The Shaquille O’neal trade to the Suns, sending Shawn Marion to the Miami Heat doesn’t make a lot of sense.  The Suns are trading one of the best young forwards in the league for possibly the best center of all-time, but a center nearing the end of his career and it is true what they say: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.  Shaq’s production is down, his health is questionable, and I simply don’t see how he fits into the Suns’ scheme.  How long is the big guy going to play each game?  5-minutes?  Trust me, I’m one of the biggest Shaq proponents out there. I think he’s had one of the greatest careers any player will ever have.  The fact is that he’s getting to old to get up and down the court with the likes of Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire.  The bottom line is that I do not see it as a very good trade.  Only time will tell.  Do I think it will end up being one of the worst trades of all-time?  Not even close.  But it did get me thinking.  What are some of the worst trades in recent memory?  Below you’ll find the worst 3 trades I could come up with from the last 15 years.  Think you can think of some worse ones?  Prove it by posting your worst 3 NBA trades ever. (Please note: I do realize some of the trades involved other players and, in some cases, draft picks, but I went straight for the meat and potatoes, concentrating more on player for player value.)

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#3  2004-05 the L.A. Lakers trade Caron Butler to the Washington Wizards for Kwame Brown- It’s hard to say what the Lakers saw in Kwame that no one else did.  Could it be that he’s never fully developed into an NBA-caliber player?  Maybe it was his career 7.7 point per game.  Whatever it was at the time, it has turned into is a horrific trade for the Lakers who haven’t seen much improvement from Brown.  I doubt the Wizards are complaining about Butler, who has quickly become a perennial all-star and now averages around 19 points per game.

#2 1998-99 The Milwaukee Bucks trade Dirk Nowitzki to The Dallas Mavericks for Pat Garrity & Robert “Tractor” Traylor- I’m not going to say I saw Dirk Nowitzki turning into the player that he has, but I can say I saw more talent in him than I say in Garrity or “Tractor” Traylor.  Nowitzki turned into a 7-time (so far) All-Star who has put together several near-MVP seasons (including one win last year) and lead his team to the playoffs in 7 of the 9 seasons he’s been with them.  Traylor never averaged over 6 points per game and retired after just 7 seasons.  Garrity is at least still playing basketball (if you want to call it that) contributing less than 2 points and 2 rebounds per game for the past 2 seasons.  Enough said.

#1 1996-97 the Charlotte Hornets trade Kobe Bryant to the L.A. Lakers for Vlade Divac- This pick for my #1 worst NBA trade of all-time isn’t a knock on Vlade, who was actually a solid player.  He contributed to every team he was on.  He averaged around 11 points per game for the Hornets, rebounded well, and played excellent defense.  This pick, however, had to be made as Charlotte dropped the ball on one of the greatest players of all-time.  To date Kobe has 1 MVP, 3 NBA Championships, he’s a 10-time All-Star player, has averaged 24.6 points per game for his career, and plays great defense.  To get right to the point, Charlotte traded a Hall of Fame player for a role-playing one-time all-star who they ended up dumping after just 2 seasons.

There were a few that just missed the top 3, but I feel pretty good about the list overall.  Disagree?  Great!  Post your top 3 or 5 or 10 or 30 worst trades.
 
Just missed the cut:  Jermaine O’Neal for Dale Davis & Vince Carter for (basically) Alonzo Mourning, who will never play a minute for the Raptors.

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