Hypothetical question: You’re Drew Gooden and you’ve just been traded for the ninth time in your eight-year NBA career.

Do you:
A. Wallow in self-pity and wonder why it is that nobody wants you? …Or…
B. Flip the script and paint the opposite picture. It’s not that nobody wants me rather that everybody wants me.

If I’m Gooden, I’m going with B. And I think he’d be crazy not to.

Here’s the deal, for one reason or another, Gooden has been involved in a ridiculously high number of trades during his career. He’s been traded in the offseason, traded twice in the same season and, almost always, seems to come up as potential trade bait when the deadline rolls around.

This year, that deadline is today and, once again, Gooden’s on the move. This time the Dallas Mavericks shipped him off to Washington in an attempt to bolster their lineup in hopes of competing with the likes of Los Angeles (you know which one) and Denver in the Western Conference Playoffs. In the West, you can’t sit still when the deadline arrives. And most years, most contenders don’t.

In a crazy — and somewhat incredible — turn of events, Gooden was actually shipped again before even unpacking his bags in the nation’s capital.

In a three-team deal late Wednesday night: Cleveland landed Antawn Jamison and Sebastian Telfair, the Wizards picked up Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Al Thornton, Brian Skinner and Cleveland’s first round pick and Gooden was sent to Los Angeles to join the Clippers.

Gooden’s road-warrior image has not be created out of a lack of production. He’s produced decent numbers — sometimes even solid — wherever he’s been. But that hasn’t been enough for teams to keep him.

At first, this made no sense. But then I thought about it. I looked at it a little more through the eyes of option B and it started to click.

Whenever teams make trades, they have to give something up in order to get something back. Sometimes it’s young talent, sometimes it’s money or cap room and sometimes it’s a player like Gooden, who has just enough appeal to make your trading partner feel like he’s not getting ripped off.

Such is life for Gooden right now. He’s the guy that teams keep giving because other teams keep wanting him enough to make the trade work.

I doubt he’s found a home in Los Angeles. For his sake, I hope not. There’s even been talk that Gooden could return to the Mavs in a week or so, thanks to that odd rule that allows such player movement to happen. It happened a year or so ago when the Denver Nuggets traded for Chauncey Billups and were given Antonio McDyess as a throw-in. The Nuggets didn’t want him — more accurately, didn’t want to pay him — so they didn’t sign him and McDyess ended up back with the Pistons. It happened a year or so before that, too, when the Mavs dealt Jerry Stackhouse to New Jersey only to get him back a couple of weeks later.

This latest wrinkle changes the odds on that a bit, but in the NBA, you just never know.

If the Mavs get Gooden back and he joins the team he was on that instantly got better by adding Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson, Dallas would definitely become a legit title contender. And just in time, too. Dirk’s not getting any younger.

Anyway, enough about the deal that’s already happened, let’s look at what else might happen as deadline day unfolds. Be sure to check back throughout the day for the latest in any trade developments involving former Jayhawks.

Kirk Hinrich, G, Chicago Bulls
Guess whose name has been tossed around prominently in plenty of trade talks recently. Yep, Hinrich. It appears that the Bulls are finally done with him and I’d be shocked if he didn’t move on. There are two camps when kicking around trades for Hinrich. The first includes teams that might be looking for a starting point guard with experience and defensive prowess. Hinrich has both and can add something offensively, as well. The other inquiring minds out there figure that Hinrich would be most valuable as a backup guard for a contending team. Hinrich’s name has popped up on the radar of the Boston Celtics, and, although I’m sure he’d still like to start and play big minutes, it would be awfully hard to complain about joining the Celtics as the third guard in their rotation. The Lakers also have shown interest in Hinrich in recent days.

Julian Wright, F, New Orleans Hornets
Poor Wright. If ever there were a player who needed to be traded, Wright’s the guy. But according to his Twitter post on Tuesday morning, it doesn’t appear that Wright will be going anywhere. It read: “Off to practice, thinking bout how I’m jealous of all these players that managed to get traded before Thursday…” A few hours later, Wright went into damage control mode by saying he didn’t mean to upset anyone and that he loved New Orleans and that he just thinks a change of scenery could be good for him. But if you take his first tweet at face value, it looks like he’s staying put.

Mario Chalmers, G, Miami Heat
Because he’s fallen out of favor with the Heat this season, it makes sense that a few rumors have popped up regarding Mario being on the move. It doesn’t look like that will be the case. One interesting scenario had Chalmers headed to Cleveland to join former teammate Darnell Jackson and current NBA King LeBron James. But it appears that those rumors had very little merit. For now, look for the Heat to hang on to Mario.