Wheeling and Dealing

The first major deal in SlamNation Part Deux was struck yesterday afternoon. In a one for one swap, the Monkeys sent budding all-star guard, Monta Ellis, to the Human Amoebas in return for former Monkey, Danny Granger. As part of the trade, the Monkeys have also agreed to send their 2nd overall pick in the 2011 Supplemental Draft to the Amoebas for their 4th round pick.

Evan, GM of the Monkeys was quoted earlier, “We wish Monta nothing but the best. He is a great player with a bright future ahead of him. He played his hearts out for us and we know he will do great with the Amoebas. This trade, however, is about Danny Granger. The deal represents a major step forward for the organization as we welcome back Danny Granger. Danny does a lot of things awfully well and I have full confidence that he will improve our team.”

ESPN Fantasy Analyst, Matthew Berry, spoke on SportsCenter earlier this morning about the deal. “This seems to be a win-win deal for both teams. Ellis will play extremely well with Derrick Rose and the two certainly will pair to be one of the best young backfields for years to come. The team just got a lot quicker. I expect the deal to increase the team’s scoring opportunities as Ellis plays well both with and off the ball. As for the Monkeys, this deal was a no-brainer. The team is familiar with Granger and his skillset. They had a logjam at the guard position and Granger gives them another genuine superstar to run with CP3. The Monkeys will look to slot either James Harden or Trevor Ariza into the shooting guard position with Granger manning the small forward slot. This will be a fun team to watch!”

Sources close to the Amoebas indicated that the original deal was potentially larger and included at least 4 players (with Rose and Bargnani as potential trade pieces). Sometimes smaller is better but something tells us that more deals are in the pipeline.