Outlaw had signed a five-year, $35 million deal with the Nets in July 2010; the deal was universally criticized. He ended up having the worst season of his career with the Nets, which is saying something considering he was a preps-to-pros player. He's shooting fell off the table last season (37 percent from the field, 30 percent on threes), and he really doesn't do a whole lot else effectively. He's a microwave scorer who last season totally struggled to score, a shooter who has had trouble shooting. He had four straight seasons shooting three-pointers at better than 37.7 percent before last year's disaster, and that shooting touch at the three or stretch four could be nice to have.

There's not a whole lot to lose here, but I'll be stunned if this ends up looking like a smart deal at any point in the future. It's another player with some talent for Westphal to play with.

I would be remiss not to re-introduce the Travis Outlaw canon into the record. The Oregonian's Kyle Laggner wrote the quintessential Outlaw profile in the summer of 2008. It includes this amazing, seemingly serious exchange