Should the Brooklyn Nets Trade the 22nd Pick in the NBA Draft?
By Jonah Mars
Glen Davis and Kris Humphries
In an intriguing post on NetsDaily this afternoon, they consider the possibility of the Nets trading their 22nd overall pick in the NBA draft on Thursday. In the proposed trade, the Nets would send Kris Humphries, Marshon Brooks, and the draft pick to the Orlando Magic for Glen Davis, Arron Afflalo, and Andrew Nicholson. Here’s what NetsDaily writer Tom Lorenzo had to say about the proposed trade:
"The main reason this trade works for the Nets is because they are built to win-ish now, with Johnson, Williams, Lopez and Wallace on the books for three more seasons. They have no cap space and no young assets, which makes a major blockbuster trade difficult to pull off. They can’t trade Wallace or Johnson, and they won’t trade Williams or Lopez. What my thinking was, improve the bench by adding Davis and Affllalo, who can provide the offense in the second unit that Hump and Brooks couldn’t. In fact, the Nets get two players who started last season for the Orlando Magic and scored 15-plus points per game, and Nicholson, a young player with plenty of ability — who arguably could turn out to be better than anyone available at No. 22 in this year’s draft.Once Gorgui Dieng went off the board, there didn’t seem to be a player who fits the Nets needs — a big who can come in and play right away. It’s not a perfect trade for the Nets, but given their window and need to upgrade the bench, it worked for me. Does it work for the NetsDaily readers? Well… #FireLorenzo."
This trade makes perfect sense to me for both teams, but especially Brooklyn. The Nets would rid themselves of the now infamous HBAP (Humphries, Brooks, and pick(s)) and they get back two proven NBA winners and talented players in return.
This solves the Nets’ power forward conundrum as they now have the choice to start either Davis and keep Blatche coming off the bench, or start Blatche and bring Davis in off the bench, a role he often played on some very good Boston teams in the past.
Additionally, Afflalo would be a great fit for the Nets. He brings two things that Marshon was never able to do: shoot and play defense. He is nearly a 40% career 3-point shooter while also being known for his defense while he was in Denver. Also, he’s still only 27 years old so he still has a lot left in the tank, unlike perhaps Gerald Wallace. If Wallace continues to struggle next year like he did at the end of this season, Afflalo could easily replace him in the starting lineup.
Last but not least, Nicholson showed some promise last year as a rookie and could be a nice building block for the future, but if Orlando demanded it, he wouldn’t even have to be in this trade.
So to sum up this trade, it will deepen Brooklyn’s bench significantly while not adding much to the payroll and it will get rid of a couple of players who seemed lost with the Nets last year.
The question, of course, is why would this make sense for Orlando? Well, that team is clearly nowhere close to the playoffs, so they are trying to cut as much payroll as possible. Both Afflalo and Davis have contracts that extend beyond next season, while Humphries does not, making The Hump attractive. Additionally, Orlando would get back a first round pick in the deal, which is what they want the most.
Will this trade get done? These two teams have had pretty well known trade discussions in the past with nothing coming of it. But hopefully if Billy King sees this, something will happen this time around.