Wow. It appears Boston has some company now... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/index Sources: Cavs get Wallace from Bulls, Szczerbiak from Sonics By Marc Stein The Cleveland Cavaliers appear to have beaten the NBA's annual trade buzzer to get LeBron James some of the fresh help he's been openly craving. In a three-way trade with Chicago and Seattle that has been submitted for league approval, NBA front-office sources say that Cleveland will come away with four new teammates for James, headlined by Ben Wallace from the Bulls and sharpshooter Wally Szczerbiak from the Sonics. The league office was notified of the deal before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trading deadline, sources said, and is currently reviewing the trade details as required for formal approval. After Cleveland watched two longstanding trade targets land elsewhere -- Mike Bibby in Atlanta and Jason Kidd in Dallas -- sources say that the deal calls for the Cavaliers to receive Wallace, Szczerbiak, Seattle point guard Delonte West, Chicago's Joe Smith and a future second-round pick from the Bulls. The Bulls, apparently abandoning their gamble on Wallace less than two seasons into the lucrative four-year deal they used to sign him away from Detroit, would get Cavaliers forward Drew Gooden and swingman Larry Hughes along with Cavs reserves Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown. The Sonics, shedding Szczerbiak in the name of additional payroll flexibility, come away with the expiring contracts of Cleveland's Ira Newble and Chicago's Adrian Griffin as well as Cavs veteran Donyell Marshall.
So let me get this straight: Wally and West for expiring contracts? Why didn't we get in on that action?
Cleveland got a center who can't score and who's defense isn't that good and a small forward that quite frankly sux too. now their cap space is fubar.
You are nuts. This deal makes Cleveland a serious contender if they can get chemistry gel. You don't realize how efficient a scorer Wally is. And Delonte is another gun too. Everybody knows what Ben does for their defense. Cleveland just got serious about competing for a title. Now the East is going to be interesting too.
Hughes is terribly inefficient. He should go to the Suns or Warriors where he can run up and down and dunk the ball.
Bulls' signing Wallace was a dumb move. Now they are smart to pass that overpaid-overrated malcontent to someone else.
Hughes sucks. I would rather have Alston over Hughes. One night he will score 30pts on 50% fg and then the next 7games he will be averaging like 11pts on 33%fg
Bulls successfully dumped a bad contract aka Ben! Why Cavs want Ben when they have Z? Ben is not that best defensive player any more.
Um, and they took on a similar contract with a worse player in Larry Hughes. This trade makes no sense for the Bulls. Sonics again are using their pieces to their advantage.
"Sux" does not = a bench guy that plays less than 24 minutes per game and still scores 13.1 ppg on 46/43/84%. The state of Ben Wallace's defense is up for discussion, but I wouldn't refer to it as "not that good". There are very few players who pull off 1.4 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. He and Rasheed Wallace are the only two guys that come to mind.
This deal doesn't really strike me as a landscape changing deal. I'm not so sure they improve that much with these deals. Ben Wallace is seriously overrated now; he's old and his game is going out the window fast. Wally is a good shooter though, he'll benefit from LeBron's defense sucking aura. They'll be better, just not better than the teams that matter in the east.
We spent a lot of money for a marginal team upgrade. I think this was partially a knee-jerk reaction to pacify Lebron facing all the crazy trades that went down the past few weeks. He was upset about Bibby and Kidd going elsewhere. We definitely could've done better then this. Oh well. No doubt the team needed a big shakeup. As it was, the team hit their ceiling. I'm really excited to watch the next few games just to see how this experiment pans out. Hopefully Wallace proves me wrong and plays like he did in Detroit. Even he does, he still doesn't deserve the size of that god-awful contract. Hopefully Delonte West and Wally's World maintain their shooting averages.
Why exactly does Ben Wallace need to score when they have Lebron??? Ben can take the same role he did on the championship pistons with defense, rebounding, and toughness. This makes Cleveland a serious contender. Great trade for them.
Cleveland isn't exactly Detroit. Pistons had 4 guys to make up for Wallace's offense. Who does Cleveland have besides Lebron?