http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070223
Great piece of writing from Bill Simmons and this, with outstanding perceptions, constructed damn near on-the-fly. I don’t completely agree with all that he writes, but he does know his players and he pulls no punches on the herd instinct of some very timid GMs.
From my perspective, this points out some significant results about how poorly the owners, GMs and their administrative staff are conducting business in an open source world., per:

· The accumulative results of bad contracts, over-bloated reputations of many players and the costly PR results of Stern’s global reach.

· The significant presence of boundaries being stretched (foreign players and the youth movement) and how the cap can no longer hold.

· The absence of leadership from the GMs with their (taking a network motif) quicksand approach mired around the pattern of hubs when switches are desperately needed.

Good stuff

I liked this one:

"Wade's shoulder injury probably made the Heat afraid to deal ... although it's also possible that Pat Riley couldn't dial the phone because it was still covered in Stan Van Gundy's dried blood".

I read the beginning of the article then flipped (no pun intended) the web page. In my opinion it was just another example of how easy it is to be on the outside and criticize those on the inside, without having been there and done it.

People can criticize Sir Charles comments all day, but at least he has been there so you have to respect that and listen to what he says.

That goes for almost all former athletes turned announcer or writer in my opinion. I don't always agree with them, like Mark Jackson, but at least I respect their opinion.

Someone like Simmons who has never been a NBA GM should not write OPINIONATED articles covering that field of expertise. Its a bunch of negative karma coming from a source of ignorance.

Please no personal comments on this. Thanks.

Now if I am mistaken and Simmons was a NBA GM then I will gladly eat crow on this one.

Also his critiscm of the pistons was they didn't do anything. I agree no deal was not great, but to think- as he stated - that we had any hope of getting a player like Gerald Wallace without giving up a starter is ridiculous.

This guy is a idiot. His rambling sounds pathetic. Half of the moves he suggest are crazy even for fantasy basketball standards. Who in there right mind would trade us Maggette, Mobley, or a Gerald Wallace and not ask for a starter in return?

The only guy in the bunch that I think would help this team would be Maggette only because he rebounds well and gets to the free throw line alot but we would proably have to part with too much to get him. The Clippers would not even deal Maggette and Livingtson for Iverson so you mean to tell me we could have gotten Maggette for a draft pick and Nazr? Yeah right

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Flip is history!!! Eureka!!!

In a recent WDFN interview Dumars did state that he was burning up the phone trying to make a deal last week but the other GM's wanted too much. No moves but not for lack of effort. He was mainly trying to get either Mike James or Chuckie Atkins stating that he wanted a player that he knew. I thought it was a little odd that part of the criteria was that they had to be an x-Piston. Probably did not want to mess with the chemistry. I also do not think the picks were on the table this year.

yeah GMs are getting more aggressive with JD. He's been using and abusing them to much. Basicly if JD likes your player maybe you should keep them.