The Los Angeles Clippers have managed to negotiate a deal that would send Z-Bo to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Quentin Richardson.
Mugshot - Z-BO (Zach Randolph)
Somehow the LA Clippers have managed to surprise me to no end. Members of the Binary Basketball Forum unanimously agreed that the Clippers would have an extremely difficult time finding a team that would actually want Zach Randolph. Aside from his massive 8 inch vertical or his friendly run-ins with the police and law enforcement, for various reasons, teams just were not making it easy on themselves in acquiring Z-BO.
Blazers Number 50 Zach Randolph doesn't know why nobody wants him either
But alas, the Memphis Grizzlies decided to pick up the contract in exchange for Quentin Richardson. It was obvious to everybody that every attempt would be made to get rid of Z-BO’s contract once the Los Angeles Clippers won the 2009 NBA Draft Lottery.
The Los Angeles Clippers even made a previous attempt to trade Zach Randolph to the Grizzlies during the draft but were unsuccessful. In fact, the Grizzlies have been vocal about their interest in acquiring Z-BO when he was on the New York Knicks. Quite frankly I’m not sure what is worse, the fact that it has taken this long for the Grizzlies to actually get Z-BO or that they have actually been trying this long to get him.
Perhaps Memphis needs a history lesson. Somebody should let them in on a little secret we here at Binary Basketball like to use whenever we analyze our good friend Zach Randolph and his team before and after a trade. It’s called logic and numbers, more specifically, statistics.
Take a look at the Blazers record before and after trading Zach Randolph and what do you get? By the end of 2007 the Portland Trailblazers ended the season winning 32 and losing 50. That year the Blazers won the lottery and drafted Greg Oden but he was out for the entire season due to a pre-season injury that required micro fracture knee surgery. He never played in one game for the Blazers the following season.
Z-Bo - Because you can't score the ball if you pass
Neither did Zach Randolph because he was traded during the summer to the New York Knicks in exchange for, well, pretty much nothing. Talent wise (and I use the term talent very loosely) the Knicks got the far better end of the deal. Statistically speaking they got a guy that you can depend on to put up 20-10 on the regular. For some reason some teams can’t see past that.
Well, despite their number 1 draft pick and big man being out for the year as well as losing their statistical 20-10 beast known as Zach Randolph, one would expect the team to get worse. Much worse. But that’s not the case. The Blazers finished the following season with 9 more wins and a 41-41 record. This is even during a time where the majority of the talented teams were already in the Western Conference.
Look, if you are building your fantasy team, you want stats. You want numbers. You want to have Zach Randolph on your team because he’s a black hole. Once he gets the ball it’s gone. No player on the same team is going to see it again that possession short of stealing the ball from your own team member, but this isn’t elementary school.
Z-Bo Looking Confused on the Blazers. Or something.
The most important reason for their success was that as soon as Paul Allen took over the team, he focused in just that, the team. They decided to work on building their team and not just bringing in talented players. That means they looked at what each possible player could bring to the team and they brought in players that can work off each other.
Z-Bo isn’t the player to help your team accomplish those goals and once the New York Knicks fired Isiah Thomas and brought in Mike D’Antoni as coach, one of the first things the they did was get rid of Zach Randolph and ship him over to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Which brings us to now. With the privilege of having the first pick of the 2009 NBA Draft, the choice was obvious who needed to draft. Because of that, I didn’t give any credit to the Los Angeles Clippers for drafting Blake Griffin. Though, in order to develop Blake Griffin, the Clippers would need to adjust their roster. With Marcus Camby, Zach Randolph, Chris Kamaan and other big men on the team, the Clippers needed to make room and preferably find a team to take Z-Bo.
I didn’t give them any credit whatsoever earlier in the day and I’m shocked they managed to pull off this deal. It’s actually pretty impressive. Not only do they get rid of a player that hardly any team in the NBA would even consider adding to their roster, they pick up a solid wingman that can help out for a season. Because Z-Bo had 2 years left on his contract and Richardson only has one, the Clippers save themselves some money and free up some major salary space for the 2010 season.
Discuss the Zach Randolph Trade Here
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