Sports 4 Dorks

The trade deadline is on February 21^st. From here
until then you’re going to hear a litany of trade suggestions from TV talking
heads (who usually don’t name names in lieu of screaming that certain teams
need "a big man who can score"), NBA scribes, beat writers on blogs, bloggers
on blogs, and message board denizens. It’s only natural, and there’s nothing
wrong with it. You’ll hear plenty on this space as well.

And, if we could implore these suggest’ors to do one thing,
it would be consider this:

In a two-team deal,
there are two teams.

(Also, in a three-team deal, there are three teams. In a
four-team deal, there are a lot of lawyers making a lot of overtime pay.)

Stuck at home and without an outlet to vent last summer, I
spent the warmer months bashing my head against the wall upon hearing trade
rumor after trade rumor that usually left us screaming (at the cat), "why in the hell would the Timberwolves want
Lamar Odom/Shawn Marion and his contract? They’re rebuilding!"

You see, a
lot of these trade creators, and the people that follow up on the creation,
love to get it really, really right for one team (usually residing in the town
that this particular person works out of), while leaving other teams in the
dust.

It can’t work that way. Every newspaper is online. Every
blog has been bookmarked. Shows can by Tivo’d, videos can be uploaded to
YouTube, and radio chat shows can be transcribed or made available in mp3
format. Everyone should be held accountable, and every media member (whether
you’re getting paid, or not) should consider the flip side of the coin. We owe
it to our readers, listeners, watchers, employers … everyone.

Let’s go over some examples.

Marc Narducci is a great beat writer, fine writer in
general, and he’s covered the 76ers for 23 years. On
his blog, he relayed the suggestion of a 76ers blogger who wondered aloud
if the Memphis Grizzlies might be up for trading Pau Gasol and Kyle Lowry to
the Sixers for Sam Dalembert, Rodney Carney, and a first-round pick.

Now, let’s go over particulars:

Pau Gasol, way the hell better than Sam Dalembert.

Kyle Lowry, way the hell better than Rodney Carney.

First round pick? Currently, the Sixers are looking at something in the low lottery range.

So, the Grizz would take on two players worse than the ones
they have, add to their glut at the wing position, not grab any cap relief …
for the 11^th pick in the Draft?

Not quite, says Narducci.

(Sweet. He’s going to tear this one apart)

"The first round pick
would have to be protected because if not, the Sixers might be giving up
Michael Beasley or O.J. Mayo or Derrick Rose."

Dangit.

First off, it’s
not Narducci’s suggestion, and it’s only a blog post, and he does raise a
little quibble ("And why would Memphis make the trade?
The Grizzlies are allowing 104 points per game and could use Dalembert’s
defense. Yet if they got rid of Gasol, their offense would be worse than the
Sixers."); but we really have to take the time to try and walk in the other
team’s shoes for a while.  

Now that everyone is held accountable, we
can’t fill space for the sake of filling space trying to put Tracy McGrady
in a New York Knick uniform without thinking about the team that would be
trading Tracy McGrady. I don’t like picking on Narducci, nothing he said was
really off, but this likely starts off a good five weeks worth of nonsense, and
I’d like to nip it in the bud
tout bloody suite.

On the flip side, Gary Woelful of the Racine Journal-Times
is nipping
buds all over the place:

"Let’s squelch these two, almost
laughable rumors about the Bucks right here and now:

1) They won’t acquire Zach Randolph
from the New York
Knicks.

2) They won’t acquire Ron Artest from
the Sacramento
Kings, either.

Those rumors have been circulating on
the Internet the last couple of days and, while they make for lively talk show
banter, they’re simply unrealistic.

Take Randolph, for example. The guy has a history
of off-court issues, not to mention $61 million still remaining on his
contract. Do you think for one nano-second Bucks owner Herb Kohl would even
contemplate taking on such a plump contract, much less for someone who has
hardly been a choir boy?"

Forgetting the "choir boy" aspect, let’s just look at someone like Randolph as an asset, and
little else.

The Bucks have one expiring contract in Jake Voskuhl, and it’s good for
three million bucks. Randolph
makes 13.3 million this season, and the Bucks have to come close to matching
that salary. With Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian untouchable, the Knicks would
have to take any combination of Mo Williams (another shoot-first point guard?),
Bobby Simmons (making an average of 10 million a year until 2010), Dan Gadzuric
(who I still think can play, but he’s due to make about 6.5 a year until 2011),
or Desmond Mason (who the Bucks probably won’t trade).

Isiah Thomas, as nutty as he is, won’t be making this trade. Doesn’t matter
how bad he is at his job, doesn’t matter that Zach isn’t a choir boy made for Milwaukee, and it doesn’t
matter if Zeke and Zach get into a row between now and February 21st. There are
two teams, and the deal isn’t happening for either side unless both sides agree
to be really, really bad at their jobs.

So once, again, imploring:

Study the other teams you’re involving in the boffo deal for the team you’re
most interested in. Understand what they’re trying to do with their salary
structure, who they’re building around, who’s in the rotation, look at the ages
of the players, find out how much they’re making, and consider that at least
2/3rds of the NBA fans listening or reading are either going to be objective
observers of both teams, or a fan of the "other team."

And if things don’t change, we’ve plenty of space to nip.