Bill Simmons’ Trade Values
Having recently found myself with a lot of free time on my hands I thought I’d pump out a quick little research project. Inspired by the Wizards dismal season and thoughts of potential trades to shakeup the team (Jamison and our pick, if not first overall, for Bosh?) I thought I’d go back and make a pretty little spreadsheet showing Bill Simmons’ trade values from his annual column. I’m a Simmons fan and have always enjoyed the Trade Value column in particular so this was as much a labor of love as it was of boredom. In all 125 different players made the column at one point or another.
A couple of procedural notes:
- The spreadsheet covers all the Trade Value columns Bill has written while at ESPN, starting in 2001. Previous columns, written for his old site, I couldn’t find (other then 2 mentions in the 2001 edition) despite combing through the Wayback Machine (though I did snag the lovely photo at the top). Love to add those to the spreadsheet if anyone has a copy.
- The “Honorable Mentions” (marked in yellow) on the chart are the people Bill lists as “toughest to omit” at the start of each column.
- The “retired” notations are some what subjective. Some guys hadn’t officially retired but didn’t play again.
- The 2007 trade value column had 50 spots, all the others had 40.
- Bill doesn’t write these columns at the same time each year, which can make things a little confusing. For instance, between the 2006 and 2007 columns a season and a half of basketball was played.
I think thats about it. Without further ado, here’s the spreadsheet:
I tried to be accurate but if you see any mistakes holla at me.
Holla at me