NBA PERMANENT Off Season Thread

[Droford]

I like how the Wiz need to spend $9 million based on the salaries from last year just to hit the salary floor and they're basically gutting 1/2 the team as well..can't wait for Washington Wizards basketball..gonna be ugly..getting all excited for Roger Mason Jr. coming back..oooh

ugh

[Droford]

Also, Im pissed off no ones starting the TPWW fantasy league up.

[Juan]

Nixed Paul deal makes NBA look like second-rate bush league By Ken Berger | CBSSports.com NBA Insider On the very day that the NBA was supposed to be back, embracing us with this charade of a 66-game season after five months of a pointless lockout, it stepped into the worst kind of purgatory. What happened Thursday, the incomprehensible events you'd expect from a second-rate, minor league sport, did far more damage than the lockout ever did -- or ever could. After years of fans, both casual and hard-core, not to mention the disciplined executives and coaches working in the business, believing that something always wasn't quite right -- something was rotten in Denmark -- the NBA finally proved it. This whole thing Thursday reeked to high heaven, and the NBA is going to pay a very dear price for it. Having spoken with team executives getting back into the swing of things since the tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement was reached two weeks ago, I heard the anger. No sooner had the beleaguered negotiators slept off the 15-hour bargaining session that finally resulted in the deal, it was back to business as usual. After a five-month lockout that was supposedly about restoring competitive balance -- we can all hear deputy commissioner Adam Silver's mind-numbing, and as it turns out, empty soliloquy ringing in our ears -- it was right back to Chris Paul wanting to be in New York, Dwight Howard in L.A., and on and on and on. "Pathetic," is how one team executive described the mayhem that played out Thursday, before commissioner David Stern somehow found a way to make it worse by canceling a trade that would've sent superstar Chris Paul from the Hornets to the Lakers for what a league spokesman laughably called "basketball reasons." On a day when it became apparent that the Knicks would maneuver for the top free agent on the market, Tyson Chandler, the Lakers brokered a three-team deal to acquire Paul from the Hornets. One of the brightest GMs in the league, Houston's Daryl Morey, was involved in the transaction, as was Hornets GM Dell Demps -- a savvy, no-nonsense basketball man who came up through the San Antonio Spurs organization, which is like getting your MBA in NBA. Everybody in the sport has known for a long time that Paul was leaving New Orleans; it was only a question of when, and how. Paul was fleeing the Hornets, a decrepit, decaying franchise that was put there by Stern as part of a contagious disease of over-expansion that, more than anything, led to the crippling financial losses and the lockout that the league just endured. Or had endured, until this. When owner George Shinn, who couldn't hack it in Charlotte, couldn't hack it in New Orleans, either, the NBA's other 29 franchises assumed custodianship until a new owner could be found. The Hornets had been able to manage their basketball affairs as they saw fit, with Demps and coach Monty Williams reporting to -- and only to -- league-appointed governor Jac Sperling. The Hornets finally got their act together last season, miraculously eclipsing an attendance quota that prevented their arena lease from opening, and they made trades and did the other business of running a basketball team without incident. In February 2011, the league-owned Hornets took on more than $2 million in salary as part of a trade in which they acquired Carl Landry from the Sacramento Kings. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, responsible for 1/29th of that money, decried the move as "absolutely, positively wrong." The incident highlighted why a league or the other owners shouldn't collectively own one of the franchises in a sports cartel, but it blew over and everyone went on their merry way. It was swept under the carpet, the same one under which all the other carcasses of NBA scandals are buried. It was all fine and dandy in the fantasy world of the NBA until Stern on Thursday decided to undercut and permanently impugn the power of the general manager who's supposed to be in charge of basketball decisions for the team that the league shouldn't own, but does. Until Stern passive-aggressively took out his frustration, and that of his owners, over a collective bargaining agreement that he couldn't negotiate punitively enough. Was it for "basketball reasons" that Stern did this, making a full-on mockery of the men who run his teams in a way that sullied the NBA's public image and credibility far more than any superstars flocking toward each other could? "We are ruled by a dictator," said one of several angered and flummoxed team executives I spoke with Thursday night in the aftermath of this bush-league decision, one that threatens to blow the lid off the power struggle that has brewing between owners and players for months in the bargaining room -- and, in truth, for decades otherwise. "What if this had been done before the players voted on the deal?" a management source said. "They wouldn't have voted for it." And while Paul was said to be discussing his legal options with Billy Hunter, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, the frustration across the league is such that a grievance or protest letter will hardly suffice. And if the players and their union were capable of organizing a press conference -- much less getting, oh, half the union membership to vote on the new CBA -- then the only rational and meaningful course of action here would be for 450 players to refuse to show up for work Friday when training camps are scheduled to open. I know of at least one player who won't be at training camp Friday; that would be Paul, who almost assuredly will be a no-show, according to a person in