12-02-2022, 03:28 PM
(12-02-2022, 03:15 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Sure, but what @"cow" is saying (I think) is that he's a "lottery ticket" (OK, I can get behind that analogy) and that the true value for the pick was dumping those 4 players. He seems to believe "it didn't work out, good luck out there, Mr. Wood" is and was always among the likely scenarios in their minds, both before the trade and now (correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Cow).
No, sorry. GIVE ME THE COST CONTROLLED ROOKIE PLAYER, if that's their attitude. I'm not arguing in favor of looking at Wood more favorably, I agree there's a reason he was so cheap! I'm saying, if you're going to make the trade, you'd better have a bad ass plan for making him work here, imho.
If not, you're paying to dump guys for nothing. No reason, whatsoever. Most of their money would've expired, just like his, and if he fails here that means they literally didn't add a single thing of value into the roster spots that were created by paying to move them. This is the textbook definition of "wheel spinning."
If Wood works out here and gets a new contract - GREAT TRADE.
If you're able to package Wood at the deadline in a deal that wouldn't have worked with the combo of those outgoing guys - GREAT TRADE.
If this story ends with just letting him walk and you've PAID a 1st to position yourself to make absolutely no progress, I'm sorry...that's terrible, and saying "they wouldn't have picked a good player anyway" is soooo emblematic of how horribly this franchise has conditioned our expectations.
You realize that the odds of the 26 pick being a cost controlled useful player is small, right? If that pick does not pan out, does that mean its a terrible pick? There are a lot of odds involved. The chance the pick turns out to be a useful player, the chance the player traded for turns out to be a big win, the chance the pick gets traded and we still get the guy we want for a couple of future seconds. Its easy to say a year later or several years later (in the case of a draft pick) that it was a good decision or bad, but the reality is there is incomplete information and therefor a lot of luck involved. Even the best teams at drafting struggle to get valuable players at 26. There is also value in dumping 4 useless contracts. You add it all up. Just about everyone on this board including yourself thought it was a great trade at the time, and for good reason. The jury is still out on what we get out of Wood, but if the worst case happens and we lose him for nothing, it does not mean the original decision is a bad one. Sometimes things don't work when you take chances, and you have to take chances.