Lucky 13
I'm still trying to get my mind around this massive 13-player NBA trade that went down Tuesday night. Here are the principles (I've excluded the three NBA players with little or no NBA experience for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible):
Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey to Miami.
Eddie Jones to Memphis.
Greg Ostertag to Utah.
Rasual Butler and Kirk Snyder to New Orleans.
Dog-abuser Qyntel Woods, Curtis Borchardt, Raul Lopez and a couple of draft picks to Boston.
Call me insane if you like, but this just looks like a blatantly wonderful trade for Miami. Sure, some of the guys they're taking on have issues -- despite a horrendously inaccurate and rather ugly set-shot, Walker insists on hoisting threes (five per game in his career) as if attempting to prove to the world in most bitter fashion that he's one of the most versatile players in the league. And on the subject of bitter, Williams has had well-documented issues fitting in with his coaches and teammates throughout his career. So I get the point -- this trade is not without its risks. But there are three reasons I feel good about this deal for Miami:
1) It's just blatantly lopsided. If this trade were to go down in your fantasy league, you'd immediately declare Miami the big winner. And I know that real life hoops doesn't work like that, except...
2) You can bet that Shaq will have 'Toine and J-Will on their absolute best behavior. Not to say that Walker won't be jacking ridiculous threes during the course of the game or that Williams won't have some attitude problems. But do you think when it comes down to crunch time, 'Toine won't be dumping the ball in to Shaquille? (Okay, bad example -- he might just up and shoot it.) And do you think that Jason Williams is honestly going to get all up in Shaq's face when Shaq tries to regulate on him? It's one thing for Williams to mouth off to 96-year-old Hubie Brown in Memphis. Misbehaving on The Diesel's turf is an entirely more risky venture.
3) The James Posey factor. This guy wasn't really healthy all that much last year, but he is an absolutely perfect fit on a team like Miami. Great defender, unselfish player, and when he's going good he can bury an open trey, which come aplenty on Shaq's squads. I'm not saying Miami just won the title with this trade, but -- ire of Pistons' and Pacers' fans be damned -- no team in the East will be better.
Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey to Miami.
Eddie Jones to Memphis.
Greg Ostertag to Utah.
Rasual Butler and Kirk Snyder to New Orleans.
Dog-abuser Qyntel Woods, Curtis Borchardt, Raul Lopez and a couple of draft picks to Boston.
Call me insane if you like, but this just looks like a blatantly wonderful trade for Miami. Sure, some of the guys they're taking on have issues -- despite a horrendously inaccurate and rather ugly set-shot, Walker insists on hoisting threes (five per game in his career) as if attempting to prove to the world in most bitter fashion that he's one of the most versatile players in the league. And on the subject of bitter, Williams has had well-documented issues fitting in with his coaches and teammates throughout his career. So I get the point -- this trade is not without its risks. But there are three reasons I feel good about this deal for Miami:
1) It's just blatantly lopsided. If this trade were to go down in your fantasy league, you'd immediately declare Miami the big winner. And I know that real life hoops doesn't work like that, except...
2) You can bet that Shaq will have 'Toine and J-Will on their absolute best behavior. Not to say that Walker won't be jacking ridiculous threes during the course of the game or that Williams won't have some attitude problems. But do you think when it comes down to crunch time, 'Toine won't be dumping the ball in to Shaquille? (Okay, bad example -- he might just up and shoot it.) And do you think that Jason Williams is honestly going to get all up in Shaq's face when Shaq tries to regulate on him? It's one thing for Williams to mouth off to 96-year-old Hubie Brown in Memphis. Misbehaving on The Diesel's turf is an entirely more risky venture.
3) The James Posey factor. This guy wasn't really healthy all that much last year, but he is an absolutely perfect fit on a team like Miami. Great defender, unselfish player, and when he's going good he can bury an open trey, which come aplenty on Shaq's squads. I'm not saying Miami just won the title with this trade, but -- ire of Pistons' and Pacers' fans be damned -- no team in the East will be better.
posted by The OCC at 8/03/2005
6 Comments:
You can never know with the draft picks, (and I'm not sure which Miami gave up, I assume a #1 in there somewhere,) but my take is this: if things go terribly wrong for the Heat, and J-Will and Antoine are the absolute worst additions in history, they could jettison those 2 bastards to the south indies and I still think they win the trade. Eddie Jones and Rasual Butler? I'd swap them for a healthy James Posey anyday.
Miami only gave up two 2nd round picks.
Oh, Jesus, two 2nd rounders? This is an anal plunging by Miami. I'd put the over/under at FOUR 2nd round picks in the last 3 years that have had a serious impact in the league. So many stiffs in the 2nd round. (Though I might take my own over, without looking it up.)
2nd rounders worth a shit at all: Van Exel, Korver, Manu, Udrih, Luke Walton, Carlos Boozer, Flip Murray. That's out of how many? Not a good percentage.
Don't forget Gilbert Arenas...31st pick in 2001.
I'm thinking one day we might be talking about Salim Stoudamire as a 2nd round steal.
Okur is good as Walton/Murray.
But the point is valid, it's rare.
Post a Comment
<< Home