contact with the Hornets' hierarchy. This is only a minor symptom of the pandemic Stern unleashed on the NBA Thursday. He turned Paul, one of the bright, smiling stars of the league who had never once publicly griped or demanded to be traded, into a villain. "I believe in free agency," Stern said, incredibly, at the news conference announcing that owners had ratified this CBA they're now railing against by a vote of 25-5. "We have a deal where a player who has completed his time at a team under a contract has a right to go someplace else. And then there are potential judgments to be made by teams about whether there's a time when they want to consider getting something more for that player in the event he will leave. ... So nothing has changed about that. That dynamic is the same." Unless you're the team that's owned by the rest of the teams, and they're out to get the pound of flesh they couldn't get at the bargaining table -- even though they did get a cool $3 billion over 10 years, no matter where Chris Paul or anybody else plays. Make no mistake, this is pure ugliness -- warped, second-rate foolishness you'd expect to find in some half-baked, fringe semi-pro league office in Topeka or Toledo. This is the NBA becoming the Bad News Bears right before our horrified eyes. Small- and mid-market teams being angry with the big-market star-poaching that was happening on the very day when the new CBA was approved is only half the story. Half the story is what Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert told in a letter he wrote to Stern Thursday requesting that the Paul trade be disallowed. "I just don't see how we can allow this trade to happen," Gilbert wrote in the letter, obtained by Yahoo Sports. "I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way I do." Gilbert pointed out that the trade would net the Lakers the best player in the deal and save them $40 million in salary and luxury taxes over the next three seasons. But this is not what would've happened. It was widely known that Paul, after a six-month waiting period instituted in the new CBA, would sign a new five-year, $100 million contract with the Lakers after opting out of his contract on July 1. And the Lakers, who'd be bereft of big men after sending Pau Gasol to the Rockets and Lamar Odom to the Hornets, would need to spend more to replace that size or risk having Kobe Bryant keel over in frustration while Paul futilely dribbled in circles with nobody to receive his magical passes. While there was no question the Lakers were getting a huge star, it was hardly a guarantee that the trade would make them appreciably better. In fact, several rival GMs calculated that the trade may have made the Lakers worse in the short term, and applauded Demps for getting a haul of quality players (Odom, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin) plus Goran Dragic and a first-round pick for a player everybody knew would one day leave on his own. "Are they saying that Stu Jackson or David Stern or whoever the ___ it is knows more than the experienced GMs who made this deal?" one person involved in front-office dealings said. Of the players Demps was going to get, three are capable starters, and one (Dragic) is a low-priced yet effective backup point guard. The draft pick in 2012, formerly belonging to the Knicks and only top-five protected, promises to be in the middle of the first round round of a deep and loaded draft. Only one player -- Scola, one of the most efficient post players in the league -- carries significant financial obligations beyond next season. Martin, who scores 20 points a night in his sleep, is 28 and has two years left totaling about $25 million -- or, the same total amount the Clippers lavished on Caron Butler Thursday without anyone stepping in to stop that. It made sense, too, for the Rockets, who cleared $3.5 million and would've had room with the amnesty of one player to offer a max contract to a free agent like Nene -- or use the space in other creative ways. Gasol, among the league's most gifted big men, would fill the gaping hole in the middle left by Yao Ming's premature retirement. Would the Lakers turn around and offer Andrew Bynum to Orlando in a trade for Dwight Howard, and is that what Stern and his petulant owners were afraid of? Well, with no other assets to offer, if the Lakers had traded Bynum straight-up for Howard between now and Christmas, that would've been a trade no one would argue with if it were called off for "basketball reasons." The Lakers weren't trading for Howard any more than Paul was staying in New Orleans beyond this season. But more than that, the NBA has the fresh stench of a scandal wafting over it as it re-opens for business Friday -- re-opens for business as usual. The lockout ended, but the circus tent and all the pent-up anger and aggression inside of it hasn't gone away. Immediately on the heels of a lockout that obviously accomplished nothing, the NBA managed to step into an even bigger pile of its own waste before the first whistle had even been blown or basketball dribbled. This supposedly healed economic model resulted in a trade that was disallowed because the sad-sack, charity case team supposedly couldn't be trusted to make its own decisions. And after this, how will that team possibly be able to make it any more? After making a credible, beneficial trade under the circumstances, how is Demps going to find a way to save his franchise with a better one? But something bigger than that happened Thursday. The NBA became the place where conspiracy theories and frozen envelopes and suspicious whistles are no longer the stuff of overactive imaginations or the objects of cold stares from company men. It all came home to roost with this decision from Stern Thursday night, a fine way to take something that was already going to be a struggle -- a lockout-shortened season filled with bad blood and worse basketball -- and turn it into something far worse. The punchline of a sorry excuse for a joke, under a circus tent growing more inflated by the minute.

