The Brooklyn Nets and the Denver Nuggets made loud noises on Thursday, as the two teams engaged in a trade deal involving multiple players.
According to Adrian Wojnarowksi of ESPN, the Nets have traded guard Isaiah Whitehead to Denver in exchange for a pair of players with expiring contracts in Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur and some future draft picks.
The Denver Nuggets agreed to trade forwards Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur, a 2019 protected first-round pick and a 2020 second-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets, league sources told ESPN.
The Nuggets acquire guard Isaiah Whitehead in the trade, whom they'll waive, league sources said.
This is unquestionably a ploy by the Nuggets to shed onerous contracts in order to get their heads below the luxury tax threshold. For Brooklyn, they are willing to take on the salaries of Faried and Arthur which have a combined worth of over $21 million so that the Nets could stock up on first-round draft selections.
Source: Denver's 2019 first-round pick to Brooklyn is protected 1-12.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 13, 2018
In an earlier transaction, the Nets exchanged second-round picks with the Atlanta Hawks via a deal that shipped Jeremy Lin from Brooklyn to Atlanta.
Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur are unlikely to be part of the Nets’ long-term plans, but for the meantime, they will provide extra muscle to Brooklyn’s frontcourt.
Faried, 28, had fallen out of the Nuggets’ regular rotation in his final two years in Denver. Over that span, he averaged just 8.3 points and 6.6 rebounds in 18.9 minutes per game. His lack of a reliable outside shot, ubiquitous to most big men today, has hurt his value. The 30-year-old Arthur, on the other hand, put up only 2.8 points and pulled down 0.8 boards in 19 games for Denver last season.
Brooklyn is not yet ready to compete for a title, but the team’s general manager, Sean Marks, appears to be paving the road he thinks will help elevate the Nets into a contender status in the near future.
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