Trade Dispute: Steve Smith for Ahman Green

Q:  I traded Ahman Green for Steve Smith and the other members of my league are saying it isn’t fair.  I have a bunch of Rbs (S.Jackson, Addai and Thomas Jones) and the guy I traded to needs another back - right now his top two are DeShaun Foster and Ladell Betts.  How is this not fair?

A:  As a rule of thumb it doesn’t matter who else either of you have on your team.  That should have no bearing on the validity of the trade in question.  That said, this trade seems a little uneven, but certainly not enough to make it unfair and worthy of a veto.

By and large the power to veto a trade is available to protect other league owners from shady deals that occur during the season when ulterior motives are involved (for example, an owner who is eliminated from contention dumping stars to his buddy before the deadline).  Very infrequently it is needed to keep someone from being a complete and total idiot and screwing up the league in the process.

At this point in the pre-season, no on can say unequivocally that Smith will outperform Green and he did rush for over 1,000 yds last year while Smith has a history of injuries, lacks a top level receiving counterpart to keep defenses honest and could be witness to a quarterback controversy in Carolina.   There’s a difference between uneven, but acceptable trades and unfair and veto-worthy trades and this trade - while I’d much rather be getting Steve Smith - clearly shouldn’t be overturned.