That’s it? All we get after two weeks of talk about All-Stars shifting coasts are three trades involving backups?

Apparently so. The upshot from this week’s trade deadline is that most of the teams apparently feel better about standing pat than they do about shuffling the deck. Add in the fact that several teams had already pulled the trigger — Philadelphia traded Allen Iverson more than a month ago, Indiana and Golden State pulled off an eight-player swap in January, and the Bobcats have made a couple minor deals with New Jersey and San Antonio — and there wasn’t much being finalized yesterday.

That said, we have to give a nod to the complexity of the deals involved. One trade I know of didn’t happen, in part, because it would have left one of the participants a measly $10,000 above the luxury tax line. This is chump change in the NBA salary cap world where contracts are enumerated in the millions, but because of the luxury tax hit it was more than enough to remove one deal from our list.

And what a sad list it is. The Raptors traded Fred Jones to the Blazers for Juan Dixon, your basic Tweedledum-for-Tweedledee deal that nobody will remember a year from now. The Hawks traded a second-round pick to Dallas for Anthony Johnson, saving millions in luxury tax for the Mavs and giving Atlanta a fifth backup point guard to go with the four others it already had. Finally, the Sixers sent third-string center Alan Henderson to Utah for future considerations.

So why didn’t more happen? Because it takes two to tango, and in too many of these negotiations only one was side willing to play ball.

The long-rumored deal of Jason Kidd to the Lakers was a good example. The hottest rumor of deadline week died a painful death after it became increasingly apparent that the Nets wouldn’t do the deal unless the Lakers included promising big man Andrew Bynum, and the Lakers weren’t willing to go there. Since New Jersey has been waffling on whether to blow things up, it needed to be wowed by any offers for Kidd or Vince Carter, and L.A.’s proposal of expiring contracts didn’t cut the mustard.

But I’ve been looking at this entirely from the Nets’ angle. From L.A.’s side of the coin, it’s a little surprising the Lakers didn’t go along with the idea of trading Bynum. Yes, he’s 19 and obviously talented — reason enough to play chicken with the Nets and see if they would accept a lesser offer.

Unfortunately, the Nets didn’t blink. The Lakers probably should have, because they could have put themselves in position to win a title. They have two talented players in their prime in Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom, plus a coach in Phil Jackson whom one presumes won’t be pacing the sidelines forever. So more than most teams, L.A. had an incentive to mortgage the future in order to play for the present.

Additionally, the fit would have been great. Kidd is an open-court dynamo, but in the halfcourt he mostly spots up for 3’s or posts up smaller guards — exactly what he would be doing in the triangle. Plus, he was excited about the idea of going to L.A., according to reports, and would have been a massive upgrade on current starter Speedy Claxton.

Yes, losing Bynum would have left L.A. awfully thin in the frontcourt, but making the deal would have given the Lakers a two-and-ahalf year window with a legitimate shot at the crown. Instead, the Lakers remain stuck in the muddle of Western Conference pretenders, well behind the likes of Phoenix, Dallas, and San Antonio.

L.A. wasn’t the only team that played things way too conservatively at the deadline. Chicago’s pursuit of Pau Gasol was surprisingly unaggressive given how obviously he would have compensated for the Bulls’ weaknesses — power forward and post offense — and how his passing skills would benefit all of Chicago’s 3-point shooters. Yes, he was going to cost a couple of prospects and one legitimate starter such as Ben Gordon or Luol Deng, but what were they expecting in return for an All-Star big man?

Orlando was another team whose inactivity left me befuddled. The Magic had a $14 million expiring contract in the form of Grant Hill, which would have been perfect bait to make a run at Vince Carter. Yes, Carter can opt out of his contract after the season, but the Magic would have had an advantage in retaining him since it was his team of record. Plus, with Carter’s O-town roots, it seems likely he would have been willing to stay. Instead, the Magic still finds itself badly lacking in perimeter scoring and slowly tumbling out of playoff position.

All in all, it was a disturbing trend. Too many teams decided to rest on their laurels despite not having much to rest on. So instead of talking about how all the new players will fare with their new teams, we’re left to mourn all the deals that didn’t happen.

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The two local teams didn’t make a deal yesterday, but that doesn’t mean their playoff chances didn’t improve dramatically. The separated shoulder suffered by Miami’s Dwyane Wade on Wednesday night was about the best thing that could have happened to the Knicks and Nets, as it throws the chase for the East’s final two playoff spots wide open heading down the stretch.

New Jersey began yesterday’s action trailing both Miami and Orlando by two and a half games for the final spot; the Knicks are three and a half back. As I mentioned a few days ago, Orlando’s upcoming schedule is brutal, and the team is likely to drop back to the pack. But Miami faces even more dire circumstances considering it’s been pretty much a one-man team this season (Shaq has been a shadow of his former self, people) and is only 1–6 when he doesn’t play.

Add in the fact that Richard Jefferson is due back in early March and that the Knicks play a relatively easy stretch of schedule the next few weeks, and it’s entirely possible that we could see both local teams in the postseason. Considering they’re a combined 12 games under .500 at the moment, this speaks more to the lameness of the East than the skill of the Knicks or Nets … but they’ll take it all the same.

jhollinger@nysun.com