The HRR NBA Trade Analyses Archive

February 20, 2002

“Rogers, Delk Head to Beantown in Five-Player Deal”

The Phoenix Suns traded F Rodney Rogers and G Tony Delk to the Boston Celtics in exchange for G / F Joe Johnson, G Milt Palacio, G Randy Brown, and a conditional first round draft pick.

Notes: Rogers and Palacio are free agents this summer. Brown has a player option in his contract to exercise this summer. He's out for the rest of the season with a hernia. The pick is protected through the first eight and then through the first five for five years.

2001 - ‘02 Player Salaries:

Rodney Rogers, Bos: $2.6 M.

Tony Delk, Bos: $2.475 M.

Joe Johnson, Pho: $1.61 M.

Milt Palacio, Pho: $0.600 M.

Randy Brown, Pho: $2.475 M.

Who got the better of the deal?

Boston.

Why?

Acquiring Delk and Rogers, should provide Boston more weapons on offense; however, neither Tony nor Rodney are famous being good man to man defenders.

“This is like one of those baseball trades that you see in the second half of the season with the purpose of trying to bolster your team,” said Celtics general manager Chris Wallace. “We acquired two veterans who are proven scorers. We'll have more offensive punch than we've ever had for the stretch run. Looking at the Eastern Conference, it's so wide open, why not take a shot?

“Second, we wanted to reduce our overall payroll and put us in a better position to handle the luxury tax in 2002-03.”

The trade lowers the Celtics' payroll next season to avoid a luxury tax at the end of the 2002-03 season. It allows them to save more than $2.4 million when all the salaries are added in and, probably, another $1 million by not having to draft a player.

“Tony Delk is going to start, so much for that challenge,'' Celtics’ coach Jim O'Brien said. “Rodney has to be able to play the (power forward) spot, where there's not going to be a lot of minutes - about 8-10 minutes a game to free up Antoine (Walker) to play 38-40 minutes.

“But (Rogers) has got to learn the (small forward) spot and the (center) spot, so it's more of a challenge for Rodney. Certainly when he learns to play those spots at a high level, not only offensively but defensively, he'll be able to contribute more.”

The trade makes complete sense from a personnel and financial viewpoint for Boston; however, giving up on Joe Johnson could prove to be a mistake in the future. Celtics’ management believes Johnson is too unselfish and Boston believes fellow rookie Kedrick Brown will have a better career than Joe. Time will tell.

“We made a change to basically look toward the future,” Suns president Bryan Colangelo said. “This is an opportunity to add some young players of significance in the short term and hopefully still maintain a competitive product.”

Colangelo said extending the contract of Shawn Marion this off-season means the club probably wouldn't have enough money to keep Rogers, who is a free agent this summer.

Trading Rogers also will mean more minutes for Tom Gugliotta, and the Suns must determine how much game he has left after his severe knee injury of two years ago.