HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

The Los Angeles Lakers are on the verge of trading Sasha Vujacic and a first round pick to the New Jersey Nets for veteran forward Joe Smith and a sizable traded player exception. (Update: trade is complete and the Lakers also received the draft rights to Sergei Lishchuk from Houston, a Golden State’s 2011 second-round pick, and Chicago’s 2012 second-round pick from new Jersey.)

En route to building a back-to-back champion, General Manager Mitch Kupchak bought into a few contract mishaps along the way (which is all but inevitable).

Kupchak has shown he’s resilient as a GM, turning players like Kwame Brown, Brian Cook and Vladimir Radmanovic into key pieces Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza (for the first ring) and Shannon Brown.

Now, Mitch will send out Vujacic who played well enough to earn a contract but never lived up to the ~$15 million deal.  Sasha has been at the end of the Lakers rotation for more than a season, outplayed by Brown.

Smith is a natural triangle fit and while his best days as an NBA player are behind him, the combination of Joe with a healthy Theo Ratliff (eventually) will give Coach Phil Jackson a couple of rotation options in the front court..

Smith and Ratliff may not get many minutes but if it’s five, 15 or even 20 combined – that’s all the time Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom will typically need.

Now that Bynum has finally returned (playing his first game on Tuesday) and with the addition of Smith, Pau Gasol will finally get some badly needed rest.  Rookie Derrick Caracter just wasn’t ready for substantial minutes, especially at center given that he’s relatively undersized at power forward. 

In addition to the big man insurance Smith will bring, the Lakers were looking to save money given their $120 million payroll (including luxury tax).

From the Lakers perspective, the trade will be broken into two parts.  Smith will come in as a minimum player.  In such a case, the team receiving the player doesn’t have to send out any salary.

The second part would be Vujacic out to the Nets.  In return, the Lakers will get a $5.48 million trade exception which can be used to trade for a player (or players) who makes up to $5.58 million.

The exception will expire in a year’s time, although there’s no true guarantee that it will have value in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.  The latest the Lakers can use it under the current rules would be June 30th.

Smith is paid $1.4 million for the year but the Lakers are only responsible for $854k of that amount (the league reimburses the difference).  The lower number will be the figure used to compute the luxury tax.

That means the Lakers will save $8-$9 million in the transaction less any cash they send out to make the deal happen (undisclosed but up to $3 million).  That’s a significant win for the club after spending more than they had anticipated this last summer when they signed Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, Theo Ratliff, Devin Ebanks and Caracter – along with re-signing both Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown.

Given that the Lakers are relatively set at each position, the odds would seem high that Kupchak holds onto the trade exception until after the season.

Should the team face a significant injury, it could be used as a tool to keep the team in contention.

As far as the 2011 pick, the Lakers aren’t about to play younger players while trying to keep their string of championships alive.  Both Ebanks and Caracter are projects the team would like to develop in lieu of next June’s first.

At some point the team is going to need a young guard to groom but that’s probably going to have to come in the form of a second-round pick or a free agent signing. {AUTHOR_BOX}

The Nets:  The primary reason the Nets made the deal is to add ammunition in their quest to lure Carmelo Anthony. 

Looking ahead, they’ll have their own picks along with two additional in 2011 (Golden State Warriors and Lakers) and Houston’s in 2012.

An NBA source says New Jersey has all the assets necessary to get a deal done with the Denver Nuggets.

The issue is Anthony’s extension.  The same source says Carmelo may try to force a trade to the New York Knicks.  In order to make that believable, New York needs to maintain a sizable amount of cap space this summer.

Of course with the Collective Bargaining Agreement up in their air, there’s no way to truly compute what the Knicks will need.

Ultimately that’s immaterial as it’s the threat that Anthony’s representatives would be using to dissuade a trade to a non-favorable destination.

Under the current rules, the Knicks will have in the ballpark of $14 million available to sign Carmelo,   And while it’s about $4 million short, it’s still in the ballpark enough to be used as leverage.

It’s also why New York may be hesitant to take on any salary past the current season in trade until the Melo situation is resolved.

In the meantime, Vujacic fills a need for the Nets given that Damion Jones is out six to eight weeks with a broken foot and current starter Anthony Morrow is about to undergo an MRI for what is likely a strained hamstring.

Vujacic will reunite with former Laker Jordan Farmar on the 6-19 Nets.

Given the chance, Sasha is a strong shooter especially from the free throw line.  While he has three-point range – he’ll knock down shot-after-shot in practice but isn’t nearly as efficient in games.

Vujacic’s best moment with the Lakers came in the final moments of Game 7 against the Boston Celtics when he sealed the game and the championship with a pair of late free throws.

The Rockets:  It’s not clear which team will get cash considerations and how much.   For their 2012 pick, Houston will get guard Terrence Williams who was a discipline problem in New Jersey.

Perhaps a new environment will be more favorable for Williams, who has talent that has yet to be properly channeled.  Coach Rick Adelman, who has a natural way of reaching players, may have more luck than the more disciplinarian style of Avery Johnson in New Jersey.

It will be interesting to see how the Rockets work minutes with Kevin Martin, Courtney Lee, Shane Battier, Chase Budinger, Kyle Lowry, Ishmael Smith and, when healthy, Aaron Brooks.

Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tends to collect more than the necessary talent, while letting his coaching staff sort out the rotation issues.

Houston, given their difficult season thus far (10-14 with injuries to Yao Ming and Brooks), isn’t a team that can just sit back and hope things improve.

It will be interesting to see if Williams is able to outperform the player the Nets (or whoever ends up in possession of it by the 2012 NBA Draft) eventually get with Houston’s pick.

The deal couldn’t be completed on Tuesday because Joe Smith was signed as free agent over this past summer.  As such, he can’t be dealt until Wednesday, December 15th.

Williams comes to the Rockets via an available trade exception (possibly the one attained in the Ariza/Lee deal).

To make room on the roster for Williams, Houston reportedly has another deal in the works sending Jermaine Taylor to the Sacramento Kings.