Did you miss watching Thaddeus Young play his game of solid, sound basketball? Good news, he is coming back to the Atlantic Division. The former 76er, who spent seven years in Philadelphia, was traded to the Brooklyn Nets as part of today’s flurry of trade deadline moves.
In what should be a cool sight to see for the final two months, Kevin Garnett is going back to Minnesota, where he spent the first 12 years of his NBA career. He was traded in exchange for Young.
The deal is essentially is a swap of deals set to expire. Garnett will become a free agent at the end of the season. “The Big Ticket” is the highest paid player in NBA history, having made over $315 million in his career. Young will almost surely be a free agent, as he has an early termination option. As a 26 year-old who is versatile and an overall good guy to have around, Young will likely be able to find himself a long-term deal.
Brooklyn made the deal as one of the teams contending for the final two spots in the East for the playoffs. They entered Thursday only one game back of both Charlotte and Miami, each occupying the seventh and eighth seeds. For Minnesota, the deal is simply one for sentimentality. They are going nowhere quickly fast this season, and with both players likely set to be out of team control next season, it’s a nice gesture to bring the franchise’s best player in their history back.
Young will bring his average of 14.3 points per game to the Nets. Garnett is averaging 6.8 points per game in 20.3 minutes.
Sam Hinkie did not even need to be a part of this transaction to make out a winner in a trade. Hinkie received a first rounder in exchange for Young, as well as Alexey Shved and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, while the Timberwolves got 40 irrelevant games out of him, being tankers, and an expiring veteran.
