WASHINGTON — A league source confirmed a report the Nets and Bobcats have had preliminary discussions about swapping power forward Kris Humphries to Charlotte for guard Ben Gordon.
No deal is imminent, however. The Feb. 21 trade deadline is less than two weeks away.
“You don’t pay attention to it,” Humphries said after scoring two points and grabbing three rebounds in last night’s 89-74 loss to the Wizards. “You have to just play and make the most of the situation. It is what it is.”
The potential swap, which was first reported by ESPN, would accomplish several things for the Nets. First, it would allow them to clear up their current log-jam of big men. They have five guys — Humphries, Brook Lopez, Reggie Evans, Andray Blatche and Mirza Teletovic — they would like to play though it is hard to fit more than four into a traditional NBA rotation.
Gordon, who starred in high school at Mount Vernon, is averaging 13.1 points in just over 22 minutes per game for the Bobcats while coming off the bench. He would give the Nets a dynamic threat from behind the 3-point arc, from where he’s shooting 41.7 percent while hitting well over a 3-pointer per game.
Humphries is averaging 6.0 points and 6.4 rebounds after averaging a double-double each of the past two seasons for the Nets, and has seen his playing time drop sharply over the past several weeks.
“It’s not ideal,” he said of the recent drop, “but you do the best you can given the situation and work from there.”
Such a move would allow the Nets to play small, with Gordon sliding into the backcourt along with Deron Williams, and then moving Joe Johnson to small forward and Gerald Wallace to power forward.
Moving Humphries for Gordon also would allow the Nets to maintain the same flexibility in the trade market they would have this summer if they held onto Humphries through the trade deadline. Though Humphries is in the first year of a two-year, $24 million contract, Gordon has a player option for next season for $13.2 million that he will likely pick up.
That would then allow the Nets to enter the summer with a large expiring contract to dangle in trade offers.That is a valuable commodity in the current NBA economic climate, in which teams are looking to avoid being penalized by the punitive new luxury tax system under the new collective bargaining agreement.