When I first saw the news, I said “wow, the Jazz just did the unthinkable and traded their star-player without getting a new star player in return.” It doesn’t always work out for the team who acquires the star, but it never works out for the team who gives him up. Unfortunately, due to the increasingly complex financial aspect of the league, it’s becoming more and more common. Gone are the days of good player for good player trades. Now it’s just an unhappy superstar with a bruised ego for an expiring contract, a failed young project worth giving a fresh start, and a draft pick. The Jazz and Nets stuck pretty close to the script in their deal centered around Deron Williams. I still think this was essentially Utah needing to get rid of a cancerous superstar, but they managed to come away with a pretty impressive haul.
What makes it appear underwhelming is that the primary component is Devin Harris, which doesn’t exactly jump out at anybody. But this is a guy who was an all-star just two years ago with the Nets when he put up 21 pts and 7 ast for the season. Injuries have been a problem, limiting Harris to under 70 games in each of the last four seasons. I’d be willing to bet, though, that he’ll find a way to stay healthy for a while now that he gets to run the point with Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson flashing in and out of the lane. It could go either way, but the upside of Devin Harris on this Jazz team is pretty amazing.
Add to that they’ve added Derrick Favors, who hasn’t exactly been getting a lot of rookie of the year hype, averaging 6 pts and 5 reb in 20 minutes a night. But honestly, when was the last time a 3rd overall pick was traded halfway into his rookie season? He’s not exactly the “failed young project” I mentioned earlier. Favors is a kid who played one year of college ball and was drafted purely on physical potential. I don’t think he was really supposed to be NBA ready. There’s still no question that he’ll be a solid player in the league – it’s just not going to happen right away. The opportunity is there for him in Utah though. Fans in Salt Lake are growing bored of Andrei Kirilenko and are quietly rooting for him to get replaced. With Millsap and Jefferson looking poised to anchor the frontcourt for years to come, Favors could be just what coach Tyrone Corbin needs to round out a giant front line. And if Corbin was able to average double figures in his first season with the Jazz back in 92-93, surely he can get Favors to.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE….. the Jazz ALSO get a first round pick this year AND a first round pick year. This year’s draft class isn’t exactly the greatest – the Clippers hate it, in fact. But Utah will likely be looking at a top ten pick this year. Then in 2012 they’ll get the Warriors’ first round pick, and I still have no idea why. It’s somewhat protected, but since the W’s are rarely in the top six, I’m sure the Jazz will get it. That’s two more chances in the next two years that they’ll have to draft their next Deron Williams, minus the driving out your legendary longest-tenured coach in all of professional sports. Just getting rid of that is a win for Utah.
Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph made ripples around the league as they were traded from the Knicks in part of a deal that sent the expiring contract of Carmelo Anthony to them. I’ll get back to those two amazing additions in a bit, but first a little background on this T-Wolves amazing roster being built.
Minnesota has been working hard for the past couple years to have as many possible top picks turned head cases than any franchise in the league. They started their last offseason by trading for Michael Beasley who proved to be immature. Surprisingly he’s turned into a good player in Minnesota, but with him, you have to wonder how much longer he can hold out from smoking weed, especially with him having some extra time off due to injury. You know he’s ready for a relapse and wants to be lost floating around the court aimlessly again.
Way to sexy for that shirt Darko.
Their second move of the off-season was signing Darko. Yup, the guy that has had his confidence shattered simply for being drafted over Melo and Wade. Wasn’t his fault the Pistons fell in love with him, but he never could deal with the pressure that came with being that pick. He might be a blocking machine this year, but I saw a stat in someone’s power rankings that said when he shoots 10 shots in a game their already pathetic winning percentage goes from 27% to 17%, yikes.
Sebastian Telfair was added to their roster via free agency as well over the summer. He’s one of the amazing character guys from the JailBlazers teams, and a fitting character guy rounding out three head cases that were added to the team this year. Bassy has been as unimpressive as he has been throughout his career. Are these guys on the verge of figure it out in the insane asylum in Minnesota (Can we make that their new arena name)? Based on the T-Wolves record and how casual fans can only name Kevin Love on that team, I’d say no.
