I hate the Trade Deadline

At what point do trade deadline rumors become ridiculous? We’re quickly getting there, wherever “there” is.

Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reported this afternoon that the Nets have made an offer for Boston forward Paul Pierce. Brooklyn would send Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks and a first-round pick for the Celtics legend. You can’t blame Brooklyn for trying; I offer average-to-below-average players for stars all the time on NBA 2K13. But really: Is this junk worth reporting?

What are the odds of Boston accepting this deal? 1,000-1? Never mind that Humphries and Brooks both have PERs below the league average (both PERs are below 14), disregard that Humphries has apparently said he’d miss playoff games to battle Kim Kardashian in court, and don’t even worry about the well-known fact that Humphries’ two-season stretch of relevance (from 2010-12) was driven solely by the goal to land a huge contract, one he earned this offseason that netted him a $24 million deal for two years. Humphries was worth more than 10 Win Shares combined during those two seasons, but before that he’d never been worth 2. His efficiency numbers were up across the board last season and during the previous year, but he’s regressed to the mean (or relaxed) so much that he’s been benched in favor of Reggie Evans. Brooks, meanwhile, has played much less this year than he did last year, as Nets guard Joe Johnson has taken most of his minutes. Though he’s slightly more efficient this year, Brooks is nowhere near the player Pierce is, so Boston would essentially be taking a huge downgrade on the wing while also absorbing a year-and-a-half of Humphries’ huge contract.

Long story short, the deal makes absolutely no sense. Boston would be insane to accept that deal, and it’d frankly be silly for front-office exec Danny Ainge to even consider it.

This is really just one example of why Trade Deadline season is ridiculous. All of these rumors are misleading, misguided and often don’t make any damn sense. Congrats, Brooklyn, for offering two Average Joes (one of whom is overpaid) for a Hall of Famer who can still ball. Is that really newsworthy? Here’s another example, tweeted by SB Nation’s Mike Prada.

Why I love/hate trade season, Part II (from a post I'm scheduling for tomorrow). twitpic.com/c59441—
Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) February 20, 2013

Nobody is on the same page. Surprise! GMs tell different people different things, and writers will do what it takes to get page views. The deadline is where news judgment goes to die, and this Pierce-for-garbage deal is a perfect example.