The Hornets Acquired a Veteran Center in a Disrupted Season
On January 31, 2006, the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets received Aaron Williams from Toronto for two second-round draft selections. The club was playing home games in Oklahoma City following Hurricane Katrina, and Williams offered immediate backup size during an unusual season. Toronto was restructuring its frontcourt and chose future draft flexibility instead of retaining an aging reserve. The agreement was not an exchange of two NBA players: the Raptors received one selection for 2006 and another for 2009, giving them more options for later negotiations.
Williams Supplied Thirty-Four Hornets Games
Williams made thirty-four New Orleans/Oklahoma City regular-season appearances after the trade, starting twice. He logged 692 minutes, scored 197 points and collected 166 rebounds while functioning as a backup center. Those were useful frontcourt minutes for a team working around Chris Paul and David West, though the role never resembled Williams's most productive earlier years in New Jersey. His fourteen Toronto games before January 31 remain Raptors statistics and must not be added to his incoming Hornets totals. He moved to the Clippers afterward rather than developing into a long-term Hornets starter.
Toronto Obtained Two Picks That Followed Different Paths
The 2006 selection became No. 56 Edin Bavčić. Toronto selected him and promptly sold his draft rights to Philadelphia, yielding a separate asset transaction rather than playing Bavčić in a Raptors uniform. The later pick eventually became No. 51 Jack McClinton in 2009, but Toronto had included its rights in a wider trade with San Antonio for Rasho Nesterović in 2006. Consequently, neither draftee's career can be counted as a direct Raptors playing return. Both second-round choices nevertheless had real use in subsequent decisions, and their paths need to be explained.
Immediate Center Minutes Versus Two Movable Assets
New Orleans received exactly the sort of veteran support it wanted during the remaining months of the 2005-06 season. Toronto gave up a little-used forward-center and received two draft assets it could move in separate arrangements. Those trades created financial and roster flexibility, even without a productive player selected and retained from either choice. Comparing only Williams's scoring with the draftees' nonexistent Toronto minutes would ignore what the Raptors actually did with the assets. The original even verdict remains sensible because each organization realized a different and documented category of value.
Final Verdict
Even Trade. New Orleans earns B for Aaron Williams's 34 appearances, 692 minutes, 197 points and 166 rebounds in 2005-06. Toronto also receives B because it acquired two usable second-round picks, selling Edin Bavčić's No. 56 rights and later transferring the 2009 selection within the Nesterović package. No later player's entire career is assigned to this single swap.