Mega 4 way NBA trade

[Clarkmeister]

You rarely see trades like this:

Knicks: Lose Spreewel, gain Van Horne
76ers: Lose Van Horne, gain Glenn Robinson
Hawks: Lose Robinson, gain Terrell Brandon
TWolves: Lose Brandon, gain Spreewel

Wow.

[Sooga]

I think the T-wolves came out huge in this deal. Their starting lineup is now: Cassell, Spree, Kandi, KG, and Wally. That's as good as any starting 5 in the league (assuming Kobe is not available). I also like it for Philly, it finally gives them a proven big-time scorer to complement AI. Though, given the 76ers' defensive style, I'm not sure how well Glenn Robinson will fit in. And the Hawks didn't have a point guard, and now they have one, so they make out pretty well too. As for the Knicks, I have no clue what they're doing. Stockpiling on forwards and tweener types? I'm not sure how Van Horn fits into the Knicks lineup. At least they finally got rid of their Houston/Spree logjam at SG.

[ComeOn]

"And the Hawks didn't have a point guard, and now they have one, so they make out pretty well too."

This is actually Terrell Brandon's contract only, as I don't think anyone, certainly not here in the Twin Cities, expects him to ever play again. I don't know much about how the salary cap system works, but my understanding is that Brandon's contract comes off the books in February, thus clearing cap room, presumably for next year.

[Sooga]

Hrm, yea i heard about those Brandon retirement rumors, but I didn't give it much thought. I didn't realize his knee injury was that serious. Oh well.

[IrishHand]

They aren't rumors - Brandon's career is over and has been for many months. His contract is immensely valuable because it comes off the cap books in January.

It's basically for that reason that the Hawks were the huge winners in this deal, despite claims in this post and the media to the contrary. Cap management is one of the crucial keys to success - it's very difficult to field a championship team if you have players performing well below their contract status. A max contract (meaning everything from $9M a year on up) belongs in the hands of superstars and superstars only. The moment a team has one or more max deals in the hands of accessory players, they're basically screwed for the duration. How many championship teams have had marginal or even above-average players with max salaries?

-The Hawks got rid of Robinson's $10M+/year deal, which is a victory. They were awful with him, and now they'll have that cap room to aquire a real superstar, or at least be bad enough to draft one of their own (a la Cavaliers).

-The Wolves are now dead in the water, in my mind. Are they a better team? On paper, yes. On the court, probably. Good enough to be anywhere near championship-contention level? No. And they're done changing - the contracts they've saddled themselves with lately (Olowakandi, Sprewell, Sczerbiak) cripple their flexibility. Basically, the Wolves have committed themselves to re-signing Garnett next summer and praying that the current group is good enough. They aren't. The Wolves three max (or near-max) contracts are to an unwilling superstar (Garnett) and two accessory players (Sprewell and Sczerbiak). There's a reason that the Knicks have been unable to trade Sprewell for the past 18 months despite valiant efforts - his $13+M/yr contract is fatal.

-The Sixers went from Van Horn to Robinson. Who cares? Neither are winners. Neither do anything more than than score points and let their opponent do the same.

-The Knicks go from Sprewell to Van Horn at the small forward position. I'd say that'll cost them 5 or so wins next year - maybe enough to get them a top-3 pick, which is a good plan (although probably not the plan that Layden had in mind).

[Sooga]

I wouldn't be so quick to write off the Wolves this fast. They've taken on a lot of salary, but not to old veteran players who are near the twilight of their careers. The team they're putting on the floor is still a very young team, and while this next season might show some signs of growing pains, they could become very good. Last season Kandi was finally starting to show signs of why he was the #1 pick, Spree will be more comfortable going back to his 2 spot, and Wally is one of the most underrated shooters in the league. Flip Saunders has done a great job squeezing wins out of a team that for the past few seasons has consisted of not much more than Garnett and 4 stiffs. People point out that the Wolves have done nothing in the playoffs, but I'm surprised they got that far, especially in the West. Now that Saunders has some quality to work with, I'll be very interested to see how he does.

[IrishHand]

The Wolves aren't a "young" team anymore. The team's average age is 27. The Lakers? Avg. age of 27. How about those old Knicks or Blazers? 27, and...um...27. Nearly every NBA team has an average age of 27 - doesn't mean much of anything. (I believe the youngest are the Nuggets, Cavs and Bulls at 23, 24 and 24, respectively.) The Wolves starting 5 is actually older than the NBA average.

I agree that it will be interesting to see how Saunders handles his overhauled lineup, just as I agree that they have more talent - on paper - than they used to. Of course, a big reason for their success the past few years was the entire team (or at least the entire team not named "Wally")'s committment to playing defense. The Kandi Man and Cassell don't share that commitment - at least not at the level that Nesterovic and Joe Smith did (the players each is replacing). Ultimately, one needs only look to the Blazers of the past few years to see how bright an idea it is to simply accumulate talent. Garnett, Sprewell and Cassell are all headcases of one variety or another. Wally plays far better when he plays the 2 and when he gets a lot of shots. Olowakandi is the only center I can recall that people label a "back to the basket-type" center despite the fact that he's never managed to shoot even 44% from the floor.

The way I see it, the Wolves gained more scorers while losing defenders and role-players. Yes, the Wolves had too many of the latter and not enough of the former, but I'm fairly confident they've swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. Guess we'll see in a few months though...

[Sooga]

Perhaps I should have been a bit more clear. I meant young in the respect that they're good and young. The Nuggets, Cavs, and Bulls are obviously a lot younger, but they're also very crappy teams (as of now). Obviously we haven't seen this Wolves team in action, but I'd be willing to put money that they'll do better than the above 3 teams.

I agree that Cassell and Spree aren't exactly saints, but I don't think Garnett is a headcase at all. I'm not sure where you got that from. The Wolves did gain more scorers, but Spree is an excellent defensive player.

[IrishHand]

Garnett:

(a) has a posse only slightly smaller than Iverson's and believes he's a bigger thug. The guy screams and swears more on the court than any player in the league - pretty bold for a guy who's never accomplished a thing. The only difference between Garnett and the mindless players who celebrate dunks even though they're team is down 20 is that Garnett puts up better numbers. I have a laundry list of examples of this if you'd like to hear some.
(b) says stupid things in the media. The man's a walking motivator for the other team - which is fine if you're Shaq and can back it up, not so fine when you can't.
(c) claims to be underpaid even though he and his contract are the 2nd major reason the Wolves have are condemned to above-averageness.
(d) has proven beyond any doubt that he's a pseudo-superstar - big money, big regular season numbers, end of story. I've watched him each year he's "led" his team to the playoffs, and he's failed to raise his level of play, failed to raise the level of his teammates play and ultimately, failed to will his team to victory when it mattered. A couple of years is bad luck - what he's done is a pattern.

I've long maintained the Wolves would've been better off shipping him two years ago when they got busted for the Smith thing. Garnett is insanely marketable, and they could get nearly anyone in the league for him other than Shaq, Kobe, Duncan and McGrady. Most of the offers I've read about would have improved the team. As it stands now, they'll have to give him a contract starting at $20-30 million a year - pretty amazing for a guy who can't get passed the 1st round of the playoffs.