SEATTLE -- As first reported by ESPN.com, the Seattle SuperSonics traded Duke's Corey Maggette after selecting him with the 13th selection in Wednesday's NBA draft, making a four-for-one trade with the Orlando Magic and acquiring veteran power forward Horace Grant.
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To obtain Grant, a 12-year veteran, the Sonics sent the
19-year-old Maggette to the Magic along with three veterans, Dale
Ellis, Don MacLean and Billy Owens.
In addition to Grant, Seattle received second-round draft
choices in 2001 and 2002 from Orlando.
Grant, a 6-foot-10, 245-pounder, averaged 8.9 points and 7 rebounds
for the Magic this past season. Orlando made the playoffs with a
33-17 record.
Grant has two years left on a contract that pays him $6½ million
next season and $7 million in 2001.
Speaking by telephone from Orlando, Grant said he was not
surprised to be traded at this point in his career. He will be 34
on July 4. Grant said he thinks he can play four or five more
seasons.
"I think it's good for me personally to go to a team like
Seattle and a new city," Grant said. "I'm going to a new
atmosphere and, I think, a very, very competitive team."
With the Sonics, he will become a teammate of Gary Payton, one
of the top point guards in the league.
"Oh, man, it's going to be an honor to play with a guy like
that," Grant said. "In a majority of games last season he carried
the team on his back."
Orlando was upset by Philadelphia in the first round of the
playoffs. Chuck Daly retired as their coach after the season and
Doc Rivers was selected to replace him.
Grant played the last five seasons with the Magic after playing
his first seven NBA seasons with Chicago, where he played on three
NBA title teams with Michael Jordan. He was the 10th player chosen
by the Bulls in the 1987 draft and signed with Orlando as a free
agent.
Sonics president Wally Walker said he believed Grant still had a
lot of basketball left in him.
"We think he's ready to play significant minutes," Walker
said. "He's in great health. He told (coach Paul Westphal) he
wants to play another five years. So he's motivated to take care of
himself."
In Seattle, Grant will join a front line that is up in the air.
Vin Baker, the Sonics' power forward last season, has opted to
become a free agent effective July 1. Olden Polynice, Seattle's
center last season, is not expected to be invited back and Detlef
Schrempf, the team's small forward the past six seasons, could
decide to retire.
The Sonics hope to re-sign Baker in August, and they also want to
talk Schrempf into returning.
Westphal said he thinks Grant will fit in nicely in the front
line with Baker.
"I don't think they necessarily play the same position," he
said. "I think they can play together and I expect them to play
together a lot."
Maggette, who came out of college after his freshman season to
enter the draft, was chosen with the 13th selection. He was considered one of the best athletes in the draft.
"Potential is scary," Rivers said. "It's just
potential, but we like that potential."
The Sonics didn't have a second-round pick.
In Owens, 30, Ellis, 38, and MacLean, 29, the Sonics subtracted
three veterans from the roster of a team that missed the
playoffs for the first time in the past nine seasons of the
franchise.
Owens, an eight-year veteran, was signed as a free agent by the
Sonics on Jan. 22 after coming to Sacramento from Miami during the
1995-96 season. Because of injuries, he played in only 21 of
Seattle's 50 games, starting in 19 of them. He averaged 7.8 points
and 3.8 rebounds. He missed Seattle's final 19 games because of a
strained left knee.
Acquired from New Jersey along with Michael Cage in a trade for
Jim McIlvaine, the 6-10 MacLean averaged 10.9 points and shot 39.6
percent from the floor last season.
The 6-7 Ellis averaged 10.3 points and shot 44.1 percent from
the floor in his 16th NBA season. He is the league's No. 2 all-time
leader in 3-point field goals made (1,805) and attempted (4,403)
behind Indiana's Reggie Miller.
The reshaping of the Magic roster continued with the selection of
Maryland's Laron Profit with the ninth pick in the second round,
No. 38 overall. The Magic later obtained Michigan's Louis Bullock,
a point guard selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 42nd
pick.
Profit shot 50 percent from the field and averaged 14.5 points
per game as a senior at Maryland, helping the Terrapins reached the
round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.
Bullock averaged 20.7 points last season and is projected as a
backup for Darrell Armstrong, who finished the year as Orlando's
starting point guard.
Much of what general manager John Gabriel does the rest of the
summer depends on what happens with four-time All-Star Penny
Hardaway, who becomes a free agent on July 1.
Rivers reiterated that the club hopes to re-sign Hardaway and
keep him in Orlando, even though the sixth-year pro said shortly
after the playoffs that he felt under appreciated and was prepared
to move on.
Hardaway apologized for the comments the following day.