It’s On, Baby!!!

Posted on December 5, 2011 | 2 Comments

Even thought the players haven’t even finished voting on the new offer, yet, the lockout is technically over and things seem to be back to normal. Teams are already on the phones making trade offers and talking to agents about signing players. Ah, it’s good to have the NBA back.

TRUTH AND RUMOURS

With everything seemingly back to normal, so are the rumours flying around. Especially around the Raptors. At first rumours began swirling that they were in the market for Tyson Chandler or Marc Gasol, two of the biggest names on the market. Now, normally this would be great news, but in a year where their main goal should be to develop their youngsters and get a high draft pick, spending a lot of money to get marginally better is not the smartest thing to do.

Thankfully, Colangelo apparently debunked that rumour, and then later solidified his position that the Raptors were not going to be making any major acquisitions this summer.

That COULD have had something to do with the fact that Chandler’s asking price is said to be in the $20 million per season range. Tack on Nene and Marc Gasol, who are apparently asking for $17 million and $15 million a season respectively, and even if Colangelo was thinking about it, that’s simply out of their price range. Now, I like all three players, but not one of them has even made an All-Star team, and I don’t see Chandler or Nene improving much (or at all) considering their ages.

Maybe those numbers aren’t correct, or maybe those guys are just trying to get back at the owners for locking them out, but it seems a little delusional to be asking for that much money. I mean, I don’t think anyone, including the Atlanta brass, felt that Joe Johnson was grossly overpaid when he was re-signed, but at least he was a perennial All-Star. Rudy Gay was also shockingly overpaid, but is there anyone who doesn’t deny he at least has the tools to be one of the best players in the league?

Of course, the rumours weren’t done flying. The next one was that last year’s draft pick, Jonas Valanciunas, could actually be joining the team this year instead of staying the entire season in Europe. Like clockwork, though, that rumour was (mostly) squashed by Colangelo. Maybe Valanciunas found out how much money Chandler and company were asking for and wanted to get his rookie contract over and done with, so started the rumour himself, but whether Valanciunas wants to or not, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be in a Raptor uniform before next fall.

It seems Colangelo’s doing more rumour squashing than anything else, this offseason. That’s okay by me, though.

**Late Addition**

Now apparently DeAndre Jordan and Shane Battier have been added to the Raptors wish list. Colangelo is seeming more and more like an addict. He can’t seem to stop himself (unless these rumours are also false, which would not be a surprise) from bidding on players.

I’m a big fan of both these players, but I’ll save my critic of these potential signings until my next post.

CENTERS OF ATTENTION

Speaking of Chandler and company, it’s becoming likely that at least one, if not two of them will be in a different uniform next season. Mark Cuban, I’m guessing, choked on his tequila when Chandler’s agent informed him of his asking price (and Chandler’s puzzled they aren’t running to re-sign him????).

So apparently New Jersey, Golden State and Houston are the three teams in the running for Chandler’s services. Last year, none of those teams made the playoffs and currently don’t have much talent, which is, I suppose how they can apparently afford Chandler’s asking price. I find it curious, though, that Golden State is already overpaying Andris Biedrins to play the same position, and are now going after Chandler. This while Dorell Wright is their starting small forward. That’s like spending money on a great paint job for your car even though your seats are milk crates.

And New Jersey is courting Chandler even though the center position is one of only two positions that are actually a strength for them. Maybe they’re still hurting over getting screwed in the 2010 offseason when all they came up with for all their cap space was Travis Outlaw, who’s the odds on favourite to get amnestied by New Jersey and wanted to get the big free agent prize sometime.

THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU’RE DEAD

Nene appears likely to be joining the mass exodus from Denver. After coming away with a better deal than everyone thought they could get for Carmelo, allowing them to finish with more wins than New York AND one more postseason win (I’ve gotta say I loved that), Denver’s in danger of losing half of their top players after the trade. Wilson Chandler, J.R. Smith and Kenyon Marton are all paying for Chinese teams who apparently won’t let them out of their contracts until March, when their season ends. Arron Afflalo is getting a lot of love around the league and may be gone. And Nene apparently wants out of Denver after apparently not feeling respected by them. This after they re-signed Nene to a 5 year $48 million contract back in 2006 after four disappointing and injury riddled seasons to start his NBA career. Apparently respect doesn’t carry over very long.

