Sports 4 Dorks

So, yesterday, I sat down to write a long post that detailed
the trading options of the New Jersey Nets, who are rumored to be trying to
initiate a long-overdue rebuilding process, and apparently interested in
trading Jason Kidd.

Kidd’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, is fresh off issuing New
Jersey’s front office a trade demand, and though Kidd’s age (35 in March) and
contract (19.7 million bucks this season, 21.3 million the next) make him a
tough sell, one would think that his skills would be enough to encourage a team
to make a deal for the All-Star.

One would think.

Then I started crunching the numbers. I started working on a
list of teams that would be willing to give up quite a bit for Kidd, teams that
think they’re a hard-charging point man away from winning the championship, and
started looking around the NBA for assets (expiring contracts, young talent)
that New Jersey
would want to accrue in return. I started to put together possible deals.

I’m still trying to put together possible deals.

Is any deal possible?

Let’s look at the sorts of teams that would want to take
Kidd on. The Dallas Mavericks might lose Devin Harris to what looked like (last
night, at least) a high ankle sprain, and they’ve been rumored to be after Kidd
for a while. The Denver Nuggets have no issues paying the luxury tax,
apparently, and have a gaping hole at point guard that Anthony Carter (in spite
of his best, and downright surprising, efforts) can’t fill. The Lakers would
still like him.

The Celtics would kill for him, the Magic might want a turn,
the Rockets would be willing, as would the Cavaliers, and Trail Blazers.

The Nets, on the other hand, finally appear to be cognizant
of their situation. They’d likely ask for no more than expiring contracts, some
lower-rung draft picks, a talented if-not lottery-level youngster still on his
rookie contract, and the ability to send Jason Collins‘ contract somewhere
else. It isn’t a fair return, but this is the NBA, the salary cap makes even
deals tough to pull off, and that’s how it works.

Then the issues set in. There aren’t many expiring contracts
of any real value floating around. The Miami Heat have one in Jason Williams,
and the Los Angeles Lakers will see Kwame Brown’s come off the books, but the
biggest expiring contracts out there that the Nets would covet come in the form
of players who are already bought-out. Uh oh.

The Lakers, even with Andrew Bynum out, would seem amenable
to shipping Brown out to help facilitate a trade that brought them something
nice back, but it makes precious little sense for them to aid the Nuggets,
Mavericks or even the Cleveland Cavaliers in getting a player in Kidd to push
them over the top.

Making things more complicated are the tradeable (we think)
contracts that the Nets won’t want. The Lakers could send Lamar Odom and Kwame
to New Jersey
in a half-second for Kidd, but why would the Nets want to rebuild with Odom’s
contract on the books? Odom’s in his ostensible prime, he’s not some young stud
who can develop on a rebuilding team, and his contract expires the same year as
Kidd’s.

In Dallas, the Mavs might be open to sending Devin Harris,
Jason Terry and parts to New Jersey, though even I think that’s sort of a
stretch (Jose Barea is a championship-level backup point guard?), but why would
the Nets want Terry’s contract on the books? He’s worth the money, but not to a
rebuilding team.

And if you’re Mavs GM Donn Nelson, don’t you believe in the
championship aspirations of this roster as presently constructed? No point in
giving up Harris (or, as some have suggested, Josh Howard) for a chance at
Kidd.

Even if Howard’s name came up (which, I have to re-iterate, Dallas would want nothing to do with), why would New Jersey want to take
him on? This guy is going to be 28 in April. He’s in his prime. By the time any
rebuilding effort started to bear fruit, he’d be 31. By the time you could put
a championship team around him, he’d be 33. The same goes for Denver’s
Nene Hilario, who could be sent to the Nets with Eduardo Najera and J.R. Smith,
but why would New Jersey
want to rebuild with Nene’s eight-figure contract on the roster?

Denver’s an interesting cog because they could send Nene to
a third team in any swap to help round-out salaries, but would they want to be
the team that sends a cancer patient to, say, Cleveland?

In fact, the one trade
that seemed to work out best for all sides would have the Cavs sending a series
of lower-rung or expiring contracts to New Jersey
(Cedric Simmons, Dwayne Jones, Ira Newble, Devin Brown) with Nene heading to Cleveland, Denver
losing J.R. Smith and Eduardo Najera to gain Kidd. But would Denver ship Nene in the midst of his
recovery?

Atlanta could send a whole batch of expiring contracts to
New Jersey, but they’ve been loathe to make any deals while their ownership
situation gets figured out; and although Kidd (rightfully) has no say in where
he’d end up, he’d pitch a bitch in Atlanta, even for a Hawks team that is
better than his current Nets squad. And the Hawks idea brings up another issue:
roster space.

Teams can’t trade for more players than they have roster spots available for,
so for any big deal to happen that would send six players New Jersey’s way, they’d have to cut a few
guys. Possible movable contracts like Jamaal Magliore and Malik Allen would
have to be cut, and rendered untradeable, which would stink for the Nets.

And that’s it. There’s no magic conduit to not only put Kidd
on a contender, but to get him off the team in the first place. Nets personnel
Number Two Kiki Vandeweghe did a fine job unloading undesirable contracts while
breaking up the remains of Dan Issel’s mess in Denver, so he has some
experience, but there aren’t as many obvious options this time around.

This doesn’t mean a deal can’t get done, or that the Nets
would prefer to buy the man out.

What it does mean, however, is that whichever
deal goes down between now and the February 21^st trading deadline
will likely involve someone making a bad move. Taking on a contract they don’t
need, aiding another rival, giving up too much … something like that. It won’t
be a win-win.

You’re more than welcome to offer your (cap-legal, I would
ask) suggestions in the comments section, but prepare for a lot of, "why would
(insert team name) do that deal?" responses. It won’t be an easy break.