[Juan]

Do yourself a favor, if you want to understand why not just Laker fans are upset at what happened Thursday, read that article

[Juan]

Originally Posted by Narcissus and David Stern can't afford to have any more money or trade scandals, especially when the Lakers are involved.

Except that everyone knows that the cloud of doubt and "shadyness" was cast over David Stern and Tim Donaghy over the events you're alluding to.

There is no "eye" to keep on the Lakers, except if you're in the train of thought that the NBA favors the Lakers, which after today, should be obvious is non-existent.

[DaveWadding]

Originally Posted by Droford Also, Im pissed off no ones starting the TPWW fantasy league up.

I did. Did you miss that?

[Droford]

Originally Posted by DaveWadding I did. Did you miss that?

yes, obviously

Im in..may not make the draft but I will try.

[Evil Vito]

Brandon Roy retires.

[Triple Naitch]

This trade is causing problems with execs in the league like a bullshit trade in a fantasy baseball league.

[Evil Vito]

LOL apparently the Nets met with Dwight Howard yesterday. Would be a major violation of tampering rules.

[Emperor Smeat]

Originally Posted by Big Vito 22 Brandon Roy retires.

Too bad he got too injured prone considering the Blazers were building up for a while to become the next potential big team in the West.

[RoXer]

The Sixth Day of NBA Christmas
Day 6: When Chris Paul let us know David Stern had stayed too long
By Bill SimmonsPOSTED DECEMBER 9, 2011



Note: This could end up being one of the craziest months in NBA history. To celebrate the signings, trades, rumors, roster shuffling, insanity and (almost definitely) ensuing hilarity/incompetence, I have unleashed a special series called "The 12 Days of NBA Christmas." Every weekday through December 19 (give or take a day), I will be writing about this unexpected NBA Christmas.

Day 1: The Road to Groundhog Day (and more dumb contracts than ever)
Day 2: The Donut Dilemma (the bubble in the center market)
Day 3: Is Arron Afflalo really worth $50 million?
Day 4: Where the hell is Chris Paul going?
Day 5: Inside Grantland Featuring Blake Griffin, Part II
Day 6: (12/9) The Day the NBA Lost Its Way

Norm MacDonald's Comedy Central show may not have lasted long, but it left behind my favorite two-word phrase of 2011: "Wait, what?" The bit went like this: Norm would read a completely insane story with a totally straight face, milk it for a beat, then do a double-take and scream, "Wait, what???" It always slayed me.

See, life is full of those "Wait, what???" moments … you know, like yesterday, right after the Lakers pulled off a three-team trade for Chris Paul, when everyone was still digesting that stunning news through phone calls, e-mails and tweets. I had just tweeted a joke about coming to grips with my favorite point guard — Paul, a true artist, maybe the best pure point guard who ever lived — playing across the street from my office, for the team I hate the most, ultimately deciding that I just needed to get drunk. Not even a minute later, my cell phone rang. A friend of mine was on the line. He's never steered me wrong. And now, he was about to put me into a freaking stupor.

"The trade's off! The NBA vetoed the trade!!!"

Wait, what?

"The NBA vetoed the trade! They said it wasn't in the best interests of the league."

WAIT, WHAT?

"You heard me. They said it wasn't in the best interests in the league. Chris has to play out the year in New Orleans."

