Now that the dust has settled this year’s trade deadline did not disappoint. Many experts predicted that there would be lots of movement due to teams positioning for a stretch run towards the playoffs and making salary cap room to pursue high valued free agents this summer.

The Cavs made a HUGE splash at this year’s deadline in an effort to right the ship and make a final push towards the playoffs and attempting to make the NBA Finals for the 4th consecutive year. The Cavs put an end to the IT experiment by sending Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and a 2018 1st round pick to the Lakers in exchange for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance, Jr.

The move frees up cap space for the Lakers to make a run at 2 max level free agents this summer and gives them a 29 game rental of IT. In IT’s first game as a Laker he looked closer to his old self than he has in almost a year after a hip injury sidelined him in the Eastern Conference Finals last year and for the first couple months this season. While the Lakers didn’t win, the IT experiment just might work. I don’t think he’ll be a long term option for the Lakers, but he definitely adds a proven veteran scorer to the lineup.

The Cavs, who were the oldest team got instantly younger and more athletic with Clarkson and Nance. In a three-team deal involving Utah Sacramento, the Cavs also traded Derrick Rose and Jae Crowder to Utah for Rodney Hood, and sent Iman Shumpert to Sacramento in exchange for George Hill. In a separate deal the Cavs sent Dwayne Wade back home to Miami.

After imploding almost their entire lineup, the question now becomes how will these new pieces gel together? They’ve got 29 games to get it right, and hope that this is enough to keep LeBron in The Land.

After their first game together, this experiment seems to be a positive. The Cavs destroyed the Celtics in Boston. The new look, younger, more athletic Cavs ran circles around the Celtics. With the All-Star break approaching only time will tell. Can they improve their playoff seeding? Will they be able to get past Boston and/or Toronto in a 7-game series? If this first outing together is any indication, they have a shot.

They’ll get Kevin Love back at some point, providing them with their full roster. It looks good on paper, but will it be fools gold? Defense is gonna be the key. The previous roster had no trust or cohesiveness. And it’s hard to say whether or not these four new additions are gonna improve that. None of these new guys are defensive specialists, but they do have the physical ability to be better on that end of the floor. But defense is a mindset. If you don’t want to do it, you won’t. We’ll just have to wait and see.