Updated: Wednesday, February 18: Thunder rescind trade
How much would it suck to be a New Orleans Hornets fan today? In case you haven’t heard it yet, Tyson Chandler was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Chris Wilcox, Joe Smith and the rights to DeVon Hardin. Really, I’m not making this up. That’s all they got for one of the best defensive big men in the game.
Traded for expiring contracts? Really?
This is a classic salary dump in every sense of the word. The Hornets are holding down the #6 seed in the Western Conference and are only a ½ game away from having a home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Instead of being a buyer at the trade deadline, they just traded their starting center (and only force in the middle) for 2 role players and the rights to a guy that was cut by his Turkish pro team. I didn’t even know Turkey HAD a professional league!
The sad part is that this trade has nothing to do with basketball at all. Even though the Hornets legitimately could be one piece away from being a serious contender, they traded their starting center because George Shinn didn’t want to pay the luxury tax next season. So he traded Chandler because he was set to earn just under $12 million next season to the Thunder for 2 expiring contracts.
If I was a Hornets fan, I’d be sick to my stomach. In the Western Conference where EVERY contender has a legitimate power forward or center, the Hornets do not. Not only that, but they don’t have anyone that can STOP a big man either. Before the trade even happened, David West knew this was a bad idea:
“I don’t know if that’s somebody we can afford to lose… So I’m not sold on that idea. You just don’t find a 7-foot-1 athlete like that and he’s the only 7-footer we have. Especially if we’re planning on making a run into the playoffs, we’re going to need size to compete with Portland, San Antonio and the Lakers. I’m not sure that would help us.” –David West
That kind of honesty is hard to find with athletes today. You know that was his plea to have the ownership reconsider; he wants to play for a contender and knows that this move does a lot more harm than good. You don’t look for expiring contracts at the trade deadline if you’re serious about winning this season. Period.
The only way that this move can make sense from a basketball perspective is if New Orleans turns these expiring contracts around for a big man of their own. If they were able to move the expiring contracts to Toronto for Chris Bosh, then a Chandler for Bosh trade looks pretty good. There are only two problems with that line of thinking.
First, Bryan Colangelo in Toronto has repeatedly said that they aren’t going to trade Chris Bosh and will try to resign him after the 2010 season. Whether that’s flawed logic or not, it doesn’t sound like they want to trade him for spare parts. Secondly, if Chandler was traded because the Hornets were so far over the salary cap, how in the world would they fit Bosh’s $15.7 million in their salary structure? I may not be a mathematician, but that could pose a problem unless they wanted to trade some more pieces.
If anything, I think the hope of trading for another superstar is a way for Hornet fans to sleep at night. It’s always hard admitting that your team (a very good team) just gave up on the season to save some money. I guess the news could be worse though—at least its only Chandler moving to Oklahoma City. Ask Seattle fans, their owner was so cheap, their entire TEAM moved to Oklahoma City!
What? Too soon?
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Update: Apparently, the Thunder decided to nix this trade after they saw the results of Tyson Chandler’s physical. In a trade that was so obviously lopsided, there must have been something seriously wrong with Chandler’s foot/ankle. So after headlines of the blockbuster trade, the Thunder had their 2 role players returned-to-sender and the Hornets had their starting center rejected.
So who’s next on the New Orleans’ chopping block? Chris Paul is untouchable and Tyson Chandler is untradeable. If I were Peja or David West, I wouldn’t get too comfortable.
Matt Reitz is the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com and former NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports. When he’s not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he’s usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It’s a never-ending job.
