Early verdict on some less-heralded moves

The Hornets saved money and found a starter with their trade for Marco Belinelli. (NBAE via Getty Images)

It’s impossible right now to draw firm conclusions about most summer or preseason transactions, especially those involving long-term financial implications or young players thrust into a new role. Jordan Farmar, for instance, is shooting 30 percent, but is anyone really ready to say the Nets made a mistake in signing him to a three-year, $12 million contract, a deal worth much less than the league’s average annual salary?

That caveat aside, several moves — the focus here is on ones that didn’t feature the marquee free agents or major trade pieces — are already heading in a good or bad direction. Here are some:

• New Orleans Hornets

New Orleans made big news when it acquired small forward Trevor Ariza in a four-team deal, but its work on less-heralded transactions has proved just as important. The Hornets paired the Ariza move with a minor deal that sent Julian Wright, also a swingman, to Toronto for shooting guard Marco Belinelli. The deal saved the Hornets about $500,000 in salary this year — not a small thing for a team near the luxury-tax threshold — but it also gave the Hornets a three-point shooter to fill the role Peja Stojakovic is apparently no longer able to fill. Belinelli is starting, hitting 41.4 percent of his threes and playing decent defense.

I initially scoffed at New Orleans’ other secondary move: trading Darius Songaila and rookie Craig Brackins to the Sixers for Willie Green and Jason Smith. Why would you deal a rookie for two veteran retreads, particularly when you’re going to ask one of those veterans (Green) to play a backup point guard role he’s likely not capable of playing? That criticism still holds to a degree, especially considering the machinations New Orleans went through to fill that spot — the Green trade, the deal with San Antonio for Curtis Jerrells (since waived) and, finally, the acquisition of Jerryd Bayless from Portland.

But the initial Sixers trade seems to have worked out. And it’s Smith who has looked like the prize. He has emerged as the Hornets’ top big man off the bench, and his shooting works well on the end of pick-and-pop with Chris Paul.

Green is not doing much, but his mid-range shooting helps in every third game and you can at least count on him to handle the ball without screwing up. If his game declines, the fact that he’s taking minutes from Marcus Thornton might become an issue.

Meanwhile, Songaila has barely played in Philadelphia, and Brackins hasn’t played at all. The deal is a wash financially, though it does give New Orleans the right to take a look at Smith as a restricted free agent next summer.

• Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are paying Matt Barnes, Steve Blake and Shannon Brown $7.9 million combined this season. That’s $1.1 million less than what the Wizards will pay Kirk Hinrich and nearly $11 million less than Golden State will pay Dan Gadzuric, Vladimir Radmanovic and Charlie Bell combined.

Sure, the Lakers might regret the fourth year of Blake’s deal, but that doesn’t kick in until 2013-14, and L.A. is capped out until then. This is wise spending by a team that didn’t have much freedom to spend.

• Boston Celtics

Like the Lakers, Boston fortified its bench despite limited flexibility. The Celtics entered the offseason armed with only the mid-level exception and the veteran’s minimum exception, in addition to a limited version of Larry Bird rights teams hold on players who have logged one year for them. They turned that into Jermaine O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal, Marquis Daniels, Nate Robinson, Delonte West, Semih Erden and Von Wafer.

A few of those moves will flop, but Boston needs only a couple of them to succeed.

• Atlanta Hawks

It feels unfair to criticize the Hawks for not using the mid-level exception, since doing so in full would have taken them over the luxury tax — not something a team in Atlanta’s financial position wants to do. But Atlanta is already feeling the cost of punting the mid-level and instead spending the veteran’s minimum on guys like Jason Collins and Etan Thomas. An injury to Marvin Williams (who missed four games before returning Friday) has exposed Atlanta as a paper-thin team one key injury away from trouble.

• Indiana Pacers

The Pacers could have had monster cap room — perhaps as much as $28 million or so — had they held on to Troy Murphy’s expiring contract and let if vanish from their cap. But Larry Bird looked at the list of 2011 free agents and decided that wasn’t the right way to address the team’s hole at point guard. So he put Murphy’s deal into the four-team trade that brought Indiana Darren Collison and James Posey.

Posey’s declining fast, and his deal will cost the Pacers $7.6 million next season (barring a lockout, of course). That was the trade-off for acquiring Collison, who is only 23 and put up shockingly good numbers filling in for Chris Paul last season. Collison’s assists are down early this season, but his scoring is up and he’s turning the ball over less. He clearly projects as a top-level point guard who will shoot a high percentage from all over the court, play harassing defense and create good looks for teammates.

And even with Posey’s deal, the Pacers can still work their way to about $20 million in cap room by renouncing the rights to all of their impending free agents. That group includes Mike Dunleavy. Stay tuned on that front.

• Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers hoard cap room that they won’t use, but they’re willing to pay Brian Cook $1.1 million this season — and give him a $1.3 million player option for next season. Cook has played 35 minutes in five games, and he’s shooting 26 percent. He’s not yet 30, so perhaps there’s room for improvement here. But still …

• Golden State Warriors

It’s strange to think that Dorell Wright was an unknown commodity a few months ago, since he logged more than 20 minutes per game for Miami in both 2007-08 and last season. But it felt like that during the offseason, didn’t it? Despite more than 4,000 career minutes in which Wright put up almost a league-average Player Efficiency Rating, he felt like a project — a 6-foot-7 swingman with a tantalizing skill set, but a guy who hadn’t played all that much meaningful basketball.

The Warriors nabbed Wright, still just 24, on a three-year, $11.5 million deal. It already looks like a steal. Wright is playing 37 minutes per game and leads the league with 28 three-pointers (on 57 attempts). He’s a key rotation player on a team that could push 40 wins if all goes right.

The Wright deal feels a lot like Golden State’s acquisition of Lou Amundson, who hasn’t played yet because of a broken finger. The Warriors signed Amundson, a 27-year-old offensive rebounding menace, to a two-year deal, $4.7 million deal. This is a good way for a lottery-bound, capped-out team to spend its money — on young-ish players with one or two proven skills who might flourish given increased minutes.

• Dallas Mavericks

I’ve covered the Tyson Chandler deal in detail, so I won’t belabor it here. Turning Erick Dampier’s big expiring contract into a healthy-looking Chandler looks good on its own. To do it while shoving long-term obligations to Matt Carroll and Eduardo Najera onto the Bobcats is the kind of seemingly minor move that allows a capped-out team like Dallas to keep tinkering with its roster.