Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports (via blog):
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In a deal completed five minutes before the NBA’s 1 p.m. MDT trade deadline, the Jazz sent Ronnie Brewer to Memphis for a protected future first-round draft pick, general manager Kevin O’Connor said.
The Jazz’s starting shooting guard for the past three seasons, Brewer first was linked to Memphis in trade talk last month. The pick the Jazz will receive belongs to the Grizzlies and first can be conveyed beginning in 2011.
By trading Brewer, the Jazz will ease their logjam of wing players, freeing minutes for Wesley Matthews, C.J. Miles and Kyle Korver. The Jazz also will ease their luxury-tax burden, with the Grizzlies having the cap space to absorb Brewer’s $2.7 million salary.
Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports (via blog):
The primary reason for the trade, of course, is that Brewer plays the same position as Kyle Korver, C.J. Miles, Wesley Matthews and — to a lesser extent — Andrei Kirilenko.
Coach Jerry Sloan was having a difficult time finding minutes for everyone, so somebody had to either be traded or buried on the bench alongside young “bigs” Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko.