MEMPHIS BLUES

Marc Gasol is the big name free agent center least likely to leave his home team, and the one apparently asking for the least amount of money (coincidence?). With Gasol being such an important piece for a team that won it’s first playoff series ever last spring, it’s not surprising that Michael Heisley has stated that he’ll match any offer for Gasol. Unfortunately, it’s a catch-22 for the Grizzlies.

If they re-sign Gasol for anywhere close to the $15 million he’s asking for, then they’ll be paying their core players $50 to nearly $60 million a season over the next 5 years. That’s a hell of a lot of money for a team that only won 47 games last season and didn’t make it out of the second round. And only Zach Randolph has ever made an All-Star team, and he doesn’t play defense.

Is it any wonder why Shane Battier has pretty much packed his bags? There’s no way they can afford to pay him, especially since they overpaid Mike Conley at the beginning of last season.

Michael Heisley has gone on the record and stated that they are, in fact, NOT trading Rudy Gay despite all the speculation to the contrary. It wasn’t a huge jump in logic. If they re-signed Battier, who was their starting SF in place of an injured Rudy Gay when they beat the #1 seeded Spurs in the playoffs, for half the amount they re-signed Gay, then I don’t see how they could keep Gay. As it is, Battier leaving Memphis is a foregone conclusion, so I would be surprised if Memphis did not give this core a shot.

When this situation needs to be revisited is after the season. If Memphis doesn’t win at least 50 games and make it to the second round again (both unlikely, in my opinion) then I’d have to think that they’re going to try and move one of their big contracts, and Gay or Gasol would probably be the most easily moved. Stay tuned…

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Category: Free Agency, Grizzlies, Mavericks, NBA, Nuggets, Raptors

Finally(?)

Posted on November 26, 2011 | No Comments

While the players still have to vote on and ratify the deal, it appears well finally have an NBA season. Hopefully.

After all the posturing and hard line stances on both sides, the details that are emerging for the deal arent radically different from the previous deal. All those great ideas people had about “fixing” the NBA are now moot. Personally, I would have loved to have seen some sort of a “franchise player” system that would prevent players from stacking their teams with superstars and make it harder for a franchise player to leave his original team, but the more I read about the new agreement the more fair it seems for both sides.

The comment by one veteran player that the players “caved” doesn’t make an ounce of sense. But the players who have been the most vocal recently during the lockout have seemed like the least grounded in reality. The owners gave up far more for this deal than I would have guessed they were going to. Saying no to the deal would have benefitted a small minority of players and really hurt a lot of players who simply could never have made up the money they would have lost had they not played the season.

As a fan, the thing that works best is that is allows them to play basketball again.

So whats next?

Since I don’t know all the particulars, yet, I can’t comment on everything, but I do know there are still a few issues yet to be worked out. The so-called B issues. One of which is the age limit for players entering the draft. Apparently the NBA would like to see it raised, something the Players Association is mixed on. Personally, I would like to see it raised to 20, like the NBA does, but as a Raptor fan, I’d like to see them hold off on that for at least a year. Why? This guy…

It’s a little early to be looking towards the draft as well as crowning anyone the #1 pick, but right now I’m VERY big on Anthony Davis. Davis plays the way I would have at that age were I a foot taller. And it’s not surprising since Davis used to be a 6’3 PG until he went on a growth spurt in his junior year and grew eight inches. I’m going to discuss him more in the future, but one of the things that jumps out at me is his passing ability. He sees the floor like a PG because he was one, but he’s now 6’10 and throwing Walton-esque outlet passes.

If the age limit went up, then Davis would be prevented from entering the draft until 2013, when the Raptors should hopefully be trying to vie for the playoffs.

One argument that keeps coming up of why the players would allow a raised age limit doesn’t pass the logic test for me. Michael McCann recently wrote in Sport Illustrated…

The union will probably compromise this time around as well since, A) raising the limit would only directly impact those players not yet in the union and thus those who have no voice and; B) a higher limit would mean that more veterans keep their jobs every year. Still, there are many NBA players who believe firmly in not raising the age restriction and this is not an easy issue to resolve over a weekend.

