Deal ships Wallace for Hughes, Gooden

February 21, 2008
BY bhanley@suntimes.com>BRIAN HANLEY bhanley@suntimes.com
The Bulls shipped Ben Wallace and Joe Smith to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Adrian Griffin to Seattle in a three-way deal.

Cleveland sends Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brownto the Bulls. Wally Szczerbiak goes from Seattle to Cleveland.

» Click to enlarge image

Ben Wallace was the subject of trade talks.

(Chris Sweda/Sun-Times file)

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Larry Hughes stats from ESPN.com

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``I had a good time here,'' Wallace said. ‘‘I enjoyed being one of the guys and I had a good season last year.''

Asked if he felt he was fairly treated by the media and fans, Wallace said: ‘‘``I’m used to being under the bus by myself, so that doesn’t bother me.

‘‘[My time here] was pretty good. It is what it is. It’s one of those things that you come in and you play hard and try to give what you can give and not worry about the things you can’t control.''

Asked what went wrong, Wallace said: ``I don’t know. It is tough to tell. Things happen. We had some guys who were banged up. It was just tough for us to get out there and try to get everybody on the floor.

``[The Bulls] just have to go out there and play. They still have a good team. It’s not one of those things where these guys don’t know the game or don’t how to play. They just have to play together.''

Ben Gordon was asked how Hughes, who has two years and $26 million left on his contract, will affect Gordon's future with the Bulls.

``You’ve got to think it has an impact on everybody,'' he said. ‘‘How right now, I don’t know. Only time will be ready to tell.’’

Gordon said Wallace will be missed.

``He was a great teammate,'' Gordon said. ‘‘I think he definitely helped us to get to the second round of the playoffs last season. I guess management felt that they didn’t reach expectations that they wanted him to. That’s part of the business.

``This is the first time I’ve had a trade in the middle of the season. With the next 29 games and our new teammates coming over, we’re going to see exactly what it can do. Hopefully, it will help.

Gordon respects the games of Hughes and Gooden.

``They’re both talented players,'' Gordon said. ‘‘Drew does a lot of things on the offensive end. He’s a good rebounder. Larry is a big guard, almost like Thabo with his length and everything like that. Hopefully, they’ll make us a better team.''
[Edited 2/21/08 14:19pm]
[Edited 2/21/08 14:20pm]

Graycap23 said:

I think Dwight's doin' time right now. Drew Gooden, on the other hand....

uPtoWnNY said:

Lol.....I'm slipping.

Graycap23 said:[quote]

uPtoWnNY said:

Lol.....I'm slipping. On the other hand pax is no genius.....he may trade 4 Dwight.

GO PISTONS

Trade will do almost nothing 4 the Bulls. They have 2 many holes.
[Edited 2/21/08 14:23pm]

Graycap23 said:

This looks more like a salary cap move for the Bulls, since they basically gave up on Scott Skiles and ended up having too many injuries to make a serious move to get into the playoffs despite their bad record. My guess was that this was planned during the all-star break but the overtime loss against New Jersey last night without Jason Kidd probably sealed the deal. This trade should help Cleveland, though, as they need a defensive presence to help LeBron James.