Tentative Deal in Place to Appease CP3

Numerous sources say that the New Orleans Hornets, Indiana Pacers, Houston Rockets, and New Jersey Nets have agreed to a trade involving numerous spare parts.  The main components of the deal involve the Hornets moving their number one trade chip in sophomore point guard Darren Collison and James Posey’s bad contract to Indiana and getting Trevor Ariza from the Rockets.  To complete the deal Indiana will move Troy Murphy to New Jersey and Houston gets Courtney Lee from the Nets. 

Obviously New Orleans feels like they must do this deal to ease Chris Paul’s concerns about the current construction of the Hornets roster.  My immediate reaction is that Collison could and should have yielded much more for New Orleans.  As it stands now, New Orleans’ roster consists of Paul, promising sophomore Marcus Thornton, Ariza, former All-Star David West, and Emeka Okafor (and his albatross of a contract).  That’s definitely an improvement from last season but it’s not enough for the Hornets to make noise in the crowded Western Conference next season.  New Orleans’ roster continues to be a work in progress as the Hornets seek to add more talent to their roster before Paul becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2012.  They may more Peja Stojakovic’s expiring contract so they can make other moves before next season’s trade deadline.  What is perplexing is that New Orleans has continued to add long-term contracts the past couple summers (Okafor and now Ariza) even though owner George Shinn is losing boatloads of money and is rumored to be selling the team.

The Pacers, meanwhile, make out like bandits.  Team President Larry Bird finally gets a long-term solution at point guard in Collison at the cost of an expiring contract.  Sure, Indiana has to take on James Posey’s deal to make the trade work, but let’s face it, the Pacers are hard-pressed to attract big name free agents due to their market size, the region’s apathy to pro basketball after the Malice in the Palace, numerous legal problems (like Stephen Jackson shooting rounds of bullets in a strip-club parking lot), and arena lease issues that threaten the long-term commitment from the Pacers to the city of Indianapolis.  The Pacers now have a young point guard to go with their young core of Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert, Brandon Rush, Tyler Hansbrough and Paul George. 

New Jersey is making this trade to acquire Troy Murphy, a good stop gap at the power forward position.  The deal also gives them a $12 million expiring contract that they could trade before next season’s trade deadline.  Trading Lee opens up minutes for second-year guard/forward Terrence Williams. 

Houston’s reason for making this trade is to save money which was necessary after they spent a king’s ransom at the trade deadline and this summer by acquiring Kevin Martin, re-signing Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola and signing Brad Miller.  Those deals put the Rockets squarely in the luxury tax and Ariza was the odd man out in the shooting guard/small forward rotation of Martin, Ariza, Shane Battier and Chase Budinger.  Still, acquiring shooting guard Courtney Lee means that the logjam will continue at the guard and forward spots, albeit at a much cheaper price.