The Hornets only gave up a couple of bench players and second-round picks to get Courtney Lee. It was a good idea to add another shooting wing for a very low price. The Grizzlies got some second-round picks and some role players, but did not upgrade their roster. It was not a good trade for the Grizzlies, because they did not improve the team for this season, and the draft picks might not become good players in the future. The Heat also did not improve the roster very much, but Brian Roberts could improve their three-point shooting, which has been a big weakness.
The Orlando Magic traded one of their young players and got back little in return. Brandon Jennings has struggled coming back from injury and Ersan Ilyasova won't do much in the short-term or long-term. The Pistons upgraded their roster for both the present and the future. Tobias Harris, while not a great shooter, improved his three-point shooing last year and will probably only get better with the Pistons. The Magic may have chosen to give more minutes to certain players, but could end up regretting giving up Harris.
This trade does basically nothing except cut the Heat's payroll.
Shelvin Mack is not a starting point guard and only slightly adds to Utah's depth. The Hawks are not losing much.
The Pistons made another good trade and improved their depth while losing only a draft pick that could end up at 20 or lower, as well as Joel Anthony, who hardly played in Detroit and will hardly play in Houston. Donatas Motiejunas and Marcus Thornton are both good shooters who will provide quality minutes for a team that has a legitimate shot at getting home-court advantage in the playoffs. The Pistons have been trending upward lately and are closer to becoming a true contender.
The Thunder decreased their payroll, but failed to improve the roster. Randy Foye has been declining the past two seasons and probably won't do much in Oklahoma City. The Nuggets didn't do much either, but at least will provide more entertainment for their fans this year.
Channing Frye is a good shooting big and can fill Kevin Love's role in the offense when Love is on the bench by standing on the perimeter for 20 seconds at a time. The Cavaliers improved, but are still worse than the Warriors and the Spurs and might not even be better than the Thunder. The Trail Blazers got a free draft pick and the Magic got pretty much nothing.
The Wizards made a good decision by acquiring Markieff Morris, but gave up too much to get him, losing a first-round pick in the trade. Morris has struggled this season and giving up a first-rounder for him is too much, especially considering that the Wizards aren't likely to get very far this year. The Suns are just unloading players and trying to recover from the mess that their team that has become.
The Hawks replaced Mack with Kirk Hinrich. It was a minor move, but Hinrich is a better shooter than Mack.
Getting Jeff Green in exchange for Lance Stephenson and a 2019 first-round pick was a very good trade for the Clippers. Stephenson was atrocious a season ago and is not much better this year, while Green is a capable scorer. The Clippers finally have a good, mature, starting small forward that doesn't have attitude problems. But what exactly are the Grizzlies doing? They probably could have gotten more for Green and are stuck in the 5-8 range of the playoffs. They won't get out of there unless they make a significant change to their roster.
