NBA Trade Deadline: Top 10 deadline trades of all time
By Daniel Tran
4. The Point Guard Shuffle of 1999
Many times for an NBA trade, a third team is needed in order to facilitate and complete the deal. In 1999, the Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks, and New Jersey Nets were all in the giving mood and needed new point guards.
In a NBA trade deadline deal with nine players and future draft considerations being exchanged, the headline pieces were the point guards being traded. The Timberwolves made a tough decision to give up talented, but selfish point guard Stephon Marbury in exchange for Brandon Terrell who was a year removed from being selected to two consecutive All-Star teams.
Brandon Terrell was doing well playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, who needed a pure guard to distribute the ball add scoring rather being the main trigger man with the talented Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, and Dell Curry lighting it up from the outside. However, head coach George Karl wanted a more mature point guard to enhance his already threatening perimeter shooting, so he dealt Terrell to the Timberwolves and got Sam Cassell from the New Jersey Nets.
A season after he broke out for 19.6 points and eight assists per game, Cassell had “dropped off” to only average 18 points and 4.8 assists. Jumping at the chance for a younger, more dynamic guard, the Nets acquired Marbury while dumping Cassell on Milwaukee and first-round draft pick to Minnesota.
All three guards continued to produce at the levels they were before, with Cassell helping the Bucks to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001 and Marbury becoming an All Star in his final year in New Jersey.
Next: Out with the old, in with the new for Seattle