Tuesday, February 19, 2008

NBA trade are weird

To show how weird NBA trades are, let's go back and try to evaluate a draft day deal from June: Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau, Fred Jones, and a 2007 2nd rounder for Channing Frye, Steve Francis, and a 2008 2nd rounder. Portland promptly bought out Francis' contract for $30 million, in fear of his negative attitude rubbing off on Greg Oden and company, and let's cancel the 2nd rounders out, so the deal was more like Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau, Fred Jones, and $30 million for Channing Frye.

Randolph is averaging 17 and 10, Frye is averaging 6.6 and 4.5. The Knicks are on pace to win 24 games after winning 33 last year; the Blazers are on pace to win 44 after winning 32 last year. So Portland trades a perennial 20 and 10 guy, 2 decent contracts, and mid eight figures for a 6'11" pulse, and they win the trade. How the hell is anyone supposed to evaluate NBA trades, when this has to be considered a decent haul? You can argue other reasons for Portland's improvement and the Knicks' fall, but there were no other substantial changes in terms of personnel. The moral of the story is you don't want to have negative personalities on your team, no matter how productive they are.

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