Another rumour of Memphis trading No.5+Cardinal for Malik Rose+David Lee.
Now that sounds like a standard Chris Wallace trade!
-sw
If he makes that trade, can we all just agree to drop the whole "he is incompetent" thing, and finally admit with about as much certainty as you will ever have that he is simply a very good fall guy for incredibly cheap owners?
Yes and no. First, he *is* incompetent, as shown by some of the decisions he's made that weren't motivated by money. Secondly, even if his primary job is to shed salary -- and I believe that it is -- there has got be be better value out there than the Gasol trade, or this suggested trade involving the Knicks. I'm sure there are several teams that would take on some salary for a top-five pick.
Other than the whole Kedrick Brown/Joe Forte fiasco, what bad decisions did he make that didn't have to do with money? I have such a bad memory of when he was actually in charge (rather than Pitino or Ainge), I just don't remember.
As you say, it's hard to tell which moves were Wallace's, and which were Pitino's. For instance, who was responsible for the horrid Potapenko for lottery pick deal? Chris Wallace was technically the General Manager, but Pitino was the one overseeing everything. It's impossible to say who was the actual point person on that one.
In terms of stuff we know Wallace presided over, there was the Vin Baker debacle, which was financial. There was the Kedrick Brown and Joe Forte picks, which Wallace was in charge of (even if he chose to defer to Red's choice on Forte). There was the decision to exercise Denver's pick at all, rather than carry it over to the following season, as was our option. There was the Joe Johnson + #1 for Tony Delk / Rodney Rogers trade, when Phoenix wanted Kedrick. He was heavily involved in the selection of Jerome Moiso.
That's not a great track record. The only -- only -- positive move I can think of that Wallace made was dumping Moiso for a future #1. I guess maybe you could ad trading for Mark Blount back when he actually had a work ethic, but that subject is just too irritating to discuss rationally.
As a random aside, the best thing about reading Wallace's resume definitely was the following: "October 17 2000: Waived guard Michael Jordan"