I’m still a little skeptical of this trade, which is making all of the headlines now.

To break it down, here are the potential benefits:

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Almost everyone has probably already put their two cents in regarding this trade.

The Lakers got Pau Gasol.

The Grizzlies got a whole lot of nothin’!

… at least for right now.

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This Kevin Garnett trade is a true win-win situation. People seem to be taking shots at both sides saying that Boston now has no future and Minnesota didn’t get much in return.

I say Bah! to both sides.

Here is why.

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I get annoyed at some sportswriters who think that every team except for the NBA Champion (and sometimes even the NBA Champions themselves) needs to make high profile trades and acquisitions in order to improve their team.

They grade a team on what they did to shake up their team in the off-season, including giving some teams poor grades for ONLY re-signing their free agents and a couple of draft picks.

There are teams that make frequent trades and/or bring on good free agents and they never seem to improve much. There are teams that never seem to make any trades and they are good to great year after year.

That’s not to say that teams shouldn’t EVER make some moves to get markedly better, but I think two things need to be taken into account by every General Manager in the league. (I actually think most of them do, much to the dismay of their local sportswriters and/or fans.)

At the risk of repeating myself, I explain yet again why the boring teams in the offseason are usually the teams playing in the NBA Finals.

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The free agents available were good, but not really great. Most teams didn’t have more than the mid-level exception to spend on free agents in any case. Most top players were expected to re-sign with their current team.

Big trades break GMs much more often than they make them, so they are not often willing to pull the trigger on them.

The draft was so deep that most GMs wanted to see how well their draft picks did, and hope that they might be better than any possible player they can get in Free Agency. It’s rare indeed when the biggest talk after the trade moratorium is lifted is how well your rookies are playing in the Summer Leagues.

All of this provided for a rather bland off-season acquisition and trade season thus far, but lets look at the highlights as of early today, July 18.

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