It’s B) that I have a problem with. Maybe someone could explain to me how having older players entering the league would allow more veterans to keep their job? It’s not as if there will be fewer players being drafted. And they’ll still be about the same amount of undrafted players vying for roster spots. The ONLY difference is many of those players will be more polished and more ready to contribute than if they’d come out a year earlier.

Now it could be true that NEXT year there will be less competition for roster spots because the pool will suddenly shrink, but by the year after everything will have balanced out. You’ll still get the same amount of players entering the draft, it will just be compressed into sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Well, without know any more, there’s not much more I can say, but when I find out more I’ll post more thoughts on the deal.

So if the lockout really is over, you can all be satisfied to know I will be posting on a more semi-regular basis.

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Category: Draft, Free Agency, Lockout, NBA, Raptors

Why The Players Need To STFU

Posted on November 13, 2011 | 9 Comments

As I wrote in my last post, any fan who doesn’t live in places like Los Angeles or Miami is not likely to side with the players very much because if the players got their way it would be much harder for smaller market teams to compete. This doesn’t seem to occur to many of the players who have taken to Twitter to vent their frustrations. A bigger problem, though, is that the players just don’t seem to understand that many of their complaints don’t make sense to the average fan either because it’s not actually based in reality or because it doesn’t exactly jibe with an economy where so many people are struggling.

Nazr Mohammed has been one of the most vocal in the Twitterverse with his complaints, but he’s certainly not alone. Below, are a few of the most ridiculous complaints and why they simply need to shut up about them.

OWNERS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO RESTRICT THE MOVEMENT OF PLAYERS

This is one of their biggest complaints, and it’s actually been discussed in different terms. One of the most ridiculous analogies players have come up with is asking whether it would be fair to be an accountant and being told he has to work in a completely different city and that he can’t choose what city he works in.

This doesn’t make sense on so many different levels I’m not sure where to start.

First off, let me tell you about a very good friend of mine, who IS an accountant and worked for a company that ignored his advice on a financial matter, and then eventually had to lay off several people, including him, because it came back and bit them in the ass, which he warned them it would. For six months he looked for a job that would pay him enough and eventually had to move from Vancouver, where he and his wife had lived for the past 17 years, to Edmonton in order to find one. And he’s certainly not the first person who has had to move to a different city for a job. It was a difficult decision for him, but one that probably would have been MUCH easier if the salary he was being offered in Edmonton was anywhere near what and average NBA player makes.

Secondly, their complaint that it’s not fair to force players to work in certain cities doesn’t jibe with reality. No one is actually FORCING them to sign a multimillion dollar contract and play in the NBA. That just happens to be where the cream of their profession goes so if they want to make NBA money and play with the best, they have to give certain things up. How is this different from he actor who, if he wants to make the big money and work on the big projects, having to move to L.A. or New York? Or the stock broker having to move to a city with an actual stock exchange to make the big bucks.

Hell, if I wanted to work for an NBA team myself, I would have to a) find and NBA team that will hire me and b) move to a different city to work for them. Should I be whining that I can’t work for an NBA team wherever I want?

NBA players get paid an exorbitant amount of money to play a sport for a living. The reasons they get paid so much is because their careers aren’t very long and because they are very good at what they do. Like any profession, you give up certain things in order to make more than everyone else. The average NBA player makes more money in a few years than a lot of people make in a lifetime. For those years where they are making this money, they are required to play by certain rules. Calling it tantamount to slavery is an insult not only to history, but to anyone with a brain.

The biggest problem with this complain, though, is that players seemed to have confused “incentive” with “restriction”. The NBA is actually not attempting to restrict player movement. They are simply giving players more financial incentive to stay with their original team. That’s not restrictive. And to complain that it is makes it appear you don’t have a basic understanding of either term. No one is preventing Chris Paul from signing ANYWHERE he want to in the NBA. What they are doing is saying that if Paul wants to make as much as he can, like the actor who wants to make top dollar, he has to give up certain things in order to do it. Dictating where you go is one of those things.

IT’S THE OWNERS FAULT THEY AREN’T MAKING MONEY, SO WHY MAKE THE PLAYERS PAY FOR IT?

