Thursday’s NBA trading deadline yielded a completely revamped Cleveland Cavaliers roster.

The Cavs traded away half of the roster that has taken them to third in the Eastern Conference before the All Star break.

Cleveland’s first trade sent Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye, and their own first round pick in 2018 to the Los Angeles Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr..

This trade kicked off the day with a bang and led to more dealing later.

In a three-team trade with Sacramento and Utah, the Cavs acquired athletic shooting guard Rodney Hood and point guard George Hill for Iman Shumpert, Jae Crowder, and Derrick Rose.

Dwyane Wade was also sent back to Miami to rejoin the Heat and end his career where it all began.

Cleveland’s trade deadline moves tell fans that the club did not believe the current team was good enough to compete for a championship. This team and city are putting their best foot forward to sway LeBron James to stay for the foreseeable future.

The trade deadline proved two things, and the first is that the Celtics clearly won the Kyrie Irving trade. GM Koby Altman had to send a first round pick to Los Angeles for the Lakers to take on the off-injured Isaiah Thomas. Cleveland did not get enough for their star guard, who helped deliver the city its first championship in 51 years.

The second, and most important, takeaway from the trades is that King James always gets his way.

Thomas was becoming a pain in the locker room and a bother to LeBron. Both players demand the ball in high leverage situations and always want to be “the guy.” Clearly, with the trades, Cleveland moved to keep LeBron happy.

The Cavs were old, unathletic, and contained multiple players past their prime; they upgraded, got better and flipped all the negatives to positives in one day.

This does not mean Cleveland will beat the Warriors in the finals, but they are closer than before the deadline.

Altman may have finalized the deals, but the King won the day and got his way.