News, notes, and other conundrums from the painful torture of the offseason…

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Panic! At The Euroleague

I’m very much of two minds on the European/Russian defections. When it was Jennings, I thought, “this just shows how unfortunate it is that we don’t put more emphasis on a legitimate minor league development system in the D-League. Now we’ve got Rome doing our dirty work.”

Then when it was Childress, I thought much along the same lines as Basketbawful, that this is no big deal, that it’s not the first or last time an NBA player has made the jump, and for a guy like Childress it makes worlds of sense. Childress is the type of guy who would want to see the world, to experience new cultures, and was inevitably going to get screwed by his restricted free-agent status. Bully for him, on with our lives.

But now with Delonte West, Sasha Vujacic, and Carl Landry talking about it? Now I’m a bit concerned. Mabye McHale’s right, and none of these guys will take off. But each of them have different reasons for it which make a lot of sense. Vujacic is European, it’s not like the culture shock is a big deterrent. He was a crucial part of the Western Conference Finalist and he feels he should be paid accordingly, not too much, but enough to validate his efforts. The Lakers, in all their monster star glory, can’t really afford to be doling that out to role player guys. They have to dole that money out to Euro Forward/Centers who can’t play down low but are somehow better than David West, apparently. So it would make sense for Sasha to back where people appreciate him. West? West’s a competent point guard with a habit of making some great plays, especially as he did in the playoffs. What, he’s not Chris Paul so he doesn’t deserve decent money? That’s the scale? If you’re Chris Paul or Deron Williams, you get paid, if you’re competent but not amazing, you’re screwed? West has to look at this as a “You don’t want to pay the value for me, I’ll go somewhere someone does.” Landry is just a kid who’s overestimating his own market value. That’s his right. If some team is dumb enough to pay him that, good for him.

The issue I have is that these three, along with Childress and Juan Carlos Navarro (*slowly wipes tear from eye) are some of my favorite players to watch. I’m not interested in seeing one superstar surrounded by a bunch of scrubs and rehash players. I don’t want to see Jason Collins in a high rotation.

I don’t believe there will be a mass exodus, though. There seems to be this perception that people that are concerned about this trend thinks there’s going to be a flood of players bolting for Europe. As Pure Point points out, most of the teams don’t have the money to sign them. And as Al Horford forced out of the superstars yesterday, none of them are really going anywhere. Still, the fact that they originally said “For that money, yeah I’d go!” is a little alarming. (By the way, how much of a badass is Al Horford? Goes up to the best basketball players in the world and says “Would you go to to Europe?” They say “Yeah! Ha ha!” He says “Haha, that’s funny, hahaNO SERIOUSLY.” I love this kid. Somebody let us take over the Hawks, please?!)

The reason I don’t believe there will be a mass exodus is pretty simple. Take you and two of your buddies. Now say someone says that they’ll pay you twice what you’re getting paid now, plus give you a house, a car, and various other perks, to work overseas. What will you say? I have a friend named Jason. And Jason absolutely loves to travel, does it constantly. If he were given this opportunity? He’d be buying new luggage before they finished their sentence. I have another friend named Jesse. Jesse’s got a wife, a house, two dogs, the works. They could throw GOBS of money at him, and he wouldn’t go for it. He’s not uprooting his entire family so that he can make a few extra bucks. Now me? I love travel. Love it. But I’m not headed overseas. My family’s here. My league is here. Hell, I’m not comfortable being this far away from Boulevard Wheat. I’d travel there for business, hell yeah. But I’ve got a life here, and I don’t have the need to uproot that for money. It depends on where you’re at. And a lot of NBA players are in the same position. Following the D-League, I run into a lot of guys that have, or are considering, playing in Europe. And I ask them how the D-League can even moderately compete. You’re talking about a pay differential of up to $470,000 or more in some cases. So what’s the thing that keeps them here? A. They want to play in the NBA, because it’s the best league in the world, and B. because they don’t want to upset their families and they can’t imagine living in a foreign country. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with living abroad, in fact, I think it can be a very rewarding experience for many people. But some people have other priorities. On the other hand, a lot of younger players who are just starting out and who teams aren’t willing to invest time and resources in to develop (*cough* D-League) could find Europe a very attractive place. Hey, if you were 20, wouldn’t $20 million, brothels and legalized marijuana sound pretty awesome?

This whole phenomenon is not going to stop, though, despite many a blogger’s “God, just chill out people, God!”/Napoleon Dynamite attitudes. Globalization is an event, not a theory, it’s an historical turning point, not a conceptual attitude. It’s happening in every aspect of our lives, and now it’s begun to effect the NBA. You can tell that Stern has been trying to manage it on the League’s terms with his efforts in China, with increased cooperation in FIBA, and the talk of a European team or teams. Unfortunately, especially with the way the American economy is right now, we don’t get to dictate terms. The NBA may still be by far the greatest league in the land, but it no longer has governance over foreign interests. It doesn’t outline the rules. It’s an evolving state, and the best thing Stern can do is to try and limit the damage, develop a healthy minor league, and increase interaction with the foreign entities.

That all said, the thought of a league without Childress, Navarro, West, Landry, and Vujacic just makes me sad.

