Blame the Trade Machine

Our first trade rumor of the season was a pretty goofy one, but it sure sparked a reaction.  One reaction is from Bethlehem Shoals on the Sporting News... who says we should blame the Trade Machine for all these silly rumors.

The real story is that apparently, we've all become such Trade Machine junkies, and are so desperate for some sort of anything as, with 2010 on the horizon, the league's nearing some sort of grand upheaval where the lion shall lie down with the lamb. Can somebody, anybody, please put the breaks on this discourse of absurdity? We're a year away from the Final Reckoning, and a trade could go down sooner. But please, pretty please, let's at least try and stay within the bounds of sanity.

That's always been the problem.  People will just match salaries and say "this trade works" without considering why one side would NEVER do the deal.  And with Ray Allen's contract, you can make just about ANY trade work.  You can send Ray and Scal to LA for Kobe Bryant if you wanted... but that's obviously not happening.

So I'll second the motion when it comes to trade scenarios.  Try to look at it from the OTHER team's perspective.  We'll all fiddle with that Trade Machine thing (or you can try Real GM's trade checker, which is what ESPN ripped off) and think of sneaky ways to get good players... but remember that most other GM's out there aren't lobotomy patients.  They know Brian Scalabrine and Gabe Pruitt for JR Smith isn't a good trade... even though the numbers work.