Bobcats Trade Robinson for Nets' Guard Jeff McInnis

From the Bobcats’ standpoint, there isn’t a whole lot to analyze here. 1) We desperately needed a natural point guard before Raymond Felton becomes so burnt out that he gets photographed falling asleep at a club wearing no underwear. 2) Jeff McInnis was out there, he’s put up roughly 11-point/5-assist/1.5-turnover seasons in each of the four seasons he’s played more than 70 games at 30 minutes per, and for whatever reason he was on the New Jersey junk heap (the figurative one—not one of NJ’s many actual junk heaps). 3) He has a favorable history with Coach Bernie Bickerstaff, which will hopefully lead to some Tony D’Amato/Willy Beamen-like, lightening-in-a-bottle magic. 4) If nothing else, he’s got an expiring contract. 5) We gave up even less than we thought we would have to (Bernard Robinson instead of Melvin Ely). Bottom line: it filled a glaring hole + it made sense + it didn’t cost much = we made it happen. And actually, when you think of all the other zany, harebrained, Wile E. Coyote-esque schemes that NBA GMs frequently try and fail, we should all probably be really happy any time a simple common sense move occurs.

It would actually be far harder to analyze this from the Nets’ standpoint. Why they didn’t take Ely would be the primary mystery, and though I saw Nets president Rod Thorn discussed the trade with ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan, I have a personal boycott in place to never hear Rod Thorn again as long as I live. He is so evasive and longwinded it’s like when Striker goes into his past on Airplane! and you end up stabbing yourself when he finally runs out words. Plus, I don’t really care, it’s the Nets problem.

So as long as McInnis hasn’t spent all his hiatus in Jersey knocking down shots of Jack at the Bada-Bing, we should be set. He does have a history of being high-strung, so we all need to make him feel welcome here. Did you see his quote in the Observer? “I have brought some stuff on myself, I'll admit that. I did stuff early in my career. I talked back to coaches and I won't deny it. Now, I grew through it and why is it coming back to haunt me now? Can't a person move on?" Relax, Jeff, you have moved on. This isn’t the NYC media anymore, so don’t sweat it, dude, we'll take it easy on you. And if you feel like beating someone up, no problem, that appears to be what we got Walter Herrmann for...

The only other loose end is Ely, who’s got to be just a little pissed that we tried and failed to trade him. Coach Bickerstaff has kept him out of games and his bags had to have been all but packed, so how is he going to react now? Also, good luck to Bernard Robinson. Whatever his faults, the guy sure looked the part. You certainly can’t accuse him of not getting in the gym! Not to sound homoerotic, but I just wish other ballers realized they’re in a physical business and had the professionalism to get themselves, you know, physically fit.