Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld announced today that the team has acquired guards Javaris Crittenton from Memphis and Mike James from New Orleans in a three-team trade. As part of the deal, Washington sends Antonio Daniels to New Orleans and sends back a conditional first round draft pick to Memphis (that was initially acquired from Memphis in exchange for the draft rights to Juan Carlos Navarro on August 16, 2007), while New Orleans also receives a conditional second round pick from Memphis. In addition, the Wizards have waived guard Dee Brown.
“This trade strengthens and energizes our backcourt by giving us a veteran guard in Mike James who can help us immediately with his stability and scoring ability and a young guard in Javaris Crittenton who can help us now and in the future with his athleticism,” said Grunfeld. “We’re excited to welcome both players to Washington, but we’re also appreciative of what Antonio did for this team during his three-plus years here and we wish him the best.”
Crittenton was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 19th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft after spending one season at Georgia Tech, where he averaged 14.4 points, 5.8 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. He was traded by the Lakers to the Memphis Grizzlies on February 1, 2008 in the trade that also sent Kwame Brown, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol and a pair of first round draft picks to Memphis for Pau Gasol and a future second round draft pick. In 57 career games over a season-plus as a professional, Crittenton has averaged 5.2 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 12.7 minutes per game (including 7.4 points and 3.2 rebounds over the final 28 games of the 2007- 08 season with Memphis).
James’ best season came as a member of the Toronto Raptors in 2005-06 when he averaged 20.3 points and 5.8 assists per game in 79 games (all starts). James entered the NBA as an undrafted player out of Duquesne, and signed his first NBA contract with the Miami Heat in 2001. In addition to spending the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons with the Heat (where he was a teammate of Caron Butler during the 2002-03 season), James has also played for the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets (twice), Toronto Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Daniels appeared in 244 games over three-plus seasons in Washington, averaging 8.2 points and 3.9 assists per game. Currently in his 12th NBA season, he appeared in 13 games (five starts) for Washington and averaged 5.1 points and 3.6 assists per game. Daniels was initially signed as a free agent with Washington on August 2, 2005.
Brown was signed by Washington as a restricted free agent from Utah on July 9, 2008. In 16 games as a Wizard this season (including 10 games as a starter), Brown averaged 2.4 points and 1.9 assists in 13.7 minutes per game.
The Wizards next home game is tomorrow (Thursday, December 11th) against the World Champion Boston Celtics…limited tickets are still available.