The All Thanksgiving Duo

Two Players To Be Thankful For on This Thanksgiving Day

If you want to find the best players in the NBA go search for another list.  Here we will discuss the top two players fans, teams, or management should really be most thankful for due to one reason or another.

Paul Pierce

In most cases a player with Pierce's talents either would have demanded a trade mid-way through the last decade when Celtics Basketball took a back seat to the D2 frozen four.  Either that or a team he was on would have explored a trade to completely revamp or rebuild their situation.  Let's examine similar scenarios.

Tracy McGrady was a high scoring, do-it-all offensive wing with Orlando during this same time frame.  Magic fans and management were fed up; however, due to the consecutive strings of first round playoff exits.  This was really not due to McGrady at all as anyone who examines his advanced stats don't speak of his scoring prowess, which is evident when you just look at the box scores, but of his impressive assist rate which was at least 23% (i.e at least 23% of possessions that went through him led to assists) every year since the new millennium.

Yet as we anyone who follows sports knows, the first person to really get a hefty amount of criticism when things don't go as planned for a franchise is the star player.  As a result McGrady was eventually traded to Houston.

How about we go slightly old school...late 80s-early 90s style. 

Charles Barkley was left as the leader in Philadelphia after iconic years from Moshe Malone and Dr J.  Like McGrady though, fans and management were fed up with the early playoff exits and dealt him for a slew of role players which included sharp shooting Jeff Hornacek.

The similar cases though were the results of both Philly and Orlando after they dealt their current franchise players.  The Magic landed a young, but quickly declining Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis who immediately turned the Magic from playoff hopefuls to Ping Pong promises (eh I don't like the alliteration much either...too bad, not editing).  The Sixers endured a decade of misery while the Suns, Barkley's new team, won the West his first season and enjoyed a slew of 50+ win seasons in the 90s.

The Celtics of course stayed course which is typically riskier. 

Teams are typically afraid to deal their youth at a chance of contention (see Eric Bledsoe with the Clippers...shout out to previous post), but at times are better off doing so since the chances of that young stud really amounting to much is less likely than they realize.  This was the case as far as a few years ago with perceived studs such as Roddy Beabouis of Dallas, Anthony Randolph when on Golden State, Jeff Teague of the Hawks, Omri Casspi earlier when on Sacramento, or Nicolas Batum on Portland.

Teams just need to view their players like stocks.  They need to understand when their market values (i.e. what teams perceive their worth is) are far higher than their book values (what their actual worth is) and cash in on perception.  The Celtics were smart with Pierce.

Danny Ainge did try dealing Paul back in 2005 to Portland for Nick Van Axel's expiring contract and the third pick of the draft which he wanted to use on Chris Paul.  When that deal fell apart, he didn't try dealing Pierce for less than his book value and instead kept him. 

Pierce deserves much of the credit here dodging trade rumors, sticking with a mediocre rosters, and finally reaping the rewards of a major trade to net hall of famers and start a new dynasty in Boston. 

Celtic fans and management need to be thankful for being patient with Paul, not dealing him for less than his worth, and being able to retain this truly underrated ageless wonder.

Zach Randolph

This may sound like a strange player to be on the list. 

Who should be thankful for a black hole, offensive only oriented player? 

Randolph has really had many of these similar labels throughout his career and they are somewhat warranted.  Call him the anti-McGrady, Zach has only had one season in his career (last year in fact) where is assist rate was over 11%.

Unlike some players though, you have to know what you're getting with Zach.  If you need someone to score he's your guy.  If other players need the ball to be successful, look elsewhere. 

As a result Zach was passed through teams that didn't specifically need his skill set and his play and his market value suffered as a result.

First he was in Portland and jockeying with then franchise man, Rasheed Wallace, for minutes touches and technicals.  Portland forced a rebuild and of course shipped him immediately.  Then he came to perhaps a worse situation than the Jail Blazers to the Isiah Thomas Knick era.

The Knicks already had a then young Eddy Curry who needed possessions in the post and of course a slew of chuckers that included Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson.  There was really no room for Randolph with New York's offensive dominated lineup.  Eventually the Knicks realized this and were thankful for unloading Randolph to the Clippers for expiring contracts for the next season. 

Randolph of course didn't fair much better in LA as he was dealt again for pure contract space to Memphis.  What a toll, for a selfish albeit talented player.  Dealt three times in a span of a few years for what really is utter crap.  A Mobley expiring, a Francis contract, and a deal involving Quentin Richardson.  This isn't Ala Albdanley...it's Zach Randolph.

Finally he came to Memphis.

Remember Memphis acquired Randolph more for his contract then his actual talents.  You see Randolph had a unique escalated salary contract which allowed a team to pay a percentage of his contract now and the rest via a loan later.  Because of this, Memphis was able to stay under the minimum salary allowable for a roster and thrifty owner Michael Heisley who was trying to sell the team was thrilled.

Little did Memphis realize they actually netted an All Star for about 5 cents on the dollar. 

Randolph took his aggression from all of those years of under appreciation, quick trades, and fans dogging on him on the rest of the Western Conference.  Zach certainly stuck with it amidst nearly a decade of turmoil and has resurrected his career.  If there was a most improved player over a decade span he certainly earns it. 

Kudos Mr. Randolph...Mr. Pierce as well.  Gobble Squared.