Decades Most Lopsided NBA Deals

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Wallace trade the decade's best

ESPN Insider looks at the most lopsided midseason moves since 2001


By Tom Haberstroh
ESPN Insider
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It may be too early to declare winners in the Carmelo Anthony trade between the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets or the deal sending Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz to the New Jersey Nets. That said, there's no doubt that these are two of the most significant trades in deadline history.


With that in mind, let's take a look back at the league's most lopsided deadline deals over the past decade. Keep in mind, while players such as Pau Gasol and Allen Iverson were traded midseason, a trade would have to come within one week of the season's trade deadline to be included in this list.


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1. Detroit Pistons acquire Rasheed Wallace (2004)

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<CENTER>Wallace</CENTER>
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The only deadline deal over the past decade that significantly helped deliver a championship (sincere apologies to Nazr Mohammed, the San Antonio Spurs starting center in 2005-06). The Pistons acquired Wallace, a two-time All-Star at the time, from Atlanta in a three-team deal with Boston for some spare parts and two 2004 first-round picks that ended up yielding Josh Smith and Tony Allen.


It's rare to see a playoff-bound team acquire an All-Star-caliber player at the deadline without relinquishing a key member of its rotation. But the Pistons managed to pull it off, bolstering the core that took down the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers in five games for the title. The Pistons were 34-22 before hauling in Wallace and 20-6 the rest of the way, a .607 to .769 swing in the team's win percentage.

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While Wallace's averages of 13.7 points and 7.0 rebounds may seem pedestrian, his impact on the defensive end can't be understated. With Wallace, the Pistons allowed 78.9 points per game in the regular season, a nearly eight-point improvement from their previous mark with Mehmet Okur starting at power forward. In his six seasons in the Motor City, Wallace helped anchor one of the best defenses in NBA history while notching two All-Star campaigns. Not a bad deal, considering journeyman Lindsey Hunter was the biggest name going out the door.


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2. Seattle Sonics acquire Ray Allen (2003)


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<CENTER>Allen</CENTER>
<!--END INLINE MUG-->Melo isn't the first superstar to be traded at the deadline before he left for nothing at the end of the season. Back in 2003, Gary Payton was set to become a free agent over the summer and then-Sonics GM Rick Sung swung a deal for long-time Bucks guard Ray Allen, a three-time All-Star at the time, in fear that his Sonics team would be left empty-handed once Payton's contract expired. Once Allen left the Bucks, the team didn't have a winning season until 2009-10.


Who imagined a trade involving an exchange of two future Hall of Famers would be such a heist? Unlike the recent situation with Anthony, Payton had reached the end of his rope with the Seattle front office, because they didn't offer him an extension after 12½ seasons with the team. There was good reason for that: Payton was 34 years old, and even though he had been an All-Star for the previous nine seasons, extending a player with that mileage potentially has paralyzing effects on a franchise. Payton was never the same after that season, although he nearly took home a ring with the Lakers in 2003-04 and did get one in 2006 with the Miami Heat.


The Sonics, on the other hand, netted Allen, who went on to average 24.6 points per game in four and a half seasons with Seattle and currently owns the highest player efficiency rating (21.8) in franchise history -- although Kevin Durant should take that crown soon. Allen also led the team to the Western Conference semifinals in 2004-05 before falling to the Spurs, who eventually won the title that season.


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3. Golden State Warriors acquire Baron Davis (2005)


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<CENTER>Davis</CENTER>
<!--END INLINE MUG-->On the day of the 2005 trade deadline, the Warriors stood at 16-38 and looked like a team going nowhere. Coincidentally, the New Orleans Hornets found themselves in a similar position, with an 11-43 record, good for the worst record in the West. So they made a trade, swapping Davis for the tandem of Speedy Claxton and Dale Davis. The Warriors proceeded to go 18-10 the rest of the way, while the Hornets lost 21 of their final 28 games.


Davis had his warts, there's no question; the 25-year-old missed 34 games that season due to injuries before the deal and had a falling out with the Hornets' coaching staff. But New Orleans traded him for 50 cents on the dollar when the two-time All-Star was entering his prime. The rejuvenated Davis went on to lead the Warriors to the playoffs in 2006-07, the franchise's first postseason appearance since 1994, and spearheaded one of the biggest playoff upsets in NBA history, when the eighth-seeded Warriors took down the Dallas Mavericks, a team that won a league-best 67 games in the regular season.


The Hornets were rescued when Chris Paul inexplicably fell in their laps in the 2005 draft. But all they had to show for Davis was Claxton, the Hornets' backup point guard one season before he sputtered out of the league. Dale Davis was waived upon arrival in New Orleans.


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4. Philadelphia 76ers acquire Dikembe Mutombo (2001)


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<CENTER>Mutombo</CENTER>
<!--END INLINE MUG-->Sure, everyone remembers Allen Iverson's MVP campaign, but bringing in Mutombo at the deadline probably had more to do with the Sixers' trip to the Finals that season. Mutombo was the league's top defender and leading rebounder at the time, and the 76ers gave up Theo Ratliff, a Mutombo-lite, to get him. Ratliff suffered a stress fracture in his right wrist two weeks before being traded on deadline day and was actually sidelined for the remainder of the season. Yes, Ratliff didn't even play for the Atlanta Hawks that season.


Even accounting for Ratliff's injury, the Sixers rolled the dice, considering Mutombo was 34, but it's hard to imagine they make their championship run without the 7-foot-2 center. In the Sixers' playoff run, Mutombo averaged 13.9 points, 13.7 rebounds and 3.1 blocked shots per game, becoming only the sixth player in NBA history to hit those marks in a postseason (minimum 10 games). Meanwhile, Ratliff sat on the sidelines for the 25-win Hawks team.


Of course, Ratliff wasn't the only player the Hawks received in return for dealing the league's best defender. Toni Kukoc enjoyed a rebirth as a 32-year-old when he went to Atlanta, averaging 19.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game after being a reserve in Philadelphia. But that resurgence didn't last long, as Kukoc returned to his reserve role the following season. In the end, the Hawks gave the NBA's best defender to the conference's best team and failed to net a player to build around.


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5. Chicago Bulls acquire Brad Miller and John Salmons (2009)



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<CENTER>Miller</CENTER>
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<CENTER>Salmons</CENTER>
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Seeking some frontcourt depth and another shooting wing to pair with Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon, the Bulls found both in a deadline-day deal when they sent Drew Gooden, Andres Nocioni, Cedric Simmons and Michael Ruffin to the Sacramento Kings. At the time of the trade, the Bulls were 24-30 and 1.5 games outside the playoff picture. After the trade? The Bulls went 17-11 to finish even at 41-41, securing the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.


Salmons proved that the career year he was enjoying in Sacramento was no fluke, shooting 41.7 percent from downtown in a Bulls uniform and posting one of the league's highest true shooting percentages (59.6 percent) from a wing player, according to Hoopdata.com. If that wasn't enough, Salmons dropped 35 points in 60 minutes -- yes, sixty minutes -- in Chicago's epic Game 6 victory over the Boston Celtics.


Miller provided a much-needed upgrade over Aaron Gray as Joakim Noah's backup center. While he didn't provide a 3-point punch, the veteran contributed everywhere else, averaging 15.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per 36 minutes off the bench. Miller posted a team-leading 18.6 PER as the Bulls made their playoff push.


As a bonus, the Bulls were able to get out of Nocioni's long-term contract that would have hindered their 2010 free agency pursuits.
 

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