You know the rest. One of the strangest things about loving sports: Those random moments when you're sitting in your house, your office, your classroom, wherever … and suddenly you get blown away by a legitimate bombshell. This was crazy. This was insane. This made no sense. By blocking the trade, David Stern was willingly creating his own Watergate and validating every critic who ever claimed, "That guy stayed too long." Tim Donaghy was just one guy acting alone — we think — and tampering with dozens of games before they caught him. Blocking the Paul trade? This was different. This was Big Brother stuff. This was one of the biggest conflicts of interest in sports history. This was a league intentionally jeopardizing its own credibility. This was a scandal popping out of thin air, self-created, almost like a man-made lake or something.

These are the facts: Twelve months ago, the NBA bought the New Orleans Hornets for a little more than $300 million. Every other owner (29 in all) split the price for the franchise, the same way you'd split a meal 12 ways for your buddy's birthday or something. Stern and his cronies claimed this wouldn't be a problem, that Hornets GM Dell Demps would be able to swing moves just like any other general manager. When Mark Cuban flipped out in February after a Carl Landry/Marcus Thornton swap caused New Orleans' payroll to rise, nobody really cared. When the lockout dragged on for five months and nobody ever seriously considered contracting the Hornets — a franchise that lost money AND couldn't find an owner — nobody really cared. When the Hornets stole the spotlight after the labor agreement by immediately being involved in 50,000 different trade rumors, nobody really cared. We all assumed things were "on the level."

And why not? We had no reason to think differently … right? The league made a point of saying that Demps had been empowered to make any trade (without interference). Every team dealing with New Orleans believed that Demps was in charge — without any question — and that they weren't wasting their time spending their days batting around ideas with him. On Wednesday morning, when I was working on my column about Paul trades, I sniffed around on Stern's role in the trade talks and got the same answer from different people: It's Dell Demps' call. I ended up joking in that column that Stern might block a Clippers/Paul trade to avoid having Donald Sterling own one of the league's signature franchises. Everyone read that and got the joke.

I mean, Stern wouldn't actually BLOCK a trade. That's preposterous. Right?

Fast-forward to Thursday night: Those first few minutes after word spread (not only that the trade was canceled, but that Paul would probably remain in New Orleans for the entire season), as everyone came to the same sobering conclusion. The old man finally lost his mind. Sure, he was pushed there by a cluster of bitter owners, but the old Stern never would have rolled over like that. Twenty years ago, 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago, Stern would have brushed them off in his endearingly condescending way, quelled the fire, called in a favor or two, acted like the politician he always secretly was. Not this time. The old man doesn't have the same sway. We just witnessed it during that lockout. Few people understood how much time and effort he spent pushing his holdout owners toward that final compromise. He barely got there.

If you want to know the truth, Stern started losing control of the league during the middle of last decade, when a new generation of wealthy billionaires started paying full boat for franchises. The days of Abe Pollin and Bill Davidson were long gone — family guys who bought in early, stuck with their investments and watched their league flourish into something much bigger than they ever expected. Stern's favorite owner was Larry Miller, a dynamic Salt Lake City businessman and philanthropist who bought the Jazz in 1985, then ran the franchise with his family for the next 24 years. A year after diabetes claimed Miller in May of 2009, Stern met the press before a playoff game and spoke earnestly about his affection for Miller. Someone asked the commissioner about Jerry Sloan's longevity. At the time, Sloan was still coaching the Jazz at 67 years old, six months older than Stern.

"We're a dying breed," Stern admitted. "It's not happening anymore. But it sure is reassuring to look there and expect to see him, and darn, he's there. It's kind of neat."

That's probably how Stern thought people saw him. Or, how he hoped people saw him. And in some cases (like with me), it was true. Little did he know that Sloan was losing control of his players — in 2011, an ongoing clash with star Deron Williams caused Sloan to resign — just like Stern was slowly losing control of his owners. The newer generation of guys wasn't indebted to him. They found him to be increasingly obstinate, stuck in his ways, more of a condescending bully than anything. After paying full sticker price for their teams, they weren't interested in answering to some aging know-it-all. Stern's control slowly started to erode, whether he realized it or not.

Leaders thrive when they feel creatively empowered, when they trust the people around them, when their confidence is swelling. Leaders make mistakes when they lose that same confidence, when they're fretting about their power base, when they're reacting instead of acting. The worst kind of leaders hang on too long, get seduced by their own voice, start doing things from memory — because that's the way we've always done it! — stop thinking outside the box, start playing checkers instead of chess. Stern reached that point last night. I think he caved because of the whining owners, but also out of exasperation: because yet another superstar was trying to push his way to another big city, because he's in charge, because THIS IS DAVID STERN'S LEAGUE. It's like the old Will Ferrell/Dodge Stratus SNL sketch:

You don't talk to me like that! I'm David Stern! I make the rules here! You don't get to pick your team, I do! I'm the commissioner of the NBA! I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!!!!!

