Veterans, who in their prime were a force to be reckoned with, are going to contenders simply to get a ring.

I don’t fault them much for that. But is the ring really that important if it doesn’t have your team’s name written on it? Some might argue that if they are a help to their team then, yes, it means something.

I don’t know.

It seems weird the Gary Payton and Antoine Walker got Miami rings. And that Brent Barry and Michael Finley got Spurs rings.

You also wonder, though, if it is in the best interests of the team to take on these veterans who have lost a step.

This is where I am REALLY going with this article.

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A lot of people will tell you out of their sentimental hearts that they should trade Garnett so that he can play for a contender and have an opportunity for a ring. For some reason, according to these fans, they owe it to him.

These people seem to forget that professional athletes are paid exorbitant amounts of money to play for teams, terrible or otherwise.

Teams don’t owe these athletes anything, unless they forgot to pay one of their paychecks.

From a purely business decision, though, they have to consider four things.

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For most of us who play Fantasy Basketball, adding players, dropping players, and trading players is easy business. You figure out what another team owner might accept and offer him a certain number of players whose stats you can stand to lose in exchange for players who have the stats you crave. If you can get them to trade one great player for two or three good players, more power to you.

A lot of us have that same mentality when it comes to watching the general managers of our teams trying to work out deals with other teams or free agents. If we can do it with our own Fantasy teams, why can’t General Managers figure out similar scenarios involving their own teams?

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Lots of people are looking at the upcoming NBA Draft as the way to make their team better.

Some of that is probably because of the hype of Durant and Oden.

Some of that is probably because last year’s Free Agent market was headlined by Ben Wallace, a good defensive player but one on his way down. In fact, it is arguable on whether he actually helped the Chicago Bulls much or not this year.

Here are the list of the 2007 NBA Free Agents (including those likely to opt out of their current contracts to test the free agent waters):

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Kobe Bryant announced, among other things, that he didn’t force Shaq out and that he would like a trade.

Now the trade rumors are going to start swirling. Can Minnesota get him to play along side Kevin Garnett? Can “plug in your home team (that isn’t the Denver Nuggets)” get him?

With all the rumors, though, the trade announcement might not really mean much, though.

Here’s why… Read the rest of this entry »