LeBron James Gets Help with Wallace and Szczerbiak
February 22, 2008
LeBron James got the help he's been asking for, the Knicks failed to get rid of Zach Randolph and the biggest winners at the NBA trading deadline remained the teams that did their deals early.
The biggest trade of deadline day was the three-team, 11-player swap that landed Ben Wallace and Cold Spring Harbor 's Wally Szczerbiak in Cleveland , where they will attempt to escort James back to the NBA Finals.
While the Cavs made the biggest splash yesterday, they're still far back in the pack of teams that helped themselves the most. The Lakers ( Pau Gasol), Spurs ( Kurt Thomas), Suns ( Shaquille O'Neal), Mavericks ( Jason Kidd) and Hawks ( Mike Bibby) made earlier trades that figure to have more impact than what the Cavs did.
In surrounding James with a shooter (Szczerbiak) and a playoff-tested big man (Wallace), the Cavs also got rid of Larry Hughes ($30.2 million due over the next two years) but had to take Wallace's two years and $28.5 million back. The Cavs solved their point guard problem by getting Delonte West from Seattle, got Joe Smith and his $5.2-million contract from Chicago and sent Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown and Cedric Simmons to the Bulls. The Cavs also get a second-round pick from Chicago in 2009.
SuperSonics general manager Sam Presti might not have a home for his team, but he'll have plenty of cap space after taking Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall from Cleveland and Adrian Griffin from the Bulls.
The only other moderately significant trade yesterday had the West-leading Hornets acquiring Bonzi Wells and Amityville's Mike James from Houston for Bobby Jackson. It was a luxury-tax deal for Houston, but also a trivia-generating one: With Szczerbiak and James dealt, Speedy Claxton was the only Long Island native in the NBA who wasn't traded yesterday.
The Knicks' best chance to deal Randolph went down to the wire with the Nuggets, whose management was split on bringing in a locker-room problem and parting with sharpshooter Linas Kleiza. According to people familiar with the negotiations, vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien, who drafted Randolph in Portland , was in favor of the deal, which would've sent Nene to the Knicks. But there was a power struggle in the Denver front office, with those close to owner Stan Kroenke vetoing the addition of Randolph .
Three-team blockbuster
Cavaliers get:
G Delonte West
F Wally Szczerbiak
F Joe Smith
C Ben Wallace
Bulls get:
G Larry Hughes
G Shannon Brown
F Drew Gooden
F Cedric Simmonsv
SuperSonics get:
G Adrian Griffin
F Ira Newble
F Donyell Marshall
