By all accounts (and Mark linked to it this morning), the four team trade that has been rumored since Friday is dead in its current form. Don’t believe me? Here is Coach Avery Johnson talking about it:
“I think we’re at a point where nothing’s alive,” Johnson said. “So if the opposite of that is dead, nothing’s alive. Only thing alive is this team. We’re alive and well and we’re practicing hard.”
All reports say that the Nets and the Nuggets are still trying to get this trade done (whether it be a straight up deal or if they are going to have to find new teams to include), but with Carmelo Anthony showing up at Nuggets’ media day, putting the jersey on, and getting in front of the cameras I don’t know if a deal is going to get before the season starts (though reports say that Melo didn’t do any of the green screen stuff for local TV or the in stadium graphics).
There are a lot of Nets’ fans who are happy to see this deal fall apart (including all of us who write here), however, with a deal not getting done the Nets have some damage control to take care of. In my opinion, Derrick Favors is fine. He has been dealing with rumors since before the draft. First, there was all the buzz about whether or not he should be drafted ahead of DeMarcus Cousins, and then after the draft, the Nets were basically trying to hold off signing him as long as possible because they were shopping him around. Even though he is just 19 years old, he has been dealing with rumors for four months now, and he seems to not even be bothered by it anymore.
The player that Avery Johnson and the Nets have to try and keep focused is Devin Harris. When Harris talked to the assembled media, he was asked about how the trade for Jason Kidd went down. He went on to say that he had no contact from the GM or the coach (though in fairness, he did say that it was the All-Star break and the fact he was hurt at the time meant he wasn’t with the team a whole lot), and while he said the trade didn’t bother him, it did seem like the fact that he wasn’t told about it ahead of time did.
He is basically in that same situation now. So when I got in my car and turned on the radio and heard the details about the rumored 4-team deal for the first time I thought, “If this doesn’t get done, we might have problems.” Sure enough:
Even if a deal for Anthony never materializes, New Jersey coach Avery Johnson has serious repairs to make with Nets point guard Devin Harris(notes), a league source told Yahoo! Sports on Monday.
Harris had been a huge advocate for Johnson with former Nets officials by endorsing the hiring of Johnson over the summer, and a source says Harris is feeling “a little put off” that the coach is so quickly looking to send him out of New Jersey as part of a trade for Anthony.
Devin Harris was a large part of Avery Johnson getting hired (the Nets asked Harris if he was ok with Avery being the coach, and he said yes), and I don’t think he’s mad about being traded, he’s probably mad about Avery, the guy he stuck up for, isn’t talking to him about it.