With the NBA Trade Deadline just less than a month away on February 21st, the trade rumors involving some of the league's top players are already flying around in every direction involving many teams. One of those teams is the Nets, who seem to come up as a prime trade destination every year around this time. Last year they were linked to Dwight Howard, the year before that Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony. Now, Rudy Gay of the Grizzlies and Paul Millsap of the Jazz are the new names being mentioned in the same breath as Brooklyn, with some writers thinking that deals may get done to bring either of those forwards to the Nets before February's deadline.
The Nets have been connected, albeit loosely, to Gay in the past but there are rumblings now that Brooklyn has legitimate interest in the Memphis All-Star and UConn grad. The Grizzlies have been rumored to be wanting to trade Gay for what feels like forever now–a thought process which is beyond me–for whatever reason, most likely being his albatross of a max contract. Clearly, sitting at 4th place in the West with a 26-14 record, Memphis would want close-to-equal value for their star and best player, a fact which is probably the only reason why the Nets would be reluctant to attempt to deal for the forward.
Already sitting in the luxury tax thanks to acquiring Joe Johnson and his massive contract, Brooklyn would have to do some serious roster manuevering just to make the salaries fit, and that's not even going into the fact of shaking up its talent base to give up enough value to make the Grizzlies happy. Names like MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries have each been thrown around as possible trade assets that could to Memphis in the deal–or to others in multiple team scenarios–but even when compounded with some draft picks and ancillary pieces, not enough salary would be taken off Brooklyn's book to make it work and not enough talent going to the Grizzlies.
I'm not saying that there is no way the Nets get Rudy Gay–because, as we've seen, Billy King and Mikhail Prokhorov can make basically any deal happen–I'm just saying that I don't find it a very practical or possible deal to get nailed down while in the middle of a season. However, in Paul Millsap of the Jazz, who according to Spotrac.com, is just making $7.2 million this season, I see a much more reasonable target for the Nets.
Millsap, who is an unrestricted free agent after this season, is averaging 14.8 points and 7.7 rebounds this season and if the Nets could get him for a package including Kris Humphries, he could improve Brooklyn to the highest tier of Eastern Conference teams, with the Heat and Pacers for example. The product of Louisiana Tech, the same school that Hall-of-Famer Karl Malone attended, can stretch the floor much more than Humphries can and is much more versatile, having the athleticism to guard a 3 and the height to guard a 5, wheras Kris is basically limited to taking on other 4s.
The point of what I'm saying it that the Nets, in addition to Rudy Gay, have significant interest in Millsap, interest that I hope will lead them to give the Jazz an offer they can't refuse, possible consisting of MarShon Brooks (I love him, but he would have to go in a trade), Hump, maybe Tyshawn Taylor, and a pick or two. A player of Millsap's all-around skill would be an upgrade from Hump and would do wonders in elevating the Nets from possible contender to definite contender in the East.
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