ZELLER, JACK, KARSEV, THORNTON HEADLINE 3-TEAM, 6-PLAYER DEAL
In a 3-team trade: the Boston Celtics acquired center Tyler Zeller and a protected 1st-round draft pick in 2016 from Cleveland, plus shooting guard Marcus Thornton from Brooklyn; the Brooklyn Nets acquired combo guard Jarrett Jack and swingman Sergey Karasev from Cleveland; and the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired the rights to power forward Ilkan Karaman and combo forward Edin Bavcic from Brooklyn, plus a trade exception worth $10.3 million from Boston.
What does it give the Boston Celtics
For now, Boston gets the best of this three-team trade. Since salary moving out in any NBA trade must match all salary coming in, the Celtics take full advantage here of the $10.3 million trade exception they were holding onto (and was set to expire soon). The exception lets Boston bring in salary without moving it out, so by sending the exception to Cleveland (thus helping the Cavs clear cap space), they land Zeller and Thornton in return (with $1.7 million of the exception from Zeller and $8.6 from Thornton). Zeller has a chance to eventually become Boston's starting center, so this is a nice maneuver by the Celts (who will also likely get a season of quality depth scoring from Thornton, assuming they don't move him again).
What does it give the Brooklyn Nets
The Nets are epically over the salary cap, but they add less than $1 million to the payroll here (by moving out Thornton's $8.6 million to Boston and bringing in the more versatile Jack and the promising Karasev). Jack can help replace {P=1018 Shaun Livingston} (who signed with Golden State in free agency), while Karasev is a solid prospect with a lot of skill. Clearly Brooklyn's brass wasn't optimistic about signing still-in-Europe prospects Bavcic and Karaman.
What does it give the Cleveland Cavaliers
This is an intriguing move by the Cavs. While they do get the rights to two fairly talented big men currently playing in Europe, this deal is much more about cutting salary and freeing up cap space. Giving up a future first-rounder (even one that's protected) is a fairly steep price for cutting payroll, but rumors are rampant that Cleveland wants to make a big push to bring free agent {P=900 LeBron James} back to Cleveland. This trade gives them enough cap space to make a big splash in free agency, regardless of whether it's LeBron.
Fantasy impact
In Boston, neither of Zeller nor Thornton will likely start anytime soon, but Thornton can easily become {P Avery Bradley}'s top backup at shooting guard and Zeller has a chance to be a top reserve behind {P Jared Sullinger}. That likely means fewer minutes at 2-guard for {P James Young}, and more competition in the post for {P Kelly Olynyk}, {P Brandon Bass}, and {P Vitor Faverani}. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, Jack probably gets a slight boost in fantasy value, since (for now) he projects as a rotation regular (with Livingston and Thornton gone). Karasev's value probably won't change soon, since he's still establishing himself in the NBA. For the Cavaliers it's too soon to tell what this might mean fantasy-wise; but they now definitely need to add several players to fill out the roster--some of whom might be stars.
