With one of the busiest NBA trade deadlines in recent history, here's a roundup of some of the "smaller" trades made Thursday.

Let's take a look at how some of these teams graded out.

Rockets add Prigioni

Knicks get: guard Alexey Shved, 2017 second-round pick, 2019 second-round pick

Rockets get: guard Pablo Prigioni

Houston Rockets: C


Prigioni looks like nothing more than insurance for the Rockets, who traded point guard Isaiah Canaan to the Philadelphia 76ers in a separate pre-deadline move. Jason Terry has been playing as the backup point guard with positive results (Houston is +3.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, per NBA.com/Stats). Perhaps Prigioni's superior playmaking will give him the nod, but I don't see him usurping Terry's spot.

New York Knicks: D


For all the craziness that went down prior to the trade deadline, the biggest surprise to me is that the Knicks did not get under the luxury-tax line. Instead, by trading a player making $1.7 million for one making $3.3 million, they actually added to their tax bill.

Factoring in the difference in remaining salary, the Knicks spent about $3 million to pick up a pair of future second-round picks, which is on the expensive side but not abnormally so. The real cost will come down the line. Dodging the tax this year might have kept New York out of the repeater tax an extra year down the road, which would mean millions more in savings.

Of course, it's not my money, and if Jim Dolan is comfortable paying the tax for a couple of second-round picks, that's his right. The Knicks also did add a marginal amount of cap space this summer, since Prigioni's contract included $290,000 guaranteed salary for the 2015-16 season.

Rockets, Sixers exchange former second-round picks

76ers get: guard Isaiah Canaan, 2015 second-round pick (worse of Nuggets and Timberwolves picks)

Rockets get: forward K.J. McDaniels

Philadelphia 76ers: B+

For a seemingly straightforward trade, there's a lot going on here as Daryl Morey and his former right-hand man, Sam Hinkie, helped each other.
McDaniels' contract was a major discussion point during training camp. Instead of signing the four-year offer the 76ers made, he opted to bet on himself by signing the one-year tender offer for the minimum salary teams are required to offer second-round picks. As a result, McDaniels will become a restricted free agent this summer, with a chance for a big raise.

Since a fast start had us wondering whether McDaniels might get a full mid-level offer or more (he's eligible for the kind of backloaded contract Morey and Hinkie once gave Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin), he has cooled considerably. As his college career portended, McDaniels has struggled from 3-point range (29.3 percent), limiting his offensive efficiency. He remains an intriguing prospect because of his athleticism and defense, but we're a long ways from McDaniels being a 3-and-D specialist.

Hinkie apparently didn't want to wait, at least not while paying McDaniels market value. So he got a couple of interesting pieces from Morey in return. The second-round pick will probably be in the top 40 picks next June and Canaan, like McDaniels, was drafted early in the second round. He's signed to the kind of team-friendly contract Hinkie prefers; he'll make less than a million dollars next season before becoming a restricted free agent with full Bird rights.

For the moment, after Michael Carter-Williams was traded, Canaan is Philadelphia's starting point guard. Though he's not a strong distributor, he scored well as a backup early in the season before losing his job to Jason Terry. On a veteran team, it was tough for Canaan to get an opportunity to play. He'll have all the minutes he wants the rest of the season with the 76ers.

Houston Rockets: B


This is probably a move for next season and beyond for the Rockets, whose wing rotation is already flush with James Harden, Trevor Ariza and Corey Brewer, not to mention Terry and Kostas Papanikolaou. Brewer will become a free agent next summer, and McDaniels' free agency actually presents an opportunity for Houston because his cap hold will be so low. The Rockets have the ability to use the cap space they can create and then re-sign McDaniels to a bigger, long-term deal.

Prince-ly homecoming

Celtics get: forwards Luigi Datome and Jonas Jerebko

Pistons get: forward Tayshaun Prince

Boston Celtics: C


It's hard to get too worked up about this deal, which has zero cap implications since all three players are in the final seasons of their contracts. The Celtics saved about as much with this move as they would have by buying out Prince, presuming he gave up the amount he would have made from another team as a free agent. So Boston gets a couple of months to see if Datome and Jerebko provide anything useful.

Detroit Pistons: C


LeBron is back in Cleveland and KG is back in Minnesota, so why not go for one more reunion? OK, Tayshaun Prince's return to the Pistons isn't quite as emotional, but he is rejoining the team with which he won the 2004 NBA championship.

Prince was surprisingly effective during his brief stay in Boston, and while I don't expect him to make better than 50 percent of his shots going forward, he may be better suited to playing as a big wing rather than an undersized 4 as he often did for the Memphis Grizzlies. He'll presumably fill the minutes that Kyle Singler had been playing before he was traded to Oklahoma City in another deadline move.

Thunder dump Smith

Pelicans get: guard Ish Smith, protected 2015 second-round pick, rights to forward Latavious Williams, cash considerations

Thunder get: protected 2016 second-round pick

New Orleans Pelicans: B


In all likelihood, Smith was free to the Pelicans. The pick they sent to Oklahoma City was presumably the top-55-protected pick we often see in deadline deals. And the euphemistic "cash considerations" probably means the Thunder paid Smith's salary for the rest of the season. New Orleans may also have gotten a 2015 second-round pick for its trouble, depending on protections.

So the Pelicans waived Smith immediately after acquiring him, which is too bad because I actually prefer Smith to the other point guard the Pelicans added at the deadline, Norris Cole. Last season, when Smith got a chance to play regularly in Phoenix, he rated ahead of Cole in ESPN's real plus-minus.

Oklahoma City Thunder: B


So why would the Thunder pay the Pelicans to take Smith? Because if they waived Smith, he would count against them in terms of luxury-tax calculations. This way, Oklahoma City saves that amount, equivalent to 1.5 times Smith's salary this season -- a little less than $1.3 million.