Cavs get Wallace from Bulls, Szczerbiak from Sonics
That's what the headline on espn.com said. Really? This is the trade that keeps Lebron James happy? Really? Ben "4 years past his prime" Wallace and Wally "Not even KG could make me good" Szczerbiak are the key pieces keeping Lebron from moving to a big market team in a couple years? You've gotta be kidding me. Maybe I'm exaggerating how retarded this trade is for everyone involved, seeing as the Cavs didn't have any tradeable pieces to begin with. Unfortunately, there is no way this trade puts them even close to Detroit or Boston.For Cleveland, this seems like a lateral move to me. You trade Gooden's semi-decent offense for Wallace's good-but-not-what-it-used-to-be defense. You trade one perennial sidekick (Hughes) for another (Wally World), and pretty much everyone after that just reeks of "thrown in to make the numbers work". I'm not too familiar with West, but as far as I know, he seems like a homeless man's Larry Hughes (combo guard that isn't particularly good at either SG or PG). Joe Smith pretty much just sucks. I guess Marshall's shooting is expendable with the Wally World pickup. I don't know, there really just isn't much to like about this trade. At best, they are 4th in the East (behind Boston, Detroit, and either Toronto or Orlando) and probably 6th/7th at worst, leaving them pretty much where they are now. In other words, a mediocre trade for a mediocre team that doesn't really make them better at all. Good luck keeping Bron-Bron around after he hits free agency.
Chicago probably got the worst of this trade. They trade Big Ben's crappy contract for Larry's slightly less crappy contact, along with Gooden and a few scrubs. They even managed to give up a 2nd round pick in all of this. It's never a good thing when the highlight of your trade is getting Drew Gooden. Does he still have that weird hair thing on the back of his head?
Obviously, this was a salary dump for Seattle. It's incredible how all the crappy teams just decided to have fire sales all at the same time. The only decent player around Durant is gone now. Um, see you in Oklahoma City, I guess?
The other deadline trades today were pretty good. I wish the Nuggets would have made a bigger splash, though. The Taurean Green for Von Wafer swap isn't horrible, but I really wanted to see them get Artest or Mike Miller. I know Artest is a headcase, but he makes the Nuggets better right away and if he doesn't work out, there is bound to be another idiot GM willing to take him (Isiah? MJ? anybody?). Really though, I feel like the Nuggets needed to make one solid move to really contend this year. Nothing crazy like some of the other blockbusters, but they're a shooter or a PG away from making it out of the second round.
I really like the Pistons trading Primoz Brezec for Juan Dixon. With Maxiell and Amir Johnson developing so well, it was pretty apparent that Brezec was expendable from the start. Dixon gives them a decent bench guy that's been around the league a few years to help Stuckey and Afflalo along.
My absolute favorite trade of the day was the Hornets getting Mike James and Bonzi Wells for the puupuu platter. The Hornets get a good backup for Paul, and Bonzi can be really good when he wants to be (see Sacramento a couple years ago). The Rockets dump some salary and hope that they miss the playoffs so they have a shot at the lottery, and who knows what the hell the Grizzlies are doing.
Overall, this was one of the best trading seasons in recent memory (including the Gasol/Kidd/Shaq blockbusters). Unfortunately, Bill Simmons can't claim that NBA stands for No Balls Association anymore. If anything, I'd say No Brains Association for the way some of these teams got robbed (or in the case of the Cavs, managed to make the biggest trade of the day without actually accomplishing anything).
