With free agency mostly over, there’s been little real news in the NBA lately, and that’s likely to continue until we get closer to the regular season…hey, wait a second an actual trade happened! The Golden State Warriors announced they’ve traded Gerald Wallace and draft and cap considerations to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Jason Thompson.
OFFICIAL: #Warriors acquire F Jason Thompson (@jtthekid) from @Sixers in exchange for Gerald Wallace, cash & draft considerations.
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) July 31, 2015
Before we discuss what this means for each team, we have to talk about the actual trade itself. This came completely out of left field. Normally, when a deal is about to go down, we expect to hear from Adrian Wojnarowski, Marc Spears, Sam Amick or Marc Stein or any other number of NBA reporters first. Not this time. The Warriors broke the news, rare for this day and age.
This is a great move for the Warriors, who pick up an extremely underrated frontcourt player in Thompson. He’s mobile, a good rebounder, crafty scorer and doesn’t need plays called for him to make an impact. The Warriors won by going small last year, but Thompson still gives them added size up front for when they need it. This also must be a relief for Thompson, who finally, after so long, finds himself on a decent team. He toiled away on the Kings for most of his career, and just when he thought it couldn’t get worse, was traded to the 76ers earlier this summer, a team with even less of a shot at the playoffs than the Kings.
As for the Sixers, this is yet another asset collection move. Given that Gerald Wallace – though still a somewhat valuable player, he’s very clearly on his last lags – doesn’t at all fit their rebuilding schedule, it’d be surprising if they held on to him instead of releasing him.
The rich get richer, and the Sixers stay the Sixers.
(Via Golden State Warriors)
