Trading Away W's

Did you know that until today the Sonics were tied for the league lead in W's?

That's right, we were right up there with the Golden State Warriors. With Earl Watson, Chris Wilcox, Damien Wilkins, and Dalonte West, we had the league lead in guys who's last names start with W.

When your team is as bad as ours is, keeping track of last names is a great way to forget that we lose nearly every night.

But now, we are in a 4 way tie for second, with only three W's left. Leaving CJ Watson, DaJuan Wagner, Brandon Wright, Chris Webber and the aptly named Warriors alone in first place. Congrats fellas.

Along with West, went Wally, to the Cleveland Cavaliers (who acquired two W's today in West and Ben Wallace) in exchange for a couple of pairs of Adidas and three basketballs. I'm joking of course, we got Ira Newbel, who is not nearly as valuable as any pair of Adidas...let alone two pair. Again, I am joking. I am huge fan of what we did this week in terms of trades. We had three trade worthy players, and we traded all three of them.

Here is a brief run down on the trades, and my thoughts:

-The Kurt Thomas trade-
After hearing that we traded Kurt to San Antonio for Brent Barry and Fransisco Elson, I had three knee jerk thoughs: 1. Cool, Brent Barry* is back, I always liked that guy. 2. Great, Fransisco Elson, another crappy foreign black guy that sucks at center. 3. I knew Sam Presti didn't want anyone on the team older than him...also Presti is great.

In fact, after looking at this trade, I bet Presti signed Thomas in the off season with this exact trade in mind. He used to work for the Spurs, he knew how much they were going to need a veteran rebounder for this years run, and he made a move that he knew could get us much more than we deserve. Think about it. We unloaded an aging player in Thomas, who was going to make $8 million this year, and who was most likely going to move on after the season any way since his contract will be up. We picked up two guys, who also have expiring contracts, and who earn a combined $8 million. So basically, those guys cancel each other out. But along with them, we got a first round draft pick in the 2009 draft.

Sam Presti is to draft picks, as Barack Obama is to delegates. They are racking them up.

*The Sonics bought out Barry's contract today. Sadly, there will be no glorious return for Bones.


-The Deltonte West, Wally Szczerbiak trade-
Here were my three knee jerk reactions to this trade: 1. Wow, just when I come around on Wally, we go and get rid of him...too bad. 2. Ben Steitzer is going to be pissed, he loved Delonte West. 3. Sam Presti is not scared.

Indeed, Presti is not scared. He has made more moves in his first 6 months as the Sonics GM than Wally Walker made in his whole career. Presti has a very specific idea of what he wants this team to look like, and he is doing everything that he need to do to make that happen. If you are old, or slow, or you have a big contract, you are most likely not going to be a Sonic in the next few years. He realizes that he is going to have to eat a bit of the money from the old and slow guys he inherited, but he is managing to do so while also getting loads of draft picks in the process. The Sonics have two first round draft picks in each of the next three drafts, and 13 picks in the next 3 drafts over all. Presti wants a team just like him, fresh and young.

Along with my boy Ben Steitzer, I am sad to see West go. It is always good to have a guy around who you can count on for some great quotes. Plus he is the starting 2 guard on the "All Bad Tattoo" Team, and it is sad to see that leave town too. Although we still have the starting center on that team, in Robert Swift.

It's also sad to think that young Maximus won't get to grow up here in Seattle. He, and daddy Wally, will have to learn to love Cleveland. Playing along side a player like LeBron should help a lot in that process. Not only because LeBron is a great player who undoubtedly make Wally better, but because LeBron also has a propensity for naming his children funny names. Young Maximus Szczerbiak will feel right at home with the likes of LeBron James Jr., and LeBron's second child, Bryce Maximus James. You can't make this stuff up.

The NBA, where Maximus happens.