Have NBA GMs Completely Lost Their Minds?

So does anyone out there have a legitimate explanation as to why the Detroit Piston would give up Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups for Baron Davis?

Maybe there’s some new drug being passed around by the NBA’s white-collars.  Rasho Nesterovic and T.J. Ford for Jermaine O’Neal?  Perhaps the NBA GMs have given up on making smart logical decisions because there’s no money it.

If you trade for a big name you’ll bring in big money, regardless if that big name still plays big time basketball.

Think about it—what were the two major trades this year that just completely flopped?

Dallas and Phoenix.

Two Western Conference elites who apparently will stop at nothing to become the next NBA Champion.

Shaquille O’Neal is still a decent inside presence, but some would argue he’s lethargic.  Trading Shawn Marion for Shaq was supposed to give the Suns a better inside presence on defense, and offensively, perhaps create a Phoenix version of the ‘Twin Towers’ with Shaq and Amare Stoudemire.

As for the Mavericks, Mark Cuban believed his team needed a leader, a floor-general, a coach on the court.  So Dallas went out and pulled off arguably THE blockbuster deal of the season in getting Jason Kidd (and some nobodies) for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell, and Keith Van Horn.

Funnily enough, the two teams that made big trades this season both lost in the first round of the playoffs—and both now have brand-new head coaches.

I guess the league is just weird like that.

So why are so many teams in such a hurry to give away the core players on their teams for some old, worn-out, “I want one more chance at winning a ring before I retire”–type players?

If you know something I don’t and can justify Billups and Wallace for Davis, then please, by all means leave a rebuttal in the comment box below.

Perhaps general managers across the league are trying to tell us something.  Maybe there’s a lack of true leadership in the NBA.  What else could it be?

Don’t try to tell me for one minute that Jason Kidd is as productive as Harris and Diop, or that Shaq does just as much for Phoenix as Marion did.

Nope.

It’s their mentalities.

What we are seeing is an NBA that lacks mentally tough players.  In a league where everybody tries so much to not be a punk, to not be the weakest link, you would think there would be more mentally tough players.

Where have all the closers gone?

Why is the league split in half, with one side encouraging the shot, and the other the shot block?

Why is it that the Western Conference is supposed to be so good, yet two of the last three champions have been from the East, and the last team to win a championship from the West plays like an East team?

They all have closers.

There are only a handful of them in the NBA, and the teams that possess these mentally tough, hardwood warriors don’t seem so drugged-up like their counterparts.