The Mavs started off the trade day with a bang, sending Anthony Johnson to the Hawks for a second round draft pick.
I'm going to tackle this trade with a bloggers best friend - bullets!
- This looks like a salary dump (about 7 million saved including next season) on paper, but it might be a player dump as well. We'd seen tons of "veterans making sacrifices" articles in the papers this year and they always revolved around Croshere, Stackhouse, and Buckner - not Anthony Johnson. The last time Johnson played, February 9th vs Houston, he came in for garbage time. He was sucking and with nine seconds left he picked up a stupid technical foul. That prompted Bob Ortegal to say "I know he's frustrated, but you can't do something like that." It was said in a way that made clear Johnson had been showing outward signs of frustration with his minutes for sometime.
- The Mavs are obviously comfortable with J.J. Barea as an insurance point guard.
- Dallas wanted a roster spot open. With several teams trying to acquire a backup PG Dallas surely could have received more than a pick in return. The fact that they didn't tells me it was probably their choice not to. Donnie Nelson said last week that the Mavs would be interested in picking up a big man (Magloire, PJ Brown) off waivers if they came available but that they didn't want to release Barea or Pops. Now they don't have to.
- No part of me thinks Johnson was traded to open a spot for Scottie Pippen.
- Dallas now has three second round picks in the upcoming draft. Their own. Miami's via the Lakers from the Danilo Pinnock trade. And Atlanta's.