NBA Hoops

Analysis: After trade deadline, NBA title road got tougher

Analysis: After trade deadline, NBA title road got tougher

Phoenix now has NBA champion and perennial All-Star Kevin Durant. Dallas now has NBA champion and perennial All-Star Kyrie Irving. In Los Angeles, the Lakers and Clippers have more depth. Memphis and New Orleans just acquired more shooters. Denver got a backup for its two-time MVP. Golden State brought back a key from last season’s championship run.

All eight of those teams, right now, have to be feeling good about what they pulled off at trade-deadline time.

Now, remember this: At least four of those teams — and maybe more of the clubs in that group — won’t even make the second round of the playoffs.

Trade Deadline Day has come and gone, and above all else, it reaffirmed that getting out of the Western Conference and making the NBA Finals is going to be incredibly daunting this season. There was no shortage of contenders out West before Thursday, and there might be even more teams thinking that they’re contenders now after finding ways to add talent.

“Chaos,” was the word Cleveland president of basketball operations Coby Altman used to describe the barrage of moves being made around the league Thursday.

He wasn’t wrong.

There were the blockbusters — Irving earlier in the week going to the Mavericks, then the middle-of-the-night deal late Wednesday or early Thursday, depending on where you were sleeping, that sent Durant to the Suns.

Irving and Durant were Brooklyn teammates when this week started. Now, they’re rivals in the West, Irving joining Luka Doncic, Durant being added to Devin Booker and the still-chasing-a-ring Chris Paul, who figures to have another chance at grabbing that elusive piece of jewelry.

Nets general manager Sean Marks said the team traded Durant “after thorough evaluation of the best path forward.” With that, what Brooklyn envisioned as a Big Three era — Durant and Irving with James Harden — is now completely over. Harden was traded last season, Durant and Irving this week, and the Nets begin anew once again, now 20 years removed from the franchise’s last trip to the East finals.

The bad news: Brooklyn’s title window, for now, is closed. The good news: The Nets loaded up on draft picks, which were in short supply after other deals in recent years.

Not all the moves made in the last few days, most of them Thursday, had to be blockbusters to be winners.

The Lakers changed much of the supporting cast that’ll play with LeBron James and Anthony Davis for the stretch run. Denver was on the other side of one of…

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at AP NBA…