Be happy, it was a terrible deal for the Lakers. That team was going nowhere if it had to trot out bums like Theo Ratliff and Joe Smith in the frontcourt. Gasol and Odom are far more important to the Lakers than Chris Paul.
Scola, Martin and Odom? Seriously? Did the laker GM use a gun for that robbery? This was a crap deal, a 6th man, and 2 rotational players?
This. And draft picks are next to worthless in the NBA, so it’s not like those contributed much in the way of value. The GMs that were impressed with New Orleans’ haul must work in towns like Memphis.
Only reason Odom is a sixth man on the Lakers is because of that front court. He'd start and star on most NBA teams.
Or, he plays half assed most of the time perhaps? Odom has been through what, 3 teams already? He's what 31ish? For a young star? Puhleeze, NOLA GM should fire himself for trying to make that crappy of a trade.
Exactly, this was as bad a hose job as Gasol coming to the Lakers for a hot dog wrapper and a game worn Kupchak jersey. Glad Stern and Co shut down the candy store.
I think besides the trade not being all that great the NBA doesn't want to continue the trend of Superstars just picking a team and forcing their GM to complete a lopsided trade to get them there. I mean why even have small market teams at that point?
Well, that, and what good would have that package done the Hornets? A franchise that lost Zo Morning, and LJ, for bumpkis, losing Paul for more froth would have been just another giveaway of a Star for nothing. NOLA should have demanded a Starter, and a high draft pick, just look at the teams that pick Top 6 yr after yr, agree on the need for Lakers to make a move with one of those teams for that high of a pick, and it would make more sense, but Odom?
Just from a basketball standpoint, you just can't get equal value for these true superstars, like Paul, LBJ, Wade, Howard, etc. There are only about ten guys in that true elite stratosphere.
Stern is a genius. Now the Hornets gets to play under 'Melo Drama' all season. Then watch Paul walk away for nothing next summer. New Orleans, you're welcome!
Especially in the NBA were technical efficiency is not celebrated, only physical talent really is. The real issue here is not only NOLA proposing a crappy trade, but not getting anything at all of for the future, not a pick, not a young budding superstar, they more or less were the dumping ground for the lakers discarded big $$$ contracts on guys who are more or less role players for their one star. No future upside, huge contracts, on transient players, Hornets were more or less going to be a holding company not a functioning NBA franchise.
See, I don't think the trade was horrible for NO, given the circumstances. Martin is a proven scorer and Odom/Dragic/Scola are solid guys. Sure, no superstars in the bunch, but enough to keep you competetive now, and those guys are all nice trade chips moving forward. This whole affair just underscores why the a league owning a franchise is bad idea and should not be allowed to continue much longer. If the league can't find and owner for NO in the next six months, regardless of whether or not that new owner wants to move the team, the Hornets need to be contracted
Situation means nothing to trade value, which is one of the problems with the NOLA GM playing the patsie. As for "trade chips" that highlights the fact that this was more or less NOLA being a dumping ground. Nope, this highlights the fact NBA GM's, 90% of them, are pure dog crap in terms of strategic thinking.
What should Demps have done then? Get nothing for Paul? This trade netted useful players who aren't overly expensive who can then be flipped later. NO is not competing for a championship this year. They needed assets, this trade got them assets. Now, it is going to be impossible to allow NO to trade Paul anywhere as it will only look worse for the league in that they preferred Paul to be traded to the Knicks or Boston rather than LA. So now, Demps has an unhappy superstar who is going to leave at the end of the eyar and no ability to trade him. So, come June, Demps is out a superstar, and with no assets to begin turning the Hornets around, wherever they might be located.
NO absolutely is a dumping ground, which is much better than the alternative of being a bare wasteland like Cleveland.
Maybe after New York signs chandler they trade stoudamire for Paul? I think melon/chandler /Paul is a nice nucleus.
Getting stuck with Stoudemire's max contract is a worse trade for the Hornets than the one that was just voided. Sure STAT is a really good player, but he will whine and cry in NO worse than Paul and he doesn;t have much of a market given his age and injury concerns. The league also can't really allwo Paul to be traded anywhere, now that they have nixed the Lakers trade. So Paul can get traded to the Knicks but not the Lakers? Can't do it. Stern stepped into a clusterfudge here. Either the league should have stated that NO cannot trade Paul while the team is owned by the elague or they should have simply allowed Demps to do his job, which had been the case all along.
Why wouldnt they just wait til the end of the year when the Knicks can renegotiate Amar'e, Melo and Chandler and form Superfriends2 + chandler? The new CBA has a clause in it unlike the old CBA where you can renegtiate contracts down up to 40% and stretch out the years. Its not so crazy when you realize LBJ, Bosh and Wade all took less money. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7329408/new-items-added-nba-collective-bargaining-agreement
Clearly, other owners (we can speculate who, but I would venture Boston and New York were among them) got involved after the fact and *****ed and complained to the commish. It's a complete sham. I'm glad I don't spend a cent on this sport. I mean it's fun to watch, especially the three month playoff at the end (when the real season starts). But it's pathetic. Oh but the NBA is saying other owners didn't persuade them to nix the trade. mm hmm...