In some ways the players are right. The fault lies somewhat with the owners for the financial straits the team is currently in. Of course, that doesn’t exactly tell the whole story. There are several reasons why the league is in the financial straits it’s in. One of which is the recently expired CBA. If the last CBA had been a little more owner friendly, then the owners wouldn’t be taking such a hard line this time.

And what the players don’t seem to understand is the position the owners are in. If they don’t win, then they lose fans and money. And in order to win, you need to pay for the players. The hard line owners are also NOT generally the ones who brought the NBA to where it is financially, with so many teams going way over the cap. It’s the rich teams that have done that. And they’ve basically screwed the rest of the owners in order to do it. So yes, the owners are at fault, but if Indiana wants to compete with New York, you either have to give Indiana the money that New York has, which is impossible, or make it more difficult for New York to spend the money that Indiana doesn’t have.

A quote that recently has come back to haunt Michael Jordan is when he told former Washington Wizards owner, Abe Pollin, that if he can’t make money with the team, then he should sell it. Players obviously are now jumping on Jordan for being hypocritical when it doesn’t seem to have dawned on them that maybe he was simply wrong when he initially said that and with him being on the other side of the issue, now, he simply has a better understanding.

While it’s certainly easier for ignorant players (or former players) to condemn Jordan, what they should be doing is realizing that maybe he just knows more than they do, now. It’s like condemning a war veteran for protesting a war as being hypocritical. Maybe being on both sides gives one a bit more of an understanding.

Jordan has come to realize, obviously, that he simply can’t compete financially with the big market teams. Sure, managing your team better would be a good start, but levelling the playing field is needed, as well.

THE OWNERS ARE NOT NEGOTIATING IN GOOD FAITH

Well, first of all, I see both sides trying to get desperately what they want and using whatever leverage they can. The owners are the only ones at the table that can actually LOSE MONEY based on the negotiations so it’s understandable that they are doing everything in their power to try and prevent that. On the other hand, no matter what the players agree to, most of them will be set for life after only a few years of playing (as long as they don’t squander that money, which is a different issue, though related one, altogether).

And while there are some militant owners who, no doubt, are making things difficult for the players, the players association aren’t helping. Take some of the rumours that have come out, presumably from players who have simply not been informed by their own representatives:

“The agreement contains a clause that allows any NBA team to send a player to the NDBL AND only pay him the pro-rated NDBL $75,000 while there”

Now, if that were actually true, I can see why players would object. If you sign a guy to a bad deal, you just send him to the NBDL and you don’t have to pay it. The problem is, it’s apparently not true. There is no mention whatsoever of the NDBL in the latest proposal from the league.

“The NBA is trying to take away Bird -rights”

The clause made famous by Larry Bird, which allows a team to go over the cap in order to re-sign it’s own player is also not mentioned in the latest proposal, or in any of them, as far as I know.

The problem is that the union is not only not communicating very well with it’s own members, but allowing them (and their agents) to spread completely fictitious rumours in order to, presumably, try and get players to vote against the proposal. And if you have to lie to players to get them to vote no, I don’t understand how that’s negotiating in good faith.

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Category: Lockout, NBA

Why Aren’t Fans In The Room?

Posted on November 8, 2011 | No Comments

Okay, it’s been quite a while since I last posted. Quite a while. And if the lockout doesn’t end soon, chances are it will be a while until the next post, so prepare yourself. Hopefully I’ll still have readers.

So, obviously I’ve been silent on this whole lockout thing. Even before the lockout, while I was still posting, I didn’t say much about it. And now we are either on the edge of a new deal, or a cancelled season, from what I’ve read. Personally I wouldn’t be shocked if either one happens.

There have been countless articles, stories and posts about this lockout. Some siding with players, some siding with owners, some offering solutions and others doing a combination. There have bee a lot of people trying to write from the fans perspective, too.

Jonathan Tjarks, of RealGM, tried to write an article, last month, speaking for the fans, but he didn’t get it quite right. His belief that fans want stacked teams ignored the fact that most fans want their OWN teams to win more, or at least compete. If the NBA truly wants stacked teams, I suggest they simply contract the league in half. Otherwise the fans of the 25, or so, other teams are not going to be very happy.

