBA trade deadline? Plus, scouting Heat's Kasparas Jakučionis
So... does anybody actually want to win this thing?
In the aftermath of the NBA trade deadline's record-breaking 28 moves (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6954587/2026/02/05/nba-trade-wrapup-2026-anthony-davis-kuminga-harden/), I'm left wondering about the teams that didn't make any moves. While a handful of teams were actively trying to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo, the top contenders were shockingly quiet.
Sure, Kevin Huerter, Ayo Dosunmu, Luke Kennard, Jared McCain, and Jose Alvarado had their moments, but only one deal during deadline week had a significant impact on the title chase: James Harden's move to the Cleveland Cavaliers. And even then, the Cavaliers were only fifth in the Eastern Conference on deadline day. The top eight teams in each conference remained largely inactive.
Several teams that were either in the title chase or on the fringes of it made moves that were the opposite of going for it. The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers cut salaries to avoid the luxury tax, as did the Orlando Magic, who weren't exactly tearing up the league but entered the year with high hopes, trading four first-round draft picks for Desmond Bane. The Miami Heat, usually at the forefront of go-for-it moves, sat out the trade deadline entirely.
Even the teams that did make moves weren't exactly burning through their assets. The Detroit Pistons received a trade-up in the 2026 NBA Draft to acquire Huerter, but they also ended up with a player in the midst of a three-year shooting slump. The Los Angeles Lakers, who traded for Kennard, could have done more but chose not to. Boston, for instance, traded Anfernee Simons for Nikola Vučević but didn't pursue Ivica Zubac.
The Toronto Raptors, eager to take the next step, didn't complete any noteworthy deals. One wonders how a pursuit of Jaren Jackson Jr. might have gone, as he would have fit their roster perfectly. And what about the San Antonio Spurs? Would a frontcourt of Jackson and Wembanyama ever give up a basket?
Each team could make a credible case for its actions, and some top teams had their hands tied by traded draft picks. But as a group, the inaction of the league's best 16 teams was stunning. All were outbid or not interested in the two clear gems of the trade deadline: Zubac and Jackson. How is it possible that the Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz came in with the winning bids on these players? And the next-best gets, Anthony Davis and Trae Young, ended up on the 14-38 Washington Wizards.
Partly, I'm sure, it was a sense of holding back for a run at Giannis, which might have extended beyond the four teams reportedly in direct trade talks with the Milwaukee Bucks' superstar. Teams like Detroit, Houston, or San Antonio might have thought, 'Let's see what this looks like through one postseason cycle before making a giant, aggressive move.'
More intriguingly, we didn't see Orlando, whose current front office drafted Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, make any stab at a Paolo Banchero-for-Antetokounmpo concept. One wonders if we might see this summer if the Magic continue struggling.
Still, it's shocking that none of the top 16 teams appeared to be a factor in the race for either Zubac or Jackson. Should teams like Miami or the Golden State Warriors have pivoted to a move for Jackson now rather than wait and hope for Giannis this summer? Would they have had enough to beat Utah's offer if they did?
The non-contenders acted like contenders, making win-now moves for next year. And once that happened, Indiana and Utah had better draft capital than many contenders. The LA Clippers have a great chance at turning Zubac into a lottery pick; no pick from the Celtics, for instance, has the same odds.
You might wonder if there was something in the collective bargaining agreement that incentivized this behavior. Not especially, it seems. If anything, the 'shoot-money-from-the-firehose' teams in the contender class might have been more tempted to chase Jackson while matching a $35 million salary now, rather than a $49 million salary this summer. (Jackson's unusual renegotiate-and-extend deal in the summer of 2025 produced a much greater than usual hike in his cap number.)
One could argue that it was the reverse effect of all the traded draft picks and the punitive repeater tax. Teams must now think very, very hard about which players are worth $50 million a year, even for teams like the Clippers and Warriors that aren't going to sweat writing luxury-tax checks.
That perhaps created the necessary conditions for the Jazz, Pacers, and Wizards to win out in the bidding for the players they acquired, but it wasn't the only piece. When looking at Utah's and Washington's willingness to jump in for expensive, veteran players, a different answer likely emerges: owners being just plain sick of losing.
Any rebuilding project has an inherent timeline. Telling an owner 'we'll stop once we get the exact right guy to build around' is probably the correct way to do it, but it's ultimately an extremely unsatisfying (not to mention job-security-threatening) answer. That's especially true when flattened lottery odds have made the tanking strategy less of a sure thing than it was during the halcyon days of 'The Process'.
Ergo, the Jazz, after five years of competing for half a season and then shamelessly engineering a second-half tailspin, have decided they're done with it. Washington, at 47-169 (.218) over the past three seasons, has similarly declared the rebuilding part over. And the Pacers, obviously, never intended to be this bad to begin with; theirs is a pure 'gap year' strategy. It's something to keep in mind as we track further rebuilds around the league: even a full teardown comes with a timeline.
Nonetheless, I'm wondering if we may end up looking back on this trade deadline in two or three years and asking a lot of questions about what might have been. It depends heavily on how the 2026 postseason turns out, to be sure, and certainly on what the endgame is for Antetokounmpo. But I'm wondering if at least a few teams near the top of the standings will rue their decision not to chase harder for the ring while they could.
Rookie of the week: Kasparas Jakučionis, 6-5 PG/SG, Miami
Who says player development has to be linear? After a groin injury delayed the start of his rookie season and left him behind the curve throughout the first half, Jakučionis unexpectedly broke out in the last 48 hours with his two highest-scoring games of the season.
Fresh off a DNP earlier in the week, the 20th pick in the draft from Illinois scored 22 and added six assists in the Heat's blowout win over Washington on Sunday, and then came back with 20 more in a loss at home to Utah on Monday.
While he missed a potential game-tying 3 at the end of the second game, the fact that he was even on the floor for that shot and was seemingly the first option speaks volumes about his recent heater. Behind the arc, Jakučionis went 6-of-6 from 3 on Sunday and 6-of-10 on Monday.
The percentage is unsustainable, obviously, but the level of 3-point volume is the real key. He just hadn't been letting it rip at anywhere near that frequency before last week. However, he got six attempts up on Jan. 31 and then 16 more in the last two games; he had only one game with more than four attempts before then. Some of that is playing-time driven, yes, but he has 27 3-point attempts in his last 118 minutes, putting him over the rate of eight tries per 36 minutes that marks one as a true bomber.
His rate before then? A measly 5.1.
On tape, what stands out is the speed of his release; he's catching and flicking the 3 up from his shooting pocket with no ball dip and no hesitation, and it's allowed him to get shots away before a closeout can reach him. At his size, that part is imperative going forward.
Defensively, Jakučionis also likely enjoyed his two blocks and one steal on Sunday — one of each came at the expense of his former Illinois teammate Will Riley, including a blocked 3 in which Jakučionis tracked back in transition and caught Riley from behind.
The Heat will still want to see more from Jakučionis inside the 3-point lane, where he is shooting a putrid 27.2 percent on the year, but this last week should help serve as proof of concept for the Heat that the 19-year-old Lithuanian can be a rotation-ready piece next to Giannis as Miami sets up its roster for next season.
