By Christian James

The NBA trade deadline comes to a close on Thursday, February 7, at 3:00 p.m. E.T. and many teams are going to try to put together their final rosters to make a push for a late playoff run. 

There has been a lot of rumors and speculation about where players would end up. This all has been a result of star players like Kristaps Porzingis requesting to be traded which happens to be the first blockbuster move of the trade deadline season.

The New York Knicks agreed to trade Porzingis, Courtney Lee, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Trey Burke to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Dennis Smith Jr., Deandre Jordan, and Wesely Matthews and two future first-round picks.

Already with two high flyers on the New York Knicks, Allonzo Trier and Kevin Knox, Smith Jr. would be another high flyer edition to be apart of this overwhelming athletic team. Not only is he a great athletic talent, but he is a scorer that should thrive on this young team.

New York is now in a rebuilding state of mind and now it got even brighter with acquiring the two first-round picks, even though they are giving up fan-favorite Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas.

`Dallas now have a very promising young core with Porzingis teaming up with Luka Doncic who happens to be the front-runner for the Rookie Of The Year award putting up about 20 points, 5 assists, and 7 rebounds a game. Porzingis is hoping to come back this season sometime this month in February and the fans in Dallas can’t wait to see their now European dynamic duo in a game together.

The Philadelphia 76ers now have made their second blockbuster trade of the season as they acquired All-Star caliber Forward Tobias Harris along with Mike Scott and big men Boban Marjanovic, lottery-protected 2020 first-round pick, a Miami 2021 unprotected first-round pick, and two Detroit second-round picks.

The Sixers may now be the team to beat in the east with maybe the best starting-five in the conference consisting of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, J.J. Redick, and now Tobias Harris. The Sixers are going to be as tough to beat as anyone.

Probably the most anticipated trade rumor is no other than six-time all-star power forward Anthony Davis. Davis has been a huge factor in the New Orleans Pelicans success throughout the years.

However the superstar recently requested a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers be the top preferred location. This was huge news to everybody because the Lakers now have the opportunity to pair up two of the top players in the NBA, but they are going to have goodbye to most of their young core in doing so.

Acquiring Davis would almost be a dream come true for the Lakers, but it will be tough to make it past the conference finals when you have to face a star-studded Warriors team to do so.