play0:49Shams: 76ers create roster room by trading Jared McCainShams Charania gives details of the 76ers’ trade of Jared McCain to the Thunder.
play1:54Shams: Mavs essentially cutting their losses by trading AD to WizardsShams Charania breaks down the eight-player trade that sees Mavericks star Anthony Davis join the Washington Wizards.
play2:00What does Jaren Jackson Jr. trade mean for Jazz, Ja Morant and Grizzlies?Shams Charania breaks down Jaren Jackson Jr.’s trade to the Jazz and what it means for Ja Morant and the Grizzlies.
Perk on Porzingis trade: ‘It does absolutely nothing for me’ (1:17)Kendrick Perkins analyzes what it means for the Golden State Warriors to acquire Kristaps Porziņgis. (1:17)
Shams: 76ers create roster room by trading Jared McCainShams Charania gives details of the 76ers’ trade of Jared McCain to the Thunder.
Shams: Mavs essentially cutting their losses by trading AD to WizardsShams Charania breaks down the eight-player trade that sees Mavericks star Anthony Davis join the Washington Wizards.
Shams Charania breaks down the eight-player trade that sees Mavericks star Anthony Davis join the Washington Wizards.
What does Jaren Jackson Jr. trade mean for Jazz, Ja Morant and Grizzlies?Shams Charania breaks down Jaren Jackson Jr.’s trade to the Jazz and what it means for Ja Morant and the Grizzlies.
Shams Charania breaks down Jaren Jackson Jr.’s trade to the Jazz and what it means for Ja Morant and the Grizzlies.
Kevin PeltonFeb 5, 2026, 01:41 AM ETClose Co-author, Pro Basketball Prospectus series Formerly a consultant with the Indiana Pacers Developed WARP rating and SCHOENE systemFollow on XMultiple Authors
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The NBA trade deadline is closing in — it’s at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday — and we finally have some trades.
The first featured the Atlanta Hawks sending star point guard Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.
Three weeks later, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls completed a swap that saw the Cavs add Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis, the Kings acquire De’Andre Hunter and the Bulls take on Dario Saric and two draft picks. On Tuesday, the Utah Jazz acquired Jaren Jackson Jr. from the Memphis Grizzlies in an eight-player swap that included three future firsts. Later, the Clippers dealt James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a swap for Darius Garland and a second-round pick.
The Dallas Mavericks also made some moves, trading Anthony Davis and other key players to the Wizards, overhauling a team that acquired Davis last year in the Luka Doncic trade. Late Wednesday evening, the Golden State Warriors ended their Jonathan Kuminga saga, packaging him and Buddy Hield in a trade for Atlanta Hawks center Kristaps Porzingis.
We’re grading every deal up until the deadline, breaking down the ramifications for all teams and players involved. Let’s get into the latest move:
Quick links: Latest buzz, intel | Trade tracker | Trade machine Depth charts | More trade deadline coverage
What this means for Warriors: Porzingis fills Golden State’s longstanding desire for a stretch 5 who can also protect the rim. It was a logical enough fit that I essentially included this exact swap as part of a multiteam Anthony Davis trade proposal back in December.
However, the Warriors’ needs have changed significantly since then due to Jimmy Butler’s season-ending ACL injury. I’m no longer convinced center was the right place to address at the expense of wing depth.
Kuminga was the most natural replacement for Butler on Golden State’s roster. He scored 30 points in as many minutes in extended playing time after Butler’s injury, only to suffer a bone bruise that sidelined him for his final five games before the trade. Without Butler and Kuminga, the Warriors now have only Gui Santos as a wing taller than 6-foot-5.
Beyond that, Kuminga was also one of Golden State’s best options for generating offense with Stephen Curry on the bench. Warriors lineups without both Butler and Curry have ranked in the fifth percentile league-wide in offensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass.
It’s possible Porzingis could help solve the latter issue. Posting him up against smaller defenders has become a reliable source of offense that requires only adequate spacing to generate. The question is how much Golden State can count on having Porzingis available.
Porzingis hasn’t played since Jan. 7 due to Achilles tendinitis and has also missed time this season due to a recurrence of symptoms associated with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), the rare condition he was diagnosed with last summer. In total, Porzingis played just 17 of a total 52 games during his brief stint with Atlanta.
Already down a roster spot due to Butler’s injury and with one of the league’s oldest rosters, the Warriors aren’t ideally positioned to manage the time Porzingis can reasonably be expected to miss.
