NBA Trade Deadline Dull, All About The Money

For once, the NBA trade deadline came in with real promise. Vince Carter moving to a contender like San Antonio was possible. The hot rumor this morning was Shaquille O’Neal going to Cleveland to play alongside LeBron James. The Celtics were looking for anyone who could fill James Posey’s shoes.

And at the end of the day, the only people excited are the accountants.

That’s because there were only a few moves made and the ones that did go through were about the salary cap — saving money now or saving money in a couple of years. Blame the economy, because while your 401K and home value have tanked, the massive real estate holdings and stock portfolios of NBA owners have crashed on a much bigger scale. And they, too, are not in the mood to spend. So Carter and O’Neal and Amare Stoudemire and anyone else of consequence stays put.

The only basketball-smart move of the day came from Orlando, which traded for the Rockets point guard Rafer Alston. With Jameer Nelson out injured, Orlando had lost its magic and looked pedestrian. While Alston is no Nelson, he is an upgrade that will keep feeding Dwight Howard the ball and hitting some threes.

In return, Houston — the face of the NBA “Moneyball” statistical movement — get the least Moneyball friendly player in the NBA in Brian Cook. The Rockets also get the more useful point guard Kevin Lowry (who has better shooting percentages than Alston, but has not had to carry the same load).

The move that had that Internet thing buzzing all morning was the rumored deal of everyone’s favorite member of the Jabberwockeez, Shaquille O'Neal, going to Cleveland. Shaq and LeBron together, that had possibilities (you could hear the cash register in David Stern’s mind ringing up the profits already).

But like everything, finances killed the deal. The Cavs had offered Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic. The Suns have been looking to shed some payroll and they wanted the expiring deal of Wally Szczerbiak. The Cavs shot that down because they want to save money, too. (Hypothetically, if you were Cavaliers management, would you consider starting talks about a big home run deal you know will not go through, then leak it to the press, so you can tell LeBron that you really are trying? There’s a nice conspiracy theory there.)

None of the big three NBA title contenders made a serious move. The Celtics traded little used Patrick O'Bryant to Toronto for little used backup point guard Will Solomon. The Lakers a day before the deadline traded little used center Chris Mihm to Memphis for a second round draft pick.

Two teams did make moves — fans of the Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings need to buy the program next time they go to a game because their team looks nothing like the one they last saw.

The Bulls traded Larry Hughes to Chicago for Tim Thomas, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson. Hughes, who can fill it up, should be a good fit in the run-and-gun D’Antoni style in the Big Apple. The Bulls traded Thabo Sefolosha to Oklahoma City for a first-round draft pick.

The Bulls and Kings got together on Wednesday for maybe the biggest deal of the deadline: The Bulls trade Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Michael Ruffin and Cedric Simmons to the Kings for Brad Miller and John Salmons. Ruffin was then instantly traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for forward Ike Diogu and cash.

What would have been the biggest deal of the deadline was rescinded — Tyson Chandler was to go to Oklahoma City and New Orleans was to get Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox, But Oklahoma nixed that deal because of a lingering foot injury for Chandler, which has slowed the big man this season.

But that deal was really about New Orleans being willing to lose the basketball end of the deal to save money. It’s always about the money this year.

Kurt Helin’s three-point shooting skills were good enough to earn him a desk job, from where he started Forum Blue & Gold.

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