The New Jersey Nets needed a small forward who could score and the Indiana Pacers wanted one who could penetrate and set up other players.
Coach John Calipari put the two together and ended up making his first regular-season trade for the Nets by sending Vincent Askew to the Pacers for Reggie Williams in an exchange of veteran forwards Monday."It was a change to try to see if we could add some more scoring to our team," said Calipari, who saw the Nets score 77 points in his coaching debut on Friday.
New Jersey acquired Askew from Seattle in an offseason trade for guard Greg Graham. Indiana got Williams, Jalen Rose and No. 10 draft pick Erick Dampier in the offseason in the deal that sent Mark Jackson to Denver.
"The way our team was shaping up, we felt we needed another player who could defend, take the ball to the basket and play and defend multiple positions," Pacers president Donnie Walsh said.