Summary
The Miami Heat are probably the only team to have truly raised their playoff ceiling via the moves they made on Feb. 6, but likely not as much as some have suggested.
The Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers both made small improvements at the deadline, but only Philly will make the playoffs — and the moves they made aren’t likely to have a big impact on the reeling franchise.
The Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks made moves for the future (and perhaps also the Heat if they can land a helpful player with the future cap space they’ll have opened) that aren’t likely to change their current fortunes very much, and the Orlando Magic made such a small move as to be negligible.
Only the Detroit Pistons got notably worse as a result of deadline day action, and apart from more minutes to develop younger players, primarily benefit from avoiding another season of Drummond on the books when he’s too old to likely be of much use to any rebuild.
Boston comes out looking a bit better for making no moves.
Ainge: 'there just weren’t any deals we felt would make us better' https://t.co/JUMYCPO338
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) February 7, 2020
No teams above them in the standings (the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors) made any moves at the deadline, and with the Indiana Pacers also sitting the deadline out, only the Heat improved.
Boston has beat Miami both times they’ve played, so barring a big resurgence from Andre Iguodala, no moves indeed may have been the wisest to make for the Celtics given the rumored cost and available names.
[lawrence-related id=28661,28621,28615,28606]