Why is OKC trading Jackson? They're in win now mode, and they need him. Maybe over the summer he can be had in a sign-and-trade, but he's certainly unavailable. Bad reporting last night made it seem like he briefly was, but no way.
Actually, I look at it slightly different. Those early reports had the rest of the deal down except for the OKC outgoing part, so the information had to be pretty good especially when this deal came out of nowhere with no previous buzz whatsoever. This leads me to believe that at one point, the possibility of Jackson moving on was probably close and now with Waiters adding to their SG options, the minutes Jackson has been getting at the 2 are sure to decrease.
That said, being willing to move him and moving him are two different things and giving him away is something else entirely. The fact that they pulled him off the table and sent out a first round pick instead means that a 1st round pick is the starting point for whatever package they expect to get back and they will need a reliable backup point guard to take his minutes in the package as well.
The early report meant that Cleveland, who needs depth in the post, would have been trading 1 rotation guard and two replacement-level centers for 3 rotation guards, and was completely nonsensical. The strained logic is that OKC would trade Jackson due to a minutes crunch, but Cleveland, who was already acquiring two players with whom he'd have to compete for minutes, would have no such reservations.
I think someone who heard about the deal without knowing all the pieces jumped to the first half of the conclusion (that OKC would trade Jackson because of minutes crunch) without thinking through where he'd go, and reported it as fact.
Maybe I didn't see the earliest report then. It sounds like you saw a report that had everyone going to Cleveland. The one I heard originally had Jackson going to the Knicks.
Which, on its face, would seem to make sense because the Knicks would look like they were getting something in the deal in return, when it fact, all they cared about was clearing out JR Smiths contract and saving millions on the luxury tax.
The way I saw it reported was:
OKC sends: Jackson
OKC receives: Waiters
Cle sends: Waiters
Cle receives: Shumpert and Smith
NYK sends: Shumpert and Smith
NYK receives: Jackson
Now, my reaction to that report was surprise that they would give up Jackson for Waiters because Jackson is a bigger help this year but I didn't find it unbelievable considering that he is expected to not be retained. The deal seemed to make sense everywhere else. In the end, Cleveland actually made out better and the Knicks desperate to dump salary had that used against them and did worse than the initial report.
Now, if you saw an even earlier report that had Jackson going to Cleveland then I missed that one.
I just saw Jackson out, but not where. In either case, I think it's completely wrong to assume that because an early report had something that turned out to be untrue meant that it almost happened, but didn't, and that Jackson is readily available. The Knicks wound up with a 2019 second rounder from Cleveland. I don't think they had their choice of Jackson or a 2019 second rounder from a different team. That they wound up with minimum salary contracts and a second rounder five drafts from now indicates they were never talking about Jackson.
The primary asset OKC gave up to get Waiters went to Cleveland. I've already talked about why that's illogical to think it might have been Jackson instead, but given what the end results of the trade were, I'd find it less unlikely that Jackson was talked about to Cleveland than New York. And I find that unlikely.
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