Eddie Curry might have been the biggest trade chip in the deal that went down last night, so I won’t talk about him or his expiring contract. Anthony Randolph however was one of those players I always wanted to see flourish, especially in his Warriors days. To say he was a head case would be the understatement of the year if it was Nellie talking. He’s like that super hot girl that still can’t figure out how to get what she wants from guys. He has all the ability in the world, but couldn’t sniff the court on either of his first two teams. It doesn’t look like he will in Minnesota either being behind Eddie Curry’s expiring contract (I think I’ve heard more about his expiring contract over the years than when he was actually playing), Love, Tolliver, Beasley, and Milicic. Maybe Kahn is looking to move Love out of town so this cast of headcases can thrive. Nothing would shock me about this franchise at this point. Free Love Kahn! While your at it you should trade Rubio away to a team that he’ll actually come here to play for.
Rough to be a fan of Minnesota teams right now. At least they have the Twins though.
Well, I just posted about David Lee’s jump to the Warriors, so I may as well dedicate today as Lee day, and talk about the Rangers acquisition of Cliff Lee. The Rangers are already 5 1/2 games up on the competition in the standings, and the Angels continue to slide, losing four in a row, and seven of their last ten without their main man Kendry. The power in the west shifted even more today, as Texas acquired Cliff Lee from Seattle for Justin Smoak (2008 first round pick), and four other minor leaguers. The Cliff Lee sweepstakes took a surprising turn when pretty much everyone had him going to the Yankees earlier today. He instead will be heading to Texas in a deal that had to make Nolan Ryan crack a smile. It’s a good move to do it now, so they can get an extra three or four starts out of him instead of waiting all the way to the trade deadline. As a rabid A’s fan, I’m not completely against making our current division leader better, because if there was a team I wanted to win outside of the A’s, it would be the Rangers. Maybe that’s why I picked them in our predictions at the beginning of the year. Their biggest weakness was pitching, and now they have a true ace of their staff that they’ve been missing for so many years. If they get back Rich Harden from the DL after the all-star break, and he is what he used to be with Oakland, they’d have a very solid top of the rotation with Lee, Harden, and Colby Lewis. They might get rocked here and there in the home run friendly confides of Arlington during the dog days of August, but all of these guys know how to pitch when healthy. Does this make the Rangers a contender to win it all? Most would say no, and I’d agree with that, but the way their offense is set up they can beat good pitching, and now acquired one of the best pitchers in the game that will surely give them a win every fifth night. As long as Ron Washington is there, I’ll be rooting for that club to do well, and with some pitching to back up that great offense this deal couldn’t have worked out better for them. Side note, it also feels good to be a Vlad supporter again after he spent so many years on the Angels.
I wonder if Spike is making a movie of David Lee's free agency experience?!?
Lost in the Lebronapalooza last night was a trade the Warriors made to acquire David Lee. It hasn’t gone through yet, but is supposed to later today. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t really watched Lee play a whole lot. He was on the Knicks after all, and the Warriors have been more relevant in recent years than them somehow. We gave up Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azabuike, and Ronny Turiaf to get him. I think the Knicks got one hell of a deal on this sign and trade. It might be the first good deal they’ve made in awhile. I have very mixed emotions on the move since the Warriors always trade away their young potential guys, so we have to watch them flourish with their new team. I was VERY sad to see that the prospective new owners weren’t involved at all in this decision. It’s a tough one to swallow since Randolph is only 21, and although he’s turnover prone, gets overly emotional, and disappears at times, he is a fan favorite with limitless potential that anyone who watches him play can see. Plus he was only making $2M, Klenna was making about $3M, and Turiaf was only making about $4M. All are good players to give up that were very cheap to keep, and now we are left with a gaping hole at the 3, since Maggette already was shipped away now we gave up Buike. Are we going to roll with Reggie Williams at the 3? Maybe, and I was pretty high on him last year, but not really in the starting lineup. I was thinking he’d be a solid back up to Buike. It’s probably a fitting way to end the Cohan era, one more guy we lose that will possibly be a mega star in the league given away for a big contract that isn’t coming off the books for awhile that may or may not work out. Most of the players on the Warriors seemed shocked by the trade, but gave us the ol’ quote that “this is a business”. I hope this move wasn’t to try and raise the value of the team, because I don’t see it making the franchise worth more. Since last year was a lost season due to the record number of injuries they suffered, and since they are one of the youngest teams in the league it might have been made hastily. I personally wanted to see this team together for all of next year, and wanted to figure out what this squad had playing with a remotely healthy group for a whole year before we blew them up. We don’t even know what our big guys can and can’t do since they never really played together for an extended period of time, and weren’t healthy for 90% of the season last year. Our PF and C for the last two months were from the D-Leagues, so who even knows if they are good or not the way they were constructed. Continue reading