I’ve got one question in the middle of all this, though.

What the hell do Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, both with strong British ties, think of all this, given their current situations?

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Devin Hester and Making Money
In news that will certainly shock all of you, I do follow sports beyond the NBA. I’m a third generation Chiefs fan, so I still have tendencies to follow the NFL. Of course, that leads to tendencies of another sort. (See: suicidal. Adjective.) I do think about everything in terms of the Association, though, and something caught my eye that made me realize how differently I consider contract these days.

Devin Hester was in a holdout with the Bears after saying he wasn’t going to be playing for $445,000 this year. Now, this morning he relented and got his happy ass to camp. But when I read the story yesterday, I had a different reaction than I may have previously had.

Whenever I learn of a contract dispute, there’s an intial, involuntary, gut reaction that goes something along the lines of “You’re unhappy that you only get paid multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars to play a game. Burn in Hell, you spoiled, spoiled man.” Immediately afterwards, I understand that in today’s society, what he’s capable of doing physically has market value just like my abilities to do the things I do (not blogging, that has NO market value, apparently, unless you’re a Canadian who just got his first iPhone or and Indianian(?) that loves PER and listens to a lot of obscure 70s and 80s music). And it’s totally reasonable for him to want to get paid accordingly. What’s interesting is that typically in football, I react with, “Well, yeah, you deserve a little bit more, that’s crazy, even if you’re a specialty player without a clearly defined position.” But after so heavily following the NBA for a while, I said “Dear God in Heaven, how can they pay him that little? If this were translated to the NBA it would be like Monta Ellis making $35/hour! Pay him! Pay him now!”

It just struck me as to the difference between the NFL and the NBA, and as to the strength of the Player’s Association. There’s not just a small amount of distance between the relative dollar value of an NFL player and an NBA player, it’s astronomical. Think about if a clear difference maker on your team, a guy that really was the difference between you winning and losing a third of your games, if that guy was getting paid $400k.

Wait, I’ve got it! Devin! Go to Europe!
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And I’m Free! Free Agency Falling!

Matt Barnes is so confusing. He was so terrific in 2006-2007, and when he was, it was confusing, because he shouldn’t have been that goood. Then he was just gone in 2007-2008, and it was confusing, becuase he shouldn’t have been that bad or buried that way. Now he’s a Sun, and it’s confusing because I can’t see how much time he’s going to get or at what position. That guy’s jersey number should be a question mark.

Corn had an interesting point about Monta Ellis at 6 years, $67 million. Not only have the Warriors locked up the guy they had to lock up, albeit for a bit more money than I thought they would, but they also have done damage to other franchises with RFAs. Because if Ellis, at his age, with his production, got that much, how much does Ben Gordon demand? Luol Deng? Emeka Okafor? The Warriors just price gouged the RFA market.

Your bi-weekly checkup on the offseason, featuring news, notes, opinions, rantings, and the all important Offseason Daily Survival Guide…
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It’s Only Damage Control If You’re Aware You’re Doomed…

The Camby trade is a lot more significant than I thought, and the depths of it have me both perturbed and exhilarated.

First off for the Clips, this reeks of something almost resembling a rational decision, which frightens me beyond belief. If Elgin Baylor is capable of making intelligent long-term decisions, I fear the apocalypse may be at hand. When Brand first took the money and ran, I asked my colleagues “They have to make a stab at Josh Smith, don’t they?” I looked at that roster minus Brand, and if I were a Clippers fan, I would have been pushing the panic button.

Funny thing, though. Pushing the panic button is going to salve the burn, but it’s not going to get you out of the fire. Often it results in a long term contract that you later continually wish you could dropkick off the bridge like it was Baxter. That’s how you roll. Case in point: Ben Wallace. Instead of going that route, the Clippers assessed their options, made some calls, and got a hold of a team that wanted to shed cash and contracts. They dropped off a second round pick, gave the Nuggets a trade exception, and picked up a former defensive player of the year.

Now, Pick Axe and Roll is all over this thing, and despite Jeremy’s unwavering realism regarding the dreck this team is currently mired in, he’s big on this trade. And he’s got some great points we’ll get to shortly. However, his assassination piece on Marcus Camby is a little overblown. Look, don’t get me wrong, I was the biggest marksman targeting that sieve they call a defense down the stretch. I felt there should have been a petition to keep them out of the playoffs, precisely so we wouldn’t be subjected to that pointless exhibition of a basketball series the first round against the Lakers was. However, I think using pure stats, particularly defensive ones, is considerably soft. First off, and Basketball on Paper would be the first to tell you, defensive statistics area long way from being perfect. They’re good on a team level for providing insight on generally how good a team is defensively and where they sit. They’re good for evaluating combinations of players and having players in certain positions. But they’re not designed well enough on an individual basis to garner a legitimate criticism or source of praise for any player yet. Camby was one of the few guys on that squad last year who knew what he was doing, where to be, how to play his man, and how to stick to his system. The problem wasn’t entirely effort and talent defensively last season. It was primarily from my observations, a matter of chemistry and, though I like George Karl a lot, coaching. The Nuggets, particularly versus the Lakers, had no idea where they were supposed to be. Too many times I’d see Camby having to leave his man to make up for a blown assignment. Camby brings toughness and a post center option to a team that relies heavily on it. It works for the system, it works for the player, and it gives them flexibility of the Free Agency Summer of Doom. You can’t spin losing Elton Brand. But you can move on with your lives.
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The Phantom Exception…

