Reports surfaced early yesterday morning that the Mavericks were looking to trade Rudy Fernandez and Corey Brewer and today it appears both may be headed to the Denver Nuggets. Marc Stein has the latest.
ESPNSteinLine
ESPN sources say that Denver covets Mavs swingman Corey Brewer as well and are trying to expand the deal to land Brewer with Fernandez
The Mavericks current roster possess a ton of wing depth and little center depth. So maybe the inclusion of Brewer in the deal nets them a center.
Denver has Timofey Mozgov, Kosta Koufos and Chris "Birdman" Anderson on the their team. Mozgov was acquired in the Carmelo Anthony trade and they would prefer to hang on to him and Anderson has three years remaining on his deal which wouldn’t make sense for the Mavericks. So that leaves Koufos as the potential trade chip in this deal as well as future draft considerations.
It’s certainly a head scratcher. I had high hopes for Rudy Fernandez on draft day and envisioned him as the starting two guard on this team. However, the Mavericks clearly had other plans and with the acquisition of Carter, Odom, West and the hopes for Rodrigue Beaubois this season, it became clear that there just wasn’t going to be enough playing time to go around.
But it’s still hard to see an aging team give up two of their young assets.
UPDATE: The deal is now official.Fernandez, Brewer to the Nuggets for a future second rounder. The Mavericks will also create a trade exception worth $5.24 million from this deal.