What became of all the many rumors involving trades of Dwight Howard and Josh Smith, Kevin Garnett and/or Paul Pierce, Paul Millsap or Al Jefferson? How could the biggest name moved Thursday at the trading deadline turn out to be J.J. Redick, the sixth man of Orlando who was sent to Milwaukee at the end of a highly anticlimactic day? "Overall it was a little bit more of a conservative air in the way people were doing business,'' said Bucks GM John Hammond, who may have been the most ambitious executive in the league Thursday. He ticked off the concerns that prevented most teams from rushing forward -- the demands of impending free agents, the desire to save money, the unwillingness to give away expiring contracts In the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the Dallas Cowboys have been the talk of the town for decades. Even after two straight World Series appearances by the Texas Rangers, it appears that notion is not going away anytime soon. Ex-Rangers and new Anaheim Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton says he understands the football culture even though the Cowboys have won only one playoff game in the last 16 years. “Texas, especially Dallas, has always been a football town. They’re supportive, but they also got a little spoiled at the same time, pretty quickly,” Hamilton said to a CBS television affiliate in Dallas. “You think about three to four years ago [pre-World Series]. It’s like, come on man, are you happier there again?” Hamilton who signed a 5-year, $125 million deal with the Angels in December says he expects an interesting reception when his new team comes back to Texas in April for a three-game series. “It will be mixed feelings from the crowd. People who really get it will cheer and the people who don’t will boo. Either way, I’ll do what I got to do to help my team win.” Share this: The league is trying to figure it out,'' said Hammond. "It's going to be interesting to see, as we move forward, the decisions that people have to make. Because some difficult decisions are going to have to be made and will be made." Hammond was aggressive at the deadline Thursday with the understanding that he would be creating difficult decisions for himself. He was trying to acquire the highly respected Redick as well as Smith, the Atlanta forward who was the biggest prize of the deadline -- and, according to league sources, he was trying to do so while holding onto his starting backcourt of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings as well as Larry Sanders, a Most Improved candidate at center. GOLLIVER: Winners, losers from NBA trade deadline "We're in a position where we're trying to win, we're trying to be competitive, trying to be a playoff team," said Hammond. "And with the acquisition of J.J., we should be better also to do that and be that. We have an opportunity to have a true three-guard rotation that can stand up with most teams around the league. Do we have the best three-guard rotation in the NBA? If it's not the best, then surely it's in that grouping. The new rules have created interesting ripples. We're conditioned to automatically think of a small-market franchise like Milwaukee as operating from a position of weakness. So why was Hammond emboldened? Because his franchise was operating well below the threshhold of the luxury tax, and because owner Herb Kohl is more interested in winning than in saving money or accruing losing records during a long campaign of building through the draft. "At the end of the day he was willing to do it," said Hammond of Kohl. "He was on board. He gave us a chance." The Bucks were in the minority, while the NBA majority -- occupied by players and teams unable to make deals -- was not a happy grouping Thursday. The biggest names who were expected to be dealt all happened to be free agents: Smith, Millsap, Jefferson, Redick. Three of them remained in the same zip code because teams are wary of (1) trading away young cheap assets and (2) making big investments that could lead to unprecedented tax penalties. Five or 10 years ago, several teams would have been happy to meet the asking price of a max contract for Smith, an explosive 27 year old who can impact the game at both ends. (If you need proof, look back at all of the bad contracts that have been handed out in recent offseasons, including many that have been amnestied since the lockout.) Today, however, Smith may have priced himself out of the market. He may be able to find the money he's seeking this summer, but the cost of trading for him and then paying him was more than teams were willing to bear No one wants to give up draft picks or cap space, which together have more value than ever. The old model of one team seeking to dump salary onto a rival with deep pockets has been undermined by the imminent changes in the luxury-tax code. There are more teams seeking to dump, and fewer teams capable of taking on extra salary. Howard, by far the biggest potential target of this trade deadline, was kept off the market by the Lakers for good reason. A talent like Howard is available only when something is wrong -- such as when the Magic were forced to deal him to Los Angeles because he refused to commit long-term to Orlando. The reason Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak kept receiving calls from teams interested in dealing for Howard is the same reason Kupchak refused to make him available. Suffering from injuries to his back and shoulder, reeling after two indecisive years that have damaged his professional credibility, and struggling to adapt to a foreign offense as well as the most demanding of all teammates (Kobe Bryant) and franchises, Howard has never seen his value dip lower. Now is the worst time to trade him. He is surely going to be playing at a higher level next season, and why would the Lakers want to enable a rival franchise to acquire Howard and look like geniuses at their expense one year from now? The other reason to not trade Howard now has everything to do with the changing dynamic of leverage in the NBA. When he becomes a free agent this summer, Howard could choose to leave the Lakers in order to sign with cap-space rivals like Dallas, Houston or Atlanta. But that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for the Lakers. They could simply replace Howard in the low post with Pau Gasol for one last season, and then celebrate the additional cap space derived from Gasol's expiring $19.3 million salary. In the climate of the new CBA, cap space means everything -- especially in L.A. This reality has been settling over the NBA with increasing alarm. Mark Cuban and Sam Presti were among the first to recognize what was coming. Now the market is reflecting the fact that the rest of the league is catching on.