What on earth is going on? There have been three recent trades in the NBA that make me shake my head.
Two of these brilliant moves were made by Memphis. Essentially, the Grizzlies traded their All-Star forward to the Lakers for Kwame Brown and change (essentially, change). Gasol, while not exactly an MVP-caliber player, has been putting up 20 and 9 a night this season.
THEN Memphis traded Stromile Swift for the Nets' Jason Collins (and change). Now, Jason is the better of the Collins twins, but that's not saying much. Anyone who trades FOR a Collins is insane.
A friend of mine explained that Kwame's $9 million a year (?) contract expires this season, so maybe it's a cap-space-freeing maneuver. But Collins' $6 million a year (????) contract is through 2009, as is Swift's, so I don't know what that move was about.
Besides, freeing cap space is used to sign a star to play with the star you already have. Who does Memphis have now? Rudy Gay and Hakim Warrick are their main guys now. Forgive me if I'm not impressed.
If the Grizzlies are making a move to get a major star, LeBron, Melo, Bosh, Wade and Yao are locked up through 2010. Howard is under contract through 2012. Kobe's not going anywhere. Dirk's not moving. The free agent market is not exactly swimming with franchise-type players.
If you can explain Memphis' insanity to me, I'd appreciate it.
Then, as my head is still spinning from these two unfathomable trades, the Suns go nuts. ESPN is reporting that Shaq is in Phoenix today for a physical required in a trade for Shawn Marion.
Reasons why this makes no sense for Phoenix:
1. Cap space. Phoenix has stated their desire to not exceed the salary cap. Uh guys? Shaq's $20 million a year contract through 2010 is not going to help there.
2. Style of play. The Suns brought run-and-gun back to the NBA. The league was suffering through a very physical, defensive style of ball (thanks, Detroit and New York), and ratings were suffering. Then Phoenix came along and started running and shooting quickly and scoring lots of points, and teams followed.
You cannot run with a 34-year old Shaq. As my friend Matt says, 300 lb. bodies are not intended to jump 40 inches in the air on a regular basis.
Scenario: Nash misses a three, the other team gets down and takes a shot before Shaq can get set. O the way back Barbosa jacks up a shot before Shaq can get to halfcourt again. Shaq gets subbed out.
I can see that happening way too often.
The other scenario is the Suns turn into a halfcourt team, slow things down and pander to Shaq's strengths.
Can't see that. It's as if the Suns have decided their style is not enough to win a title. I believe they were one suspension away from beating the Spurs last spring (and were good enough to beat Cleveland).
I'm hoping this rumor is just a rumor... this trade would kill the Suns.
I hope the Jazz front office can hop on the phone and finagle a Harpring for Carter trade or something before the NBA comes back to its senses.
3 comments:
Yup. Did you listen to the news conference this morning with Shaq, Steve Kerr and Mike D'Antoni? They addressed the fast break issue and Shaq said he would be the catalyst of the fast break by rebounding and getting it out to the guards on the break. But he also mentioned that if he didn't get the board, he would run down the court and try to beat everyone down. So we'll see I guess
This is such a stupid idea. How can you give up a Marion for the likes of a 35 year old Shaq? You already have one of the best centers in the game in Amaure Stoudemaire, why in the world did they do this?
Lol, I usually skip your sports posts, but this one has a funny picture. Hee hee.
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