Just days after the Warriors traded down in the second round to pick up an extra two million bucks, they decided today was the real day to make some money, errr, not spend some at least. Today they traded away one of Stephen Curry’s favorite teammates to Milwaukee, Corey Maggette. I’m not really thrilled or upset by the move, it’s just something that happened. I just hope one day Corey can achieve his real goal in life out in Milwaukee, and start talking to pigeons. The only reason I don’t like it, is because Curry openly said he leaned on Maggette during his rough first season that saw hundreds of injuries to the team, the Stephen Jackson trade demand fiasco, and Monta saying that they couldn’t play together. In the end, it’s probably better to get rid of a guy that’s very accustomed to losing everywhere he’s gone. I don’t hate Maggs like some Warriors fans do, because I never felt like he wasn’t playing hard (insert SJax comment), and he really only has one move (drive to the right and get a foul called or fling up a wild layup), but he gives you all the effort he has for better or worse.
The Warriors gave the Bucks the 44th pick in Thursdays draft along with Maggette for Charlie Bell and Dan Gradzuric (aka. poo poo platter). I see both of these new additions looking good in the new logoed jerseys, and can look forward to them jumping right into Nellie’s doghouse the same way Vlad Radmovic, Crawford, Harrington, and Randolph seemed to be able to find so easily. It’s not hard to see that this was yet another salary dump that the Warriors have made a habit out of making under it’s current apathetic regime. They will save about $15M contract wise not having to pay Maggette over the next three seasons. I’d probably care a little more, but my attention has been focused more on the painfully slow sale of the team. I can’t even really get excited about the draft since there are supposedly five impact players, and the Warriors are picking out of the lucky sixth spot. Maybe we should listen to By and just take Hayward twenty spots too early tomorrow. I don’t think I can get excited about anything dealing with the Warriors until I see we have a new owner in place though, and at this pace it could take longer than BP oil spill fiasco. All I know is, building for the future isn’t really the plan for the dubs no matter what the PR is pushing, it’s really a situation of who can we dump, and how much can we save so Chris Cohan can whittle down that debt he owes to the IRS…
I’m not usually a fan of public trade demands, but this one was neither public, nor a demand. Oswalt, or his agent to be exact, asked Astros owner, Drayton McLane to be traded recently. This isn’t your typical problem child trying to pass blame on his organization. We’re talking about a standup guy, a real quality player here. Oswalt is in his 10th big league season with the Astros and has done nothing but anchor their rotation for the entire decade. He has a career record of 139-76 and a 3.21 ERA. He’s got an NLCS MVP under his belt, is a three-time All-Star, and has finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting 5 of his 10 seasons. You don’t hear much from him, which is a good thing. But the guy’s 32, and his team is clearly on the fast track to nowhere. It’s time for Houston to let him go to a contender for the latter part of his career. GM Ed Wade says he wants to win with Oswalt on the team. Clearly that isn’t going to happen this year. Houston has the second worst record in baseball, and the worst in the National League. When a veteran who is your best player wants out, it’s time to honor that request. Oswalt ranks 5th in strikeouts, 7th in innings pitched, and 10th in ERA in the National League. All nine of his starts have been quality starts, yet he has a 2-6 record, thanks to the lowest run support in the NL. Memo to McLane and Wade….. your team isn’t going anywhere this year, or the next to be precise. Don’t hold the guy hostage. Again, this is very atypical coming from me, but I think Oswalt has kept himself in line for a solid decade and has done nothing but go out and play the game. If he wants to be somewhere else, you’ve got to honor that request. I swear none of this has to do with Oswalt being on my fantasy team. I’d love to see a few more W’s to go with his otherwise stellar numbers – don’t get me wrong. I just think some solid prospects would be a lot more beneficial to the Astros’ future than Oswalt is. Poor Roy is getting Munsoned down there in Houston and he really deserves to be somewhere else…. like, say,…. Oakland.
