2 Become 1

MoRRie's Pogiboys send Jason Williams to Fat Jubas in exchange for Darko Milicic and Tyrus Thomas.

After finally breaking a thirteen-week consecutive losing streak (needless to say, a league record), the Pogiboys are on the move. It goes without saying that they've had a bad three months -- their last win was in November 2006 -- but now they're headed in the right direction.

A minor trade seems to position them for further success next year. Losing Jason Williams will be a blow but the heady veteran wasn't going to help the Pogiboys much anyway. He needs to be on a contender in order for his combination of distance shooting, steals, and assists to be useful. Welcome to that contender Jason, and to the Fat Jubas.

Eric-L's Jubas are the leaders of the West and showed no signs of giving any quarter to any of their foes, at least until Dwayne Wade got carted off in a wheelchair and the season suddenly looked shaky. Knowing that their biggest star might be out for the season, Eric-L was looking for solutions. A few mega-deals were proposed but ultimately, Jubas' management felt they should just sacrifice a few young bigs, Darko Milicic and Tyrus Thomas, in return for a proven floor general. The recent emergence of Lamarcus Aldridge gave the Jubas the luxury of too many BLK men on the bench so Milicic and Thomas were expendable.

The former White Chocolate is still an excellent fantasy player when healthy, contributing plenty of AST-3PT and sometimes PTS and STL. The only downside to Williams is his age and injury prone status, but on his new team, he'll fit right in alongside Wade, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, and Josh Howard as injury worries. Williams will pick up the slack in Wade's absence and with the Diesel's return down low, it won't be hard to pick up plenty of assists and to set up for three pointers.

In return, the Pogiboys get two young big men who are predominantly useful for their ability to block shots. Replacing Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo with Darko Milicic and Tyrus Thomas will be like having puppies on the squad and if either of them can step up their game, that's a huge upgrade for Alvin's team. Darko has shown flashes of fantasy worthiness and with consistent minutes coming his way, he should only get better. Tyrus is just a rookie, and a bit of a head case, but he can obviously use his athleticism and length to block shots. The question is, can he get some regular playing time on a deep Bulls team?

It looks like a win-win trade for both the Pogiboys and the Jubas -- youth for experience and small for big -- it's the kind of trade we'd like to see more often as teams position themselves for a wide open championship run; or for next year.

0 comments :: 2 Become 1