The initial word that it was a straight up Ben Wallace for Larry Hughes swap. And that would have sent me ton a little bit of a tangent. (Or straight to GoDaddy to buy FireDannyFerry.com) Instead, what eventually shook down makes a little bit more sense. Kind of. The Cavaliers will get Wallace, Joe Smith and a future second round pick from the Bulls. They will also receive Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West from the
So, your biggest question is ... w-t-f, Ferry? Why on good green Urf would Ferry cave and take on the monster salary of Wallace, even if he got to dump the 1.5 dimensional second option for LeBron James that never panned out in Hughes?
Word is that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is infatuated by Big Ben and wanted him on the squad. Also, the presence of Szcerbs and West, in theory, make up for whatever loss Hughes actually is (he had been playing decently of late) and Wallace plus Smith should give them an inside presence on a team that, with LeBron on it, will make noise in the East.
The Bulls get out from under that hideous failure of a deal they gave Wallace and also add Gooden and two unearthed young talents in Ced Simmons and Brown (believe me on Ced, he's beasty, just raw). Hughes was just something they had to take to make the money right, and he's less painful than Wallace even if the Bulls have nowhere to put him.
For the Sonics, it's simple: cap space, cap space, cap space. Marshall and Griffin's contracts expire in two years and Newble's expires this year. In the end though, because the Sonics and Bulls are winners just by virtue of dumping bad contracts (for less bad contracts), the deal basically boils down to whether or not LeBron is happy. As usual. And that only happens if the people around him start producing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-21-2008 @ 4:46PM
lebron4ever2007 said...
i think its a good deal in my opinian
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2-21-2008 @ 4:49PM
G said...
Wallace for Hughes is a wash...my headache for your headache.
West gives the Cavs at least an avg. point guard who can also shoot a little.
Wally is a decent 2-guard but the real value is next year he becomes a $13 million expiring contract...which can be added to other expiring contracts of Eric Snow ($7.3) & Damon Jones ($4.5).
That's $25 mill in trade bait for next year.
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2-21-2008 @ 4:51PM
nickstoli said...
Basketball and baseball should learn from football: NO FULLY GUARANTEED CONTRACTS!!!
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2-21-2008 @ 5:35PM
Alan said...
This trade makes LeBron happy
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2-21-2008 @ 6:30PM
Mr.G said...
It's pretty obvious the Cavs had to do something.Those guaranteed contracts for mediocre players had to be swept out.Big Ben will give us a force in the lane,and we added a decent point guard in West, finally(I hope), and a scorer off the bench in Wally.Joe Smith should also help off the bench or possibly (probably)even start.Great deal for the Cavs.It sure looks like more of a contender than what we had and gives us a lot more flexibility for next year.
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2-21-2008 @ 6:54PM
rtbraye said...
For the Bulls, this trade does two things:
1) It rids them of Ben Wallace's burdensome presence. The contract was an onerous mistake, but nobody anticipated that Wallace would metaticize into the a lockerroom cancer. Addition by subtraction.
2) No more midget backcourt. Teams with big guards have been toasting the Bulls for the last three to four years. By adding the 6'5" Hughes and the 6'4"ish Brown, along with the 6'6" Sefalosha means that the Bulls now have length at guard. Clearly, this means that Ben Gordon is gone after the end of the season. Duhon, too.
It's just too bad that they had to include Joe Smith in the package. I hope you're right about Simmons -- who I remember as being a raw product at NC State. Gooden will help some, I guess.
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2-21-2008 @ 8:22PM
Rod G. said...
The only thing i would have prefered as a Bulls fan would have been if the Bulls could have dumped off Ben Gordon in place of Joe Smith. Apparently, the Cavs owner was infactuated with Wallace, as was Riensdorf, which was how the Bulls ended up with that dud. I've followed the Bulls since their entrance into the league back in 1966, and i can guarantee that Ben Wallace was the absolute worse FA signing in their history, so good riddance is putting it mildly. The Cavs for their part will like Joe Smith. He has a good mid-range jump shot and shoots FT's pretty well, although his defense would be considered average at best. For me though, and most every Bulls fan there is, we are just plum tickled pink that there was actually some team out there actually crazy enough to take Wallace. Happy days are here again.
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2-21-2008 @ 9:30PM
Dannie said...
Good trade other than picking up Wallace for the Cavs. They definitely filled needs on the perimeter and for shooters. Wallace I hate though, as a player who is washed up and has a terrible contract.
http://reclinergm.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/its-time-to-put-sixers-and-playoffs-in-the-same-sentence/
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2-21-2008 @ 10:21PM
Alex said...
This Trade Dont Mean Shit. Magic All The Way! Suns Vs. Magic In The Finals. You Heard It Here First.
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2-21-2008 @ 10:35PM
grover said...
West + Boobie make for a pretty decent PG-ish combo to match with LeBooBoo.
The Bulls, meanwhile, get another awful shooting guard who will want too many shots and has an overinflated estimation of his own abilities.
What happened to the days when Hinrich and Deng were supposed to usher in the new Bulls era?
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2-22-2008 @ 9:25AM
garyfrclev said...
dum trade im not a cavs fan im a lakers fan so of course im happy right now but anyway back to the cavs lets see where is lebrons help you got better on def but your still in the same boat as before wally gets traded every 6 weeks larry hughes was way better then wally then you trade gooden to another good rebounder plus gave you some scoreing what does ben wallace give you air balls on the free throw line if something does not go his way he gets mad look a det then the bulls he cuts his coaches down and team mates have fun cav fans
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2-22-2008 @ 9:48AM
frank said...
The best deal has to be Pau Gasol to LA in fact is already paying dividends a bonus for Kobe and Co. plus a lot of chemistry in display with rhythm and coordination they are 8-1 from the moment Gasol started playing (in LA)as a center and the one game they lost they avenge by beating same by 30 points.
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2-25-2008 @ 7:32AM
dave said...
ben wallace brings nasty to the paint in cleveland. he makes z and Andy much better defensively... ie: lamibeer n rodman like combo, plus we have more shooting with wally, joe..... but the real plus is west cause his potential is untapped. Cavs are the champs of the world....... bank it.
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