The trade deadline passed with no blockbuster trades. I can now breathe a sigh of relief. I was very nervous that the Lakers would get Jason Kidd. That would have made them a huge threat to the Suns - maybe not this year since the Suns have a pretty insurmountable lead in the Pacific Division standings but in the playoffs and next year.
It seems that the restrictions in trades and the way you have to structure deals now has made it much harder for teams to swing trades. With the luxury tax, no team is going to take on huge deals that have more than 1 year remaining if it means they'll have to pay the tax on it. In some ways, it definitely has made more teams competitive. In other ways, it's made the trade deadline somewhat boring.