Tag Archives: Courtney Lee

Darren Collison is headed to the Hoosier state

Just as the summer madness of free agency seemed to have stagnated a sizable trade erupts seemingly out of nowhere. The trade is between four teams and involves five players but no draft picks. In the deal the Houston Rockets will send Trevor Ariza to the New Orleans Hornets. New Orleans will then send Darren Collison and James Posey to the Indiana Pacers; Indiana sends Troy Murphy to the New Jersey Nets who send Courtney Lee to Houston completing one sizable trade circle.

With the Hornets shipping Collison to Indiana, the Pacers search for a starting point guard will finally come to and end. The team has wanted to acquire a replacement for the injury prone, T.J. Ford, for some time and have frequently floated the idea of trading both Ford and Mike Dunleavy Jr. in an attempt to address their needs.Now, it looks as though the pacers will buy out Ford’s contract and finally rid themselves of him.

Collison, although a rookie last season, proved more than capable of filling the role of a starting point guard as he took over for Chris Paul when he was sidelined by injury. Collison also brings a considerable three-point threat to the Pacers as he shot 40 percent from behind the arc. The Pacers shot 35 percent as a team last season from downtown.

Although the Pacers took on the bloated contract of Posey’s salary (two years remaining at #13 million) it will save the team $4 million on their overall payroll. This is something the organization is very apt to do considering that they claim they can no longer afford to pay the yearly leasing fee for using the Conseco Fieldhouse.

With Ariza headed to the Hornets, New Orleans has hopes to appease Paul and his recent trade request temper tantrum. Ariza is coming into his prime and should prove to be a more than serviceable wing who can get out and run with Paul on the break. It is a step in the right direction but they are still miles away from convincing Paul that he should stay in New Orleans.

As for Murphy heading to New Jersey, well, he will be as invisible as he was when he was with Indiana. He is one of the better players in the league but no one gives him much credit or attention because he has played in small markets for much of his career . Over the past couple of seasons he has become a double-double machine averaging 14.45 points and  11 rebounds. Avery Johnson will likely try and use him as a poor man’s Dirk Nowitzki.

Finally, the Rockets have brought it Courtney Lee. Lee has valuable playoff experience from his time with the Magic and should provide the already scrappy and quick Rockets with even more of what Rick Adelman has preached. As an added bonus, trading Ariza will save Houston a considerable amount of money in the long term and $10 million this season alone.

(A side note: without anyone acknowledging it, the Sun Belt Conference has been a part of much of the recent news that has been churned up over the past week. Isiah Thomas coaches at Florida International and Courtney Lee attended Western Kentucky. Just saying…)