Dumars turns nothing into Sheed
Joe Dumars, you are my hero.
Armed with a bunch of middling expiring contracts and two mid to late first round picks, the Pistons found a way to turn that into Rasheed Wallace on Wednesday.
The deal, first reported by Insider, sent Bob Sura, Zeljko Rebraca, Lindsey Hunter, Chucky Atkins, cash to Boston and the Pistons two first round picks to Boston and Atlanta and came back with Rasheed and Mike James in return.
We'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor.
We all know what Detroit was thinking. The Pistons added one of the better low-post scorers in the league in Wallace, a point guard in James who has actually outperformed the guy they shipped out (Atkins), and they cleared nearly nine million in cap room earmarked for restricted free agent Mehmet Okur.
The ability to re-sign Okur is the ultimate prize for Detroit. A Pistons source told Insider that the team gave no assurances to Wallace that it would re-sign him this summer. Instead, the Pistons are protecting the extra $4.5 million in cap room they just cleared to make sure that other teams under the cap like Utah, Phoenix or Denver can't steal Mehmet away.
We have now idea what Atlanta or Boston are thinking.
"They're morons," one league executive told Insider. "I can't believe they just did that."
The Hawks keep all of their cap room (which should be around $20 million this summer) but only pick up an extra mid-first-round pick via Milwaukee in the deal.
It's even worse for Boston. The Celtics traded away $6.6 million in cap room and their starting point guard, James, for a guy who is was a backup in Detroit and has two more years left on his deal. I know Danny Ainge likes this draft, but . . . is a late-first-round pick worth that?
Mark this down as the deal of the season.
