Example:
Wait, I'm sorry, I meant:
This is Shelden Williams, who incredibly was picked before Brandon Roy in the 2006 Draft. He is on pace to have a long, successful career, if by "long" you mean "short", and if by "successful career" you mean "time spent being a trade throw-in to make salaries match". As it happens, Williams did play a bit part in the 2008 Trade Frenzy, getting shipped to Sacramento with others for Mike Bibby. We'll get to that in a sec.
Almost all the big trades can be summed up as "win now" v. "win later". Many Western Conference teams want to "win now", as suggested by the acquisition of old superstars with little gas left in the tank. Most Eastern Conference teams want to "win later", because at least that's better than "win never", which is where too many of them are headed anyways. Many Western contenders know that their window of opportunity is closing fast, and they want to reach in and grab that pie before Mom slams it down on their fingers.
The catch:
The West is stacked. This is probably the strongest Western Conference ever. Even if you improve tremendously, you still probably won't win the title. Who's the best team? Who's the favorite? Can there be six favorites? This is a conference where a team might win 50 games in the regular season and fail to make the playoffs. That has never happened before, and will likely never happen again... at least not until next year, when the new superstars are better adjusted to their environment and their teammates and the general consensus is:
"Yes! This is the year!"
Here's a rundown of the trades, and the big winners and losers:
Trade #1
Utah gets: Kyle Korver.
Philadelphia gets: Gordon Giricek, 1st round pick.
Both teams have improved since making the trade, but Utah's clip (20-3) is best in the league in that period. Insert your own "White Guy Traded To Utah - What A Surprise!" joke here.
Winner: Utah.
Trade #2
LA Lakers gets: Pau Gasol, 2nd round pick.
Memphis gets: Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol, two 1st round picks.
This trade was so good for the Lakers that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich suggested the NBA create a group that oversees trades and makes sure they are fair. Teams in the West are legitimately scared of the Lakers, so much so that they openly claimed the trade should be rejected because of the impact it made on the rest of the league.
First off, there's no surprise that this complaint came primarily from the Spurs, possibly the most unprofessional sports franchise in modern history. But it's not that easy. Memphis got picks and two solid young players in Gasol and Crittenton. Memphis could have gotten more to help the team win now, and they chose to dump salary and go young.
Winner: LA Lakers.
Trade #3
Miami gets: Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks.
Phoenix gets: Shaquille O'Neal.
I thought this was a horrible trade for the Suns at first, and now I only think it's a little less horrible than I originally thought. Shawn Marion was unhappy and wasn't focused on the task at hand, and Shaq provides a big body to bang with the Spurs and Lakers, sure playoff opponents.
But seriously, Shaq on the Suns?? Shaq is old and slow, and he won't be able to keep up with Nash and Stoudemire. Does Phoenix's whole offensive system, honed so sharply over the years by D'Antoni and crew, get trashed now that Shaq's there? I wonder what Suns supporters think about this. By most accounts, they're really happy, but I seem to think it'd be like being friends with the kid who has the ping-pong table at his house in fourth grade. Sure, nobody really likes the kid, but he's the only person with a ping-pong table in the whole school. You have to be friends with him, or else you don't get to play ping-pong. You have no choice.
Winner: Miami.
Trade #4
Atlanta gets: Mike Bibby.
Sacramento gets: Shelden Williams, Lorenzen Wright, Anthony Johnson, Tyronn Lue, 2nd round pick.
Atlanta wanted playoff action this season, and they'll surely get it, especially in the weak East. Sacramento wanted to get young and play for the future, but that will be hard with the assortment of players they got from Atlanta. There isn't one player in that group that Atlanta probably thought twice about getting rid of. Plus, they only got one pick out of the deal, and that's a second rounder. Bibby's getting older, but he should fit in well with the Hawks and deliver to the city of Atlanta the glory of a first round flameout.
Winner: Atlanta.
Trade #5
New Jersey gets: Devin Harris, Desagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager, Keith Van Horn, 2 1st round picks.
Dallas gets: Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, Antoine Wright.
The Nets are hoping to be competitive when they finally move into their new building in Brooklyn. This trade is a big step in that direction. The agonizing thing about this trade for Nets supporters is that they still could have gotten alot more if they traded Kidd two years ago, which is when it was abundantly clear that his time in New Jersey would not even come close to producing a championship. They should have traded Kidd earlier, and they shouldn't have re-signed Vince Carter, and they should have traded Richard Jefferson when he still had value, but...
Still, the joke's on Dallas. I'm not even convinced Kidd is an upgrade over Devin Harris, all things considered. Again, if it was two years ago, this would have made sense for Dallas. But they felt like they needed to do something, because everybody else in the West were making trades, and if they didn't they might be viewed as that guy who stayed in town after high school while all of his friends moved away to go to college, and then all the other guys come back on Christmas Break and tell him that he should have left.
Winner: New Jersey.
Trade #6
Portland gets: Von Wafer.
Denver gets: Taurean Green.
Winner: Who cares.
Trade #7
Seattle gets: Brent Barry, Francisco Elson, 1st round pick.
San Antonio gets: Kurt Thomas.
This wouldn't have happened if Phoenix didn't get Shaq and the Lakers didn't get Pau Gasol. Thomas gives the Spurs another big guy who may or may not provide elbows and knees into the groins of Western Conference foes. Seattle/Oklahoma City/Las Vegas/Virginia/West Virginia gets yet another first round draft pick.
Winner: Seattle.
Trade #8
Cleveland gets: Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, Delonte West, 2nd round pick.
Seattle gets: Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall, Adrian Griffin.
Chicago gets: Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Shannon Brown.
This trade left Cleveland so temporarily depleted that they had to sign two D-leaguers to 10-day contracts. A gutsy but necessary move by the Cavs, who are under an increasing amount of pressure to convince LeBron to stay. It's wasn't enough for King James, who expressed his dismay at not being able to land a quality point guard, but it does increase Cleveland's chances as repeating as Eastern Conference Champs.
Chicago was able to purge Ben Wallace's terrible contract, but they weren't able to improve their team in the process. Hughes and Gooden might benefit from a change of scenery, but the reality is that they are moody and inconsistent and are signed to bad contracts. Chicago's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Seattle, yet again, are the quiet victors, slimming down their payroll and looking into their glorious future. Too bad they don't even know what city they'll be playing in.
Winner: Seattle.
The biggest winners in this whole process might have actually been teams like Portland, a team on the rise in a conference that generally isn't looking past 2009. By the time the Blazers hit their stride, as suggested by popular theory, current contenders will be looking to start over from scratch themselves. Of course, this optimism would have been completely destroyed if the Jason Kidd-to-Portland or Travis Outlaw-to-anywhere trade talk became a reality.
TJH
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