For Hornets Fans, Was Trading Tyson Chandler a Good Deal?

One word answers the question in the headline: nope.

Yesterday, the New Orleans Hornets traded starting center Tyson Chandler to the Oklahoma City Thunder for forward Joe Smith, center Chris Wilcox, and the draft rights to some NBA reject playing in Greece.

First off, what the heck was the front office thinking? You dismantle our "Big Three" just to save some cap space?

Who trades their starting center for two backups? I have no idea what is going through management's collective head, but they ought to get a CAT scan.

Let's take a look at this statistically:

Tyson Chandler's '08-'09 stats: 8.8 PPG and 8.3 RPG

Chris Wilcox '08-'09 Stats: 8.4 PPG and 5.3 RPG

Joe Smith '08-'09 Stats: 6.6 PPG and 4.5 RPG

Also, factor in that Chandler is 26, Wilcox is 26, and Smith is 33.

Tyson was averaging more points than either acquired player, despite being injured, and we still went through with this trade? We lost our defensive anchor and the second piece of the "Crescent City Connection" play with Chris Paul.

We lost one of the faces of the franchise. We lost one of the team's brightest rising stars. And we broke the friendship between teammates.

Chris Paul and David West publicly announced their disappointment. Will this either's future with the franchise?

Isn't the point of a trade to move forward? The Hornets have taken a step back.

In the end, we'll just have to keep our head held high and hope for the best.

And on a side note, the Hornets need to change the huge picture on the side of the New Orleans Arena with Tyson's face on it.