In typical Simmons Fashion…

ANY TRADE THAT RESULTS IN A MARK CUBAN TIRADE: A-minus

When New Orleans (owned and operated by the other 29 owners) traded Marcus Thornton for Carl Landry and absorbed $2.24 million of additional payroll, Cuban rightfully flipped out, wondering, “There’s no way, with their payroll, having to dump salary before they were sold to us [NBA owners]; now they can take on more salary while they’re losing money. That’s just wrong every which way.”

Translation: “I thought we took this team over so we could threaten the players’ union this summer that we were gonna contract it! What the hell? Now we’re shelling out MORE money! One twenty-ninth of $2.24 million is more than $115,000 — that’s money I could use to obscenely overpay Tyson Chandler this summer! Come on!”

(For the record: I loved the Landry trade for New Orleans. He was lost on that train wreck of a Kings team playing with too many power forwards and not enough point guards in an “every man for himself” situation. One of the many great things about Chris Paul: He knows where everyone on his team likes the ball, then he gets them the ball in those spots. Sounds simple, but you’d be amazed how few point guards do it: Rondo, Nash, Paul, Deron Williams … and that’s the whole list. Chris Paul is going to rejuvenate Landry’s career as a low-post threat in about two weeks. You watch. Sneaky-good deal for the Hornets.)

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