The Gerald Wallace Trade Was Genius

It’s been 4 days and I’ve completely been through it in my mind.  Trading Gerald Wallace to Portland for Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham, Sean Marks, two draft picks and CASH is brilliant.  I have read it all, from the Observer to the Business Journal, Rufus on Fire, Rip City Project, BobcatsPlanet, all of it.  Crunched it on all sides and yep, it’s a savvy move by the Bobcats front office.  All the Trade Deadline winners and losers articles by the national media are focusing on New York, New Jersey and Boston/Oklahoma City.  You know it hurts, but it’s true.

If you get over the fact that Gerald Wallace was the only All-Star in the history of the Bobcats franchise.  You just get over that he leads the Bobcats in every major category in the Bobcats record book except assists, rebounds, blocks, field goal %, three pointers and % and FT %.  That sounds like a lot that he doesn’t lead but he’s 7 of 14 and it’s not like he was a three point-guy.  Forget the attachment you feel for him and you’ll soon see that the trade, exactly the right time, exactly the most we could get out of him, best situation for all parties, it works on all levels.

I am not discounting the attachment factor.  Whenever the thought would come up in conversation of trading him I’d be the first to squash it.  Even Wednesday night, I gleefully watched SportsNight on News 14 and grinned as Rick Bonnell delivered the news that the deal was dead.  I’d say things like “It’s ridiculous to think that trading the one guy left that can sell jerseys, just look in the crowd!  Do you see any DJ jerseys?  What about Jack? No!  You can’t trade away the one draw!  You can’t trade away the single All-Star this team has ever had!  You won’t get value!  Look at his numbers and think about what he’s paid!”

I was Gerald Wallace’s biggest fan.  Now, he’s gone, I saw him in another uniform and while I’ll always be a fan of both his and whatever Western Conference team he’s on, I’m already detached.  The following actually came out of my fingers this morning via IM:  “Portland is gonna be pissed, they are going to pass him by.  All that camping out in the corner crap and his off nights.  He looked lost.  He’s going to be that guy that you pay $10 mil a year and you are megapissed when he’s not living up to his “potential.”  He’s on a downward slope and we got what we could for him at just the right time.”

Cold, harsh, objective.  I’ve detached myself and see him for what he is and what we would be for the next 3-5 years:  8th in the East.  After those 3-5 years, unless some pick late in the first or second is some freak no one sees coming, we’re in a full on bottom out rebuilding mode.  It’s a fact.  I don’t think you could doubt that trajectory.

It has been slammed in the local media.  Erik Spanberg of the Charlotte Business Journal said that “They (Michael Jordan and Panthers Owner Jerry Richardson) also share a willingness to dump star players and their salaries, as the Charlotte Bobcats’ Thursday trade of all-star forward Gerald Wallace to the Portland Trail Blazers for a bottle of Gatorade and a pair of future draft picks makes clear.”  Tom Sorensen of the Observer, in a post titled “Bobcats Donate Gerald Wallace to Portland” said: “Before the NBA trading deadline Thursday the Bobcats traded their most valuable commodity, Gerald Wallace, to Portland for Joel Pryzbilla, Dante Cunningham, two first-round picks and maybe a gift card.” (I am the Andrew calling him a joke on page 4 of the comments)

Now, giving those two gentlemen their due, which is to say they’ve worked in the Charlotte area and sports in particular for many many years for respected papers, they’re full of it.  Yeah, I left the sh- off that “it” there, trying to keep it respectable up in here.  I’d say, most of the Charlotte sports media, including those two, are a little big for their britches.  They are waiting on the call from ESPN to be the next Tony Kornheiser or to be another Woody Paige or anyone on the Around the Horn program.  They think that they are supposed to comment on the national perspective, which is the Dan Patrick “Bobcats can’t get it right” attitude.  Hate to tell you guys, if you drive much past Rock Hill to the south or Mooresville to the north, no one knows who you are.

I’m not hating, I have respect to anyone who gets paid for doing this and for having an opinion and writing it.  They’re just wrong and they’re hurting themselves more than anything.  If they’re right, that the Bobcats did get fleeced, their jobs are as screwed as anyone’s.  Bashing the Bobcats or even questioning the trade is so easy.  It’s like having an opinion on someone before you meet them.  You might be right, but by taking that preconceived road, you ruin the chance to enjoy it.  Although, the local guys, by being somewhat anonymous, will say they simply questioned it and were playing devils advocate if things do turn out well.

There is no doubt that a lot, if not all of this rests on the Bobcats’ front office’s ability to draft.  It’s up and down.  For every DJ Augustin or umm…let’s see here, can we call Gerald Henderson “good” at this point?  Ok, I’m calling it, yes.  For every DJ Augustin or Gerald Henderson there are 2 Adam Morrisons or Sean Mays.  Then again, other than Oklahoma City and Portland, I don’t know of any team that has drafted well on any sort of regular clip.

Gerald Wallace is a great guy, tremendously athletic ball player, hustler, and he’s meant a whole lot to the Bobcats franchise and the city of Charlotte.  He isn’t worth mortgaging the next 3-5 years followed by bottoming out.  I’m sorry, but losing Gerald Wallace is not blowing up the roster.  It’s not saying “We don’t care about winning right now.”  Some of these guys just need to tone down the rhetoric.  Hell, in the Business Journal’s analogy to the Panthers doesn’t even ring true.  The Bobcats got value for Gerald Wallace.

I gave someone, the analogy, based on one I keep hearing from some jackass at ESPN about getting quarters for the dollar or something.  So, for now, let’s call Gerald Wallace the dollar.  The Bobcats got three dimes, a savings bond for the other $0.70 and a lotto scratcher.  Przybilla, Cunningham and White will give a bit of contribution.  Cunningham has major upside.  White came in the trade for Nazr Mohammed, but the Nazr Mohammed trade was necessitated by the Gerald Wallace trade.  Hell even Sean Marks has value, just in case Przybilla’s knee gives out or he slips in the shower again or something, Marks could step in as insurance.  The expiring contracts are the savings bond and the draft picks, while unlikely to be NBA Draft Lottery, are the scratchers.  We’re not sure what we’ll get but if we’re lucky, it could pay off big time.

I don’t think that the Bobcats did the deal to stave off uncertainty in the new CBA to be discussed this off-season.  Yeah, in a new world after the labor peace has been reached, you don’t want to be on the hook for too much.  Gerald Wallace wasn’t going to be in the “too much” category, had he been retained into the new agreement.  The Bobcats were in a funk of mediocrity.  Trading either Gerald Wallace or Stephen Jackson would be the only way to shake things up for this franchise.  As much as I appreciate Gerald Wallace and have very little attachment to Stephen Jackson, I see Jackson’s contribution being more valuable than Wallace’s.

Jackson had 35 last night, when no one else was able to get much of an offensive game going.  I don’t feel like Gerald could have picked up that slack.  He’s not the scorer that Jack is and Jack’s contract only reaches Gerald Wallace levels ($10 mil+) in the final year.  If you’re running a business, you keep the guy that puts up sales (points in the NBA’s case) and costs you the least.

So, it’s not giving away the only All-Star for a bottle of Gatorade, a bucket of hammers, a box of rocks, whatever dumb, useless item you want to throw in there.  It’s not blowing up the roster or even ripping out its heart.  It’s a shrewd move by a front office that wants to compete at a high level, higher than the middle.  Never forget, this owner is one of the most competitive people on the planet.  He’s also a known gambler, so, if I may, can I make the same deal as the devil’s advocates at the Observer and Biz Journals if this all goes pear shaped?