RealGM

Whatever the opposite of "In a nutshell" is: Long ago a gunslinger known as The Big Unit came to Houston. As I see it, Carmelo Anthony is Randy Johnson. Anyone remember that rental? Sure it was baseball, but bear with me.

When the Big Unit came over to our swamp, he said he wouldn't be staying. Management spun frantically, saying, "Oh, he'll love us, he'll change his mind. Houston is flat, hot, and obscure to the national media, who wouldn't stay?" Despite these blandishments, the Unit departed. Yes, he left a nice fat contract on the table, just like he said he would. Now, he performed pretty well whilst here, but what did we give up? (Remember this was back when Drayton was still funding an actual, good, farm system.)

Let's see - Freddy Garcia, a guy who was an ERA champ, all-star and went on to close out the Astros in Game 4 of the World Series, and Carlos Guillen, 3 time All Star who would have ably filled the sucking void the Astros laughingly called "shortstop" over the years. Also there was John Halama - a useful lefty swingman who hung around for years.

The perception of risk is skewed when bad outcomes are vivid, personal and immediate.

Given the choice between working on the important and the urgent, the urgent almost always wins.

Given the choice between avoiding the rare but grisly outcome or doing the hard work to avoid the equally nasty, more subtle but more common outcome, we usually go for the grisly.

We do this sort of miscalculation all the time at work. We avoid the hard work on the long-term project in order to panic and rush about to avoid the possible vivid, immediate and personal risk on the short-term project, even if it's far less important.

(Think about this the next time you're in the security line at the airport). (Note from moofs: A-*******-men)

This is one reason why the media is so complicit in many of the issues of the day... they take concepts that were previously abstract and relentlessly make them vivid, personal and immediate. It amplifies the risks around us and easily sells us on a cycle of dissatisfaction.

If you want to create action on the important, figure out how to make it vivid, personal and immediate.

x- wrote:http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=48vnz8k



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I mean he could be right. Depending on the price, it's a big risk.

I also agree that the biggest need is a center, but there just aren't many centers out there (in free agency) that I like, especially if you factor in how much they are going to cost. Melo at $20/year isn't pretty either, I get that, but that's the price of a superstar and I guess that's where our opinions differ, because I really like Melo.

I'm still not sure what to think of Kevin Martin. Stats tell me he's one of the most efficient scorers in the history of the league, but whenever I watch him play I just don't see him making that great of an impact.

x- wrote:http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=48vnz8k



...

I mean he could be right. Depending on the price, it's a big risk.

I also agree that the biggest need is a center, but there just aren't many centers out there (in free agency) that I like, especially if you factor in how much they are going to cost. Melo at $20/year isn't pretty either, I get that, but that's the price of a superstar and I guess that's where our opinions differ, because I really like Melo.

I'm still not sure what to think of Kevin Martin. Stats tell me he's one of the most efficient scorers in the history of the league, but whenever I watch him play I just don't see him making that great of an impact.

Aaron Brooks wrote:

x- wrote:http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=48vnz8k



...

I mean he could be right. Depending on the price, it's a big risk.

I also agree that the biggest need is a center, but there just aren't many centers out there (in free agency) that I like, especially if you factor in how much they are going to cost. Melo at $20/year isn't pretty either, I get that, but that's the price of a superstar and I guess that's where our opinions differ, because I really like Melo.

I'm still not sure what to think of Kevin Martin. Stats tell me he's one of the most efficient scorers in the history of the league, but whenever I watch him play I just don't see him making that great of an impact.

How come your post count is stuck at 1337?