Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 3

Orlando Magic

7/15    Matched offer tendered to J.J. Reddick

8/4      Re-signed Jason Williams

I was a little surprised to see Orlando bring back Williams after previously giving Chris Duhon a moderately generous four-year deal.   But, as we noted last time, Williams is probably a better short term bet and he has agreed to a one-year contract.  The worst that could happen is that Duhon or Williams falls to third string, neither of which is too big a deal.   Reddick’s return is also potentially a bit of an overpay (three years and $20 million) but he showed marked improvement last year and the Magic were good enough that they should spend a little extra to keep their best shooter.

Philadelphia 76ers

7/21    Signed Tony Battie

8/12    Named Rod Thorn team president

The Thorn situation is quite weird for many reasons.  Let’s count the ways:

-By all public accounts, Mikhail Prokhorov and the Nets really wanted to keep Thorn.  Also, the Nets were finally willing to spend money after previous ownership had forced Thorn to cut payroll for several years.  Thorn’s stated reason for leaving Jersey was that “it was just time.”  It’s possible that Thorn had wandering eyes after a decade in New Jersey but more likely, he saw a better opportunity or he believed that the Nets situation would get messy for some reason or he felt that Prorkhorov really didn’t want him around.

-Thorn immediately ends up in Philly after quitting.  The 76ers aren’t a bad situation per se–ownership is loyal and willing to spend –but they have some bad contracts (Elton Brand, Andres Nocioni) and they have overpaid Andre Iguodala.  The Sixers also have Evan Turner, who Thorn clearly loved before the draft.  Throw in Ed Stefanski, Thorn’s buddy from Jersey, and there were reasons to sign here.  Still, the totality of the Sixer situation was probably not better than the one he left in New Jersey, where they have some good young players, a good cap situation, and financial might.

-Some Nets fans felt a bit betrayed by Thorn heading to Philly, since the decision clearly sends a message that Thorn felt it was a better situation, whatever the reason.  If you are a Nets fan, however, this is a silly reaction.  Thorn gave the franchise its best five-year run in the NBA (2001-2002 through 2006-07) and did a pretty good job flipping Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson at the right times while rebuilding.  Thorn certainly had his weaknesses (he did not stock the benches well, which exacerbated the decline last year) and is not an irreplaceable cog.  So rather than be angry with Thorn, just be happy for the good run and if Thorn chose his next job poorly, that’s his problem.

-As for Philly fans, Thorn is not exactly an exciting choice either.  As noted, he has some very good moments (trading for Jason Kidd, drafting Richard Jefferson, and trading for Vince Carter) but he has plenty of whiffs too (the Dikembe Mutombo trade, drafting Antoine Wright over Danny Granger, and trying to start Bobby Simmons and Trenton Hassell as real NBA forwards).  He’s an upgrade over Stefanski but they are close enough in style that it is plausible to wonder what Thorn brings to the table that wasn’t there before other than buying Stefanski more time to work with his old boss.  It is possible that Turner will turn out well and that Thorn will steal another star like they did in New Jersey but skepticism is also fair here too.

Phoenix Suns

7/14    Traded a 2010 second-round pick to Atlanta for Josh Childress

7/14    Traded Leandro Barbosa and Dwayne Jones to Toronto for Hedo Turkoglu

7/20    Named Lon Babby president of basketball operations

8/5      Named Lance Blanks general manager

The hope in Phoenix is that the running style super charges Turkoglu and he can replace Amare Stoudemire in some form.  Turkoglu is probably better than Barbosa and does fill a hole at forward but he has been steadily declining and is on the books for four more years and over $10 million per year.  Investing in Turk’s 30s is not a great proposition, particularly where he might not bring anything the Suns’ need to the table.  Phoenix’s top two rebounders per-minute (Amare and Louis Amundson) are gone and have essentially been replaced by yet another perimeter player.  The plan may not be wise but it is intriguing that Phoenix is just doubling down on offense and writing off defense and rebounding.  Last year, the Suns were the most efficient offensive team in the NBA, above average in rebounding but 26th in defense.  One must wonder if a focus on adding even more scorers to the detriment of rebounding will over saturate the team with scorers.  You figure that Phoenix can’t get much better offensively anyway and thus they have nowhere to go but down if Phoenix declines in other areas.  This seems to be the likely result but you have to appreciate the Suns’ chutzpah in just going in this direction anyway.

