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BREAKING: Navarro deal officially done for a confusing protected pick

By Mike Prada

The official Wizards website now says that the Juan Carlos Navarro deal with Memphis is done.  No specific words on the terms yet, but it's reportedly a "future first-round pick."  I'll update with more as soon as it gets out.

Update [2007-8-16 16:0:5 by Pradamaster]: Ivan says it's a conditional pick. Nothing new to see here, move along.

Update [2007-8-16 18:56:17 by Pradamaster]: Dammit, the Memphis radio guy was right. Here are the details.

The Wizards receive a top-19 protected first round pick in 2008, a top-16 protected pick in 2009, a top-14 (lottery) protected pick from 2010-2012, a top-12 protected pick in 2013 or a second-round pick and cash considerations if they have not received a pick by 2013.
Strangely enough, this was the best package out there. Who knows exactly whether the early re-signing of Stevenson has anything to do with that, but clearly Ernie wanted to get more. As Ivan says,
At no point have I heard that anyone has offered a better deal than this one. Though as many as 8-10 teams contacted Ernie, I hear that no one offered anything better than a second-round pick. Sources tell me that Ernie had discussions that would have packaged Etan Thomas with the pick but none of those talks resulted in a serious offer. I can't say whether the Wiz and Grizz seriously discussed a deal that would have swapped Etan for Stro Swift but at least one source said they did. I have no idea whether Ernie considered a deal that would have involved Brendan Haywood.
If you pointed a gun to my head, I'd say that the Wizards will trade this pick. It sounds like, ideally, Ernie wanted to trade Etan Thomas, but got absolutely nowhere trying to get Memphis to take on his contract. You would think that a protected first-round pick would be less of an asset than a European sensation like Navarro, but I imagine Navarro's handlers and strange buyout clause lowered his value. Perhaps a first-round pick could be of some use to certain teams.

I must admit that I'm mildly surprised that nobody is expressing any interest in Etan. Sure, he has an awful contract, but he's actually been a fairly productive offensive player (15.6 PER, 57% eFG% last year), a good rebounder (12.1 REB/40), and a good citizen. I wouldn't say he's starter-quality, but a contending team could use him as a third big man that can score a bit in the post and provide energy off the bench. Off the top of my head, Thomas could be quite useful to Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, New Jersey, Orlando, and Toronto. If I'm the GM of one of those teams, I'd consider sending back an expiring deal (e.g. Keyon Dooling) and an unwanted contract (Matt Carroll, Hedo Turkoglu) for Etan and that first-round pick.

Overall, I'm mildly disappointed, but it does seem that Ernie tried his best. I think I'd rather have this situation than a situation where JCN is here at the expense of Stevenson, which would have been a distinct possibility if we didn't move quickly to re-sign him. I'm not solid on that opinion, though, so reasonable people can disagree.

I guess I'm just glad it's done. More thoughts will come later.

BONUS LINK: Jarvis Hayes is officially a Detroit Piston. SUCKERS! I guess it's time to retire this bobblehead (thanks to Information Leafblower.