David Wesley traded - for Cash?

It appears that earlier reports that the Hornets acquired David Wesley just to release him were greatly exaggerated. It's obvious now that I never did see the official transaction releasing Wesley - so I should have been aware he was still an asset the team could use.

Well, the Hornets just traded him to the New Jersey Nets for Bernard Robinson, a 6-6 swingmen who tore his lateral meniscus during training camp on October 7th, and Mile Ilic, a former second round draft pick that I remember people speaking well of when he was drafted. He's apparently very tall.(7-2)

The natural assumption was the team wants Ilic as an insurance policy big man, but I really doubt that. Ilic is already 23, and did nothing in 9 games he played in the Development League last year. Usually, if a player shows nothing at all by 23, they aren't going to show anything.

No, I suspect this trade happened more because of the "cash considerations" sent to the Hornets as part of the deal. The Hornets have already proven that being given (relatively) small payouts will bring them to the table for transactions that don't have any real effect on the team. An example of this was last years Sign and Trade with Indiana. The had already outright signed Peja Stojakovic, and Indiana was in danger of losing him for nothing in return. Indiana offered 250,000 and New Orleans was willing to sign the paperwork that made it a trade instead of an outright signing - giving Indiana a $7 million trade exception that would allow them to sign new players despite already being over the cap.

I'm guessing a similar financial incentive was given here. The Hornets can take on a little extra salary and not have any impact because they are well below the Luxury Tax. The Nets were over the Luxury Tax threshold - so they save a good bit of cash by trading Ilic and Robinson to us. In return, they give the Hornets a payment to cover the player's salaries, plus a little bonus for the favor. The bonus is less than the Tax penalties, so the Nets win too.

I doubt we'll see much of either of them.

[Update] Both players were waived immediately.