Now, that slight disagreement with Jeremy regarding his assessment of Camby’s defense shouldn’t cloud what is otherwise a fantastic series of pieces over at his site. Particularly of note is the breakdown of why this is okay, and it all starts and ends with that trade exception. When I wrote the breaking piece for FanHouse, there was no word of the trade exception mentioned. And if you ignore that piece of information, the Nuggets look like they ate a lot of paint chips when they were a kid. But the second I read Jeremy’s piece, my brain hit a giant stop sign, and when I looked up, I saw a mountain of possibilities staring me in the face. That’s $10 million of space they opened up. As the trade broke, the Denver GM kept saying financial flexibility, which we all assumed meant “saving the owner the luxury tax dough next year.” But a trade exception leaves a much more interesting flexibility, cap flexibility. They have pieces. Linas Kleiza is cheap, affordable, a hard worker, and young. JR Smith is a basketcase that can score like no other. And there’s of course, the big 2. It would be pretty easy to use that exception to talk Sacramento into giving over Crazy Pills, who says he doesn’t want to play in Denver, but he’ll of course change his mind when he realizes he’s playing with AI and Melo in a town with Colfax Avenue. It’s like an indoor mini-golf course of hookers. Open all year round and slightly bizarre at the same time. It’s CandyLand for Crazy Pills. And no Snake Eggs.

The more intriguing possibility is of course Josh Smith. If he doesn’t want to go back to Atlanta with Woodson there, and the management in disarray and not wanting to shell out dough, a $10 million trade exception can go a long way. Allen Iverson, JR Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Josh Smith, and whatever you want to play Center. That strikes fear into the hearts of men. It won’t happen, of course. More likely is a smaller set up by the Nuggets that they try and sell to the fans as a “big move” which is actually nothing at all. But it’s a thought.

It should be noted that Denver Stiffs tends to disagree with the more optimistic mindset regarding this turn of events.
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Dare To Dream…

Speaking of Smith, another thought drifted into my head this morning, and I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it. The Grizzlies have $10 million in cap space for next season. Make an offer for Josh Smith. I know, I know, it’s way too low. But if he accepts with the understanding of a backloaded contract, and the Hawks management has a seizure and cna’t gt its assets in line to match, imagine that. Letting Josh Smith go for $10million. Now picture it.

Conley
Mayo
Gay
Smith
Gasol/Darko
Warrick
Crittenton

In Memphis. It would be the second coming of underground funk. It would lift us up to the sky and show us absolute and untethered mania. It would be really freaking cool.

The other option, and this is a little more possible, is a sign and trade, with one of Memphis’ picks for next year, Hakim Warrick, Crittenton/Lowry, Buckner and Walker. Yes, you lose Josh Smith. But at least that way the Hawks can say they got long term cap flexibility for the Free Agency Summer of Doom, and got some quality pieces out of it. The Grizzlies are left with no bench, but that’s okay, I’ve got a whole list of D-Leaguers they can play five minutes a night for the league minimum no problem. Furthermore, you’ve just made Memphis relevant again. And not in the “That’s an underrated team you’ve got there.” People will pay attention to it. It’ll never happen, but that’s the kind of dream I was born to dream.
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On Tyronn Lue…

Milwaukee, Tyronn? Really? Really?

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We Will Not Negotiate With Arms Dealers…

What’s funny about the absurd amount of money the Hornets just handed James Posey is that this honestly represents more of a “We’re fine. We’re just going to tweak” attitude than anything else. Posey’s not a difference maker or a superstar. He’s a guy that does the little things, in small minutes, in the long run. And the Hornets essentially said “We need one more shooter, and we want to make damn sure he’s a guy that knows how to hit a shot when it counts. We’re getting this guy, growing Julian Wright and Hilton Armstrong, and going back to the trenches.” No big flashy signing or trade, no kneejerk reactions, just “We probably won’t run into the Spurs next season in the playoffs and if we do, we’ll know how to beat them. And we know if you can be athletic and play defense you can beat the Lakers. No panic.” Steady. Sure. Confident. This is the hand of Byron Scott.

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Your Offseason Survival Guide:

Go to Vegas!

Yes, Las Vegas Nevada, where, especially this week, you’re likely to run into an NBA superstar, which will remind you of the season, when these guys actually give a crap about what they’re eating, drinking, and doing. This is this week’s Surival Guide, because that’s where I’ll be starting tomorrow and running through Monday. Check out Ridiculous Upside and FanHouse for my coverage (it’s going to be pretty kickass), and enjoy some of the new columns we’ve got rolling around here. And please, tell Corn to quit trying to convince me to play the tables again. It never ends well and the Paroxy-wife has vehemently threatened changing the locks if I get… ahem… carried away. Enjoy the weekend, folks.