The Milwaukee Bucks have won six of their last seven games, and they were operating at their full potential on Sunday, walloping the Brooklyn Nets by the score of 109-94. What happened seven games ago? Milwaukee fired Jason Kidd.

A few things. In each one of those deals, the Pistons traded a handful of less talented players for the most talented player in the deal. They were all an attempt at incremental improvement. They all came out of nowhere. They all made the Pistons better.

Maybe. We’ll see about that last one.

New York Knicks center Willy Hernangomez has requested a trade ahead of the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline, according to Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania. Hernangomez is a 23-year-old center who has potential, but he has mostly fallen out of the Knicks’ rotation this season.

Last summer, the Clippers made some big changes.

Chris Paul was traded to the Houston Rockets for a package centered around Patrick Beverley. Blake Griffin was signed to a massive five-year extension. The new front office lured Danilo Gallinari in a three-year, $65 million sign-and-trade deal. European legend Milos Teodosic was lured to the United States as a 30-year-old rookie.

Before Donovan Mitchell was drafted 13th by the Utah Jazz, before he became entrenched in a two-way Rookie-of-the-Year race with Ben Simmons, it was his headmasters at Brewster Academy that saw his potential to be more than just a budding SportsCenter highlight reel.

He says they asked him if he wanted to run for senior prefect — the equivalent of high school president. “I didn’t, to be honest,” Mitchell recalls. “I was nervous.”

The Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans have discussed a trade centered around Nikola Mirotic, but the talks have stalled for now, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

In July, just a few months ago, Blake Griffin was the master of his fate. He was a free agent who could choose where to play basketball and, at the age of 33, hopefully somewhere where he could finish his career.

The Los Angeles Clippers pulled off the first blockbuster trade of deadline season by sending Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons. Now, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.