Fact: That trade was totally, undeniably, 100 percent defensible.

Fact: Of the three teams involved, New Orleans made out the best. Repeat: the best. By my calculations, it landed one of the better offensive big men in basketball (Luis Scola), one of the better scoring 2-guards in basketball (Kevin Martin), a playoff-proven forward who can play either spot (Lamar Odom), a scoring point guard with upside (Goran Dragic), and a 2012 no. 1 pick (via the New York Knicks). Can you do better for someone who was leaving in seven months anyway? I hate trading superstars, but if you HAVE to trade a superstar? That's pretty good.

Meanwhile, the Rockets spent the past three years stashing enough pieces to make that trade: Acquiring the second-best center in basketball (Gasol) while leaving enough cap room to sign a marquee free agent (and yes, they were closing in on Nene). And the Lakers paid the steepest price: giving up their best low-post guy and all of their frontcourt depth, giving Andrew Bynum an immense amount of responsibility (you know, the same guy who stormed off the court half-naked during the playoff sweep last spring) and reinventing their team around Paul's aching knee and Kobe's aching knees. It would have been a brilliant move had it worked and a legendary disaster had it failed — especially if Kobe rebelled against sharing the ball with Paul — only now we'll never know.

Once word leaked of the deal, rival owners started rebelling almost immediately. What was the point of that lockout, and all the talk of competitive balance, if the Lakers were allowed to immediately acquire Chris Paul? Dan Gilbert sent a scathing e-mail to a few of the other owners that, of course, was leaked on the Internet last night.

The best part of the letter: "This trade should go to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets."

(Translation: "Let's cut Demps' balls off, throw the last few weeks of negotiating out the window and go back on our word. Also, I'm thinking of starting a support group for small-market owners who overpaid for their teams, don't have the balls to sell and would rather whine, bitch and bully about their lot in NBA life. I'm going to call it O.A.: Overpayers Anonymous.")

The second-best part of the letter: "I just don't see how we can allow this trade to happen. I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do. When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?"

(Translation: Boooooooo hooooooo.)

There it was, in all its Comic Sans MS glory, that whopping conflict of interest that had been staring at everyone for 12 solid months. How can a league own one of its own franchises? What happens if it has to, you know, make important trades and stuff? The league always knew that, at some point, the Hornets might have to trade Chris Paul. They claimed they had a plan in place. And they did. Until O.A. started bitching with even more fervor than usual. That's when Stern's eroding power finally sank him. Instead of backing a decision he had already made, Stern choked like Nick Anderson. The unthinkable happened.

He blocked the trade.

Wait, what?

Was it the worst moment of David Stern's entire tenure? I never thought anything would top an official fixing games, but man … how can anything be worse than this? Imagine this happened in your fantasy league. Imagine spending weeks shaping a deal, executing it, then having your commissioner waltz in and say, "Nah, I'm vetoing that one." Would that ever happen? And now this is happening in a PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUE?

Just know that I'm a die-hard Celtics fan and die-hard Lakers hater … and even I am appalled. I hope Chris Paul sues. I hope the Rockets sue. I hope the Lakers sue. I hope Dell Demps resigns and makes a sex tape with a stripper wearing a David Stern Halloween mask. Whatever happens, the season has been irrevocably tainted — we just watched FIVE teams have their seasons screwed up by this debacle. Houston's three-year plan just went up in smoke; now the Rockets have to make up with their two best players. (Good luck with that.) The Lakers need to determine if their relationship with the notoriously sensitive Gasol and the even more notoriously sensitive Odom is salvageable; and if it's not, what then? The Hornets are just plain screwed. It's a basketball catastrophe for them. As for the Celtics, Pinocchio Ainge's ill-fated pursuit of Paul ruined the team's relationship with Rajon Rondo, only its best young player. Even the Knicks got screwed — supposedly they closed the deal with Tyson Chandler yesterday, never expecting Paul to become available this summer (and now they can't chase him).

The total tally: Five teams were screwed by one cowardly decision.

