Let's take a look at how the Pistons, Thunder and Jazz did in their three-way trade Thursday. Here's a breakdown of the deal:
Jazz get: forward Grant Jerrett, center Kendrick Perkins, 2017 Oklahoma City first-round pick, Detroit second-round pick and the rights to center Tibor Pleiss
Pistons get: guard Reggie Jackson
Thunder get: guard D.J. Augustin, forwards Steve Novak and Kyle Singler and center Enes Kanter
Detroit Pistons: C
To their credit, the Pistons managed to get Jackson without surrendering a first-round pick, a surprisingly low cost. But just how valuable a player have they gotten? Even last season, when his stock blew up as a starter when Russell Westbrook missed extended stretches after knee injuries, Jackson barely rated better than average by PER (15.4).
Since he's a poor 3-point shooter (28.8 percent career) and gets to the free throw line relatively rarely (2.7 times per 36 minutes), Jackson has never posted a true shooting percentage better than league average. He's not much of a playmaker either, having averaged 5.1 assists per 36 minutes in his career. By comparison, injured Detroit starter Brandon Jennings has averaged 6.6 per 36 minutes during his career, and was at 8.3 this season before rupturing his Achilles.
In the context of those stats, it's amazing that Jackson turned down an extension offer from the Thunder in the neighborhood of four years and $48 million before the season, according to USA Today. Realistically, in terms of value, Jackson should be looking at something near the mid-level exception.
The market will set Jackson's value as a restricted free agent, and with many of the teams in need of point guards filling that void at the deadline, maybe Stan Van Gundy can get Jackson back at a reasonable price. But if what the Pistons got was the right to pay Jackson eight figures per year, that's unlikely to work out.
Oklahoma City Thunder: D
Scott Brooks woke up this morning with one bench and now has one that looks completely different. The Thunder traded away two rotation players (Jackson and Perkins) and got three (Augustin, Kanter and Singler) who will likely be part of the rotation going forward. On paper, this move looks great. A deeper look, though, raises some questions.
The much-maligned Perkins has actually had a positive impact in plus-minus terms this season; his plus-3.7 net rating per 100 possessions while on the court is best of Oklahoma City's reserves, per NBA.com/Stats. So despite the wide gulf between their individual statistics, ESPN's real plus-minus says swapping Perkins for Kanter is a substantial downgrade for the Thunder. Augustin gives Oklahoma City a replacement for Jackson, and their box-score stats are fairly similar this season. Again, though, RPM gives the edge to the player the Thunder traded because Augustin is a defensive liability due to his small stature. That leaves Singler, a 40 percent 3-point shooter with more size than current Oklahoma City shooting specialist Anthony Morrow, as the only unequivocal upgrade.
Kanter has been dominating the paint recently, and playing alongside Serge Ibaka is the best possible fit for a player who neither protects the rim nor stretches the floor. And Augustin will play a relatively small role, with some of Jackson's minutes going to Dion Waiters, for better or worse. So I don't think the Thunder have downgraded going forward. This just doesn't look like enough of a win to justify giving up a first-round pick, especially for a team that already traded a first-round pick last month.
In swapping Jackson for Kanter, Oklahoma City has exchanged one restricted free agent for another. Kanter and the Jazz reportedly weren't close on extension talks, and it will be interesting to see whether he accepts a market that might be cooler for his services than he anticipates.
The Thunder also take on almost $6 million in extra 2015-16 salary in Augustin and Novak (Jerrett was the only player the team traded under contract through 2015-16), meaning the team is now pushing the luxury-tax line before re-signing Kanter (or Singler, for that matter). Oklahoma City will pay the luxury tax for the first time this season, so ownership is clearly not opposed, but a big Kanter deal could push the Thunder deep into the tax.
Utah Jazz: A-
I've long believed the Jazz would move Kanter before the deadline because the front office doesn't value his skills as highly as the market. The question was whether a good return would materialize. Lo and behold, Utah got the first-rounder it could reasonably expect in return plus a few other goodies.
Because Oklahoma City traded its first-round pick (top-18 protected) to Cleveland (and then Denver, and now Philadelphia), the Jazz won't see this pick until two years after that trade is complete -- 2017 at the earliest. In the meantime, Utah can get an extended look at Jerrett. A true stretch 4 has been Dennis Lindsey's white whale since he arrived in Salt Lake City, with the 2013 second-round pick the latest effort. Jerrett has played just 26 minutes in the NBA (and is a cover-your-eyes 1-of-13 on 3-pointers during that span), but he's shot a more respectable 38.1 percent in the D-League. Even if he doesn't work out, Jerrett comes at a bargain price of less than a million dollars next season, a major savings compared to Novak. (He also has two nonguaranteed seasons tacked on to the end of his contract.)
The Jazz also get Pleiss, who's not your typical international player thrown into a deadline deal simply to satisfy the requirements that both teams get something. Pleiss has real value; the Thunder tried to bring him to the NBA this season, per Yahoo! Sports, and planned to do so this summer when his buyout becomes less prohibitive. He projects as a possible backup center based on translated European stats. Perkins was part of this deal strictly for salary-matching purposes, and ESPN's Royce Young reports that he will be waived by Utah.