Spurs Have Made a Deadline Deal

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The only known details of the trade right now are that the San Antonio Spurs get former 2001-2003 swingman Stephen Jackson from Golden State, to whom he was just traded, in exchange for Richard Jefferson, and a 2012 1st-round pick.

Here is my analysis:

Richard Jefferson: 6'7" - 230, Age 31, 9.2 million, 2 years left, no rings (1 finals appearance vs SA 2003)

Career Stats: (link): 34.3 min / 16.0 pts / .467 FG% / .371 3P% / .776 FT% / 5.0 reb / 2.6 ast / 0.4 blk / 0.8 stl / 1.9 TO

Contract: He is scheduled to make $9.2 mil this season, $10.1 mil in 2012, and has a player option of $11 mil for 2013.


Stephen Jackson: 6'8" - 220, Age 33, 9.2 million, 1 year left, 1 ring (SA 2003)

Career Stats: (link): 33.3 min / 16.1 pts / .416 FG% / .337 3P% / .800 FT% / 4.0 reb / 3.2 ast / 0.4 blk / 1.3 stl / 2.6 TO

Contract: Pretty much the same as RJ's, except his ends after 2012.


We shall see... The most obvious advantages to this move are we save about 11 million dollars in the last year of what would've been RJ's final contract year. Plus we didn't have to use the "amnesty clause" on him, and we still have the option to amnesty someone. So even if the two players are about equal in talent, the move helps us financially. Lastly, they aren't equals for one reason alone: Jackson does play much better defense. He also hit several clutch threes in our 2003 championship season. Here is a highlight from game-6 of the 2003 finals against New Jersey.

But we also lose a 1st-round pick. We shall see.. I would've thought there would be three better trade-deadline strategies:

Simply stated..
1 - No move at all.
2 - Trade for a BIG.
3 - Trade for a proven back-up PG.

At least he already knows the Spurs' & Pop's system.

Stats Sources: 1, and 2