Ahead of the Wizards’ first practice after the all-star break — who even knows if the four players they added from Dallas will be there or whether the rest of their own roster will be either — I’m still trying to digest last weekend’s trade, both the anger that some have and the understanding of why it happened.
Clearly, it’s not for everybody, including The Examiner’s own Rick Snider, who is officially done with the Wizards for this season. The thing is, I’ve been to all the home games this year, and the Verizon Center fans have had to endure a stomach punch or simply being raked across the coals nearly every night. How’s that any different with Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson gone? Were fans simply expected to endure that kind of treatment for the next two months?
And let’s be clear, the Wizards have NO leverage in trade negotiations. When the front office finally admitted defeat, the wheels were set in motion to blow up the team as it was constructed, and not one GM would be fooled into believing anything else. But Washington still couldn’t take the first thing that was offered. Standard protocol is to wait until the trade deadline and see if another domino would fall first while doing the same thing GMs do 365 days a year, play themselves off on each other until someone feels compelled to pull the trigger. When the Wizards did so, they did what was logical, dumped the most unhappy player on the roster and saved themselves a chunk of cash next year (Butler), gave the Mavericks something decent, too, namely their most valuable expiring contract (Haywood), and got a little more savings for next year to boot (Stevenson).
Was it the best trade ever? Of course not, and like everyone else, I argued in Cheers and Jeers recently that Antawn Jamison should’ve been shipped to Cleveland. But everyone knows Jamison is the guy the Wizards would love to get off their books for the most impact financially. No one’s going to just let that happen. Same goes with Mike James. Of course the Wizards have tried to get rid of him. But who wants a second- or third-string point guard that costs $6.5 million. It’s almost an insult to suggest it.
In any case, I’m not apologizing for the Wizards front office. They went all in to challenge in the East this year alone, and it blew up in their face big time. But the trade isn’t to blame. It’s simply collateral damage.
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