what all the transactions and maneuvers in the last few days has meant, in layman's terms. who goes where, who gets what and how is this all beneficial.
second round picks can be valuable. a few years ago we traded jajuan johnson and etwuan moore, sean williams and a second rounder to houston for courtney lee. the second rounder is what the rockets really wanted as they threw that into the deal that landed them james harden. second rounders are often the icing on the cake that get deals completed so are handy to have.
trade exceptions are valuable too. thats what he got as well as the second rounder for austin rivers. it's what landed us marcus thornton, tyler zeller, and clevelands 2016 first rounder for pretty much nothing (maybe for a second rounder i think).
trading nelson for nate is purely to save money. he doesnt need to pay jameer 2 and a half million dollars next season. wouldn't you make that trade if it meant saving that much money? money that can be spent to put the team over the top in the future were we to make a deep playoff run. plushe bought nate out so maybe he paid nate 1 million to just say to nate "we'll give you this much if you just agree to go away. thats like $3.5 million in savings. and if youre a smart gm you only really want to spend absurd amounts of money if you're going for a championship. if youre rebuilding you just need to meet the league minimum in salary while you're developing your young players. it's the smartest thing to do.
he also cleared out the roster so less players need to see the court so we can have our youngsters play more, and less players on the roster (like buying out nate) allowed him to take on crap two players to match salary in the rivers trade to get us a second rounder.
also, in 2012 during the draft cleveland gave dallas their 1st rounder at 23 i think and two seconds to move up to seventeen in the draft. because he has so many seconds, if danny wanted to in the coming draft he might be able to do the same thing if he wants.
plus, getting rid of jeff, who was most likely going to bolt at the end of the season, for a 1st rounder is brilliant. also jeff could have opted in for the last year of his contract, which would have sucked since that money just burns hole in the pocket of the team if they are really just trying to meet the minimum salary the league sets. wouldn't you want too save 9 or 10 million dollars for when you really need to spend money to put your team over the top during a championship run.
right now danny wants to increase the value of the players he has so they appear more attractive during any trade proposals. jeff has been in the league so long people know what he is. he aint gonna get any better. jae crowder on the other hand will most likely improve and increase in value. keeping jeff would have taken time away on the court for jae to do this. smart move by danny.