I know it's tempting. Value investors have to be licking their chops at the prospect of catching Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), the massive yet languishing wireless giant, at what may be its weakest point. Joe made a great case for Sprint Nextel's eventual recovery, and I believe that the turnaround will happen. The problem is determining when that recovery will really start and how much damage will be done before the company revives. After all, the value of Sprint Nextel changes dramatically if a significant portion of its 54 million subscribers leave for competitors.

Since Sprint is still a long way away from fully integrating the disparate technology that Nextel brought into its network, even smaller players are taking turns at kicking Sprint Nextel while it's down. For instance, regional players such as Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) and MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) are taking Sprint Nextel on head-to-head with unlimited-use plans and expanding their respective customer bases.

My bearish bet on Sprint Nextel is simple -- things will get worse before they get better. I think there are far better places for investors to park their money today while they wait for the dust to settle.