How dumb the Baron Davis trade looks now

Now that the new NBA CBA allows for each team to clear one players contract from the cap if they want, the Clippers are looking pretty stupid trading a 1st rounder so they could dump fat Baron Davis' contract. Lets hop in the delorean and head back in time to February when LA made this deal.

Clippers get Mo Williams and Jamario Moon

Cavaliers get Baron Davis and LA's 1st round pick (that pick turned out to be the #1 overall pick)

At the deadline LA was looking to get out from under the terrible max contract that they gave Davis in 2008. Davis actually wasn't all that bad last year and had the 17th best PER among point guards but he was still grossly overpaid. While I understand why they wanted to dump his contract, the deal they made was miserable for them. They didn't even actually completely clear the salary from the books. Both Davis and Williams have 2 years left on their contracts (unless Williams opts out, which he most likely wont) and dumping Davis only saved them 11.8 million of the next 2 years. For this small gain LA gave up their 1st rounder and didn't push for it to be protected at all. They might not have been able to get it top 3 protected but I would think at least #1 protected.

I know the odds were slim to get #1 but getting a guy like Kyrie Irving could have set them up with the best young nucleolus in the league. Teaming up Irving with Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon could have made LA a powerhouse for years. I am not saying they still cant be but this would have surely set them up to be amazing down the road. Don't forget that LA has the T-Wolves #1 pick in 2012 that is completely unprotected. With Minnesota looking like one of the worst teams in the league this could be another high pick for them in a loaded draft.

For the past 2 years everyone in the league knew they were most likely facing a lockout and that an amnesty clause would most likely be apart of the new CBA. I don't see how a team could make a deal like this when there was a good chance they could just get him off the cap next year without losing any assets in the process. Was LA just out of the loop with the talk of what the future of the NBA might look like or were they just plain stupid. Ironically the player most scouts compare Irving to is Chris Paul who LA has been rumored to be trying to trade for.

They will go into the 2012 offseason with Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordon, Eric Bledsoe, and Al-Farouq Aminu who all be 23 and under. They should also be able to trade center Chris Kaman for a future asset. Plus they will have a top 5 pick, their own top 15 pick and 15+ mill in cap room. They are set up pretty nicely but just think about the dynasty they could have built if they added Kyrie Irivng and 8.5 more in cap space to that.

On the other side of this, Cleveland might actually make a quick turnaround after the Lebron disaster. The Cavs can now amnesty Davis if they want and have plenty of cap room for this year or next. I thought they reached a little bit on Tristan Thompson with the 4th pick but he could still be a solid player. They have a future star in Kyrie Irving who by all accounts sounds like he will be good right away. There is still a lot of work to do but lopsided trades like this can turn a team into a winner quickly. The NBA is about getting elite talent on your team and this trade got Cleveland that for sure. I think the comparisons of Kyrie Irving to Chris Paul are accurate and I don't think it will take him long to prove that. This will go down as another epic failure for the Los Angeles Clippers.