Donovan McNabb was traded from the Philadelphia Eagles to their division rival Washington Redskins today. In exchange for the six-time Pro-Bowl quarterback, who led them to five NFC title games and one Super Bowl appearance throughout the 2000′s, the Eagles will get two draft-picks, including a second-round pick (37th) in this year’s draft. What are the ramifications of this trade you ask? Unsure, really. For McNabb, he doesn’t have to go to Oakland (sorry Chappy) which is not where he wanted to be at, at all. He made that clear early, and I’m not so sure why Al Davis continued to openly pursue him after that was made clear.
The cardinal sin in making trades in all of professional sports is to never trade a star player to a division rival. That’s why Green Bay didn’t send Brett Favre to Minnesota in 2008, see what Favre did to them last season? But, Andy Reid and McNabb have had a great relationship throughout their time in Philly, a mutual respect to say the least, and despite the scrutiny McNabb endured while leading the Eagles to the brink of greatness only to fall short every year, the Philly fans and organization knew that McNabb deserved better. And so the exception to the rule was made, and McNabb is now a Redskin.
So, whether or not Kevin Kolb has got the goods to pick up where McNabb left off in Philly, or whether or not McNabb can be this upcoming season’s Brett Favre for Washington remains to be seen. I’ve always said this about Washington though, they are just one really good quarterback away from becoming a contender. They definitely have had the talent, but haven’t delivered. McNabb might be the key. We’ll see.
Playing host to the All-Star game in the city he owns, Mark Cuban, tried his hand in the celebrity game last night. He didn’t look to good on the court as the super slow white guy, but today he showed why he’s pretty good off the court in the front office. Early today it was reported that the Mavs will be sending two actual players Josh Howard and Drew Gooden, and two contracts Quinton Ross and James Singleton to Washington for Caron Butler, Deshawn Stevenson, and Brandan Haywood. We all knew the Wizards would do something, and it looks like they made their salary dumping choice. My first thought was, damn this is going to hurt Caron’s fantasy value, but then turned optimistic since he will be with Kidd in a faster paced offense putting up better numbers than Josh Smith did in the same role. Maybe going to a winning team will also inspire him to play a little better than he has so far this year.
I really like the move for Dallas. They get better at two positions, and Haywood is having a great year. I guess they didn’t want to do the Josh Howard for Caron straight up, so Washington threw Haywood in the mix and Cuban pulled the trigger. Josh Howard seems to regress more than improve, so Caron will be a huge upgrade. Haywood is one of the best defensive centers in the league this year, so I see him toughening up this soft Mavs team. Their main criticism over the years is being soft, and now with the addition of the three mentioned players it will also give them some attitude, which might actually make a few teams kind of scared of them come playoff time. I wouldn’t put them up there with the Lakers in the west, but it sure improves their chances!
A lot of moves have gone down this off season within the AL West, and for the most part the Oakland A’s weren’t a part of them. Sitting on more money than a lot of clubs, I guess they are being somewhat selective with their signings. Last year they took awhile to get into the market, but found great value in some of the players that hadn’t been signed yet. There’s still plenty of time to add more players to the mix and make a splash, but today they signed free agent Ben Sheets to a one year $10 million contract, with the chance at more if he hits some incentives. Now we have a two headed monster at the beginning of the rotation in Duscherer and Sheets. Last year we didn’t have a clear Ace and now we have two. Pairing these two vets with Brett Anderson (last year’s most impressive rookie starter) and Trevor Cahill looks to be a solid rotation.
Sheets is reportedly still hitting the mid-90′s on the radar gun when he worked out for interested teams, and looks completely recovered from the elbow surgery that sidelined him all of last year. If he ends up being his old self (2008 All-Star), he will be worth the money. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him traded away at the mid-July deadline if he’s doing well, for some always coveted prospects to put in the system, but hopefully we will be in the playoff hunt when that time rolls around and stick with him! Even if the fragile Sheets ends up getting hurt along the line, which isn’t out of the question, he will be able to help out the very young an inexperienced pitchers currently on the roster. Last year they had basically no guidance from any veterans, so all the nuances of the game they can absorb from Sheets will be great for them on and off the field. If this gamble on a injury prone player doesn’t work out, I won’t blame them for at least trying to get someone that can compete with the Felix and Cliff of the Mariners. Here’s to wishing Ben good health in 2010!
