This is a good trade but one thing that is not obvious is the $10M TPE exemption came to us largely because we took on Gerald Wallace for 3 years at $10.1M. There were many parts to the BKN deal so you can't match up any two parts exactly but these two are pretty close to matching up. The Celtics paid dearly for that trade exemption. So I guess it comes down to this:
Zeller
Cle Pick
for taking on the contracts of:
Wallace (3 years at $10.1 per)
Thornton (1 year at $8.5)
That is about $40M.
I am not saying this is a bad trade, I would do it all over again starting with the KG/PP trade but no one made something out of nothing. Rather, the Celtics agreed to pay $40M to make something out of nothing.