For the longest time there was hope eternal here because we had The Plan, which was really just a copy of the Oklahoma City Plan, which was actually the perfect serendipity of sheer luck combined with shrewd management and a winning mentality. That OKC talk is gone now. I'm trying to think about Oakariza and figure out, "Did anybody become a contender employing this strategy?" Of the up-and-coming teams, who made a trade for declining veterans with expiring salaries? Can't think of any. Thunder? Nope. Bulls? Nope. Heat? Nope. Celtics? Nope. As much as I took the bait with that trade, it was a fatal blow and a diversion from the script that has put us back in No Man's Land. That leads me to the subject of this post. Are we going to have to pray to be the Clippers someday? Would I be happier if we were the Rockets, constantly making moves to keep things fresh even if we're treading water? Ted is being compared to Donald Sterling for his cheapness, which is a hell of a bad place to be for an owner. I mean, Sterling is not only cheap, but also a bigot and an eccentric weirdo. But I digress. The Clippers lucked out with Blake Griffin in the draft, and still had to wait for him to sit out his (real) rookie season. Then poof, they made the deal for Chris Paul and earned instant respectability. By the way, the Clips are on a seven-game winning streak and might have an opening with the Lakers and Mavs struggling. As many have pointed out, the Rockets have been almost completely remade this year. They are hovering at .500, and have done so for the last several years, but it is clear as day that they are better at every position than the Wizards are. Among their moves were to sign Lin and Asik, and trade for Harden. You know what these teams have in common? None of them had a $100 million contracts to unload if I'm not forgetting something. Yao Ming happened to be expiring, lucky for Houston. The Clippers were just cheap forever, so they didn't have that problem. Chris Webber doomed us for years. And now Gilbert Arenas. Where do we look for a plan to get out of this mess? Maybe we have to just let these bad contracts die before there is anyway out. You've got Blatche, Ariza and Okafor still going. Oh, and Flip just for shits and giggles. Ernie sucks, but we are really just continuing to pay for that big mistake before Abe died.