Non Knee-Jerk Takes

[Jommybone]

I would disagree with fif on this. If each of us just want to start our own thread saying this is a non knee jerk reaction thread and then spam the board with our own views that is not the best approach. I thought the original thread was top notch too whether I agreed or disagreed with the views posted.  I took the time to read each opinion carefully because people had invested their time in it.  I felt it was a bit insulting for OP to say that he didn’t want to wade into those and then started another thread where more of the same opinions abound. 

You are a mod. If this is the way you want each of us to go that’s fine.

Hakeem, can I assume your username is a reference to the great Olajuwon? What an incredible center he was! I so wish Kristaps had one quarter of his ability, heart, or trade value. 

Perhaps my attempt at a thoughtful take failed. Perhaps there was nothing even remotely original in it. Perhaps I didn’t pick the right words to communicate it. Perhaps it is optimistic even though it seems pessimistic to me. I dunno. If so, my bad. 

Re the thread, my point in trying to create something different was this: When I heard about the trade, my reaction was WTF!!! I may even have posted something like WTF!!! in another thread. My personal view is that a reaction like that isn’t very interesting to read, and the negativity that emanates from a thread full of that makes me feel shitty. I don’t come to this board to feel shitty. So at some point, I quit reading that thread.

Upon reflection, and after a couple of hours, WTF turned into something more like, Wow, that’s all that KP is worth? I had him pegged at approximately zero, not negative 250 (on a scale from 1-10). And I assumed the trade evidenced that my opinion was wrong, not that the Mavs chose such a sucky return. I also concluded that it meant the Mavs had been lying to us since summer about committing to and believing in KP. Instead, they were just trying to rehab his trade value. Right or wrong, that was my conclusion. Many here saw through the bullshit from the beginning. I didn’t swallow it hook, line and sinker. But I believed it was at least somewhat likely that they believed what they were saying. So the trade for junk caused me to rethink a whole lot. 

I also didn’t believe “wow, I’ve been an idiot” would be a very interesting post. So I didn’t want to stop there either. And I didn’t really want to read other people’s posts saying, “wow, you’re an idiot,” or “wow, I’m an idiot too.” This board has better and more interesting things to say. So I thought I might get a better read by asking for something more than one-sentence reactions. That’s all I was trying to accomplish. 

As to my take, the thing that seemed possibly original to me was the conclusion that this mistake was made 3 years ago. Not yesterday. Not last summer. 3 years ago. At a time when me and most of this board were celebrating the decision. Maybe that take is wrong. Or uninteresting. But it isn’t knee-jerk. At least not in the sense of being obvious and thought of in seconds.