It’s funny how trades work. How things turn out, for better or for worse. In the NBA, there is always something deeper to every trade. No longer do players simply get swapped like they used to. To make the salaries work, other players are usually used as “throw-ins” to make the deals work, and it’s usually players that have nothing to lose and everything to gain that make an impact.
Lets move back a couple years to the “steal of the century.” After the Lakers “ripped off” the Grizzlies in the Pau Gasol trade, the Memphis front office was heavily criticized for “handing” Pau over to the Lakers. Greg Popovich, Spurs head coach, went as far to say there should be a trade committee to review all trades, and “I would have voted no on the L.A. trade.” Well, while the Grizzlies did trade away All-Star Pau Gasol and the missing link to a championship for the Lakers, the Grizzlies are doing more than okay for themselves. Two years later, and the Grizzlies are not only the youngest team in the league, but are fighting for a playoff spot. Marc Gasol (oh the irony) has turned into one of the leagues best centers, averaging 15 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Throw in 1.6 blocks per game and you have a very solid center for your team. On top of all this, the Gasol trade was used to create salary cap room with "Kwahmay Brown's" expiring contract, which was eventually used to land Zack Randolph, who would go on to have the best year of his career, making the All-Star team for his first time.
Lets fast-forward a bit and talk more about this years trades, and how they may affect the unforeseeable future.
The Wizards are doing their best Indiana Pacers impersonation by starting completely new after their Gilbert Arenas gun scandal. Not only have the released Javaris Crittenton and Gilbert is suspended for the rest of the year, but they shook up the rest of their roster as well. Antwan Jamison moved on to bigger (not necessarily better after an abysmal 0-3 start) things in Cleveland. While Dallas received Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson, and Brendon Heywood in exchange for Josh Howard and Drew Gooden. The two main players in this trade are clearly Josh Howard and Caron Butler. Well, Josh Howard played four games for the Wizards before tearing his left ACL, leaving him out for the rest of the season (could have been the ganja). While Caron Butler has missed a few games due to an allergic reaction, he too is playing less then average, throwing up numbers below his career averages. While this is all happening, Andray Blatche, forward/center for the Wizards, dropped 33 points and 13 rebounds in a winning effort against the Timberwolves in his first game after all the trades. The same Andray Blatche that was suspended in January for complaining about his role on offense has been averaged 26.6 points per game, 11.7 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game over his last seven. Dallas has improved immensely as well. Since losing their first game since the trade, the Mavericks have been on a tear, winning their last eight in a row. Who knows how any “throw-ins” will affect these teams later on down the road, but it seems both parties will benefit, either now or later.
The NBA is full of surprises, but with a good front office, surprises can be limited. The Lakers traded for seldom used Trevor Ariza at the beginning of the 2007 season, for Maurice Evans and Brian Cook, with Ariza eventually becoming a key component in their championship run. Same goes for the Adam Morrison trade, Shannon Brown was nothing more than a throw in, but played well enough to earn himself a two million dollar contract. A trade that seemed to get the same response as the Pau Gasol trade of two years ago, was Marcus Camby being shipped out from the Clippers to the Portland Trailblazers. It didn’t seem to make sense, Camby, the teams best rebounder and defensive player, for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw, two bench players? The trade has given the Clippers salary flexibility for this years free agent bonanza, and when you have players like Lebron saying money is not an issue, simply winning, how’s both money and winning? With enough money to sign a player like Lebron, the Clippers would also surround him with talent like Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Blake Griffen, and Eric Gordon. It all depends on how the Clippers want to play this one.
Once again, critics wrote this trade off as another bad trade by money hungry Clipper owner Donald Sterling. But as many teams have shown as in the past, things can turn around a lot quicker than anyone would have expected.
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