This wasnt Stern's baby, this was small market owners whining, particularly Dan Gilbert. In case you havent seen it, Yahoo obtained a copy of Gilbert's email to Stern, linked below. This is about owners trying to control star players which there really is no basis for but there is nothing in the CBA to overrule Stern's veto power if he agrees with one side. It does however land the NBA's credibility somewhere between WWE and Nascar though....http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-nba_dan_gilbert_email_lakers_hornets_trade_120811 Also Brandon Roy will likey retire so he wont have to be amnestied by Portland: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7...nd-trail-blazers-retire-due-knees-sources-say
Unreal. So was there actually a vote then, like Gilbert called for or did Stern just make his own decision? Best part of that email from Gilbert is his speculation about Howard being traded to the Lakers. That's just epicly hilarious.
I understand that Stern did it at the behest of clowns like Gilbert, but he didn't have to. He should have told them that they all agreed to let Demps and the overseer run the team and that it was too late to change that agreement. The league needs to dump the hornets ASAP or this is only going to get worse. At this point, they need to take any acceptable bid, even if the new owner wants to move. This is an untenable situation that can't continue. If no new owner by June, it's contraction time
I guess there has to be a vote because the league owns the team which means each owner has a stake in it essentially. I think Gilbert lead the charge on this and urged Stern to do it. Not sure how that works to be honest. I agree but I think I might understand what gilbert was getting at. Essentially his argument is that if the team does get sold any new owner/gm will inherit a cap mess which is why Gilbert brought salary in to play. What Gilbert failed to realize is that this also would have helped New Orleans field a borderline watchable team. I mean Jack-Kevin Martin-Odom- Scola-Okafor is not a terrible lineup. It may even get a 7/8 seed so the counterargument would be that there could be lost playoff revenues involved there. But I digress. I cant argue about something I dont fully understand either
The good news is that it doesnt appear that Stern will be around much longer as he hinted at retirement before the end of this CBA. Stern's done a lot for the league and helped bring it to prominence made it so that the national media and fans would actually care about the NBA. However the game has clearly passed him by and the things he has done such as getting NBA Finals games off tape delay have long since been accomplished. He is in over his head at this point in my opinion.
Lakers should just take on salary with Okafor. I mean from a salary standpoint, that makes it "fair"... I guess...
If the league's sole concern was making the hornets more attractive to prospective owners, then they probably did the right thing. Sure, any new owner would love to have Paul, but when selling a team that you must get rid of, the best way to make it more attractive is to reduce the debts already on the books when the enw owner comes in. If Paul leaves as a free agent, NO, will have a very low payroll and be well under the cap. Had the league come right out and said that this was the plan when they took over the Hornets I wouldn't have a huge problem with what they did. But they didn't do that. In fact, to avoid these exact situations, the league appointed an oversser to act as a "team president" so to speak and then hired Demps to work as a real, normal GM. Demps was given full authority to run the hornets in connection with the overseer, free from day-to-day oversight by the league. In fact, the hornets actually added payroll last year when they traded for Landry during their playoff push. Mark cuban objected at the time but Stern had no problem blowing him off. The real issue for gilbert and his fellow firebrands is not that Paul was getting traded. It's that he was going to the Lakers. That's it. If Milwaukee had pulled off the trade it would've gone through, I guarantee it. Dump NO now NBA. Or this is only the beginning of more problems
I guess but it doesnt work within the trade guidelines I dont believe. As a laker fan I would think you should be happy. Paul is the best player in the deal but you would be terrible at the 4 and your bench would be greatly affected for the worse without Odom. You would be relying on Bynum to stay healthy to have any presence in the middle. Just doesnt make sense from a Laker standpoint imo. I agree. Like I said, I cant argue with something i dont fully understand.
Funny, they asked the question here in LA on Fox Channel 11, "Do you want the Paul trade to go thru?" 53% yes, 47% no. Problem with that is of the 47%, how many are Laker fans that don't agree with the pieces being traded? I mean clearly, there would have been a second part to this move. We may never know what it would have been. If the Lakers were saving that much money, would Nene have been a consideration?
I haven't had the time to fully digest this, but it's a great editorial by Bill Simmons. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7334835/the-sixth-day-nba-christmas
The best I can do is say is if it were the Knicks I dont believe in trading a good big for a very good small. I believe even less in trading 2 bigs for a very a good small. Why do you think the Lakers won those last 2 championships? Kobe + the best front line. Youre going away from what was extremely successful even though Dallas small-balled you to death last year. Height is always the safest bet in the NBA unless the rest of your team is so ridiculously good....and you would be too weak at the 3 and 4 to really say that. So given the conditions, if I were a Laker fan I would not want the deal to go through even though CP is awesome and Gasol played softer then usual last year.
Also per rotoworld: The Magic are preparing to file tampering charges against two other teams for illegal contact with Dwight Howard, according to David Aldridge. The hist just keep coming. Instead of a rapturous return to NBA training camp and free agency, the past 24 hours have seen the CP3 non-trade debacle, the possible retirement of Brandon Roy, and now charges of player tampering. If one of the accused teams is the Nets or Lakers (the two presumed favorites to land Dwight), things will get very interesting.
Maybe you didn't read it correctly. David Stern...killed a Free Agent signing and then barred a renegotiation because the Heat did not count a performance bonus they paid to Tim Hardaway. That's it. and created a 12 million dollar hole in the Heat's cap. This is just a trade being voided. No comparison whatsoever.
As likely the only Hornets fan on these boards, allow me to say this is complete and utter bull****. Great, we get 66 games with a disgruntled Chris Paul and then he leaves after the season and we get NOTHING!
