Sportswriters, GMs, and Fans

Clearly, not every team's general manager is a good judge of talent.  Some are good at spotting talent, but terrible at putting together a cohesive team.  At the same time, in some ways, being an NBA GM is the most susceptible position in a franchise to second guessing though, with a close runner-up being the coach.  Let's face it, while some of us think we may have the solution to Boston's match-up zone or an idea of how to slow down Chris Paul, every one of us is sure trading Pau Gasol for the rights to his brother, an expiring contract, and Javaris Crittendon was highway robbery.

Which brings me to my next point, that fans in the NBA are usually, but not always, fans for their team first and the NBA and overall game second.  The implications of this are that fans are the most likely ones to propose trades that make no sense for the other teams involved (say Pau Gasol for Javaris... uh, nevermind).  That's understandable, they may have a hard time putting themselves in the shoes of the other team, so a Heat fan may not see why trading Ronnie Brewer (he's got a funny shot) and Deron Williams (he's coming off an injury, right?) for Chris Quinn and Shaun Marion's expiring contract isn't absolutely the best thing Utah could possibly do  right now.

Fans can be forgiven for proposing trades that make no sense for any of the teams involved except their own.  They are fans, after all.

That brings us to the third category, professional sportswriters.  With the explosion of blogs, particularly high quality content blogs like BlazersEdge, there is some pressure on sports' chattering class to maintain a level of professionalism and bring both style and substance to their readers like never before.  Take, for example, Sam Smith's article today about a number of topics, with a paragraph with a potential trade involving the Portland Trailblazers, to wit:

"After seeing the Grizzlies in Chicago Saturday, I can't believe they won't make a deal with pointless Portland. This seems a natural with the modest Greg Oden, likely in a depression now as he's hurt again amidst amazingly huge expectations in the community, likely yearning for his old, aggressive buddy Mike Conley, who though starting doesn't seem the favorite of coach Marc Iavaroni, who seems to favor Kyle Lowry. Sources say the Trailblazers continue to only offer Travis Outlaw. I wouldn't give up LaMarcus Aldridge, either. But if I were Memphis and even with a loaded perimeter , I'd ask for Rudy Fernandez, Nicholas Batum and Channing Frye and take Raef LaFrentz's expiring deal and save some money and give them Darko Milicic (wow, is he awful) or Marko Jaric's bad deal and Antoine Walker. I don't see how that can't happen."

First, note that Portland is "pointless."  Perhaps someone can tell me what that means.  Existentially, one could argue that everything we do in life is pointless, as we all ultimately end taking a dirt nap, however clumsily that applies to a place, but let's set nihilism aside and assume he's talking about the basketball team.  I guess they are 1-2 on the season, and if they're not bound for the playoffs, one might argue (I think unsuccessfully) that their season is pointless.  I doubt that's it, however.  I suspect he was feeling alliterative and couldn't come up with anything better. 

I'm not going to address the sentence structure in the second sentence in detail, I'm only going to say it is very, very bad.  As for the content - he postulates that Greg Oden is probably depressed - fair enough, but then goes on to throw out there that his depression about his injury is cause for Oden to be "yearning" for Mike Conley.  It's safe to say what he's yearning for is to be able to play basketball for a little while without getting hurt.  In the same convoluted (ok, I lied) sentence he asserts that the Memphis coach appears to prefer Lowry over Conley, who "doesn't seem the favorite."  Fair enough, maybe Conley is not the favorite of Ivaroni, so they'd be willing to part with him for a fair price.

So what does slippery, silly, screwy Sam Smith think is a fair price?  Evidently not Aldridge, no, that's too much, but Conley and Milicic for Fernandez, Batum, Fyre, and RLEC.  Because, as our intrepid reporter points out about Milicic, "wow, is he awful."  How could the Blazers pass on sending three young, talented players and a gold plated expiring contract for an awful player and a talented, but unproven point guard?  Or better yet, surely the Blazers would want to take Marko Jaric's "bad deal" and malcontent Antoine Walker.  I mean "I don't see how that can't happen."  Seriously?

I could maybe see this as a post on a Grizzlies fan site, but Smith isn't even a Grizzlies fan.  So what gives?  My theory?  His pet monkey got on his computer and started randomly hitting keys.  He gets paid for this, folks.  Hopefully in bananas, he's earned them.