Biggest trade deadline deals of the last 5 years
Feb. 24, 2011 - Clippers trade Baron Davis and 1st-rounder to Cavs
Baron Davis's time with the Los Angeles Clippers had run its course, including the veteran point guard being heckled by disgraced then-owner Donald Sterling. So the Clippers packaged him and their first-round pick in that June's draft, sending them to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Jamario Moon and Mo Williams.
That pick? It became No. 1 selection Kyrie Irving when the Cavs won the draft lottery that spring. Davis played 15 games for Cleveland before being waived. Moon and Williams didn't last long with the Clippers.
Feb. 24, 2011 - Thunder trade Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins
On the same day the Cavs fleeced the Clippers, the Boston Celtics robbed the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sure, Kendrick Perkins filled OKC's need for a big man and Jeff Green deepened the wing position for one of Boston's last seasons as a beast of the East. But while Green continued to produce, Perkins quickly regressed.
Feb. 22, 2011 - Nuggets deal Carmelo Anthony to Knicks
Another 2011 trade, although this actually happened two days before the deadline. In a deal rumored for weeks after Carmelo Anthony made it clear he wanted out of Denver - and preferably in a move to the Knicks - the Nuggets sent him to New York in exchange for Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Raymond Felton, second-round picks in 2012 and 2013 and a first-rounder in 2014.
Almost three years before dealing Rudy Gay from the Toronto Raptors to the Sacramento Kings, this was the trade Masai Ujiri made his name on.
March 13, 2012 - Warriors send Ellis to Bucks for Bogut
This remains one of the most impactful trades from the last several years. Monta Ellis was not a good fit with the emerging Stephen Curry, so the Golden State Warriors dealt their shoot-first guard alongside Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks for the thing they needed most - a defensive anchor at center.
Andrew Bogut, despite injury issues, has been a key cog in the Warriors' rise in the West. And had Ellis not been traded, one has to wonder how Curry would have developed.