Nets Buyout Rafer Alston, Trade For Chris Quinn

[jerseyjac]

I am not understanding this move.

Cap wise..if I recall the contracts we most want to get rid is Najera...right?

Why wouldnt we use Alston to do that? As in...some team in need of a PG for the playoffs takes him for an expiring?

By taking back a second...doesnt this hurt cap room? Wouldnt the open spot be worth a cap hold of 5ook vs closer to a mil for the 2nd rounder?

Seems to me...ditto for the Dallas pick. Would see to make sense...and please correct me if i am wrong...that we look to move that pick as well. Obviously Yi is going no where...and our pick is going to be closer to 1st...so that's less cap room than planned.

Something has to be trimmed. Not sure how Alston who was expriring anyway made sense to be used in this way. It seemed to me that he was one of our most tradeable assets for a team in the stretch run.

I think no one wanted Alston / the Nets couldn't find a team that would take him and give them expirings so as not to cut into 2010 cap space. Also the second round pick is a 2012 pick not a 2010 one.

The Nets traded their 2010 second rounder as part of the deal but it's top 50 protected (meaning the Nets would have to finish with one of the 10 best records for the Heat to get the pick ).

I still stand by what I've been saying before the Nets won't make a big splash in free agency once they fail to land the likes of Lebron / Wade.

I think they're going to carry forward by building through the draft and then try to use their cap space to acquire a star or potential star (or even more draft picks) by making trades with other teams that are in financial distress.

This is what I like to hear. I think this is their plan too. Lebron and Wade says No to NJ. Then let the dominoes fall for teams that cant afford star players.

Its not their plan A or plan B...its probably a plan C they recognize could become a reality...

[enetric]

You guys didnt answer the question at all.

Did we just deal away a guy who might have been of value come the trade deadline to a team with an injury heading to the playoffs? or, a lack of dept at PG? The guy has filled this role WELL before. That has value. In this case...could the gain have been a chance to shed Najera?

Saying oh well because you do not expect to land Lebron is bit short sighted.

I dont expect to get him either. But...you try to do all you can, no? And I have said all along. The best way to land him is to have the room to land a second big time player at the same time. If we are stuck with Najera in July and we could have had his salary added to our cap room less the hold that would suck.

Since Alston was expring anyway, he didnt cost us cap room for next summer. So moving him early? WHY?????????

I mean, if I understand this thing correctly...and anyone who actually knows feel free to shed light on all of this...doesnt the Dallas pick take up abot 1.5 mil in cap room....vs. a hold of 500K? Wouldnt it make sense to try and deal that pick for a future pick as well? I am just looking to shed anything that is not a key part of the plan to getting Lebron plus another.

It seems like we just threw a low cost chip to helping that process in the garbage.

So again...anyone who has legit insight to what we can do with Najera...Dooling...the Dallas pick...Boone, SWAT...and so on...there i still relevance to 2010 free agency until we know for sure. Rigt now...it should be all this frnachise is dealing with contract wise. Once its done if we get no one...slow build...grat...happy to do it. But as long as its possible...we work towards it.

[jerseyjac]

You guys didnt answer the question at all.

Did we just deal away a guy who might have been of value come the trade deadline to a team with an injury heading to the playoffs? or, a lack of dept at PG? The guy has filled this role WELL before. That has value. In this case...could the gain have been a chance to shed Najera?

Saying oh well because you do not expect to land Lebron is bit short sighted.

I dont expect to get him either. But...you try to do all you can, no? And I have said all along. The best way to land him is to have the room to land a second big time player at the same time. If we are stuck with Najera in July and we could have had his salary added to our cap room less the hold that would suck.

Since Alston was expring anyway, he didnt cost us cap room for next summer. So moving him early? WHY?????????

I mean, if I understand this thing correctly...and anyone who actually knows feel free to shed light on all of this...doesnt the Dallas pick take up abot 1.5 mil in cap room....vs. a hold of 500K? Wouldnt it make sense to try and deal that pick for a future pick as well? I am just looking to shed anything that is not a key part of the plan to getting Lebron plus another.

It seems like we just threw a low cost chip to helping that process in the garbage.

So again...anyone who has legit insight to what we can do with Najera...Dooling...the Dallas pick...Boone, SWAT...and so on...there i still relevance to 2010 free agency until we know for sure. Rigt now...it should be all this frnachise is dealing with contract wise. Once its done if we get no one...slow build...grat...happy to do it. But as long as its possible...we work towards it.

maybe because the other guys even if packaged with Alston were still blatantly unmoveable...but I get you point and it is obviously a valid one...

