Geltzeiler: Thumbs up; Thumbs down on Trade Deadline Deals

Now I’ll hit a few of the small ones before we discuss who benefited or hurt themselves through inaction.

Miami sends Dexter Pittman to Memphis for a 2nd-round pick and the rights to Ricky Sanchez.

Miami gets a thumbs down for this one. If Pittman can keep his weight under control, he can be a viable rotation big man. Sanchez is most likely never going to the NBA and the 2nd round pick isn’t meaningful. Memphis gets thumbs up. Pittman can replace the deep foul trouble big man role that Hamed Haddadi filled nicely before he was dealt to Toronto in the Rudy Gay deal. Speaking of Haddadi….

Phoenix trades Sebastian Telfair to Toronto for Hamed Haddadi and a 2nd round pick.

Phoenix gets a thumbs up for bringing in a 2nd round pick for a guy they weren’t re-signing, and they needed to clear playing time for rookie Kendall Marshall. Haddadi’s deal is non-guaranteed for next year.

Golden State made two different deals in sending Charles Jenkins to Philadelphia and Jeremy Tyler to Atlanta for conditional 2nd round picks.

Thumbs ups all around for everyone on this deal. Golden State ships out two players to get below the luxury tax line and Philadelphia and Atlanta get free looks at young players for virtually nothing.

Dallas trades Dahntay Jones to Atlanta for Anthony Morrow.

Atlanta gets a thumbs up for this one. Morrow couldn’t crack the rotation and Jones gives them an extra wing defender that can help. Dallas gets a thumbs down. Their playoff chances are slim and it’s time to start giving guys like Jae Crowder and Jared Cunningham extra minutes to plan for the future instead of a guy like Morrow on an expiring deal — unless, as Sheridan believes, adding Morrow will improve their chances of landing Dwight Howard.

New York trades Ronnie Brewer to Oklahoma City for a 2nd round pick.

The Knicks get a thumbs down for this one. They’re not young enough or good enough defensively on the wings to give away a guy like Brewer. He was very useful early in the season when he was hitting shots and can be a very good playoff weapon as a perimeter defender. Oklahoma City gets a thumbs up for adding an extra wing defender. Even if Brewer can’t hit the broad side of a barn, Oklahoma City is one of the few teams in the league who can score just fine playing 4 on 5 on offense.

Oklahoma City trades Eric Maynor to Portland for the draft rights to Giorgis Printezis

Portland gets a thumbs up for this deal. They desperately need depth and they’ll have money to spend in the offseason. This is a great chance to look at a promising young point guard whose game hasn’t been the same since a bad knee injury. I like Maynor a lot and think he can be a productive stable point guard going forward. It’s almost risk-free for Portland.

I didn’t like it at first for Oklahoma City, because of the hole it left at backup point guard which has since been filled with the signing of Derek Fisher. Maynor was a big part of the Thunder in their 2011 run to the West finals. He did not look good in his recovery this year from his knee injury. Head coach Scott Brooks demoted him and gave the backup point guard job to Reggie Jackson. After this, Brooks buried Maynor and never gave him another chance. With some playing time and patience with his recovery, it’s not farfetched that Maynor could have played a similar role in this year’s playoffs.

The one name that is conspicuous by its absence in this trade deadline analysis is Atlanta big forward Josh Smith. Smith is in the final year of his contract and appears to have a mutual understanding with Atlanta that he will not be there beyond this season.

Atlanta GM Danny Ferry actively shopped Smith, but since he didn’t get the type of package he wanted, he chose to keep Smith in the hopes of making a sign and trade deal after the season.

Ferry gets a big thumbs down for this.

He will be at the mercy of Smith and whatever team he signs with to get whatever leftovers or disposables they decide to send his way. He wanted Monta Ellis as part of a package from Milwaukee, but Milwaukee wouldn’t do it. Ellis may have looked pretty in a deal to the fan base, but he’s exercising his ETO at the end of the season as I alluded to earlier, which made him just a fancy rental.

The offer Milwaukee made of Ekpe Udoh, an expiring contract and a protected 1st round pick wasn’t sexy, but it was something of value, especially the first-round pick. There were no first-round picks traded at the deadline and the only one that has moved since the season started was the one Memphis moved to Cleveland to dump Marreese Speights’ contract.

I’m going to give Milwaukee a big thumbs down as well. With their ability to get the Redick deal done and their knowledge of the likelihood of Ellis exercising his ETO, why not put him in a Smith deal? The experiment of Ellis and Jennings has been a failure. Frankly, Milwaukee should be nervous that Ellis doesn’t opt out of his deal. The risk of Smith leaving was worth the upside of pairing him with Jennings, especially with a no-defense chucker like Ellis representing addition by subtraction.

The Bucks’ best chance to get a player like Smith would have been through a trade and getting him comfortable in Milwaukee. Now, they’re just another free agent suitor, not the team with the inherent financial advantage. The worst part about it is that Milwaukee has a roster right now which is a bubble playoff team without an enormous amount of upside, which represents NBA purgatory. If you’re not competing for a title, you need to be rebuilding.

Brian Geltzeiler is the executive producer and co-host of SheridanHoops Radio, and the editor of hoopcritic.com. His father, Burt, was an elite college basketball player for Newark Rutgers in the late 1940s and was drafted by the Tri-City Hawks (now Atlanta) in 1950 by GM Red Auerbach. You can follow Brian, who lives in Livingston, N.J. with his wife and 4 children, on Twitter.