The trade-deadline in the NBA is one of the most telling periods about a particular team’s goals in all of sports. Teams out of contention will most likely be selling their veteran players in exchange for future assets. Teams in contention will try to add a few minor, if not major, pieces in order to make a run at the O’Brien trophy.
All of these decisions essentially rest on one major key: the playoffs. If a team is going to advance their season into late April, May, or possibly early June, then they start to prepare themselves for those runs now.