RealGM: Classics - An Inactive Trade Deadline

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RealGM Feature - Classics

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An Inactive Trade Deadline

26th February, 2006 - 11:22 pm

Current Features

SCOOP DU JOUR:

Wade, MJ, Dye, Draft And Burke!

The Heat aren’t worried about losing Dwyane Wade, Knicks almost landed Michael Jordan, the Sox and Reds discuss Jermaine Dye, the Packers are enjoying the Jets’ success, and Brian Burke is turning the Leafs around.

2nd December, 2008.

TEAM RANKINGS:

The RealGM Team Rankings For The Week Of December 1st

How do the Cavaliers respond to the flood of 2010 talk? They keep winning and winning in dominant fashion, climbing to first in our rankings.

1st December, 2008.

PLAYER RANKINGS:

The NBA Player Rankings For The Week Of November 25th

The current top-five players in the NBA according to RealGM's FIC, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, were all on Team USA's 2008 Gold Medal team. How does the rest of the NBA rank?

25th November, 2008.

LOCKER TALK:

Monta: I Was Racing Baron And Elton

Monta Ellis is still at least a full month away from his return to the court for the Warriors, but he recently called RealGM with the full story behind his ankle injury.

6th November, 2008.

STANDING 10:

Top-10 Careers Of Players Picked 3rd

Just three installments remain in the series, with this chapter housing names like Michael Jordan, Kevin McHale, and Carmelo Anthony. It was incredibly hard to leave off a number of players, and I’m sure after reading you’ll see exactly whom I decided skip over this time around.

9th October, 2008.

MOCK DRAFT:

2008 NBA Mock Draft, Version 13.0 (Draft Day Edition)

Weeks and months of waiting has finally come to an end, and Draft day is officially here.

26th June, 2008.

RealGM Search

By Ashok Ayyar

I haven’t looked into the salaries of NBA general managers, CEOs, presidents, or whatever they call themselves; but maybe I should. I can think of a dozen GMs right now who have not done anything for the last 4 months. I challenge anyone to name another job where you can escape the throes of (gasp) productivity for months at a time.

Winning games is the bottom line of team performance. You can declare success in numbers like jersey sales, corporate sponsorships, and winning all back-to back road games in the month of February when the team was trailing by at least 10 points with exactly 5:36 minutes left on the clock, and snow on the ground outside the arena. Some people, especially those in the broadcasting booth, do apprise us of arcane facts like those. But we have learned to mute everything they say and just look at the win-loss column. If a team is struggling by this point in the season, with no prospect of improvement, it is a GM’s duty to make a move—any move—that has a chance of improving the team. But few GMs out there had the guts or talent to construct a deal come Thursday’s trading deadline.

For the most part, I speak of blockbuster deals that should happen more often. Clearly, Garnett in Minnesota is never going to produce a championship. Nor Iverson in Philly, nor Pierce in Boston. But every team that isn’t winning absolutely must attempt to find a combination that does work. Even winning teams who aren’t atop their division should swing for an improvement to bring them over the edge.

One such move I liked was the Clippers trading for Vladamir Radmanovich. While the Clippers got the better end, both teams arguably improved (or at least Seattle got something in return for free agent Radman in Chris Wilcox); likewise, every team that isn’t on top should actively seek trades, year-round. Waiting for the off-season is a poor strategy; does anyone think the Hawks have anything to lose by making a trade right now? Is management content for them to wallow at status quo?

In the rest of the business world, if management strings together poor quarters consecutively, they will see the door. In the NBA, bad performance never touches the GM. The only GMs that get sacked are those that make blatantly foolish decisions, i.e. moronic trades or grossly overpaying (and even overpaying is hardly an offense: almost every team has one or two bad contracts on the books).

It is easy to think of a dozen teams that have no prospects of winning this year, and whose front office was totally indifferent and unwilling to do something about it by trading. For any fan, it is frustrating to watch your team mire in mediocrity without any hope for the rest of the season.

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