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Seems like a pretty accurate take. The media is crazy about this trade (outside of Rosen) but it's mostly trading some athletic ability for some shooting ability. That's not enough to make the Cavs contenders. The only thing they really did well as a team last year was D up people.. It's hard to imagine they can do that with West and Wally in your backcourt.

Poor Lebron..

Pete

yeah for once i mostly agree with rosen. i think the trade helps the Cavs, but just because LeBron makes pieces fit, not because wallace, wally and smith are as good as they were. im rather high on the delonte aspect though. i think LBJ is the kind of player that allows you to make DWest your point guard and benefit from his strengths while not really suffering his weaknesses. hes a better PG than anyone they had before by far

Little known fact: Bulls got a $5.2 million Trade exception from that deal, which may come in handy at next trade deadline

I think that Larry Hughes will be very good for the Bulls. He'll resurrect his carreer and become the star he was. And therefor I do think that this was a great deal by Paxon.

Off topic, but has Paxon pulled off good trade, other than this one? I know he bought the Luol Deng pick, and has drafted solid guys. But, what about his trades?

It's hard to take anything Rosen says in this article seriously when his assessments of some of the players are so drastically off base. When you characterize Drew Gooden as a guy who is a hard worker getting buy on effort rather than skill and make Shannon Brown sound like a sleeping giant, you have to question how much ball he watches.

John Locke wrote:I think that Larry Hughes will be very good for the Bulls. He'll resurrect his carreer and become the star he was. And therefor I do think that this was a great deal by Paxon.

Off topic, but has Paxon pulled off good trade, other than this one? I know he bought the Luol Deng pick, and has drafted solid guys. But, what about his trades?

The Curry trade with NY was a real winner in my book. They ended up with Tyrus Thomas & Noah as a result of that deal - and both will break out now that ben is gone. Both had a double double yesterday

9 of the present team are Paxson draft picks - and he has never traded any of his picks (except in pre-arranged draft day swaps that are not announced until after teams draft for other teams). The 9 are Hinrich, Gordon, Deng, Duhon, Tyrus, Sefolosha, Noah, Gray & Jim Curry. Along with Nocioni - who was undrafted - that makes 10 Bulls who have only played in NBA for Paxson

Paxson isnt much of a trader. This was his first in-season trade since Nov 2003 (team cancer Jalen Rose was traded to Toronto for Antonio Davis & others). This was Paxson's first trade in 2 years (lat one was a trade of scrub with - Cleveland)

Only "bad" trade was probably Chandler to NO - but that trade was ordered by the owner after Ben Wallace was signed. Mr Reinsdorf refuses to pay Lux Tax despite the Bulls huge profits. It was a pure salary dump. Also almost all Chicago writers agree taht there was no way that Chandler would have done well in Chicago. He wasnt getting along with Skiles & was an emotional wreck. Thiis is truly a case where a change of scenery helps.

What? Shannon Brown has some talent. I think that assement is spot on. It's Hollinger that doesn't watch the games..

Pete

My main concern about Charlie Rosen's analysis is that I'm not sure he's seen a Cavs game in the past 2 1/2 years. how dumb Drew Gooden is. Barring a huge mental turnaround, Drew Gooden will be as incredibly dumb as he was on the Cavs. Gooden never showed up against the elite PFs in the league, and i'm almost certain KG would shut him down in a playoff series.

Larry Hughes is a good defender, and while losing perimeter defense is my biggest problem with this trade, I think that having a solid post defender in Wallace is roughly the equal to having a solid perimeter defender. And for those who think that Wallace is past his prime, you're probably right. But he's still a better defender of his position than Hughes was of his position. Plus Hughes misses at least 25 games every season (Cavs fans called him Mr. Glass)

The key to this trade is Wallace. Everyone knows that Szczerbiak will provide crappy defense and good shooting, but people aren't sure if Wallace is going to be the 6'10" rebounding shotblocker of his Detriot days, or the overpaid, 6'7" aging veteran without any motivation. If he's Chicago Ben Wallace, then this is nothing more than a lateral move by Cleveland. But if he's Detroit Ben Wallace, then I seriously believe the Cavs are the best team in the east now. It'll most likely be something in between though.