Trades Keep Nba Brass Busy Hardaway, Laettner, Owens Among Big Names On The Move
Tim Hardaway, Christian Laettner and Billy Owens were the biggest names to move Thursday on one of the busier NBA trading deadline days in recent years.
Six deals involving 19 players were completed, with the Miami Heat making three trades.
The Heat added forward Walt Williams, forward-center Chris Gatling and guards Hardaway and Tony Smith.
The Atlanta Hawks acquired Laettner from the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Toronto Raptors picked up Sharone Wright from Philadelphia.
The biggest non-trade involved the Portland Trail Blazers, who failed to deal disgruntled guard Rod Strickland or forward Clifford Robinson. Strickland was suspended for one game by the Trail Blazers after he stormed off the court during warmups Thursday night.
“It did seem busier than usual,” said NBA attorney Joel Litvin, one of the lawyers in charge of approving deals.
“It’s a frenetic day and always is. Whether or not you have a lot of trades that take place, you have a lot of teams running trades by you. We’re on the phone all day with GMs.”
Miami made all three of its trades within two hours of the 6 p.m. PST deadline. The Heat picked up Hardaway and Gatling from Golden State for power forward Kevin Willis and guard Bimbo Coles, then acquired Williams and Tyrone Corbin from Sacramento for Owens and Kevin Gamble. Miami also added Smith from Phoenix for rookie Terrence Rensher.
“Today obviously was a day that I felt was coming all along if we had the opportunity to improve the position of this team,” Miami coach Pat Riley said. “It was a very difficult day for me personally.”
The Hawks and Timberwolves beat the deadline by several hours. Atlanta picked up centers Laettner and Sean Rooks for center Andrew Lang and point guard Spud Webb.
Kevin McHale, Minnesota’s vice president of basketball operations, said he was hoping to improve the team’s chemistry.
“Everybody’s got to understand there are roles that need to be played in the context of the team,” McHale said. “If people don’t accept that or don’t understand that, it ends up being (conflict) all the time.”
The 76ers sent Wright to the Raptors for forwards Ed Pinckney and Tony Massenburg. The Sixers also acquired the right to swap first-round draft picks with Toronto this year or in 1997.
“This was also done to free up money so that we could go after a quality group of free agents,” said Sixers coach and general manager John Lucas, who signed Wright to a six-year, $21 million contract which still has four years to run.
Pinckney and Massenburg will be free agents at the end of the season.