(2011-02-23) Trade Details & Commentary
Utah Jazz traded Deron Williams to New Jersey Nets for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, the Nets’ own 2011 1st round pick (?-?), and a protected 2011 1st round pick (from Golden State)(?-?), and $3M cash in a 3-team trade with Warriors.
New Jersey Nets traded Troy Murphy to New Jersey Nets for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric; and traded Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, the Nets’ own 2011 1st round pick (?-?), a protected 2011 1st round pick (from Golden State)(?-?), and $3M cash to Utah Jazz for Deron Williams in a 3-team trade.
Golden State Warriors traded Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric to New Jersey Nets for Troy Murphy in a 3-team trade with Jazz.
Commentary:
It is hard to blame New Jersey for pulling the trigger on this deal. If they are going to be battling for market share with the Knicks this was the perfect way to let the world know that they aren’t giving up just because of the Carmello deal. Landing Deron Williams was an absolute coup. They gave up some good assets in order to bring him in and they still have to convince him to re-sign with the team but the move was both aggressive and calculated. Two things the Nets are going to need to be going forward.
Utah gets a lot of credit with me for making this deal now – not because of any moral stand regarding Jerry Sloan’s sudden resignation and the undertones that it was related in some way to a rift with the star point guard. They got a great deal. They bring in the third overall pick from the 2010 draft, they get a sure-fire top 10 pick in the 2011 draft and they get an extremely underrated replacement in Devin Harris. I love Harris’ game. The Jazz have the massive Kirilenko deal coming off of their books at the end of the year (and Okur’s at the end of 2011-12) and they should have plenty of good opportunities available for them to add to a solid nucleus of Harris, Millsap, Jefferson, and Favors.
As far as Golden State’s involvement in this I am a little baffled. They traded two expiring contracts for one expiring contract. They owe a future 1st rd pick to the Nets for a bad trade involving Marcus Williams (this pick was traded to Utah in this deal) yet they didn’t get it back from New Jersey. In fact, they didn’t get anything back from New Jersey as they promptly bought out the last year of Troy Murphy’s deal. I cannot understand why Golden State wouldn’t insist on getting this pick back as payment for helping Jersey land a superstar.
Analysis: Golden State whiffs, New jersey wins +1, Utah wins