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Trade another coup for the Nets president Rod Thorn

BY DAVID WALDSTEIN

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Rod Thorn made a bold move when he brought Vince Carter to the Nets back in 2004, and he made an even better move when he offloaded him to Orlando Thursday.

After last February's trade deadline came and passed, it was plausible to worry that the Nets might never be able to trade Carter and that supersized contract of his. Every day that went by made it more unlikely he would be traded.

But Thorn did it, and guess what? Everyone wins here. The Magic get a complementary scorer, and the Nets get $18 million worth of salary cap space for the much-anticipated summer of 2010.

But any Nets fan who watched more than a couple of games last season knows that Carter's days of being the options 1 and 1A are long gone. Last year he reached that pivotal stage in his career where he can't carry a good team on a consistent basis any longer, and he won't have to with the Magic.

He even acknowledged that wants to just "fit in" with Orlando and help a very good team go even further, which of course means winning the championship. (One problem with that. Orlando probably won't be able to sign Hedo Turkoglu now, and that's a huge loss. But that's Orlando's problem).

Carter can definitely still play and make teams pay special attention to him, but his forays to the rim were becoming less and less frequent, which meant defenses could come out and close out his long-range shooting. That is not to disparage Carter, who was pretty darn heroic at times this past season, averaging 20.8 points and 4.7 assists on a team going in little round circles, at best.

And although you knew he wanted out, he never made a peep, and never even once pretended to have a really bad headache. By comparison to Migraine Man Jason Kidd, Carter comes across as the classiest guy at the dance, because once he was finally traded, he could actually acknowledge what it means to him to be out of Jersey and in his hometown, or nearby. He grew up in Daytona Beach, lives in Orlando, and is currently over the moon.

"Every player hopes for an opportunity like this, to just once compete for an NBA championship," he told reporters. "This a dream come true for me. Now I have a chance to win a championship."

Carter certainly had some stirring moments last year, especially beating buzzers on both sides of the continent and in two different countries, and he only missed two games - not bad for a guy who seems to get injured every time the shot clock is reset. But as good as Carter was, the Nets won only 34 games with him.

So who cares if they win only 29 next season? They get the proverbial clean slate, with a batch of solid young building blocks and room for add-ons. They will be in the lottery again next summer and, more importantly, will have as much money as anyone to spend on a top-flight free agent in the coveted class of 2010.

Basically, they had nothing to lose by making this trade. The only potential loss was in not making it. If they waited any longer they risked not being able to trade him at all, because once the preseason starts and there is any indication that Carter might really be past it, no one is going to take him until the final year of the deal.

Carter is set to earn $16.1 million this year and another $17.5 million the following year.

So now the Nets get to really do it all over again, with both Thorn and Kiki Vandeweghe collaborating on the project. With Courtney Lee, who comes over in the trade, they add a talented young shooting guard who will get a chance to grow and develop alongside Devin Harris, Brook Lopez and Terrence Williams, the shooting guard from Louisville they drafted with the 11th pick overall.

And when next summer rolls by, perhaps Jay Z can get involved in the whole free agent process with You-Know-Who. If not, there's a still a good chance that a very, very good player will still be available, and now the Nets have the money to really go after him.

As for Williams, he's the latest player to come out of that emerging hotbed of talent, Seattle, which has recently produced Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson and Will Conroy. Williams' game is a little less flashy, but more complete. He averaged 12.5 points per game last year for Louisville, along with 8.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists, and the cat plays defense.

He's a competitor, plays very hard, loves to pass, defend, and can score a little. No one's saying he's going to be a superstar, but he's the kind of guy who helps round out a team nicely, especially a team building for the future.