In the past few days, there have been plenty of rumors flying about the possibility of Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, and Carlos Boozer all being dealt before the trade deadline in mid-February. If you look at the teams that these three players belong to, they are all teams in the playoff hunt.

• Bosh’s Toronto Raptors currently sit in 6th place in the Eastern Conference, with 23 wins and 22 losses.
• The Phoenix Suns are 26-20, which is good for 7th place in the Western Conference.
• The Utah Jazz are a legit 4th place in the West, with a record of 26-18.

Each team has about 35 basketball games left to play, before they can cement their spots in the postseason. Out West, one losing streak can send a team straight to the bottom of the standings, leaving their players hitting the links for golf during the playoffs. Out East, it almost seems worthless to even bother making the playoffs, unless you’re one of the top seeds, as you probably won’t get past Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, or Orlando. This is where things get tricky.

Do you play the season out, and hope for the best?

Is “the best” even worth it?

Honestly, no it’s not. But if you’re a fan of one of these teams, you definitely don’t want to see Boozer, Stoudemire, or Bosh leave your team. If that happens, the front office of your team is blatantly telling you and all of the fans, that they’re giving up. The front office will argue, “we needed to get something in return for Boozer….it was unlikely he was going to re-sign with us.” What I don’t understand though, is that if you’re the Jazz, Suns, or Raptors, why not trade a yucky contract and a first round pick, for a player who can help your team out? But instead, you actually deal away an amazing front court player, just so you get something? Seems a little unfair to the fans.

You do get something if you don’t trade one of these guys, and they choose not to return. It’s called cap space. Cap space is everything in the NBA, because it allows you not only to sign players, but be more open to different trade possibilities (Now both teams’ salaries of players being traded don’t have to match up!).

Thoughts???

-G