Yesterday there was an NBA trade that was mostly lost in the midst of free agent signings and rumors. The Spurs traded Jackie Butler and Luis Scola to the Rockets for a 2nd Round pick and Vassilis Spanoulis . Yes, the same Vassilis Spanoulis declared that he would never play in the NBA again earlier this month. So in essentially the trade saw the Spurs give up two salaried players in exchange for a second round pick. To make things even more odd, Scola is actually quite a promising player. The 27 year old is looking to finally come over to the NBA, and scouts have lauded the 6-9 forward's game for years. So why give him up for essentially nothing? To a team in your own division no less?
The cold hard facts of this trade are that the Spurs were looking to dump salary. They knew that to bring Scola over from Europe that they would have to 1.) help buy out his contract and 2.) sign him to a contract that would make the move to America worth his while. So instead of doing so, they essentially gave Scola to the Rockets for free. What this deal reminds me of is a guy in fantasy football that trades to trade Tom Brady for Cleo Lemon. In your fantasy football league a commissioner would veto such a trade. In the NBA however, there are only trade restrictions concerning salary not equity of talent, so the Spurs are free to give the Rockets the gift of Scola as long as the contracts match up.
