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A Trade!

The Nets gave their fans something to get excited about during this pedestrian season. At this point it's not really clear if that will be a good excited or bad excited this year. On the negative side, they traded away one of their most exciting up and coming players in Caris LeVert in what appeared to be a bit of a cost-cutting move - two things that is sure to irritate even the most optimistic Nets fans.

Caris LeVert has been with the team for all of his career to date - a rare "homegrown" prospect that the staff and fans have kept tabs on since the day of the draft. Caris fell to the Nets at the end of the first round due to a myriad of injuries and they were a great match from day 1. The team remains exceedingly optimistic that Caris will turn into a very solid starting shooting guard, potentially even a top 10 one in the next couple of years. However, with a crowded roster and a team bleeding money - he was a luxury that they couldn't afford to hold onto any longer. He'll head to Memphis and should immediately take over as the starting shooting guard on a team that better fits his timeline.

Danilo Gallinari's relationship with Brooklyn was an odd one - he was sent away in the trade to get DeAndre Jordan and DeMar DeRozan, then after being passed to another team, was traded back to Brooklyn in the much-maligned Kevin Love trade. Gallinari should have been a key part of this team - either a scoring forward next to Jordan or a bench catalyst running the show when the main guns rested. When he was on the court this season he didn't fit - and the even bigger problem was that was only for a handful of games. Wizkid was too optimistic in trading for him, and incorrectly valued him higher than the rest of the league. They certainly "sold" on him at a low point - and he's capable of contributing, even on a great team, but his injuries and salary combined to be a huge root of the problems in Brooklyn.

The positive side of this trade is that they fill a need - a bit more interior toughness in their potential starting lineup, they bring in either a guaranteed lottery pick OR two mid-round 1sts in the upcoming draft, and they save a ton of money. The team is now within striking distance of the luxury cap and for the first time in a long time, has a real shot of getting under it if they're interested in doing so. The picks will come through a bit of a complex protection situation, which essentially give Brooklyn the higher of the two picks if that is a lottery pick - and if not a lottery pick, they keep both. The likely scenarios seem to be that both picks stay around wher they are, gving the Nets two picks in the mid-late teens or that one of them slips into the late lottery - either scenario was acceptable to the Nets.

Taj Gibson is the only player that will be joining the team in this deal. Gibson comes in as the oldest player on the team and is a tough veteran with a game that will hopefully fit well with the existing starters. The Nets have been consistently getting out-battled on the interior, and Taj will likely be running with the first unit in an attempt to fix that. Larry Nance will back him up, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson can slide over to the wing. One question that has come up, is what the Nets will do about the backup shooting guard position without LeVert - but one of the biggest things that made this move possible is Shabazz Napier's emergence. Shabazz was an insurance plan at backup point guard - but he's looking great lately and even goes up to a 79 overall at shooting guard.

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