Here's what saddens me: We should have remembered December 8, 2011, as one of the best random basketball days in years. It was like climbing on a Twitter/e-mail/phone call/texting roller coaster from the moment I woke up. First, Boston was in the lead for Paul as Golden State and the Clippers were falling out. Then, Boston fading as the Knicks were gaining steam. Around lunchtime, I called a Knicks buddy who was gleefully planning a future with Chandler, Carmelo and Paul, with poor Amar'e headed to New Orleans, Orlando, Houston … who the hell knew? And then, boom! That went up in smoke. The Lakers came roaring back, word of a three-teamer spread … and my Knicks buddy went from euphoric to despondent in less than three hours. My Laker fan buddies were crowing, my Boston peeps were freaking out, my dad was practically having a heart attack about the Kobe/Howard/Paul possibilities, Twitter was blowing up … I mean, could that have been a more fun day to be a basketball fan?

The best point guard of his generation was switching teams, in his prime, to the Los Angeles Lakers … and only after the Celtics and Knicks failed to get him. Read that sentence again. It's what Dan Gilbert and the other Overpayers Anonymous owners will never understand. In professional basketball, history trumps everything else. It's not just about playing in Los Angeles. It's about playing for the fucking Lakers. It's about following the footsteps of Magic, Kareem, Wilt, West, Baylor and Shaq. It's about Showtime, Nicholson, the yellow jerseys, the Laker Girls, even that awful Randy Newman song. It's about that buzz before a big Laker home game, when the place is packed with celebs and eye candy, when you're the best guy on the team, when you might as well be the king of the world. When these idiots complain about a "big market/small market" disparity, it's almost like they never followed the league before they bought their teams. Of course there's a disparity! What kid doesn't grow up wanting to play for the Celtics, Lakers or Knicks?

Remember what pissed us off most about LeBron picking Miami over New York? It wasn't just that he tried to stack the decks with a superteam; it's that he walked away from New York, the city with the most basketball fans, the city with the biggest spotlight, the city that would have either made him immortal or broken him in two. He didn't want it. He copped out. He could have picked loyalty (Cleveland) or immortality (New York); instead, he chose help (Miami). That killed us. We hated him for it. What was telling about Chris Paul's choice was that he eschewed the Clippers (a safer basketball situation for him; he would have been able to grow with Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin) for the Lakers (a much more volatile basketball situation with Kobe's miles and Bynum's knees) for the simple reason that he wanted to be a Laker.

For the right players, it's not about cities as much as teams, uniforms, histories, owners, fans, titles … and Chris Paul cares about the right things. He's the best teammate in the league. As much as it killed me that my least favorite team landed him, the "basketball fan" side of me loved it. Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant … together? Playing across the street from my office? How cool was that? I remember when KG landed on the Celtics, one of my Lakers-fan buddies told me, "I hate KG and I hate the Celtics, but this is going to be cool."

That's how I felt about Chris Paul and the Lakers. If you love basketball — if you truly love it — you appreciated what was happening. And it had nothing to do with the Washington Generals. Believe me.

Of course, that's not how December 8, 2011 will be remembered. Years from now, I won't remember anything about that day except for David Stern losing control of his own league. Once upon a time, it was reassuring to look there and expect to see him, and darn, he was there. It was kind of neat. Those days are long gone. The National Basketball Association has lost its way. I feel like crying.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...mas?view=print

[Splaya]

The NBA is an absolute circus right now. I agree with Juan on this subject but I also see everyone else's opinion on it. Who I do not agree with is David Stern and the owners. This is why a league cannot run a team...this basically boils down to collusion. If I were the Hornets, I would threaten to boycott the season. No practice, no games, nothing. If I were the Hornets and Rockets GM's (and this might very well happen) I would quit. Would not be surprised to see more executives quit over this

[Splaya]

Haven't read that yet, but I absolutely love Bill Simmons. Possibly my favorite author/blogger of all time

[Emperor Smeat]

Stern's official response basically confirmed the owners saw Chris Paul more valuable in helping selling the Hornets to a new owner than the deal itself either helping or hurting Lakers/Hornets/Rockets.

The owners felt getting rid of a superstar would have dropped the value too much than what Gasol or Odom could regain due to the NBA being too heavily dependent on a few stars than teams or more players.

MLB had the same mess with the Expos once they ran the team and tried very hard not to over do their influence with the Dodgers.

[Hanso Amore]

Thats true, and somewhat fair. The NBA owns that team. Therefore, the owners have a vested interest in someone buying that team. Nobody is lining up to buy the Hornets with an Old Lamar Odom as the star.