I guess the inspiration for this post stems from the recent trade talks of our prized 20 year old, Anthony Randolph. He’s got the full package for a big man, and is comparable to Shawn Kemp athletic wise. He needs to gain a little weight, but I’m sure he will over the next couple years. This is the hardest part about being a Warriors fan, since right before a player becomes an All-Star we like to trade them away setting us back just that much more. We always sell off our young talent much too early, and this would be no exception since he has three years at less than $3 million a year left on his contract. This season there weren’t many high expectations going in, which was highlighted by SJax wanting out of Oakland, because he saw that they weren’t going to be competitive this season. We traded him to Charlotte possibly in spite, at least that’s how it looked trading him to a bad team and getting a poo poo platter in return. Whatever the reasons, I didn’t care what we got for him at the time, he was more of a cancer than a leader, and we got rid of those last couple years in his contract that he probably won’t be that good for anyways. If they end up trading Randolph, it WILL add to the already huge list of disappointing moves made by the organization. Continue reading
I don't like the Yankees, the Sox's, or big John Lackey, but I'm fully rooting for Lackey to throw some punches in one of their heated divisional games!
The Red Sox picked up John Lackey Monday, which was a solid move. I really like waving goodbye to Lackey from the AL West that is, he seemed to dominate the A’s every time he took the mound. Boston also made one other surprising signing as well. No, not Jason Bay. Matt Holliday?!? Nope, it looks like they are picking up Mike Cameron. Really!?! Interesting move Theo… I guess it’s a defensive upgrade getting a 3-time Gold Glover. Cameron has some power, and he is cheaper than the two mentioned guys. We’ll see how it pans out. I guess he could be a Johnny Damon type guy for them who has been known to be a good mentor and clubhouse guy. I just don’t see how it helps them compete with the Yankees, but oh well, I don’t really like them anyways. Another move that I saw, was the Red Sox offered Chapman a contract for $15.5 million! Ladies and gentlemen strap in for the next relevant Chapman!
The other shocking moves made Monday was the trade that sends Roy Halladay to the Phillies, and Cliff Lee is going to Seattle. I don’t really understand why they wanted to give up prospects, when they could just turn around and sign Lee keeping the prized youth, but if they sign Halladay to a long extension it might be worth it. I could really care less about Halladay landing in Philly, the main reason stems from me not really caring about the NL all that much. I’m just worried the A’s will now have to face Lee now five times a year. In the end, I’m really curious to see how Phillies top prospects pan out, they’ve had a good run of home grown talent over the last few years, so I’m sure whatever they gave up to make Toronto happy, must have been worth it!
In A’s news, we let go of JacKKK Cust, and inconsistent, wrongfully named, Santiago Casilla. I see this as an addition by subtraction. Our defense just improved by not having to ever put Cust in the field again. He makes a little leaguer trying to catch a ball during the home run derby look like a all-star out there. He also clogs up the bases with his slow station to station movements, and kept speedy guys from moving around the bases at times. This team is moving into a speed era it appears, and Cust doesn’t suit that. All in all, it’s been a crazy day for the MLB off-season!
Most media days for the beginning of the NBA season are pretty boring, but when it comes to the Warriors they always seem to have something interesting going on. It’s not a good thing, but I feel it was mildly better than last year. Last season they had a lot to talk about with, the direction of the team, the big contracts that they should have given to Baron over Maggette, and Monta’s scooter accident. Once again, Monta made a splash at the media day, and SJax had his fair share to say about his ongoing trade demands. All of the hoopla this season doesn’t really discourage me as much as last seasons distractions did.
