It's just like No Your Links, just with one article

by JakeTheSnake on Dec 18, 2007 7:26 PM EST in Writers

The Sports Guy came out with his annual trade value column. For those of you who have never read Bill Simmons' articles (or if you boycotted them) he's simply ranking their value in a trade, not necessarily whether or not one player is better than another so don't panic when you see that David West ahead of Shawn Marion. If you're unfamiliar with how the trade value rankings work, just check out the sidebar near the top to see how it works.

Now as for the actual subject matter, here's what Simmons had to say regarding the Wizards, starting with Caron Butler:

31. Josh Howard
30. Caron Butler
For this season and the next three, would you rather have Butler at $37.5 million or Howard at $42.7 million? I'm going with Tough Juice. Regardless, I'd rather have both guys at these prices than Deng at $70 million.

(Random question: If you had to rank the greatest nicknames in the NBA right now, does anything beat "Tough Juice," with the possible exception of "Black Mamba?" I couldn't love that nickname more -- it's not possible. Also, we need to start calling Vince Carter "Weak Juice." Like, right now.)

Caron finds himself in an interesting stretch in the rankings that's full of wings from 34 down to 27. He's ranked higher than Joe Johnsosn, Shawn Marion, Luol Deng, Josh Howard and just behind Tracy McGrady (and David West, but he's not a wing). All in all, I'd say that's pretty fair. You could argue Caron is more appealing than McGrady because he's younger, has a better contract, and is a little better shooter than T-Mac but I can hear the other side as well.

Just three spots higher than Caron is Gilbert Arenas, who Simmons likes...in Detroit?!?

27. Gilbert Arenas
26. Chauncey Billups
Here's where you have to love the "Trade Value" game: Who turns down a Billups-Arenas swap, Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld or Pistons GM Joe Dumars?

The answer? Both would turn it down even though it's a fairly logical trade for both teams. Detroit increases its ceiling as a team (right now, it's second round and out) and gets a blue-chip scorer and gate attraction to keep up with LeBron in the Central; Washington gets an unselfish winner who makes everyone else better and gives it stability for once. That's a nice trade. In the end, Joe Dumars would flinch well before Ernie Grunfeld did -- he'd worry about Gilbert's impending free agency, he'd worry about going over the luxury tax and wrecking his salary structure this summer, and he'd definitely worry about Gilbert's knee problems and the curious way the Wizards came together as a team as soon as Gilbert went away. Ernie would flinch only because of the age difference (four years) and the local ramifications of dealing the most popular Wizard/Bullet in 30 years. Either way, a fun argument.

There's so many ways I could go with why that trade wouldn't work for either team, but I think I'll just stick with him suggesting that Detroit needs a gate attraction.

A couple of other Wizard-related notes from the column:

Caron Butler has the 13th best contract.
Before you get upset that Etan Thomas has the 15th worst contract, just remember we don't have Jared Jeffries (11th) and Larry Hughes (2nd).

I guess all of this talk about trade value leads to the inevitable discussion about the value of Arenas & Butler (not that the Wizards would trade either of them) but how do you feel about the rankings? Too high? Too low? Would you trade Arenas for Billups? Would you trade Butler for any of the wings in the group that I talked about? Most importantly, will anyone vote for BF in the Sports Blog of the Year Tournament?

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Comments

I voted

twice.

SG is right about Butler's contract but GA for Billups? Come on

What? They don't have TV in the D-League? Don't watch me, watch TV.

by Mac G on Dec 18, 2007 10:55 PM EST 0 recs

Seems fair

We know Deng and Marion can be had at the right price; it's hard to conceive of Butler being dealt out of DC, given how essential he's been to the team and his favorable contract.

Howard also ranked behind him, though? Love Caron, but might switch the order. Similar age and dollars, but Howard's performed at a higher level for longer.

Based on Simmons' criteria, who's the third "most valuable in a trade" player on the Wizards? Blatche?

by crucifictorious on Dec 19, 2007 3:13 AM EST 0 recs

Ha.

Gil for Billups is ludicrous from DC's perspective and its not because I think Gil is untradeable. Why would we trade for a guy 4 years older who, like Arenas,is not a pure point guard? Billups is basically good at what Arenas is good at: Hitting clutch shots. But Arenas scores way more points and is younger. Billups seems like one of those guys that is a product of the Detroit system. I don't see him playing that well on another team.

by LoDawg31 on Dec 19, 2007 9:13 AM EST 0 recs

Gil to Detroit.

I threw up in my mouth a little when I read that. LoDawg is right, the are similar players, but play different styles. I don't think either player would do well if we swapped them.

The Washington Wizards: providing career scoring nights for unknown opposing bench players since 2004.

by mamemimo on Dec 19, 2007 9:55 AM EST 0 recs

Agreed

Was only thinking about Butler's ranking, not Arenas-Billups. Chauncey's a nice player, but he makes a lot more sense in Detroit's system.

by crucifictorious on Dec 19, 2007 10:11 AM EST up 0 recs

Not only that

Could you imagine Gilbert Arenas and Rasheed Wallace together on the same team? The crazy scale doesn't go high enough to describe how freaky that locker room would be.

Bullets Forever: Your place for the very latest in Wizards news and PhD-level analysis.

by JakeTheSnake on Dec 19, 2007 11:44 AM EST up 0 recs

Ivan Carter weighs in

From the Post chat, right now:

Washington, D.C.: Let's say a popular sportwriter for a leading sports website hypothetically ranks players' trade values, and says that an Arenas-for-Billups deal makes sense for the Wizards. Any logic to this lunacy?

Ivan Carter: It's fun to talk about that kind of thing but it will never happen. Why would Joe Dumars even think about moving Chauncey Billups for a player coming off a knee injury when his team has a chance to go to the NBA Finals? That said, both general managers would at least have to think about and that was Bill's point in that piece.

by Doctor Dribbles on Dec 19, 2007 2:48 PM EST up 0 recs

Speaking of the chat

dc: what do you think is going through kobe's head when he see that caron just dropped like 27 on someone and he turns around and see's kwame walk through the door

Ivan Carter: Probably the same thing he thought when the authorities contacted him about that incident in Colorado.

I believe that qualifies as a quality shot and a dagger.

Bullets Forever: Your place for the very latest in Wizards news and PhD-level analysis.

by JakeTheSnake on Dec 19, 2007 3:25 PM EST up 0 recs

i'm surprised

i see absolutely zero value in doing that trade from the wizards perspective. why is this hypothetical trade interesting to anyone other than bill simmons? i'm surprised by ivan's comment.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Dec 19, 2007 3:42 PM EST up 0 recs

I voted for BF

My vote didn't seem to matter, as my favorite little place on the Web was getting buried, but I cast my ballot nonetheless.

As for Gil-Chauncey, I wouldn't part with Gil simply because of the age -- Chauncey's gonna start butting up against the guards' inevitable early 30s decline soon.

"Now, obviously individual production does not unilaterally equal better team production, but there's a high level of causation."

by Vanilla Gorilla on Dec 19, 2007 11:40 AM EST 0 recs

If I'm counting right

That's two votes from Mac G, one vote from VG, and one vote from me. That's four votes, which I think is about half of our total so far.

In seriousness, the latest push has helped close the gap from a 75-25 split to a 65-35 split in voting which is probably just about all I was expecting going against a site like Wizard of Odds who routinely posts awesome stuff like this.

Bullets Forever: Your place for the very latest in Wizards news and PhD-level analysis.

by JakeTheSnake on Dec 19, 2007 11:58 AM EST up 0 recs