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Earlier this winter, the Hornets tried to send Devin Brown to Minnesota as part of Operation Avoid Tax. The team entered the season a good bit over the luxury tax threshold, and a bad start on the court left the franchise looking panicky. Brown was so close to heading to Minnesota that the Wolves even posted the trade -- for Jason Hart, whose deal was unguaranteed until Jan. 10 -- on the team website. It fell through when Brown refused to waive his trade kicker, worth about $100,000. (The nerve!)So Plan B, or C, as it were: the Hornets managed to trade Hilton Armstrong for a phantom draft pick, getting the team within $400,000 of the tax line. At that point, the Hornets could get away with pawning off Sean Marks or Ike Diogu to someone under the tax to slip under the threshold themselves, earning the all-important pay-out given to non-tax teams, and expected to be at least $4 million this season.
Instead, the Hornets showed just how little they care for Brown by sending him to Chicago for seriously flawed reserve big man Aaron Gray, a cat who might not be in the league beyond this season. The trade saved New Orleans ... $100,000 in cap room, still leaving the team in position to give up Diogu or Marks. So, again, this trade wasn't about saving money. It was about jetting out a player who started 37 of 39 games this season for a fellow who has played 50 minutes total this year ... and probably hasn't deserved a single additional second.
Weird trade, with some serious potential for self-loathing, considering the New Orleans front office is now the New Orleans coaching staff, the staff which has buried (to some degree) prized rookie Marcus Thornton behind Brown. It's almost as if New Orleans GM/coach Jeff Bower can't not play Brown when he's around, so he's scuttling him for someone he'll have no choice but to avoid like the plague.
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