Maynor and Harpring Traded to Thunder

In a cost-slashing move, Utah traded away their rookie point guard and Harpring’s rotting corpse for some German fellow no one has ever heard of: “The Jazz on Tuesday traded rookie point guard Eric Maynor and veteran forward Matt Harpring’s expiring contract to Oklahoma City for the rights to a forward from Germany who has never played in the NBA. The cost-cutting trade will save more than $10 million for the Jazz, who are well in excess of the NBA’s team payroll salary cap and luxury-tax threshold. ‘It’s good for Oklahoma City, because they get a good young player (in Maynor),’ Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor said today. ‘And it’s good for us, because it allows us to address our financial situation. Basically the reason we did that was to relieve ourselves of some luxury-tax responsibilities … and to do that we had to give up an asset,’ he added. ‘It was a difficult decision. We’re disappointed that we had to do that, but in these economic times we saved a great deal of money and we’re able to be aggressive, still, going forward.’ The trade — essentially a salary dump of Harpring’s burdensome contract, at the cost of 22-year-old Maynor — reduces Utah’s roster count from 14 to 12.”