What Jonathan doesn’t seem to get is that the fan’s opinions are just as fractured as owners and players.. A lot of it will depend on what team you’re a fan of. Dallas fans wouldn’t like the idea of a more financially restrictive league because their owner has more money than most and is willing to spend it to win. Laker fans know that any move towards more competitive balance will just make things harder for their team, because they’ve dominated over the last 30 years. Miami fans LIKE the ability of players to simply choose which team they want to play because players love Miami.

Most fans, though, don’t live in Miami, Dallas or Los Angeles. Some live in Oklahoma City, Charlotte or Toronto, among other places not high on player’s wish lists. Unfortunately, what’s best for basketball doesn’t usually enter into any thought process when free agents are deciding where to sign. Let me just remind you that when LeBron James said he was taking his talents to South Beach, it was a pretty good indication of his thought process. You see, South Beach is one of the greatest places in North America to live if you have a lot of money. It is not, however, where the Heat actually play.

So players tend to have their own best interests at heart when making their decisions, as they should. And the same goes in the negotiation room with the owners. And owners, not surprisingly, have their own best interests at heart, no matter what David Stern might say. So who exactly is representing the fans?

The reason I ask is because it’s actually the fan’s money that the players and owners are trying to split up.

Obviously the answer is no one.

And that’s why it strikes me as silly when these two sides take their gripes public, hoping for some sympathy.

I was reading some of the comments on the RaptorsRepublic forum, recently, and came across some that a moderator by the name of Matt52 posted.

ESPN recently quoted Tyson Chandler :

“With the collective bargaining agreement and some of the things that they’re trying to enforce, it would basically prohibit me from coming back,” Chandler told the “Ben and Skin Show” on 103.3 FM in Dallas. “It would take it out of my hands — and the organization’s — because it would almost be pretty much impossible for me to re-sign. I just think that can be the worst thing that can happen.”

No, the worst thing that can happen would be for you to be out of a job, but let’s get past that for a moment. Chandler is complaining that since Dallas has such a large payroll that they wouldn’t be able to re-sign him to their already very talented team. Other than Dallas fans, I don’t think anyone would be all that heartbroken about him not being able to re-sign. Chandler doesn’t seem to get that part.

And Nazr Mohammed added his own rather self serving complaints via Twitter:

A Luxury Tax and teams that pay it can’t bid on the services of free agents…Sounds like a hard cap to me. I get it now…it’s time 2 punish the teams with money, who prospered under last CBA, or has a following outside of their state.

Considering how few teams actually prospered under the last CBA, maybe it’s best not to bring that up, Nazr.

I’m cool with whatever is best for our union but I hope it’s understood that we’re being offered a deal where the top teams won’t be able to bid for ur services when u become a FA. Teams known for spending money hands will be tied and u will be forced to either re-sign w/ ur current team or take a lot less on the open market. But there will be no open market bcuz teams like the Lakers, Miami, NY, Boston, etc couldnt even be part of the FA process

So he’s complaining that the best teams can’t just stack their team with the best talent, that ALL teams have a fair shot at players and that teams be able to actually re-sign their own players. And he’s taking these complaints to the fans?? Has he been taking advantage of the fact the NBA can’t drug test locked out players?

On the other side of the table is Michael Jordan, who has apparently made a lot of enemies among his former colleagues by being one of the hardline owners who have been pushing hard to lower the player’s share of the revenue. What these players don’t seem to understand is that Jordan is simply doing what they’re doing. What is best for himself. And they’re vilifying him for it.

Now, I don’t pretend to know the financial details of anyone in the NBA, but I’m guessing that Jordan is taking the position he’s taking because he’s doing what he needs to to survive financially. Everyone knows how competitive Jordan is, and my guess is that it kills him that he can’t compete with the Mark Cubans and Richard DeVos’ of the NBA.

I also think it’s ironic that Nick Young, who swore never to wore Jordan’s again, didn’t do so because of the fact that they are made in sweatshops in Asia or because they’re overpriced and marketed to urban youths who can’t afford them. He did so because the guy they are named after is watching out for his own.

So today (Wednesday) the players will either accept or reject the deal and there will either be a season or there won’t be. If the players reject the deal, it will end up screwing the portion of the NBA that can’t afford it and the portion who will probably benefit least from the deal. The average NBA career is just 4 years. That means that most of the players who miss this season will never be able to make it up financially. Ever. No matter whether the players get 52% or 50%.

