Forgive me for not understanding how the trade "Killed our team". It was either we make the trade, or we go into the post season with no backup SF for Pierce. Remember that most of the players we traded away are not finishing the season due to injuries (Semi, Daniels), and the starter we traded away is still coming back from a knee injury that was hampering the only strong point of his game: Defense.
We're not seeing this team at full-throttle yet...before making a final assessment of everything, I will wait and see how Shaq and Jermaine impact the team over the next couple of weeks.