NBA's Deadline Day Was a Dud

The trade deadline is like Christmas to NBA fans.

Santa in this case being famed basketball insider Adrian Wojnarowski.

Instead of checking for presents under the tree, NBA fans check for Woj Bombs in their Twitter feed.

This year’s deadline, however, had NBA fans feeling like the Grinch who stole Christmas.

The weeks and days leading up to the deadline saw a couple of big name dudes moved.

The first involved the Orlando Magic, who dealt the recently acquired Serge Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors for a first-rounder and Terrence Ross.

The move was basically the Magic trying to make up for the mistake they made this past off-season in trading young Victor Oladipo and draft pick Domantas Sabonis, along with Ersan Ilyasova, for Ibaka on an expiring contract.

The second and biggest move of the trading window came on All-Star Sunday, when the Sacramento Kings shocked the hoops world by trading DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans.

In return for the best center in the league, the Kings got back a package centered on Buddy Hield and the Pelicans 2017 Top-3 protected first-round pick.

Boogie seemed pretty hyped about the move when he found out, and why shouldn’t he be? Besides getting off the most dysfunctional team in the league, dude gets to form the Twin Towers 2.0 with his old Kentucky buddy, Anthony Davis.

With those big deals done prior to deadline day, one woulda thought Thursday would see a few more stars moving around the league.

Unfortunately for fans of trades, by the 3:00pm est deadline, the day's biggest move saw the Thunder acquire Taj Gibson and Dougie McBuckets from the Bulls for basically nothing of value.

Disagree?

Just check the list of deals done on Thursday. Find one deal that really changes the NBA's landscape.

Who's to blame for such a disappointing finale?

Danny Ainge and his Boston Celtics.

In the past few days, the Celts were linked to stars like the Bulls' Jimmy Butler and the Pacers' Paul George.

Ainge came into the deadline loaded with tradable assets, the most valuable of which is the 2017 Nets' first-rounder, ie- the team with the highest chance to win the No 1 overall pick, aka Markelle Fultz.

The Celtics were originally hesitant to surrender that pick in trade talks, only willing to do so when the deadline ticked down to the final moments.

Despite this, Boston ultimately stood pat at the deadline.

The Celtics can always decide to trade the pick in the off-season, but it woulda been dynamic had they been able to swing it for either Butler or George.

Both dudes woulda put them in direct competition with a Kevin Love-less Cavs team for Eastern Conference supremacy.

We may never know which decision was the right one for Ainge, but we did learn one thing on Thursday.

The trade deadline this season was nothing short of a big dud.