[Hanso Amore]

Still, whole thing is just fucked.

[Splaya]

Problem is...no one is going to buy the Hornets if you think Paul is going to be their star. There is no way in hell he re-signs with them, even if they were to throw 20-25 million a season at him...wanna know why?? Paul wants to do what few players do: Put winning the ring first, money second

[Aguakate]

The NBA has to sell the Hornets.

No matter how you look at it, the NBA nixing a trade so they can "protect" the team it owns is a conflict of interest.

[Emperor Smeat]

Celtics trade Big Baby Glen Davis to the Magic for Brandon Bass in a sign-and-trade deal.

Celtics will agree to a new contract extension for Davis before shipping him off with 4 years added to his current contract and around maybe $24 million extra.

Stats and player-wise, both players are almost the same but the Celtics get a cheaper player.

[Juan]

So.......... if the Lakers/CP3 deal isn't made by Monday, the players union and/or CP3 himself will pursue legal action against the NBA.

[Aguakate]

[Juan]

Feel so bad for Odom and Gasol. My 2 favorite players on the team aside from KB

[alvarado52]

Not so much Odom, but Pau im definitely gonna miss.

[alvarado52]

Honestly wish theyd throw them Bynum instead.

[Juan]

i agree on Bynum, but I have a soft spot for Odom after all he's been thru personally. Seems like such a sweet heart

[RP]

Originally Posted by Juan i agree on Bynum, but I have a soft spot for Odom after all he's been thru personally. Seems like such a sweet heart

You're so gay

[Juan]

Little bit

[Nark Order]

I have absolutely no respect for Chris Paul anymore. If you want to play for the Lakers on purpose, you are automatically a fucking asshole.

[SammyG]

lol, ok Narc. Anyway, I'm hoping for some reason that with this restructured trade we can somehow keep Gasol.. DOUBTFUL, but hoping.

[alvarado52]

Narc, can you at least pretend to appreciate the game? Youre seriously on another level here, and its hard to take someone serious as a 'fan' of the sport if they give no constructive criticism.

I fucking hate the Celtics, but i dont write off everyone on the team, or who goes to them...and i appreciate what they, and their players, bring to the GAME of BASKETBALL.

Cant stand Rondo, but i also feel he is one of the best pure PGs of the game in a long time.

[SammyG]

This trade will be done by tomorrow.

[owenbrown]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/s...ording-sources

Updated: December 11, 2011, 12:16 AM ET Sources: Lakers out of Chris Paul talks EmailPrintComments 692 By Marc Stein ESPN.com Archive The Los Angeles Lakers have pulled out of the three-team deal with New Orleans and Houston that would have landed Chris Paul in L.A., according to sources close to the talks. The reason for the Lakers' withdrawal was not immediately known. The Hornets, Rockets and Lakers had been working for the past 48 hours to complete a reconfigured version of the trade that the teams struck Thursday that had been vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern. The Hornets, according to sources, will now now redouble their efforts to trade Paul elsewhere, who can become a free agent at season's end. The Lakers are now expected to turn their full focus to obtaining Dwight Howard, who has asked the Orlando Magic to trade him. One source close to the process said that the Lakers will instead trade Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers will receive unspecified draft considerations from the Mavericks in exchange for Odom, whose contract slots into the Mavericks' trade exception created in their three-team trade earlier Saturday that sent Tyson Chandler to New York. Marc Stein is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Follow Marc Stein on Twitter: @ESPNSteinLine

[DaveWadding]

Originally Posted by SammyG This trade will be done by tomorrow.

You were right.

[Aguakate]

Dwight Howard is the guy the Lakers should've gone after in the first place.

[alvarado52]

trade LO to...another title contender in our same conference? Makes sense. Not really.

[DaveWadding]

Khloe & Lamar Take Dallas?

[alvarado52]

My only assumption here is that theyre (obviously) gonna make a run at D12, and potentially sign Chauncy Billups. At least this is what im hoping.

[Evil Vito]

I'm slightly irked that the Knicks used their amnesty right away on a guy who only had one year on his deal...but I guess trading him would have been rather difficult at $14.2 million.

I see Billups going to either the Heat or the Lakers, hopefully the latter because I'd hate to see him draining 3's against the Knicks.

[Triple Naitch]

Apparently LO asked to be traded after the Paul trade fell apart.