1) Rice trade is the 3rd worst trade this year. 2) Marc Jackson signing was the 2nd worst free-agent signing. 3) Griffin was tied as the 2nd worst pick. http://msn.espn.go.com/nba/columns/stein/1292947.html
Gotta love the negative spin this board tries to put on everything. Let's go down the list. 1. Glen Rice to Houston: This is the solace for Layden and the Knicks: Rice is all they gave up to get Eisley and Anderson. The solace for Houston is that it has -- what else? -- too many other problems to pay too much mind to Rice's ongoing health struggles. Hakeem Olajuwon took the face of the franchise to Toronto, Mo Taylor was lost for the season before it even started, Steve Francis developed his own Rice-ian case of plantar fasciitis (who knew it was contagious?) and Cuttino Mobley has two bad ankles. Rice, even healthy, couldn't erase all that woe. This refers to the Rockets season as a whole, not Glen Rice. 2. How can a player who never played for us be a bad signing? 3. The freshmen: Everything we just said about Brown, Chandler, Curry and Diop also apparently applies to the guys with a year of college experience. Detroit's Rodney White seems to be this season's Stromile Swift; a power player expected to play heavy minutes but instead rooted to the bench. Griffin, in Houston, also fit that description until the Rockets' many injuries forced him onto the floor. Did you read the word until? That means not currently. And by the way, here's what they said above: It is REALLY (yes, with capital letters) unfair to label anyone a draft bust or worst after 20 games. Since they said that, I highly doubt they were calling Griffin the 2nd worst pick, esp. when they were using the past tense. Nice try, though.
I did not intend to be negative. I just simply made it brief. I am actually more positive than probably 95.698532% of the people that frequent this site. I might even get on Cato's bandwagon. He has played better than I expected.
They did not say Griffin was the tied for the 2nd worse draft pick. They were mentioning 4 players with no college experience as (#1) and 3 other players with 1 year of college that are still young as (#2). Did not mean that Griffin was a bust. Rice was a bad deal. One of the worse of the year, unless you want to compare it to NY giving Anderson all that money. Maybe there was a reason that RIce lost his starting position. ****, look at his play for the Rockets - he is not half the shooter of Matt Bullard. Marc Jackson they were calling a blunder because of the entire soap opera situation.
If you start with the assumption that GS intended to match any offer made to Jackson, then trade him in January so that they would get something in return... the team that made him an offer becomes the loser, because they guarantee that they're the one team who won't be able to trade for him (due to the 1-year ban). If you look at the NBA Dish thread I just posted, this seems to be the logic Indiana followed. They wanted Jackson, but decided it was better to have a chance at trading for him in January than no chance at all. [NOTE: I'm not saying the Rockets were stupid for making an offer, just presenting the logic behind why someone might say it was a mistake. Given the limited-time nature of the medical exception, it may well have been a worthwhile gamble to see if the Warriors really would match a long-term offer.]
Swopa, I disagree. You can also look at the situation as Rockets calling GS bluff. If GS didn't match, Rockets would of gotten Marc for nothing. When Jan 19th rolls around, Indiana will have to give up something for Marc. We didn't win, but I wouldn't really call us the "loser".
It's funny how people write now about how obvious it was that Golden State would match the offer when, during the 15 day window, everyone was writing and assuming that they would not match. I don't think that was a bad deal at all. With the strategy Golden State was employing, someone had to step up and force their hand. Jackson should be very happy that they did or else he wouldn't have gotten nearly the contract he did. It also forces Golden State to get less out of that asset than they otherwise would have. And, perhaps, just because they wanted Jackson as a free agent, does not mean they'd want him in a trade.
Bullard got a steal of a deal. He has been injured most of the year this year, and when he does play he rarely plays over 15 mins a game. I've only seen one game in which he scored double figures (16 points). He's able to rest his knees for his drum playing days.