Well, since I’ve been following SJax on his rampage of trade demands, I’ll start with him. It sounds like not much has changed since his Dime Interview when he said he wanted to go to a contender. He basically reiterated that he did want out of Golden State during media day, but also verbally vomited on a few other subjects that I found interesting. He answered my question as to why he signed that extension just before asking to be traded, which was “Who’s going to turn down that money? I’m not stupid. I didn’t go to college but I’ve got a lot of common sense,”. I see his point of view as nobody would have given him that much, but if you really want to be on a winner why would you handcuff your team like that? Shouldn’t he have taken the Artest route and signed for less than what he was worth on a contender when his contract was up?! Honestly though, I don’t find SJax as being a distraction, because one thing is for sure, when he’s out on that court you know he will play his hardest. Whether he’d rather be somewhere else or not he’s just the kind of player that tanks games, he’s competitive and wants to win games period. If he doesn’t play hard for himself he’ll do it for his teammates, which is why I still agree with making him a captain. He played a lot of meaningless minutes last year and seemed to give it his all, so if we don’t move him I don’t see it being a big problem. For some reason he also spouted off about not regretting anything he’s done including going into the crowd with Artest in the Detroit melee. He felt that may have been one of the reasons the NBA picked to fine him $25K for his comments, and didn’t fine a guy like Kobe for making the same statement. Here’s the whole interview, but don’t take TK’s words too strongly he’s a douchebag.
Monta came out to talk with the media a little while after Jackson did. He usually is pretty boring in interviews, and rarely says anything of relevance. He started off good saying the right things just about winning, and how his ankle was 100%. He want’s to show everybody that his hard work over the off-season would made him better than he was before his injury. When asked about playing PG this year he kept re-iterating that he didn’t care where he played just as long as he was on the floor. He didn’t seem fazed by SJax’s situation either as he knows that when the ball is tipped off Jackson will be there ready to play. He also said that it’s Jackson’s deal to work out, so he can’t be concerned with it.
Randolph and Ellis ARE the future of the Warriors
The interesting /controversial part of the interview came next when he was asked about playing with Stephen Curry, their newly acquired first round draft pick. He stated that they couldn’t play together, because it’s not a way to win having two small guards on the floor. He was very adamant that it wouldn’t work unless there was a rare case that the other team went really small. I’ve had a man crush on Curry since before he took Davidson to the Elite 8, and for some reason drafting him was bittersweet as I knew in the back of my mind that we were going to be upsetting Monta, since before the draft he pleaded for the W’s not to pick a PG. Well, it looks as though it didn’t really upset him, but didn’t address any area that he felt they needed. He felt they’ll lose if Nellie goes small and plays them both. Here’s the rest of the interview with Monta, keep in mind that TK’s analysis is off the wall at times. Nellie already said that Jackson, Randolph, Biendris, and Ellis would be starters, but who is the fourth? Azubuike, Morrow, Wright, or Curry? Only time will tell, but I hope it’s Buike or Morrow. I’m not sure why I’m even worried about Nellie playing a rookie too much anyways! At least the Warriors problems this season are more on the court instead of off the court distractions!
Richard Seymour was traded to the Raiders on September 8th for Oakland’s first round draft pick in 2011. I thought it seemed like a good deal for the Patriots since they seemed to be stalling to give him a contract extension, and they also probably got themselves a top ten pick for a possibly aging star. I was happy to see the Raiders make a move to get a solid locker room and field leader as well. He seems to be a more vocal leader than Asomugha is. The Raiders gave Seymour a deadline to report to the Raiders, and today he ended his five day long silence letting everyone know what was up. This type of complication seems standard for anything the Raiders do, but his quotes were somewhat concerning to me even though he said he was happy to go to Oakland. His statements today reported by the Boston Herald.
He learned of the trade when Bill Belichick called him and simply said, We traded your rights to Oakland.
“First of all, I was blindsided by this whole event,” Seymour, the five-time Pro Bowler, told Borges. “When you get blindsided, you should take a moment to gather your thoughts. I have a lot of personal issues more pressing than football.”
Seymour said if you want to watch for him with his new team, he’ll be wearing No. 92 on Monday Night. “I’ll be the guy on top of the quarterback,” he said.
Well, Seymour has four children, plus, he is the guardian of his 15-year-old cousin whose mother has passed. The 15-year-old had been in school in South Carolina until this year, at which point he was starting in North Attleboro… until the trade.
Now, Seymour’s wife and family are moving back to South Carolina (where they are from) and Richard will head to Oakland by himself.
“There are a lot of different emotions,” Seymour said. “Football was not my main concern at that point. I have had discussions with the Raiders… I’m excited and happy with the way they’re looking at me.”
