What are GMs thinking?

Someone should ask the analysts and experts who have been talking up Rasheed Wallace over the last three weeks the same question that many have asked Wallace several times in his career: what are you smoking?

Recently, the pundits have been talking about Wallace, who was involved in not one but two trades last week, as if he was some sort of crafty, grizzled veteran with championship experience who could bring leadership to a team.

But really, what is he bringing to a team besides unfulfilled potential, a lot of technical fouls, and some nifty-looking bongs? That white hair spot on the back of his head?

In his first full game for the Detroit Pistons, Wallace airballed a potential game-winning shot. Big surprise there -- he was only the leading scorer on the Portland team that self-destructed in the 2000 Western Conference Finals, blowing a 15-point fourth quarter lead and allowing the Los Angeles Lakers' dynasty to begin.

What else does Wallace's career resume boast?

Well, he's been arrested for marijuana possession. He's thrown a towel at a teammate's face. A former girlfriend charged him with assault. He holds the league record for the most technicals ever in a single season. In a recent interview, he claimed that the NBA exploits young black players and wants them "dumb and dumber." (Any profession where you don't need a college degree and the minimum rookie salary is $366,931 doesn't sound too exploitative in this corner.)

This is the guy all the trade hoopla has been about for the last several weeks.

This is not to knock the Pistons for the trade. When Wallace is actually playing hard, a front line of Wallace, Mehmet Okur, and Ben Wallace is the best in the east. Financially, the deal also makes sense in Mo-town: by getting rid of Chucky Atkins and the two years at $8.7 million remaining on his contract, it can now re-sign the 24-year old Okur at the end of the season if Wallace walks.

But despite the financial benefits, the deal is still risky because Wallace has always been more Oscar the Grouch than Snuffleupagus. The guess here is that coach Larry Brown is trying to go down the list of the league's most cantankerous and controversial players, coaching and coaxing the most potential out of each of them. He finished with Allen Iverson in Philly, and now has Rasheed on his plate. Next, Brown can just sign on as the next Portland Trailblazers coach and cross about eight guys off of his list at once.

While the Pistons' move is defendable, the recent trades in New York are more questionable.

In the Big Apple, Yankee's owner George Steinbrenner has traded away almost every valuable player in his farm system in the effort to win every year, and in doing so has conned New York sports fans into looking only at the present, with no regard for the future. And that's why they were so excited when new GM Isiah Thomas traded for Stephon Marbury and Anfernee "I used to be Penny" Hardaway. Yes, those additions will vault the team into the playoffs and sell out Madison Square Garden.

And after the jubilation of the playoff run ends in the first or second round, New York fans will come to and realize the Knicks are sinking under the monster contracts for Allan Houston, Marbury, Hardaway, and Tim Thomas.

Unquestionably, it is tough for NBA GMs to determine the proper approach. Should they sell out the future for now, as Thomas seems to have done? On the other hand, if the team is only mediocre, should they scrap the current players and downgrade to near-unwatchable in the hopes of future success, as Danny Ainge has done?

Taking chances to win is forgivable; thinking Rasheed Wallace is the Messiah isn't. Neither is trading veterans for Ricky Davis or taking on Raef Lafentz's monster contract, and Ainge has done both. More on Ainge's atrocities next week.