Ben Wallace To Cavs Update/Rant - Duhon, Hughes, WHY?

Chad Ford is reporting that a deal sending Ben Wallace to the Cavs is close; however, Cleveland is now insisting that Chicago take on Larry Hughes' contract in the deal. The original trade would have sent Wallace, Chris Duhon and possibly Joe Smith to Cleveland for Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown, Ira Newble, Devin Brown and Cedric Simmons.

Newer reports from Ford and Bucher indicate that the Cavs are now offering some form of Drew Gooden and/or Larry Hughes for Chris Duhon and Ben Wallace with extra pieces to make the money work.

Trade Analysis

I mean talk about making a trade just to make a trade and "shake things up." This trade doesn't make the Bulls any better. The prospects of a Hughes, Gordon and Hinrich backcourt is enough to make any basketball rim cringe. The trio could end up building more houses across the country than Habitat For Humanity. Gooden should be a slight upgrade over Wallace but if the Bulls were smart they'd give his burn to Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas.

Then there are the Cavs who actually find a way to make themselves more inept offensively by dealing Hughes' 15-16 points a night and exchanging Gooden's low post scoring for the corpse fomerly known as Ben Wallace. Big Ben should make the Cavs marginally better on defense while making them twice as inefficient offensively. Big Z better get ready for constant double teams because Wallace is nothing more than a blackhole with an afro on the offensive end.

I do like Duhon as he is a true point guard and will allow Lebron to play off the ball more, however I am just not sure if he can take on the added scoring load created by the departures of Gooden and Hughes.