I really don’t buy the whole blindsided argument. It’s pretty lame for a 30 year old veteran to not know that the NFL is a business, and you can be traded at pretty much anytime of your career. He was around when the Patriots stalled on contract negotiations for Ty Law and Deion Branch as they were asking for too much money, and what happened? Law and Branch left, shocking!?! The NFL is a business more than it has been loyal to players, and he ultimately shouldn’t need five freaking days to make a statement. If he really was somewhat happy with the trade, he would have said something whether he has a family problem or not. Being blindsided isn’t a good enough excuse in my book. He should have said something within a couple of days.
Either way I’m glad he sucked it up, and is ready to join the Raiders. I really hope he does well. I think moving to a 4-3 defense will ultimately make him more effective, and the Raiders can use all the help with the pass rush possible. They already have one side of the locked down with Namadi roaming. I and Raider Nation are hoping that Seymour can have a Reggie White type change the same way he did when he went to Green Bay. I just hope he doesn’t give up on the team the way that Sapp did a few years ago. I’m sure that losing wears on anybody after awhile, but hopefully he can be a instigator in changing that seemingly normal SOP over the last few years. If you think about it further, it’s a pretty good deal for the Raiders since they like to blow draft picks anyways. This off season there were two trades between the teams as gave the Patriots traded for Burgess for a third and fourth round pick in 2010. The Pats traded Seymour to the Raiders for a first rounder. I think I’d rather have Seymour than Burgess! Now Oakland won’t have to waste money on a first round pick in 2011 that will probably be an overpaid nobody. I can’t wait to see him on top of River’s whiny ass Monday night! Even though I picked the Raiders to lose, maybe with Seymour the can cover!
New York City, Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington were at South Street Seaport for a block party put on by their sneaker company Protege. One of the MCs at the event asked Stack Jack in front of the crowd whether he thought the Warriors were going to make the playoffs. Jackson paused then smiled before responding, “Um…I don’t think I’ll be a Warrior next year. I’m looking to leave.”
Dime: You made a big declaration earlier today by saying you wanted out of Golden State. When did you decide this?
Stephen Jackson: It’s not about a decision I made. It’s just things are in the air right now. I really can’t get too much into it right now, but I’m just looking to go somewhere where I can go and win a championship.
Dime: Are the Warriors aware of this?
SJ: Yeah they all know.
Dime: Is there anywhere specifically you want to go?
SJ: Either Cleveland, anywhere in Texas or out here with Al in New York.
As if the Warriors didn’t have enough problems in the locker room with Don Nelson’s sometimes stubborn methods. Jackson is the on, and off court captain of the team. He wants out of Oakland for a chance to join a contending team. Not that the Warriors are strangers to conflict as there seems to be some kind of negative off season drama every year in the front office or with players. Last year it was both as Harrington and Ellis had their disagreements with management, and it was enough of a distraction to keep them out of the playoff hunt. The news today about SJax worries me. He seemed to be the guy that held the team together no matter what the circumstances were. He went to Robert Rowell last year and asked for his contract extension, which basically told me he wanted to spend the rest of his prime in Oakland. If he truly wasn’t happy, why wouldn’t he just wait until his contract was up and sign somewhere else? It’s not like he signed his extension when they were competitive. I have a feeling if the Warriors do get rid of him, they’ll get a draft pick that they’ll blow or a player that doesn’t help the team nearly as much as Jackson. I hope he stays, we need at least one veteran leader! Cmon SJax, don’t you want to see the beginning of the Randolph era!
Although Matt already wrote about the Holliday trade today, I felt there was a need to analyze how ingenious this move was. As Matt wrote Oakland teams are never shy from making a trade to at least give us hope that we are trying to make things better. Beane has consistently been one of the masterminds behind the bay area movement to give their fans hope, and the deal today sounds like we have these new guys to once again give us that hope. The 2009 Baseball America Prospect Handbook says, “Brett Wallace, think batting champ with the ability to be a big bopper. “ This is one of many interesting players that the A’s have acquired as the rebuilding is starting to take some shape.
The A’s have historically been a mover around the trade deadline. In the past two years Beane has been very active as he traded ace Dan Haren for Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Carlos Gonzalez, Dana Eveland, Chris Carter, and Aaron Cunningham. He then traded Huston Street, Greg Smith, and Carlos Gonzalez, for Matt Holliday. Today he traded Holliday and cash for Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen, and Shane Peterson. Since most haven’t heard of a lot of these guys you may not understand why it’s so significant to the A’s organization. These moves have laid a solid foundation for a much more competitive team in the near future. Fans seemed to think that it was going to take a few years to rebuild, but I’m confident that we could have the next Tampa Rays on our hands within a year or two!
