In the end, Dallas made no trades. Not this week, not at this 2020 deadline. The team was rumored with half-a-dozen smaller targets but never seriously linked to anything larger. That doesn’t matter much; Dallas has worked silently before, like when it dealt for Kristaps Porzingis about a week before last year’s deadline. But that was Porzingis. That was when Dallas had a half-baked roster – and, certainly, more assets – being retooled around a blossoming franchise player. This year is radically, fundamentally different. It never made sense that Dallas would view itself as serious bidders, only opportunistic ones.



That’s not to say Donnie Nelson didn’t take calls, something I can confirm with even more certainty than usual. We were on the same Southwest flight to Washington D.C. this afternoon, after all. He was on the phone while waiting in the TSA line, took another call while waiting for our gate and had his phone to his ear while...