Nets trade Van Horn for Mutombo

By

Posted 7:27AM on Wednesday, August 7, 2002

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - After losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals the past two years, the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets pulled off a deal that both teams hope will put them over the top. The Nets acquired 7-foot-2 center Dikembe Mutombo from the 76ers for forward Keith Van Horn and center Todd MacCulloch in a trade Tuesday between the last two Eastern Conference champions. Mutombo gives the Nets one of the NBA's perennial top rebounders and shot blockers and a presence in the middle - something they didn't have in being swept by Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers in the finals in June. ``If you look historically at the NBA, any time you have a center who is a defender, rebounder and shot blocker, it's always an advantage,'' Nets president Rod Thorn said. ``Historically, that's what you need to scale the heights, and from our perspective, we feel that Mutombo will be able to do that for us.'' Van Horn, who has not lived up to his billing as the second overall pick in the 1997 draft, is expected to give Philadelphia another scorer to help Allen Iverson - something it didn't have in losing to the Lakers in the 2001 Finals. After averaging career bests of 9.7 points and 6.1 rebounds last season, MacCulloch returns to the 76ers one year after signing with New Jersey as a free agent. The 26-year-old Canadian is 10 years younger than Mutombo. ``Obviously we will miss those guys, but this is a business and every team will try to get better,'' Nets coach Byron Scott said of Van Horn and MacCulloch. ``That's what we feel we have done today.'' The deal also eliminates a couple of potential problems for the Nets involving Van Horn, who averaged a career-low 14.8 points last season. Second-year pro Richard Jefferson, who was going to challenge him for a starting spot, now can move into the lineup unopposed. The trade also avoids some potential problems with Kenyon Martin, who criticized Van Horn after the NBA Finals for not playing up to his potential for every game. Thorn said the incident had nothing to do with the trade. ``If you look at the East, there are a lot of teams and there is very little difference,'' Thorn said. ``Our feeling was we needed to get stronger and we feel, particularly on the defense, we got stronger today.'' This marks the second straight year Thorn has pulled off a major trade. His acquisition of point guard Jason Kidd last summer turned the Nets from a perennial also-ran into the conference's best team. Talks on this deal started in late June, Thorn said. Negotiations with Philadelphia general manager Billy King got serious a couple of days ago. ``Dikembe was a big part of us going to the Finals,'' said King, who acquired Mutombo before the 2001 trading deadline. ``This wasn't easy, but it was something we felt we needed to do. This makes us a better club.'' Van Horn, who averaged a career-high 21.8 points for New Jersey in 1999, will take over at small forward for Matt Harpring, who is an unrestricted free agent. ``Allen said he needed two guys to score with him,'' Sixers coach Larry Brown said. ``Now, if he's willing to take 20 shots instead of 30 shots per game, there will be plenty of opportunities for other guys to do that.'' Since Iverson was drafted in 1996, the 76ers have tried unsuccessfully to use Jerry Stackhouse, Tim Thomas, Larry Hughes, Toni Kukoc and others in that role. Van Horn was chosen by Philadelphia with the overall No. 2 pick in the 1997 draft but was immediately shipped to the Nets in an eight-player trade. Scott said too much might have been expected of Van Horn. ``Just because he was drafted behind Tim Duncan, everyone expected him to play like Tim Duncan,'' Scott said. ``That's a different player. But in his own right, especially for us last season, he did an excellent job.'' Mutombo has spent 11 seasons in the NBA with Denver, Atlanta and Philadelphia, leading the league in blocked shots in 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96 and rebounding in 1999-00 and 2000-01.