According to the one and only Adrain Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (and with multiple sources now confirming), the Lakers, Nets, and Rockets are close to completing a three-way deal. According to Wojnarowski, here’s how the deal would shake out:
Houston Rockets:
Trade: 2012 1st round pick
Receive: G/F Terrence Williams
New Jersey Nets:
Trade: G/F Terrence Williams, F Joe Smith
Receive: 2012 Houston 1st round pick, 2011 Lakers 1st round pick, G Sasha Vujacic
Los Angeles Lakers:
Trade: G Sasha Vujacic, 2011 1st-round pick
Receive: F Joe Smith
The Nets’ motivations for this deal are obvious — in exchange for giving up on Williams’ potential, they received an expiring contract and two future first-round picks, all of which could be assets in a Carmelo Anthony deal.
The Rockets gave up a future first-round pick to take a flier on Williams, who’s as inconsistent as they come but has tremendous potential. (The fact that Williams was recently demoted to the D-League, then averaged a triple-double in three D-League games, tells you all you really need to know about him.) Williams is versatile and athletic, but hasn’t been an efficient player at the NBA level. All of his advanced statistics are terrible, which makes him an odd player for Daryl Morey and Co. to take a flyer on — his PER is 6.71, and the Nets have been 10.75 points per 100 possessions better when Williams is off the floor. Still, I guess Houston believes in Williams’ considerable potential, and they do need to get more athletic on the perimeter.
For the Lakers, this is a straight salary dump. Vujacic’s contract is expiring, but giving him up for Smith will save the Lakers around $8 million when you factor in luxury tax concerns — essentially, they sold a late first-round pick for around $8 million, which isn’t bad. Smith almost definitely won’t be a real part of the Lakers’ rotation, especially with Andrew Bynum back, but with Theo Ratliff out injured a little depth to keep Pau Gasol’s minutes down doesn’t hurt. Plus he’s a good locker-room guy and Vujacic wasn’t really in the rotation anyways.
The deal is not yet finalized, so we’ll keep you updates on new developments as we hear about them.