Of course, with Butler’s injury making a deep playoff run unlikely, the bigger ramification of this trade is how it affects Golden State’s pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Team sources told ESPN’s Anthony Slater that it unofficially ends those efforts this season by virtue of removing an important possible matching salary.
If the Antetokounmpo saga is renewed for a summer season, the Warriors can certainly get back in the mix. Porzingis could be included via sign-and-trade to help match salary, or Golden State could adjust its offer to include Butler instead. Still, the path to acquiring Antetokounmpo isn’t quite as clean as using Kuminga as an expiring contract either this season or over the summer by exercising his $24.3 million team option.
It appears the Warriors had gotten to the point where they just couldn’t wait out an unhappy relationship with Kuminga any longer. They also achieved some modest savings by sending out Hield, who had slumped to a career-low 34% from 3-point range this season. Some $3 million of Hield’s 2026-27 salary is guaranteed if he’s waived by the day after the 2026 draft.
What this means for Hawks: I liked Atlanta’s summer deal to add Porzingis given how well he would fit with Trae Young. Seven months later, neither player finished the season with the Hawks. NBA life comes at you fast.
There was certainly still a role for Porzingis to play in Atlanta, but it’s understandable they’d want to move on in favor of Kuminga, who’s seven years younger. Although forward wasn’t a glaring need for the Hawks, Kuminga’s power game is a useful dimension for an Atlanta roster that’s more built on finesse.
In particular, the Hawks can benefit from Kuminga getting to the foul line. They rank 29th in free throw rate and have just one player (All-Star Jalen Johnson) averaging more than five attempts per game. Kuminga averaged five in just 24.3 minutes per game during 2024-25, and his upside has always been as a Corey Maggette-style bruiser who can compensate for his poor 3-point shooting by getting to the line.
The contract Kuminga ended up signing after a protracted restricted free agency standoff with the Golden State was surely attractive to Atlanta, which now gets to decide on the $24.3 million team option. The Hawks can choose between having more cap space than the non-taxpayer midlevel exception or picking up Kuminga’s option, staying over the cap and having the midlevel available to add frontcourt depth.
Hield’s fit is less clear with an Atlanta team that already has two similar shooting specialists in Luke Kennard and Corey Kispert, both of whom have been more accurate from 3-point range this season. It’s possible the Hawks could seek to reroute Hield before Thursday’s deadline.
Toronto Raptors get: Chris Paul Brooklyn Nets get: Ochai Agbaji, second-round pick, cash LA Clippers get: draft rights to Vanja Marinkovic
What it means for the Raptors: Let’s start with what it doesn’t: Alas, Chris Paul is not wrapping up his career north of the border. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Toronto won’t require Paul to report to the team and will look to re-trade his salary prior to the deadline.
Essentially, the Raptors were close enough to the luxury tax line (less than $1 million over, pending incentives for multiple players) that they still had wiggle room after moving Agbaji’s $6.4 million salary and used it to get cash from the Clippers to take on Paul’s minimum contract.
After starting 45 games in 2024-25, Agbaji has been unable to buy a 3-pointer this season. He has shot 18.5% (12-of-65), less than half of last season’s 40% mark. That made Agbaji, who has played just eight minutes total in Toronto’s past three games, more expendable than the team’s younger or more effective players on minimum contracts.
The Raptors could still take on a little more salary before the deadline if they want to add a contributor.
From that standpoint, getting out of Paul’s contract without having to give up any precious draft picks was a win for the Clippers. We’ll see if they have any bigger moves coming before the deadline. Barring that, they’ve created a second roster spot and enough room below a hard cap at the lower luxury tax apron to promote both Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders from two-way contracts — necessary with both playing key rotation roles in the wake of Paul leaving the team.
What this means for Hornets: Charlotte offered fans on both sides of Tobacco Road something to like Wednesday, adding Duke legend Jones hours after trading for UNC product Coby White. Both players can help the Hornets’ backcourt depth behind LaMelo Ball.
It was a tough run with the Magic for Jones, who shot a career-low 34% and fell to the fringes of Jamahl Mosley’s rotation. Charlotte is wise to bet on a bounce-back given Jones shot 45% and 41% from 3 for the Phoenix Suns in 2024-25. He remains one of the league’s most reliable ballhandlers, committing just 14 turnovers in 754 minutes in Orlando.
