Chad Ford on the deal ... it ain't pretty

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What a disappointing day. Go back and look at the history of draft picks
taken after 20. It's not pretty. Anyway, here's Chad Ford's take on the
deal. Keep in mind Ford loves Dumars and the Pistons. Still, I have to
agree.



Mark





Dumars turns nothing into 'Sheed

By Chad Ford
NBA Insider

Updated: February 19
2:49 PM ET

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/story?id=1739123

Joe Dumars, you are my hero.

Armed with a bunch of middling expiring contracts and two mid-to-late
first-round picks, the Pistons found a way to turn that into Rasheed
Wallace on Wednesday.

The deal, first reported by Insider, sent Bob Sura, Zeljko Rebraca ,
Lindsey Hunter, Chucky Atkins and the Pistons' two first-round picks to
Boston and Atlanta and Rasheed and Mike James to Detroit. The Pistons
also sent cash to Boston.

We'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor.

We all know what Detroit was thinking. The Pistons added one of the
better low-post scorers in the league in Wallace, a point guard in James
who has actually outperformed the guy they shipped out (Atkins), and
they cleared nearly nine million in cap room earmarked for restricted
free agent Mehmet Okur.

The ability to re-sign Okur is the ultimate prize for Detroit. A Pistons
source told Insider that the team gave no assurances to Wallace that it
would re-sign him this summer. Instead, the Pistons are protecting the
extra $4.5 million in cap room they just cleared to make sure that other
teams under the cap like Utah, Phoenix or Denver can't steal Mehmet
away.

We have now idea what Atlanta or Boston are thinking.

"They're morons," one league executive told Insider. "I can't believe
they just did that."

The Hawks keep all of their cap room (which should be around $20 million
this summer) but only pick up an extra mid-first-round pick via
Milwaukee in the deal.

It's even worse for Boston. The Celtics traded away $6.6 million in cap
room and their starting point guard, James, for a guy who is was a
backup in Detroit and has two more years left on his deal. I know Danny
Ainge likes this draft, but . . . is a late-first-round pick worth that?


Mark this down as the deal of the season.