Hadn't heard of this site before, but it was a cool list. http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/25-worst-trades-nba-history.html/26/?ref=OB Couple things, we made it 4 times.....3 good and 1 bad Also, I think they did it backwards, because if you ask me #20-25 we easily the biggest ones.
Damn, rook. Misleading title. They aren't necessarily "draft day" trades. They're trades, in general. Get yo' shit straight, FAMS!!
This type of thing is fun for fans, but highly revisionist in nature. It's one of the few trades where I feel like I understood what happened. Others that know, ignore it. It was not a bad trade for them, it worked out nicely. 1) NJ traded for Deron. 2) NJ was desperate to remain relevant. 3) Deron was about to become a UFA. 4) NJ desperately wanted him to re-sign. For those who don't remember, many considered Deron on the same level as CP3. 5) To that end, they traded the 6th pick for a vet who could provide immediate help. 6) The trade worked! Wallace immediately became a starter and Deron re-signed with the Nyets. 7) In the mystical magical world where they didn't do the trade, and not traded the pick to someone else..... THEY ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT HAVE DRAFTED A PG WITH THE PICK!!! As mentioned, they were trying to retain DW. If you want to go there, you could imagine that they would have taken Barnes. Even if this happened, there is no guarantee that the Barnes they'd have now is the same as the current Barnes. Who knows what playing in a %@$#hole would do to someone with Barnes temperament?
While I agree with much, MUCH of what you said. I believe Barnes would have been in the package for the Nets to land iso Joe from the Hawks. So he would have been on the hawks and had relatively the same career path. minus the ring/finals appearances.
Not sure how it could be considered a bad move by the Geko's to trade Carter when he wasn't trying, and wanted out of Canada. Not sure how Orlando's trade of T-Mac for Francis wasn't on the list. Being that Francis was traded after 2 years in Orlando and T-Mac went on to several all-star games. Pretty lopsided trade right there.
I agree with a lot of what you said, but speaking of ignoring.... you're ignoring the fact many of us were wondering what the hell NJ was doing. And there were a lot of people in the national media questioning Billy King over this as it happened, besides the giddy Blazers fans (especially because of where NJ was in the standings at the time and the fact it was only top-3 protected). So, while I understand why NJ did it and thus I agree with a lot of what you said, there really isn't much revisionist history there for a lot of people. They saw the likelihood this would happen just as it did. The part that was not expected by so many was the whole part about drafting a guy that would go on to become a superstar.
I think NJ's biggest mistake was the belief that the 2012 draft was only 3 players deep. They were actually pretty close in that regard. After 5 years, that draft could best be described as 3.5 players deep. Three for sure, with Dame, Anthony Davis and Draymond Green. Four, if you include Andre Drummond. Those are the only four players from that draft that have become all stars (to date). If you sort that draft by VORP, there is a pretty big drop off after the top 3: Damian Lillard: VORP = 15.2 Anthony Davis: VORP = 14.5 Draymond Green: VORP = 12.5 Andre Drummond: VORP = 6.3 If you sort it by WS, the big drop comes after the top 4: Anthony Davis: WS = 39.5 Damian Lillard: WS = 37.3 Andre Drummond: WS = 30.5 Draymond Green: WS = 26.1 Harrison Barnes: WS = 18.6 The problem is those 4 players were taken 6, 1, 35 and 9. So had NJ kept the pick they would have had their choice of Lillard, Drummond, Draymond Green or Harriosn Barnes. But, hindsight is 20:20, so NJ probably wouldn't have taken anyone that would have turned their franchise around with that 6th pick. They probably would have gone the safe route and taken Barnes, a solid role player, but not a superstar. If you're going to bash NJ for trading the pick that became Damian Lillard to POR, you should probably also bash them for trading the pick that became Draymond Green to GSW. That's right. NJ traded away the picks that ended up being 2 of the best 3 players taken in the 2012 draft. Of course, no one expected Draymond to be a future all star and key part of a championship team, but it still has to be painful for Nets fans to look at all the potential talent Billy King pissed away while he was their GM. BNM
I'd have rolled the dice on a high lotto over Wallace, who was clearly starting to break down. Poor scouting by NJ if they really didn't think they could find someone to be as productive as Wallace, at least after a season or so in the league.
Anybody wish they could take back that Hollis-Jefferson trade for Plumlee and Pat? I won't bring up the Will Barton trade... oh fuck.
No on the first, without question. The 2nd one, the lines have already been drawn, no reason to drudge it up again.
The point is we all saw that blowing up. The "pros" running the Nets didn't. Doesn't excuse what many felt was a shit trade to begin with.
