Hornets trade sheds light on expiring deals

Andre Iguodala has a big contract, but he's valuable enough that the Sixers won't just give him away for payroll relief. (Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)

After dreaming of Andre Iguodala or Kevin Martin or Stephen Jackson, the Hornets dealt Peja Stojakovic’s massive expiring contract and in return received Jarrett Jack, a backup guard (Marcus Banks) who shouldn’t play any meaningful minutes and a pick-and-pop big man (David Andersen) who is a near replica of their top big man off the bench (Jason Smith). And the Hornets had to surrender an intriguing young player in Jerryd Bayless just to persuade the Raptors to part with this sterling package.

The deal will help New Orleans, even if it will push Marcus Thornton even further out of the rotation. As others noted over the weekend, the deal essentially exchanges Jack for Bayless, and the Hornets are right to think that’s a good exchange without even considering Jack’s close friendship with Chris Paul. (Side note: The Raptors went after Jack in part because of his friendship, dating to their college days, with Chris Bosh. This is a good strategy for fringe NBA players with less certain careers than Jack: become friends with stars whose teams are fearful of losing those stars. You’ll always have a job!)

Bayless barely played alongside Paul, which means Monty Williams did not see Bayless and his unproven three-point shot as a legitimate option at shooting guard in crunch-time lineups. Bayless has shared almost all his court time with Willie Green, and the two basically split the ball-handling duties on New Orleans’ second unit. Neither is a quality point guard right now.

Jack isn’t a starting point guard on a good team, but he’s a better option at backup than either Bayless or Green. And he’s made a career of swinging between the two guard positions, so he’s an option at the 2 alongside Paul if Marco Belinelli is struggling.

It’s a good deal for New Orleans in basketball terms, and one that looks even better when considering the $5 million in payroll savings for this season, an occasional three-pointer from Andersen and two smaller expiring deals to replace Stojakovic’s.

It also shows that fans of teams with huge expiring contracts and trade exceptions might want to scale back their Iguodala-sized ambitions — at least for now. The market is flooded with (by my count) at least 16 expiring deals and trade exceptions valued at more than $10 million, meaning teams such as the Sixers will have many options if and when they decide to unload a quality guy like Iguodala — even if that guy is scheduled to make nearly $15 million per season through 2013-14. A trade exception won’t be enough unless a team has an intriguing young player or multiple first-rounders it’d like to add to a deal.

This notion that an expiring contract can get you a star player on a long-term deal is outdated. That got me thinking, though: How many players are there like Iguodala — very good, still relatively young and working on deals onerous enough that their teams would ideally like to dump them but can’t do so without getting something in return? I mean, sure, a team’s massive expiring contract could get it Baron Davis or Gilbert Arenas or Elton Brand, but what’s the point of that? The Clippers, Wizards and Sixers would dump those guys in a second for payroll relief alone.

But Philadelphia is clearly unwilling to do that, at least for now, with Iguodala — and that makes sense. He’s only 26, and he’s a tenacious defender you’d absolutely love to have as the second- or third-best player on your team. He’s overpaid but very valuable.

Does he have any equivalents around the league? Here are some candidates:

• Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace (Charlotte): Both have average salaries in the $9 million-$10 million range through the 2012-13 season, but their deals are a year shorter and much less expensive than Iguodala’s. The Bobcats aren’t on the best financial footing, but with playoff hopes and a money-saving lockout looming, they’re probably not willing to deal either for payroll relief alone.

• Kevin Martin (Houston): His deal is also a year shorter than Iguodala’s and pays him on average about $3 million less per season. With a bunch of a big-name expirings, the Rockets probably view Martin as a building block.

• Luol Deng (Chicago): Deng’s deal runs through 2013-14 (the same length as Iguodala’s) and pays him about $1 million less per season than Iguodala. But he’s not going anywhere with the Bulls on the upswing and no serious replacement lined up at small forward.