Portland Trailblazers

7/19    Named Rich Cho general manager

7/21    Signed Wesley Matthews

Matthews was signed to a five-year $34 million reported deal and I frankly don’t love it.  Matthews is young enough to be potentially a nice player but this is a bit generous for a player who is as likely to be a nice bench player as a good starter.  Portland clearly felt that they had to overpay to get Matthews from Utah.  It is also true that the Blazers need another player at the shooting guard/small forward slot.  But just because you have the money to offer doesn’t mean that the player you offer it to will fix the hole.  Last year, Portland wanted Turkoglu and now Matthews and were been willing to pay lots of cash to get the deals done.  Turkoglu spurned Portland  for the Raps and the Blazers were much better for it (signing Andre Miller on the cheap instead).  The Matthews signing looks a little better than the Turkoglu attempt but it arises from the same incorrect impulse and is not likely to be a big help.

San Antonio Spurs

7/21    Re-signed Richard Jefferson

RJ agreed to forfeit his large option this year (about $18 million) and the Spurs rewarded him with a long-term deal (four year and about $40 million).  Almost everyone is convinced that Jefferson and the Spurs had a pre-arranged (but technically improper) deal because Jefferson gave up a lot of guaranteed money, something most people would not do unless they were sure a new good deal was on the table.  I have no inside knowledge on this point but the facts support such an inference.  Jefferson had the worst year of his career in 2009-10, having his lowest free-throw rate, lowest PER, and three-point shooting stats of his career.  Also, the deal allowed the Spurs to re-sign Matt Bonner and sign Tiago Splitter without incurring luxury tax.

Circumstantially, this deal looks pre-arranged.  The only possible logic for Jefferson to forgo the huge option year (other than that he had a pre-arranged deal) was if he felt his game was really going south and he wasn’t going to improve on his 2009-10 season and there would be no contract available to him after 2010-11.  Indeed, if Jefferson had put up similar numbers in 2010-11, he probably could’ve gotten a decent two-year deal  in the $7 million per year range (and he would’ve got even more if bounced back this season).

Regardless of how the deal was done, the question is whether it made sense to the Spurs.  Clearly, four years and $40 million is a bit rich for RJ in a vacuum.  As a restructuring of his 2010-11 salary, however, it’s not too bad given luxury tax savings and the fact that the payroll will be contracting after the season.  Even so, Jefferson has been steadily eroding the last three years (his PER the last three seasons went from 17.4 to 15.4 to 13.1 last year) and while he should be averageish this year, San Antonio will be faced with one or two years of dead money on this deal unless Jefferson can arrest the precipitous decline.

Toronto Raptors

7/14    Traded Hedo Turkoglu to Phoenix for Leandro Barbosa and Dwayne Jones

7/24    Signed Linas Kleiza

7/28    Traded a 2015 protected second-round pick to Houston for David Andersen

8/11    Traded Marco Belinelli to New Orleans for Julian Wright

Toronto is in nowhere land right now and has been trying to shift around the roster to find a direction to rebuild.  This set of moves reflects that goal.  First off, dumping Turkoglu was a must move.  His contract was too long and he was brought in pretty much to make a playoff run in 2009-10, which, was supposed to convince Chris Bosh to stay in town.  The assumption that Turkoglu was good enough to accomplish that goal was fundamentally flawed on several levels and worked out about as well as expected.  So, the fact that the Raptors can get out of his contract is a good thing but only in the sense that they fixed a mistake and not in the sense that management knows how to build a good team.

The affirmative moves to improve the team are all moderately interesting.  Kleiza spent last year in Europe and scouts are swearing that he has jumped up a level as a player and can be a go-to-scorer.  Kleiza was never much of a shooter before he left for Europe (he had only one nice shooting year with Denver) but he did score well Olympiacos (17.1 ppg, 54% shooting in Euroleague).  He’s still not a great shooter (.349% from three in Europe) but the Raptors can afford to gamble on finding a scorer given the empty roster.

As for Andersen, he’s a soft forward who can shoot.  The Rockets didn’t love the full package but he is a useful player, particularly when he was given away.  Finally, it’s not clear what Wright can do since he barely played in New Orleans but he is the type of young player that the Raps need to take a flier on to determine if he has some value.

Utah Jazz

7/14    Traded Kosta Koufos, a protected 2011 first-round pick and another future protected first-round pick to Minnesota for Al Jefferson

7/18    Signed Raja Bell

Nice recovery for the Jazz. Jefferson is a very similar player to the departed Carlos Boozer, a nice scorer with injury and defense issues.  Jefferson’s numbers were a little down coming back for a knee injury but the Wolves wanted very little for him so how could Utah say no?  The net result is that the Jazz are about as good as they were before Boozer left.

Washington Wizards

7/30    Re-signed Josh Howard

I guess the Wiz figure that they may as well see if Howard has anything left, considering they traded Caron Butler for him.  The answer: probably not.  Still, on a one-year deal there isn’t much risk involved.