In a surprising move the Charlotte Bobcats traded oft-injured SF Corey Maggette to the Detroit Pistons this evening for SG Ben Gordon and a lottery protected 1st round pick in 2013.

Detroit has traded Ben Gordon and a protected future first-round pick to Charlotte for Corey Maggette, league sources tell Y! Sports.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 27, 2012

Lets be clear: Gordon's contact is terrible. He's owed over $12 million in 2012, and over $13 million in 2013 on a player option. However, when offset with Maggette it's really just taking on that 2013 year in order to get a less injured, younger scorer, while adding a third first round selection in next year's draft.

Gordon averaged 12.5 pts on 0.442 shooting in 27 minutes last year, and should now eliminate Bradley Beal for contention for the #2 overall pick. If we hear Beal's name it's safe to assume the front office are making the selection for another team in order to facilitate a trade.

My initial reaction is fairly positive. This isn't the kind of desperate, floundering move that will saddle the Bobcats with a lot of long-term debt, but rather give them a scoring option off the bench immediately while giving them more assets for the future. Will it make the Bobcats better immediately? No, in fact they're probably going to score less points, but this is a move for the future that continues the rebuilding effort.

UPDATE: Per David Aldridge, via Twitter- This is how the protection breaks down:

2013- Lottery protected

2014- Top 8 protected

2015- #1 overall protected

2016- Unprotected