So far it appears that the A’s have kept the best piece in terms of major league play so far from the Haren trade, with Brett Anderson. He has been dominant over his last four starts as he seems to be figuring out the way to pitch at the major league level tossing 26 1/3 IP, 2-0, 25 K, 0.34 ERA, and a 0.69 WHIP over the last month. Tonight he is facing the Yankees with a 21 inning scoreless streak going into the game. The guy I was excited about for awhile, Carlos Gonzalez, was traded away in the Holliday trade, and he hasn’t impressed so far hitting only .229 in 97 at bats for Colorado this season. Street is having a pretty good year for Colorado, but even when he was on the A’s last year he wasn’t even the closer as Brad Ziegler took the spot from him. Beane has never seemed to highly value the closer’s role, so losing Street and C-Gon, hasn’t hurt them.
The Holliday trade today was amazing in the sense that I don’t think they could have got any more than they did for him from any other team. Were the Cardinals that desperate to help Albert to not notice the A’s situation? They dealt away three of their top prospects that appear to be major league ready when it seemed like a week ago the A’s had no interesting offers for Holliday. The Tigers made an attempt, but it wasn’t enough for Beane. The Cardinals knew all the A’s would get was two draft picks if he left, and Holliday is very likely to accept an arbitration offer in this struggling economy. This was a match made in heaven for Beane. He escaped the trap of log jamming millions for an underachieving star next season, and now he has three promising young players to show for it. I don’t know how he does it! I wouldn’t trade Beane for any GM in the league.
Add to that they’ve added Derrick Favors, who hasn’t exactly been getting a lot of rookie of the year hype, averaging 6 pts and 5 reb in 20 minutes a night. But honestly, when was the last time a 3rd overall pick was traded halfway into his rookie season? He’s not exactly the “failed young project” I mentioned earlier. Favors is a kid who played one year of college ball and was drafted purely on physical potential. I don’t think he was really supposed to be NBA ready. There’s still no question that he’ll be a solid player in the league – it’s just not going to happen right away. The opportunity is there for him in Utah though. Fans in Salt Lake are growing bored of Andrei Kirilenko and are quietly rooting for him to get replaced. With Millsap and Jefferson looking poised to anchor the frontcourt for years to come, Favors could be just what coach Tyrone Corbin needs to round out a giant front line. And if Corbin was able to average double figures in his first season with the Jazz back in 92-93, surely he can get Favors to.
Well, since I’ve been following SJax on his rampage of 
He felt that may have been one of the reasons the NBA picked to fine him $25K for his comments, and didn’t fine a guy like Kobe for making the same statement. Here’s the 
Richard Seymour was traded to the Raiders on September 8th for Oakland’s first round draft pick in 2011. I thought it seemed like a good deal for the Patriots since they seemed to be stalling to give him a contract extension, and they also probably got themselves a top ten pick for a possibly aging star. I was happy to see the Raiders make a move to get a solid locker room and field leader as well. He seems to be a more vocal leader than Asomugha is. The Raiders gave Seymour a deadline to report to the Raiders, and today he ended his five day long silence letting everyone know what was up. This type of complication seems standard for anything the Raiders do, but his quotes were somewhat concerning to me even though he said he was happy to go to Oakland. His statements today reported by the 
Being blindsided isn’t a good enough excuse in my book. He should have said something within a couple of days.
The 2009 Baseball America Prospect Handbook says, “Brett Wallace, think batting champ with the ability to be a big bopper. “ This is one of many interesting players that the A’s have acquired as the rebuilding is starting to take some shape.
Tonight he is facing the Yankees with a 21 inning scoreless streak going into the game. The guy I was excited about for awhile, Carlos Gonzalez, was traded away in the Holliday trade, and he hasn’t impressed so far hitting only .229 in 97 at bats for Colorado this season. Street is having a pretty good year for Colorado, but even when he was on the A’s last year he wasn’t even the closer as Brad Ziegler took the spot from him. Beane has never seemed to highly value the closer’s role, so losing Street and C-Gon, hasn’t hurt them.
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