• Anderson Varejao (Cleveland): The 28-year-old is in the first year of a deal that pays him about $8.5 million per season through 2014-15. It’s a fair deal that might run a tad long, and it’s not big enough for Cleveland to be dying to move it. He doesn’t fit.

• Ben Gordon (Detroit): Here we go. Gordon is only a few months older than Iguodala, and will make an average of $12 million per season through 2013-14. That’s too much for a one-dimensional scorer, but Joe Dumars probably isn’t willing yet to swallow hard and admit he overpaid for Gordon — especially since the team could free up more minutes for Gordon by moving Richard Hamilton. Still, he might be the closest player in the league to Iguodala, in terms of his contract.

• Brendan Haywood (Dallas): Haywood will be paid nearly $10 million in 2014-15 … when he’ll be 36. Egads. The Mavericks should be ready to rid themselves of this deal now, but they probably can’t, given the possibility that Tyson Chandler will leave after this season. Also, teams would probably be cautious taking on Haywood’s deal; he doesn’t have any of Iguodala’s league-wide appeal.

• Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins (Golden State): Ellis is playing so well that Golden State probably won’t trade him. And Biedrins, who will earn $9 million per season through 2013-14, must prove he can be healthy and productive again before another team would be interested in taking on his contract.

• Emeka Okafor (New Orleans): Okafor is severely overpaid on a deal as long as Iguodala’s (he has the option to make $14.5 million in 2013-14), but the Hornets can’t trade him now without irritating Paul.

• Rashard Lewis (Orlando): We all know he’s overpaid, but his deal is relatively short (it expires after the 2012-13 season), and he’s too important to what Orlando does.

• Corey Maggette (Milwaukee): He’s similar to Lewis in that his deal runs only through 2012-13, and the Bucks sorely need the exact skill set Maggette brings.

That’s really it. You’re beginning to see how rare Iguodala is and how difficult he’ll be for Philadelphia to move. Also, is it too early to put Joe Johnson and Rudy Gay on this list?

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10 THINGS I LIKE AND DISLIKE

1. Milwaukee’s league-worst offense.
My editor asked me if I still considered the Bucks a lock for the postseason, despite their 5-8 start and losses over the weekend to the Sixers and short-handed Thunder. I still do. Three of Milwaukee’s best players — Corey Maggette, Andrew Bogut and John Salmons — are recovering from injuries that cost them important preseason prep time, and I’ve always had a lot of faith in Scott Skiles’ teams. Carlos Delfino, an important glue guy, has missed several games with head and neck pain. Things will get better in Milwaukee, and the defense will always be there.

But the Bucks’ offense … wow. Milwaukee is scoring just 99.4 points per 100 possessions, last in the league and even worse than New Jersey’s pathetic offense last season. No team has scored fewer than 100 points per 100 possessions since the league banned hand-checking, so Milwaukee’s offense almost has to get better.

I spent some of the weekend watching Bucks footage to try to figure out what is going wrong, but I haven’t been able to pinpoint one thing. Some theories:

• Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, an offensive non-entity, mucks up Milwaukee’s spacing. That passes the eyeball test, but the numbers show Milwaukee has played better on both ends with the Prince on the floor.

• Brandon Jennings doesn’t get deep into the teeth of opposing defenses enough on pick-and-rolls. This is my pet theory, but one I’m not ready to get completely behind yet. But the more I watch Milwaukee, the more I see Jennings moving east-west instead of north-south on a high percentage of pick-and-rolls. When he is able to attack the paint and the rim, the Bucks get great looks.

• Salmons, Maggette and Bogut are finding their legs. This is obviously true, and Bogut has admitted publicly that his right arm still limits his shooting ability.

2. Blake Griffin
Oh my lord.

3. Stephen Curry’s defense
I know Curry, with his size issue, is never going to be anything special on defense. But he has to be better than this. The Knicks attacked Curry again and again on Friday, slamming him with picks he either failed to get through or took bad routes around. It got bad enough that coach Keith Smart switched Monta Ellis onto Raymond Felton, the sort of switch that just forces Curry into an even worse matchup.