And Nick Young is mad at Michael Jordan.

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Category: Lockout, NBA

The End of a Dynasty

Posted on July 8, 2011 | 6 Comments

I remember the first time I saw Yao Ming play in person. It was an exhibition game where China was playing against Canada at GM Place, in Vancouver. Yao had already been selected as the first pick in the 2002 draft by Houston, and my friend Darren, whose basketball opinion I trust almost as much as my own, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. No one on Canada’s roster was taller than 6’7, yet Yao got pushed around like the US Government on Wall Street. While Yao put up pretty good stats, neither Darren or myself were impressed. We certainly didn’t think he’d be a bust, he simply had too much talent for that, but we both wondered whether he would ever become the player some envisioned.

Not only was this game the debut of Yao in North America, it was a return to basketball in Vancouver. Just over a year before, Michael Heisley, the devil incarnate, decided to rip the beloved Grizzlies from Vancouver’s loving arms and transport them to Memphis, where they would be placed in the “care” of mostly neglectful and uncaring fans.

Okay, maybe I’m still a little bitter a decade later.

The most ironic¹thing about this game was that, for me, Yao Ming was the reason that Michael Heisley moved the Grizzlies when he did. In less than a year, Heisley went from singing the Canadian National Anthem to try and show his desire to make things work in Vancouver, to packing up the office and moving it to one of of the poorer major cities in the US and the most dangerous one. Why the quick change of heart? Well, because the next season, Yao Ming was going to enter the NBA draft.

Even before Yao played a minute in the NBA, he was a global marketing force. So much so, that I think Heisley knew that if the Grizzlies ended up with the number one pick in 2002, then there’s no way he could have reasonably argued to the NBA that he couldn’t afford to keep the team in Vancouver, a city with the second highest chinese population in North America. Yao Ming was going to open the doors of China to the NBA, and the league would never be the same.

Yao was not only a phenomenon off the court, with a documentary widely released about his journey from China to the NBA, but on the court, as well. The impact on the court was not immediate, however. Yao struggled to adjust to the NBA, at first, but eventually started to find his footing. After Charles Barkley famously declared that Yao would be a bust and would never score 19 points in a game, Yao scored 20 points, perfect from the field, against the Lakers.

The player my friend and I saw struggle against inferior competition in Vancouver was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the season. Yao narrowly missed out on winning the Rookie of the Year Award, to Amare Stoudemire and ended up starting in the All-Star game the next year.

While he only missed 2 games in his first three seasons, in his fourth season he started to break down. Toe surgery kept him out for nearly half the season, but he still managed to have a career year, only to better that the next season, averaging 25 ppg and 9 rpg. Yes, 25 and 9. Those are Hall of Fame numbers. I can only think of a handful of centers in the last 30 years that have come close to those numbers. Throw in 1.6 blocks, and you’ve got a possible MVP candidate. Unfortunately, Yao never got fully healthy again.

It was too bad that Yao never really was able to reach his prime, in the NBA, before injuries forced him to retire. And while you can definitely say Yao’s size was a major reason, it was not the only reason. Yao was not tall like Shawn Bradley or Manute Bol. Unlike those guys, Yao didn’t look like he was simply stretched. He LOOKED normal. Unless you stood next to him.

What probably had the most harmful effect on Yao’s career was his home country. Yao was a hero in China and his exploits on the National team put them on the international map. Unfortunately, it also never allowed him to take a break. And it took a toll on Yao’s body. Being that big, while being a professional athlete, is hard enough on your body, but not being allowed to rest it during the offseason, because there was no offseason for Yao, was the clincher.

The NBA is poorer for it.

Yao Ming not only was a symbol of screwing Vancouver basketball fans because the team would still be there if the Grizzlies had drafted him, but Yao was solely responsible for arch-enemy Steve Francis‘ All-Star appearance in 2004, when he averaged just 16 ppg, because of the flood of Chinese voters who voted for Francis simply because he was on the Houston Rockets. Francis never made the All-Star team again after being traded from Houston.

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Category: Grizzlies, International, NBA, Rockets

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