Morris Peterson

Oklahoma City shone this week, shoring up their weakest position and picking up a quality backup guard in the process, all for spare parts. D.J. White (a power forward who was never going to crack the rotation), Jeff Green (a talented sixth man type caught on entirely the wrong team), Nenad Krstic (who was a good candidate to leave this summer anyway) and Mo Peterson (who was definitely going to leave this summer anyway), combined with a future protected first round pick from the Clippers, saw them land two starting calibre centres in Kenny Perkins and Nazr Mohammed who should greatly improve their defense, along with Nathan Robinson, who won't.

- Because of the 2010 free agency bonanza, there's considerably more teams with cap relief than there are teams that need it. This is a far cry from the usual fare, where many teams have to bite the bullet and pay some tax, because there aren't enough teams able to take on their excess salary (nor enough dead salary to dump). Oklahoma City were the beneficiaries of this system last year when they took on Matt Harpring's dead weight contract from Utah, receiving Eric Maynor as the sweetening incentive for doing so. Oklahoma City also did a similar deal on draft night when they agreed to take on Mo Peterson's deadweight salary from New Orleans as a vehicle for obtaining Cole Aldrich's draft rights; in return, they sent the #21 and #26 picks the other way.

In making that trade, the Thunder took themselves out of the free agency running. Their cap space, which could have otherwise been significant, was bludgeoned to a dollop by the presence of Peterson's redundant post-trade kicker salary of $6,665,000, money which could otherwise have been spent on free agents. Of course, the Thunder knew this in advance, and did the deal anyway. They clearly felt that Aldrich was a better player and a better fit than anyone they could realistically land in free agency.

Based on what transpired, they were right. Three of the biggest free agents landed in Miami. Three more re-signed. David Lee went to a team without cap space. New York and Chicago bagged only one each; New Jersey, L.A. Clippers, Sacramento and Minnesota came away with none. There remain very few decent free agents now - Louis Amundson excepted - and yet some teams out there still have money to spend without anyone to spend it on.

Pick 11: New Orleans are on the clock, but not for long. A few minutes after they draft Cole Aldrich, and seconds after he finishes an interview in which he wears a Hornets hat and describes how nice it will be to play with Chris Paul, Ric Bucher comes on and announces that Aldrich is being traded, along with the dead weight salary of Morris Peterson, in exchange for the 21st and 26th picks in the draft. This means the Hornets can add two young pieces to better their team in both the short and long term, which also dodging the luxury tax, which will prevent them from having to gut their team any further. It's ugly that it came to this, and Aldrich would have been particularly nice on the team that gave up the worst field goal percentage at the rim last year; however, in a vacuum, this is not a bad trade.

Mo Peterson is absolutely dead salary. He was a good defender and role player in his Toronto days, but he has been a complete washout for New Orleans. Now hurtling towards 33, Peterson's athleticism has left him, taking much of his defensive ability with it, and his decent-but-not-great jumpshot is all that exists of his offensive game. He is no longer a rotation calibre player in the NBA, rightfully losing his starting spot to Marcus Thornton last season, and yet he's being paid $6.2 million next season just to suck. After a trade kicker, this will mean the Thunder will be paying Peterson $6,665,000 next year to do absolutely nothing at all. That's more than I earn in a week.

[...] Recently fired Blazers executive Tom Penn is on hand tonight to provide salary cap insight. His eyebrows are dreamy, but unfortunately, his voice is sleepy. What Penn says is accurate and reasonably digestible to the average fan, yet not all of it is strictly necessary. For example, Penn is currently here to confirm that OKC isn't trading for Morris Peterson the player, but for Mo Peterson the contract. I think that was assumed.