1 Happy St

Today was the NBA's trading deadline. For Bulls GM John Paxson, that meant it was yet another opportunity for a day to come and go by doing absolutely nothing in terms of making his team better, as well as a chance for him to prepare for another days worth of newspaper articles that would be calling him an incompetent moron.

Shockingly, the first part of that equation won't happen; he actually did something. He managed to trade horribly inept basketball player Ben Wallace to Cleveland for a handful of their horribly inept basketball players. Cleveland managed to get Seattle to join in the fun, so in all, 3 different teams were able to unload some of their crap in exchange for someone else's crap. A tour de force really. Let's break it down.

Chicago gets 4 players: they are Drew Gooden (tall and big, but doesn't do anything all that well. He can rebound some, but not as often as a guy should who is that tall and big), Larry Hughes (taller guard who can't shoot but gets paid like a guy who can. Translation - sucks), Cedric Simmons (sucks but his contract is up after this year, so almost pointless), and Shannon Brown (really really sucks, but he went to a local High School in Chicago, so I guess that's kinda cool).

Cleveland also gets 4 players: they are Ben Wallace (makes about $15 million annually, has no skills offensively whatsoever, rarely rebounds anymore which is the main reason he makes so much money in the first place, and shoots free throws about as poorly as my mom), Wally Szczerbiak (was good in college, okay in the pros, makes a ton of money, good shooter, and white. There's not much else to say), Delonte West (young player who I actually like, doesn't make a lot of money, decent role player), Joe Smith (IMO, he's Drew Gooden for less money), and a future second-round pick from the Bulls.

Seattle gets 3 players: they are Ira Newble (who has about as much of a chance contributing to a playoff team as I would), Adrian Griffin (who may just be the worst basketball player in the league), and Donyell Marshall (a taller swingman who can occasionally hit a 3-pointer, doesn't play defense, and is basically still living off of an unbelievable college career at UConn).

What does all this mean? It means that Chicago traded a good portion of their dead weight, and in return they took on Cleveland's dead weight. Cleveland traded a good portion of their dead weight, and in return took on Chicago's dead weight and some of Seattle's. Seattle traded some of their dead dead weight and took on some of Cleveland's.

Oh you gotta love these moves!