[enetric]

You think so JJ? Najera and Alston were making 7.4 mil combined. So what is that? Send out 5.5-9 and change to the NEts? So thats prorated cash....for the rest of this year. You get rhe PG you need for a rental who is off the books. Then you have Najera remaining for 2.8/2.6 left. Send the Nets the higher portion...off sent some it this year if its a money argument. But...seems fairly low cost to me.

And I am still waiting for clarification on Najera's contract. If he has a low cost buyout...worth trading anyway? But then the acuring team if they arent close to getting under the cap anyway, but instead are one of the 10 teams (less by now) who are still buyers...they buy out Najera and owe very little.

Seems to me everyone wins. I just feel it was way too soon to make this move. That is to say if I am understanding the numbers. I may be off her...and there is no one left for us to shed that we cant do on our own come summer time.

[jerseyjac]

I thought it was soon too...the Nets must know something we dont...you know they have been shopping contracts since the summer...

[NetsForce]

Rafer was shooting 34% from the field and proved he couldn't play a lick of defense he just didn't have enough value to move Najera and his bloated contract.

Combined Rafer and Najera's contracts totaled: $8,250,000

Meaning the Nets could have acquired a maximum of: $8,250,000 x 1.25 + $100,000 = $10,412,500 in salaries when trading those two.

To a team over the luxury tax that's a maximum of $4,325,000 in savings (if a team were less than $2,162,500 over the luxury tax their amount of savings would be less than the amount listed above).

Here's the thing however Najera has two years left on his contract worth a combined $5,750,000 if he was waived by his new team that number is still $4,750,000.

If a team traded expirings for Rafer and Najera over the life of all the player's contracts, ignoring luxury tax payments, they'd still be paying virtually the same amount of money so it would make more sense for them to keep their expiring contracts and not clog up a roster spot with Eduardo Najera.

Furthermore taking into account the luxury tax if the Nets trading partner was still scheduled to be in the luxury tax next year taking on Najera's contract makes even less sense as it would increase their luxury tax bill.

Basically assuming Alston and Najera as a package actually had trade value to get a pick and all expirings you'd have to find a team that is in the luxury tax this year would be taken out of the luxury tax by the trade, and would still be out of the luxury tax next year with Eduardo Najera's contract on the books.

There are some things I ignored on purpose like time value of money related problems and the payments that teams under the luxury tax get...

Long story short I don't think Alston had any trade value, and Najera's trade value is negative, couple that with the financial complications of such a trade and there was just no way the Nets could get expiring contracts for those two.

===

The only trade I was able to come up with that has its own set of holes in it would have been:

Nets Trade:
Eduardo Najera
Rafer Alston
Bobby Simmons
*Trade Exception

Rockets Trade:
Tracy McGrady
Brian Cook *(Acquired with Trade Exception)

Financially that works as it takes the Rockets under the luxury tax but:

1. The Rockets want no part with Rafer Alston remember they were the ones who shipped him to Orlando so Brooks could get more PT.

2. The Rockets believe THEY should be getting picks / a young player in return for McGrady.

3. Depending on what happens with Scola and Lowry the Rockets could have a sizable chunk of cap space come the summer. Eduardo Najera would cut into the Rockets flexibility / ability to use that cap space on someone who doesn't suck.

edit: And it should be noted that this deal could still be done with Hassell in place of Alston...

[NetsForce]

Updated post...

[deviljets7]

^^^^

I completely agree with this post.

Technically the Nets waived Rafer, but based on the timing of the buyout, the Quinn trade and Rafer signing with Miami, I think this was all just a clever way to get Rafer to the Heat without causing some of the headaches that a straight trade would have caused.

For Miami: this deal is better from a luxury tax standpoint since they don't have to trade a 2nd or 3rd player for Alston. An example might have been someone like Dorrel Wright who is a heck of a lot more important to them then he would be to us.

For New Jersey: Since we have/had a full roster to do a regular trade, we would have had to cut 1 or 2 guys just to make it work. In addition it sounds like Rafer agreed to a very team-friendly buyout.

Basically NJ got a third PG (Quinn), a 2012 2nd rounder and roughly $1.5 million (combining the cash Miami sent and the amount Rafer gave up with the buyout) for a backup PG we didn't particularly want.

[NetsForce]

^ I never really thought about it like that but it makes sense given how quickly all these moves were made. ^

I still think it was a win for the Nets. I liked Rafer's professionalism but he just wasn't getting it done when he played. I'm not expecting anything from Quinn but we know there's a 0% chance he blows up and at least he can hit an outside shot...