Writers' Roundtable (cont.)

After accepting a buyout from the Nuggets, Antonio McDyess is expected to wind up where he began the season: in Detroit. AP

3. Antonio McDyess, who was part of the Allen Iverson trade, is poised to re-sign with the Pistons after negotiating a buyout with the Nuggets. Per league rules, McDyess can't rejoin the Pistons until Dec. 3, or 30 days from the time he was traded. Should the NBA make it harder for players who were traded and then waived by their new team to return to their old team?

Thomsen: It's hard enough to make trades as it is. The league needs more loopholes like this that enable McDyess to return to Detroit. If Denver is happy with the outcome after negotiating a buyout with McDyess, then the league should be happy, too, because this trade made both franchises far more interesting than they had been.

Burns: McDyess isn't alone in re-signing with his old team after an apparent wink-wink trade. Gary Payton and Brent Barry did the same thing in recent years. It seems NBA GMs and agents could rival Fortune 500 accountants in their ability to find loopholes that help them get their desired result.

While I don't fault McDyess for getting his "cake" and eating it too, it does seem less than fair to the fans in Denver. How about a rule that says any player traded and then waived can sign with any other team except his former team for the remainder of the season? At least that way fans would know that the deal was on the up-and-up.

McCallum: Should the league make it harder? What it should do is make it impossible. Some kid in college has to sit out a year for transferring even if the coach who recruited him moved on, while in the NBA sham trades are orchestrated that fool no one. Make it so the player can't return to the original team for a year.

Mannix: If it can be proved that a team has made an under-the-table deal with the player, then it should be penalized severely, maybe even with draft picks. Otherwise, I say leave the rule alone. There are no guarantees that a player is going to want to return to the team that traded him. McDyess had other, more lucrative offers on the table, but he is choosing to pass because he is comfortable in Detroit. Who are we to deny him that right? I haven't heard any GMs complain about it, so I'm choosing not to either.

Aschburner: What, make it 60 days instead of 30? The rest of the season? Why? These guys only get dealt in the first place to accommodate the NBA's salary-matching rules. His original team didn't want to trade him, the second team obviously didn't want him and it all was done to adhere to business rules rather than improve a roster. (Now if the guy refuses to report, that's different. Then he should be suspended and subsequently prohibited from returning to his original club that season, because the team that acquired him had basketball plans for him.)

4. Did Eddie Jordan get a raw deal with the Wizards?

Thomsen: Jordan never had a full season with his three stars, and he began this year without his point guard (and best player in Gilbert Arenas) and center (much-improved Brendan Haywood). How often could the players hear the same voice urging them to overcome these kinds of absences? He had run out of things to say, as any coach would. Jordan will face constructive criticism that he didn't establish the Wizards at the defensive end of the floor, but that won't stop him from being at the top of any team's list next summer when jobs are being filled. The Wizards needed to bring in a new voice in hopes of salvaging this season, but the bottom line is that the success of the franchise will depend less on coaching than on the outcome of Arenas' knee surgeries.

Burns: No. Jordan is a fine coach and, from all accounts, a wonderful human being. He did a good job overall. I still can't believe he got them to the playoffs last year with all those injuries. He certainly can't be blamed for the Wizards' injuries this season.

But the bottom line is that the Wizards were 1-10 and needed a change. After more than five years, Jordan's way had run its course and Washington had to try something different. It's no different than what has happened to loads of NBA coaches over the years.

McCallum: Of course he did. Injuries, weak point guard play, fights between Haywood and Etan Thomas -- and with all that he also had to keep up with Gilbert's blog.

Mannix: There are two ways to look at Jordan's exit. One is that an underachieving playoff coach with a lack of defensive acumen was let go. The other is that a skilled offensive mind was bounced after his star player underwent his third knee surgery in 17 months. I think it was a blend of both, but the truth of the matter is that after five-plus seasons in Washington, Jordan had worn out his welcome. Jordan can't be blamed for the injury-ravaged Wizards' 1-10 start, but the early struggles were just the excuse GM Ernie Grunfeld needed to pull the trigger and pave the way for him to bring in a defensive-minded coach (paging Avery Johnson) to instill the kind of discipline this team needs to get to the next level.

Aschburner: Coach in the All-Star Game one season, get fired 21 months later? Jordan isn't the first and he won't be the last coach to succumb to classic NBA impatience. But Jordan wasn't the guy who signed the oft-injured and unavailable Arenas to that fat contract -- apparently, Arenas is important enough to risk $111 million on, but not wait more than 11 games for (he might be back in January). Haywood also is out, Antonio Daniels has been hobbled and Roger Mason is gone from last year's playoff club. Given all that, what would a reasonable victory total be right now? Five? Six? So Jordan got axed for losing four or five more games than he should have to this point.