The Futon Report

Trades are funny in the NBA. In baseball, you can build for the future by dealing a veteran for unheard-of prospects. In football, the roster is 53, so there’s a good chance of being able to trade one position for another. But in basketball, rosters are maxed out at 15, so options are limited. (Read: draft picks.)

During the NBA season, we see normally one big trade (last year it was Allen Iverson to the Nuggets), and this year it could be Nets point guard Jason Kidd to the Cavaliers. Actually, let me retract that. It probably won’t happen, but LeBron James did in fact publicly pine for the point guard when asked about it during a road trip in Portland.

Nothing could be scarier than a team with two separate threats to land a triple-double on any given night. Save for the fact that Kidd, judging by what’s come out of divorce court, seems like kind of a dick, that trade would certainly promote the Cavaliers into the group “Boston, Detroit, and Orlando” from the group “everybody else.” One might think that dueling egos could hurt the team, but few teams anymore win with one überstar and a dozen really solid role players.

Unfortunately, James’ sentiments have yet to translate to their general manager doing any sort of, how do you say, “work” toward bringing Kidd to Cleveland. And the Mavericks seem realistically closer to bringing Kidd back to Dallas where he began his career. Hey, if Chris Webber can go home again, why not Kidd? It must be 1994 all over again. Someone get J.R. Rider on the phone and see if we can’t reunite him with the Timberwolves.