The Boston Celtics may hold the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference through the trade deadline, but on February 8, the New York Knicks made serious strides to join the Cs at the top of the conference by acquiring Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks for Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, Malachi Flynn, Ryan Arcidiacono, and two second-round picks.
Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer believes that Leon Rose’s maneuvering at the deadline makes the Knicks one of the day’s big winners.
“The Knicks are big winners,” O’Connor said before adding, “We needed more scoring, and Bogdanovic and Burks fit perfectly next to the engines Brunson and Randle.” Both can become heated. Both can create to provide a break for Brunson when necessary.It’s crazy how deep New York has gotten.
Boston Celtics make small trades to combat larger moves by the Knicks, Sixers, Raptors, and Nets.
Boston may have made the least noise in the Atlantic Division at the deadline, trading for Xavier Tillman on February 7 and signing Jaden Springer from the Philadelphia 76ers hours before the 3 p.m. deadline on February 8.
New York appears to have made the greatest impact, but the division’s other teams did not sit on their hands.
The Philadelphia 76ers signed sharpshooter Buddy Hield, who is expected to be an even better version of former Sixers spot-up shooting specialist Danny Green. Up north, the Toronto Raptors traded for Kelly Olynyk, a Danny Ainge lottery pick, and later sent Dennis Schroder to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie, who has since been waived.
While the Celtics did not intend to make many headlines, acquiring two defensive-minded potential rotation players in Tillman and Springer strengthens an already offensively strong group and provides the team with better emergency options than it had prior to the deadline.
But, as stealthy as Stevens was, Rose and company undoubtedly won the day.
