Here's my guess...He's got way too many guards on the roster (Prigioni, Mills, Ginobili, Miller, Allen, Korver, Tucker) so he needed to cut a couple (Burks and Bradley) in order to use his #1 overall pick (see the keeper thread). So, basically that made the trade an open roster spot (Kobe) + Hickson (needs the boards) for JR Smith (another guy he didn't need) and a likely later 1st round pick next season (that he probably wouldn't use anyway). So, basically he got Hickson for mid-round 1st round pick.