New Jersey Nets acquire forward Gerald Wallace from Portland Trail Blazers
Quote:
The New Jersey Nets acquired forward Gerald Wallace from the Portland Trail Blazers in a deadline deal on Thursday in exchange for center Mehmet Okur, small forward Shawne Williams and New Jersey's protected 2012 first-round pick, the Nets announced. The pick is top-3 protected, according to a league source.
GM Billy King said it was difficult to give up the pick, but "in meeting with our scouts, we felt the player that we may draft beyond the protection would be somebody that would probably take a couple years (to develop), and at this point, we're trying to speed the process up a bit and start winning (more)."
A team source told ESPN.com's Chad Ford the Nets were willing to part with their top-3 protected pick because there are only three players in the upcoming draft the Nets covet -- Kentucky's Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Kansas' Thomas Robinson.
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That pick went on to be #6 and turned into Damian Lillard. I'm always dubious of GMs saying it is an X person draft in June. Compare 10-15 to 1-5 in the 2013 draft:
10-15 -> CJ McCollum, Michael Carter-Williams, Steven Adams, Kelly Olynyk, Shabazz Muhammad and Giannis
vs
1 -5 -> Anthony Bennett, Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter, Cody Zeller and Alex Len
People thought there was a massive dropoff after Porter in that draft.