THE DERON WILLIAMS TRADE: A-minus
After seven excruciating months of Carmelo Anthony stories, I thought it was funny that the Williams trade went down in about three seconds. And why not? It was the most logical NBA deal in years. Jersey had to make the deal for the same 15-for-15 reasons spelled out in the Carmelo section in Part 1 -- if you can land a superstar, you do it and worry later about things like "Wait, will he be happy on a 17-40 team?" and "Wait, what if he doesn't want to sign an extension with us?" You just say yes and call the deal into the league before the other team changes its mind.
Really, you're giving us a top-three point guard for a lottery pick that hasn't done anything, a point guard who peaked two years ago and a couple of other picks? Done! Can we call it in right now? Let's call it in. No, we'll call it in! We got this! We're dialing right now. …
Meanwhile, Utah revived a trade strategy that hasn't been seen in years: the old "if we're gonna do this, let's do it right away for the best possible haul instead of dangling him around, then inadvertently killing his trade value once word gets out" tactic. Well played. The Jazz were facing a much more sordid version of the Carmelo saga (if it were a movie, you'd call it "Carmelo II: Sulkier and Angrier") in the next 16 months with Williams, who couldn't stop battling with local hero Jerry Sloan, then ended up splattered in Sloan's blood when Sloan resigned. (For some reason, it reminded me of Vincent and Jules in "Pulp Fiction" after Marvin gets shot. Only this time, The Wolf was Mikhail Prokhorov.) The thing you have to remember: Unlike the laid-back Denver fans, if Utah fans felt as though Williams had one foot out the door -- on the heels of the Sloan coup d'état -- they would have turned on him and made him miserable. Jazz fans are like Sicilians: You don't mess with them. So Utah rebuilt its team on the fly and avoided a potential clusteryouknowwhat. Even better …
