Kurt Thomas to the Spurs: Best Move of the Year.

After a week of “The West is wide open now” conversations the Spurs were tired of listening and went out and made themselves the front runners yet again for the NBA Championship. We heard the talk, “The Spurs will turn it up towards the end of the season”, but they haven’t looked quite right all year.

Yesterday the Spurs acquired Kurt Thomas from the Sonics for Brent Barry, Francisco Elson, and a 2009 first round pick. Brent Barry has been valuable in the Spurs previous championship runs but the West is bigger this year, and where Kurt Thomas used to be valuable guarding Tim Duncan, now he will be valuable saving him on defense. Kurt Thomas can be an effective offensive player (8 points, 9 rebounds), but he’s been brought in to guard Shaq, Gasol, and Boozer et al during what will be a tough playoff run for all the West teams. Fantastic management by the Spurs, this is a great move.

This Spurs management has been out done by only…the Sonics. Wow. In the past 7 months they have turned a 2009 conditional second round pick (via the Magic) into Brent Barry, Francisco Elson (for a total of $8.5 million of expiring contracts), and a first round pick in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Thus, the Sonics have been able to build a core of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, this year’s lottery pick, and 3 upcoming picks in the 20s with emerging Chris Wilcox (age 25, 13 points, 7 rebounds), Delonte West (still only 24), and the possibility of Luke Ridnour screwing his head on straight (age 27), and they have one of the brightest futures in the NBA. And on top of all of that, they’ve done it while isolating their fan base by trying to fleece the city of Seattle and preparing a move to Oklahoma City, a city full of rabid fans just waiting for a team (as we witnessed with the Hornets). Just read that again, that’s how it’s done.


***Update***

With the big three team trade mentioned above in the next post, the Sonics moved Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak for the $10+ million of expiring contracts in Adrian Griffin, Donyell Marshall, and Ira Newbell. I don't like the loss of West, he really has the opporunity to become a player, however the Sonics continue to strenghten their position in the future of the NBA with a dwindling salary and 13 draft picks in the next 3 years.