Trade Shane for Thabeet (in hindsight)

He keeps our bench balanced, at one end we have a very tall head coach and at the other, we have Thabeet.

In the middle are a bunch of ooompa loompa sized basketball players.

DD

 

Because some dumbass thought Thabeet could play in NBA?

 

No. He thought the Memphis 1st round pick was the best return for renting Battier.

 

Also not a bad deal. Got a pick.

In truth, you need to see how DoMo turns out since we flipped this pick in part to get him.

 

Thabeet is bad ass on 2k12

 

Morey was telling Adelman to get to the playoffs and then trading away the guys he was counting on to get them there. That making it to the playoffs was unlikely didn't change Adelman's mandate. I think it's okay to undercut your coach like that though if there's benefit to be had. But, a late first rounder you could probably buy for cash doesn't count as a benefit.

(Incidentally, we got one other asset in that trade that hasn't been mentioned that might have been the biggest driver -- the $7m TPE. We didn't end up even using it. I'll also point out we didn't trade the one guy who could have returned a real asset -- Chuck Hayes -- and he walked for nothing. So, in retrospect, the whole thing was a mess. At least Dragic panned out.)

 

Yeah, at the time, it was also noted that Memphis was one of our chief competitors for a playoff spot. So they not only took away a starter, but also gave it to our direct competitor. It was understandable that Adelman was upset with the trade.

Of course, there was the argument that we wouldn't be able to resign Battier after the season. That, of course, is begging the same question. Is Battier valued by the FO? If so, we would still try to sign him.

 

Easy, good point. And, it was a competitor who had a significant injury at the position that Battier plays.

As for the offseason, I think Morey, Battier and everyone else knew we weren't going to give him another contract. So, our only loss was during that last push to make the playoffs last season. You could also say it hurt our relationship with Adelman, except that relationship had other more terminal problems. So, I don't think the cost was great (even if we didn't trade, I don't think we would have made the playoffs). It's just that the benefit was negligible. It all certainly pales in comparison to the whole Paul/Gasol debacle.