Skip to content

Did the Nets and Kings make a trade for the sake of making a trade?

For the modern day NBA, today's trade between the Nets and Kings was as simple a deal as they come. Three players all with the same remaining length of contracts (through the 2014-15 season) and no draft picks to keep track of.

And that's about where the positives end regarding this deal. Not that it's necessarily a bad deal for the teams in question, just that it's much more of a trade for the sake of making a trade than it is an actual good trade.

The Nets are an expensive mess, and while they've been vastly improved in the New Year and remain squarely in the mix for an all-important top-six seed (and therefore remain in contention for a second round playoff appearance), they remain a mess, nonetheless, both now and for years to come.

From Brooklyn's perspective, a team that scores and defends at rates slightly below average has added one of the most one-dimensional players and one of the most useless recipients of $8-plus million in the league.

And that takes us to the biggest problem with acquiring Marcus Thornton. For a guy who's supposed to be a one-dimensional scorer, the 26-year-old is averaging 8.3 points in 24 minutes per game on 38 percent shooting, 31 percent three-point shooting and a horrendous .484 True Shooting Percentage. For a player whose one redeeming NBA skill is supposed to be offense, Thornton is producing 0.89 points per possession on that end of the floor, per Synergy Sports, and currently boasts a single-digit Player Efficiency Rating.

Jason Terry wasn't giving the Nets anything and will make over $5.8 million next season, Reggie Evans is an obviously limited player and Thornton, at his age, still maintains the most upside of the three. But while Thornton has failed to supply the Kings with the one thing he was paid for, Evans, at just $1,695,635 this season and $1,768,653 next season, has at least done his job for the Nets, as both his offensive rebound rate and total rebound rate rank among the league's top-three for players who have appeared in at least 20 games.

The Nets rank 24th in offensive rebounding and 27th in total rebounding, so while Evans isn't a major problem solver on the court by any means, perhaps with such a small price attached to him, he's not the guy to jettison out of town. Brooklyn is reportedly chasing Jordan Hill, though, so they may be holding out hope a more complete player than Evans can pick up the rebounding slack.

On that note, however:

But forget about Hill and Evans for a second, let's get back to Thornton. There is the possibility that he can bounce back to career averages that would see him regain his place as a slightly above average volume scorer, but even in that best case scenario, the mediocre Nets will simply be upping their committed salary for next season by about $960,000 for a very mediocre player. What's the point?

As for the Kings, they've saved a wee bit of money for next year by dumping one bad contract for a couple of smaller ones that almost add up to the same amount in total, but remember that if Rudy Gay picks up his mammoth player option for next season and the team re-signs restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas after a phenomenal breakout season (The Kings are reportedly open to trading Thomas before he hits the market), they'll almost surely be a luxury tax team in 2014-15.

And while moving Thornton may seem like it has the potential for addition by subtraction, consider the following - Of the 33 five-man units that have logged at least 200 minutes together in the NBA this season, the lineup of Thornton, Thomas, Gay, DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson has the third-best point-differential per 48 minutes at +12.4, according to NBA.com.

That same lineup, only with rookie Ben McLemore (who the Kings have reportedly deemed untouchable) in it in place of Thornton, has a point-differential per 48 of -10.3, good for 31st on the same list of 33.

In other words, save for the small amount of saved money, the lone obvious positive for Sacramento here is that Sleep Train Arena will now house two of the best beards in the Association in Evans and the younger Quincy Acy...so there's that. 

Perhaps neither team fares worse after this trade than they did beforehand - after all, we are talking about two bad teams - but there's little evidence to suggest that the Nets or Kings will get any better, and there also doesn't appear to be much in the way of financial reasoning to make this deal for either team (although if it does make the difference between the Kings going into the tax to re-sign Thomas or not, that should not be overlooked).

It's the definition of making a deal for the sake of making a deal, and when you consider the shaky organizations involved and the fact that the Knicks now reportedly want a first round pick in addition to dumping Raymond Felton's contract if they're going to trade Iman Shumpert, it's a stark reminder as we close in on Thursday's 3 p.m. ET deadline that if there's one thing holding us back from blockbuster deals involving superstars, it's that good teams with sound management won't engage without reason, while teams like the Nets, Kings, Knicks and other laughingstocks will fill us with all of the meaningless movement we can handle.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox