Nuggets Acquire Arron Afflalo

FRIDAY, 12:18am: The deal is official, the Magic have announced via press release.

THURSDAY, 12:18pm: The Magic have agreed to send Arron Afflalo to the Nuggets for Evan Fournier and the No. 56 pick, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).  The Nuggets appear to be absorbing Afflalo into a trade exception, Zach Lowe of Grantland tweets.  A quick glance at this summer’s outstanding trade exceptions would indicate that Denver is using the $9.868MM exception from the Andre Iguodala deal to take on Afflalo.NBA: Playoffs-Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Lakers

Afflalo is set to earn $7.56MM this season and has a player option for 2015/16 at $7.75MM, but it seems likely that he’ll opt out, effectively making his deal an expiring contract.  The haul for the guard may seem light, but that fact could have weighed down his trade value.  Afflalo put up a career-high 18.2 PPG this season in 35 minutes per contest.  His ~46% field goal percentage was right in line with his career average and his 16.0 PER was a full three points higher than his mark last season.

The deal is something of a homecoming for Afflalo, who played for Denver from 2009/10 through 2011/12.  The reunion won’t be short lived, as a source tells Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post (on Twitter) that the 28-year-old will not be flipped to another team in a trade.  Afflalo has been mentioned as someone the Nuggets were interested in acquiring for the purposes of flipping him to the Wolves in a Kevin Love deal.

Fournier averaged 8.4 PPG, 2.7 RPG, and 1.5 APG in 19.5 minutes per night in 76 games last season.  The shooting guard showed flashes of brilliance in his rookie campaign but didn’t take significant strides forward in 2013/14.  Even though he shot well shot well from downtown, his field-goal percentage dropped to 41.9%, down 7.4 percent from the previous season.

Orlando surely likes Fournier but the real motivation for the deal comes in additional flexibility. Following the trade, the Magic have roughly $27.5MM in guaranteed salary on the books for 2014/15.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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