In a trade that will ultimately probably only matter to myself and my fellow D-League faithful, the San Antonio Spurs have traded Curtis Jerrells to the New Orleans Hornets for a future second-round pick.
It seems a bit interesting that the Hornets would send a draft pick in return for a player that likely didn't have a spot on the Spurs roster this season. When everything is taken into consideration, though - primarily Dell Demps, the former Austin Toros general manager and current Hornets GM - it all makes sense.
Except, of course, that the New Orleans Hornets already have former D-League basically-point-guards Mustafa Shakur and D.J. Strawberry fighting for the right to backup Chris Paul for the next 82 games. With Jerrells, that makes three players on the roster with skill sets that are probably better suited for a combo-guard role all vying to play behind possibly the best pure-point guard in the NBA.
Timothy Varner from the great 48 Minutes of Hell wrote quite glowingly about Jerrells earlier this week.
I'm not sure what to make of Jerrells' preseason, other than the obvious. He's better than we expected. He played well in summer league, but not exceptionally well. But other than DeJuan Blair and Tim Duncan, Jerrells has had the best preseason of any Spur. Curtis Jerrells, the kid from Baylor. The Austin Toros project.
What's most surprising about Jerrells' transformation into an NBA-quality player is that he wasn't anything approaching a point guard in college. Last season, Toros head coach Quin Snyder "made" Jerrells into a point guard, but he mostly looked like a shooting guard barking sets. Credit Snyder and Jerrells for putting in the work, because Jerrells should be on an NBA roster.
In all reality, it will be pretty interesting to see what sort of combination of Jerrells, Shakur and Strawberry sticks in the NBA this season.