The Utah Jazz acquired sharpshooting forward Steve Novak in a trade with the Toronto Raptors on Friday, reports Adrian Wojnarowkski of Yahoo! Sports. The deal continues a very busy Fourth of July for Canada's lone NBA team, which has also signed Patrick Patterson and closed in on a deal with Greivis Vasquez on the day.
Jazz acquire Steve Novak from Raptors
The Raptors continued a busy holiday by trading Steve Novak to the Jazz in a cost-cutting move on Friday afternoon.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sport
With those pending deals and the Raptors’ desire to add more pieces, trading Novak frees up salary cap space for the team. Over the next two years, Novak is set to make nearly $7.2 million, and from all indications, the Jazz will be picking up the entirety of that sum.
The Jazz will also receive a second-round pick in the deal, while the Raptors will receive the non-guaranteed contract of Diante Garrett from Utah. Garrett will immediately be waived once the deal becomes official after the league's moratorium ends on July 10, Wojnarowski says.
Novak, 31, spent the 2013-14 season with the Raptors after being added via trade from the New York Knicks. One of the game's great long-distance shooters, he doesn't offer much else these days but continues to get opportunities as a three-point specialist.
Last season with the Raptors, Novak averaged 3.3 points and 1.1 rebounds per game while sticking firmly behind the arc on offense. He took 146 shots overall on the year, with 122 of them coming from three. That’s nearly 84 percent of his attempts, a pretty astonishing figure.
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