Updates on Nets' Reported Trades with Pelicans and Bulls

The Brooklyn Nets shook up the NBA landscape by making a blockbuster trade last offseason to acquire a veritable All-Star starting lineup in their quest for a championship. That championship train has been derailed, but that doesn't mean that the Nets are done making moves, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports—those moves will just be on a smaller scale.

Brooklyn is finalizing two separate trades with the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans that will save the team's owner some money.

The first deal sees Bulls point guard Marquis Teague headed to Brooklyn in return for forward Tornike Shengelia:

Neither player has been a big part of his team's rotations this year, and both will hope to latch on with their new clubs and get some playing time.

Shengelia is averaging eight minutes per game for the Nets, but he had an impressive two-game stint in the D-League in which he averaged 17 points (on 56 percent shooting) with five rebounds and two assists for the Springfield Armor.

Teague has yet to live up to the Bulls' expectations when they selected him at the end of the first round in the 2012 NBA draft. He was part of the 2012 national championship team at Kentucky (along with Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist).

The brother of Atlanta Hawks point guard Jeff Teague, Marquis Teague has never earned consistent playing time under Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau and has been disappointing in the limited playing time he has received this season with Derrick Rose on the sidelines.

He's averaging 12 minutes per game, but that number is a little misleading considering that he hasn't played in a game since Dec. 25. In his limited action, Teague has the lowest PER of any qualified NBA player this season.

In that 2012 NCAA national championship game Teague faced off against Tyshawn Taylor of Kansas, who was also involved in a trade. It was originally thought that Taylor would net Brooklyn some cash in the trade:

Upon further examination, however, Wojnarowski reports that the Nets are sending cash to New Orleans along with Taylor in return for a future second-round pick:

Sam Amick of USA Today revealed that the trade will ease some of the luxury tax burden facing Brooklyn:

These moves won't alter the Nets' postseason aspirations, but they will ease the pain of owner Mikhail Prokhorov as he looks over his luxury tax bill.