Submitted by Patrick Minton, Feb 1, 2008 13:54

John,

You are usually a smart guy but the stuff you print here makes me think you must be playing devil's advocate.

1) Devin Harris, who is an above-average player for sure, is having a better year than Jason Kidd? Seriously? You DO know Kidd is averaging nearly a triple double, right?

2) Jerry Stackhouse is what the Spurs need to beat the Mavs? If I'm Dallas, I'd be even quicker to pull the trigger if it meant that Stackhouse might land on the spurs. Taking away minutes from Brent Barry and Manu Ginobli makes the Spurs worse, not better.

3) Portland has too many prospects. You don't stockpile prospects forever. Using them to get a very good point guard who only makes $4 million is hardly a bad deal. Portland shouldn't be happy to be an "up and coming team" forever -- sooner or later you have to put pieces in place to contend in May, not just go on nifty winning streaks in January. And overvaluing "potential" is what gets teams mired in lottery-land for decades. Give me a great 27-year old over a few guys with potential 12 days a week and four times on Sundays.

4) Travis Outlaw better than Harris...um...WHAT? A 6'9" forward who shoots about 45% from 2-point range? Sure, he shoots 3s well, but that's offset by his poor 2-pt FG% (for a forward), his poor rebounding rate (for a forward), and his poor assist rate (for an SF). In contrast, Harris shoots a higher 2pt FG%, gets twice as many steals, rebounds average for a point guard, and is a very good defender at a position where it is way more important to be a good defender than Outlaw's (who isn't quick enough to guard lots of SFs anyway, and isn't burly enough to guard most PFs).

Seriously, you are a little too high on your PER model, which rewards players way too much for chucking up FGAs.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.