This was not an isolated incident. Curry has to improve.

4. Al Horford, emerging as Atlanta’s best player
Guess who’s second in the NBA in Player Efficiency Rating? It’s Horford, who is shooting 65 percent from the floor, grabbing more defensive boards than ever, handing out four assists per 36 minutes and turning the ball over less often despite an increased role in Atlanta’s motion-based offense.

Let’s not beat around the bush: Horford is Atlanta’s best player, and he needs to play more than 31.5 minutes per game, his current average. The fact that Atlanta thought Joe Johnson, at 29, was worth twice as much long-term money as Horford is mind-boggling and proof that too many teams still overvalue isolation scorers.

5. The small-ish Bulls, my new favorite lineup.
In the last week or so, Chicago has used several lineup combinations featuring the trio of Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver and Luol Deng, with Deng sliding down to power forward alongside either Joakim Noah or Omer Asik. Six such lineups have logged at least eight minutes this season, and four have ridiculously good plus/minus numbers in the (very) early going. Teams have had trouble tracking Korver’s circuitous, Ray Allen-style movement and hard cuts by Deng and Brewer. A joy to watch.

6. The Knicks, free-throw machines
I said on Saturday that the Knicks’ shooting would improve soon, and we saw the beginning of that recovery in weekend road wins over the Warriors and Clippers. Perhaps more important, the Knicks are getting to the line like crazy. Danilo Gallinari attempted 19 free throws over those two games, and his line against the Clippers — 31 points on 11 shots — will stand as one of the most efficient we see this season.

Sure, this came against the Clippers and a Warriors team missing David Lee. But Gallinari’s free-throw binge started nearly two weeks ago, and over the course of the season, only the Heat and Thunder have gotten to the line more often than New York. This is a very, very good sign for the Knicks.

7. The point-guard situation in Denver
Is it finally time to start worrying about Chauncey Billups? The Nuggets’ leader is shooting just 34 percent overall and 31.6 percent from deep, and Denver’s offense is performing much better with him off the floor. (Small sample size, I know.) Billups still gets to the line a ton, and that’s great, but a guy who has a tendency to pull up for some questionable threes better make a decent percentage of those shots. It’s early, but considering Billups’ age (34) and long summer with Team USA, this is something to monitor.

Ty Lawson is also in a shooting slump, but it’s far less severe (he’s shooting 44 percent) and his other stats are trending the right way.

8. Tyreke Evans, just a guard
I don’t like or dislike this, really — I haven’t decided yet — so for now, it’s just a thing worth paying attention to. The Kings over the weekend started Luther Head alongside Evans and shifted a chunk of their ball-handling duties — property of the theoretical “point guard” — to Head. On those possessions, Evans often cut down to the baseline and then to a spot on the side of the floor before the ball found its way to him. He even curled off some screens and fired some jumpers.

This is “shooting guard” stuff, and it will embolden those who delight in telling us over and over that Evans is not a point guard. That, in turn, will infuriate those who think debates about traditional positions are silly and insist that Evans is a force who does many things well.

As a neutral fan, I sort of enjoy Paul Westphal’s tinkering around Evans, particularly on a young team heading to the lottery. Why rush to pigeonhole everyone?

9. Wesley Matthews, jacking ‘em up
Matthews is attempting four triples per game but making just 25 percent. One of those numbers has to change, even on a team suddenly in need of someone other than LaMarcus Aldridge and Andre Miller to seize the offense now and then.

10. Russell Westbrook, working the block and doing other things
Has Russell Westbrook been the Thunder’s best player this season? It’s a fair question, and it has been fun to watch Westbrook diversify his game, particularly over the weekend with Kevin Durant out with an ankle injury. It was especially interesting to see Oklahoma City initiate its offense by having Westbrook work with his back to the basket near the elbow against smaller guys (Rajon Rondo, Brandon Jennings). He also worked off the ball now and then when he shared the court with Eric Maynor.

These are the kind of things that will come in handy down the road.