2011 Toronto Raptors/NBA/Labour Negotiations Spectacular

[GhostofPotvin29]

Don't know if it's been posted, but enjoyed Simmons' piece on the Paul fiasco.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7334835/the-sixth-day-nba-christmas

 

[L K]

Stern vetoed the re-attempt to find a deal that had the Lakers taking on more salary and throwing in a pick.  Stern continues to be sham of a commissioner.

On the side the Lakers dealt Odom to the Mavs for absolutely nothing (a TPE).  That's ok by league standards though because you know, it's not related to Stern flexing his ego.

I can't wait until he creates another random 1 million dollar fine for making decisions Stern doesn't like.

 

[hockeyfan1]

Raps apparently bringing in Anthony Carter as well.

So that's Butler, Gray, Magloire, Forbes and Carter.

It's going to be a long season.

For the Raptors, fans can expect more of the same...no expectations for a playoff finish, but a slight improvement with more development in the "building" process (rather than calling it a "rebuilding" process).

Here's more:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/basketball/no-shortcuts-for-raptors/article2264004/

When it comes to the rebuilding process of the Raptors ? or building process, as the NBA team now prefers to call it ? Colangelo is steadfast in his resolve that he won?t resort to any shortcuts to try to land the team instant credibility.

If that means not dabbling in any of the big-name free agents who are about to discover new riches with the NBA about to officially proclaim itself open for business once more, so be it.

... he?s now got a second lieutenant in Ed Stefanski to keep him on the straight and narrow.

?Every time I kind of get lured back in,? Colangelo said Wednesday of his penchant to try to make a big deal to try to rectify whatever is ailing his team. ?It proves Ed?s worth to the equation because he said I?ll tackle you on the way to the phone if you want to pursue that.?

the GM said, don?t expect the Raptors to go out and try to spend their way out of their problems, at least not this year.

?One thing I will tell you, we have a plan in place ? and we?re going to stick to that plan,? Colangelo said during a briefing on the upcoming season with reporters at the Air Canada Centre, flanked by new head coach Dwane Casey and Stefanski.

That plan includes the ongoing development of core players such as DeMar DeRozan and Ed Davis, along with Jonas Valanciunas, their first-round pick in the 2011 draft.

...the GM said he will be looking to sign or trade for players ? ?system pieces? is how he referred to them ? that have shorter contracts so as not to affect the team?s financial flexibility moving forward.

If all goes according to plan, Colangelo said he expects to have between $10-million to $20-million (U.S.) in salary cap flexibility to play with for the 2012-13 season.

Colangelo said cynics might suggest that by taking such a slow and steady approach the Raptors are only trying to set themselves up for another low finish that guarantees another high draft choice in 2012.

?I?m not going to tell the coach to have his team lay down at any point in the season,? Colangelo countered. ?To some degree you are competitive and you want to win every game. But the reality is, this year, it?s not in the cards.

?We?re going to do everything we can to fight. And if we somehow get to the playoffs, that would be a great story.?

 

[princedpw]

Stern vetoed the re-attempt to find a deal that had the Lakers taking on more salary and throwing in a pick.  Stern continues to be sham of a commissioner.

What was the reason?  "Teams with Kobe Bryant are barred from trading for allstars"?

 

[Erndog]

ESPN now reporting the Clippers close to acquiring CP3 for:

Chris Kaman, AlFaruq Aminu, Eric Bledsoe, and a first round pick in 2012


It's not finalized.  But it's believed to be something along those lines.  I heard Eric Gordon may be in instead of Bledsoe.  If I was the Clippers I would try desparately to keep Gordon, I think that guy is a budding star. 

Griffin and Paul should make for some nice highlight reel material.

 

[maplesyrup]

Griffin and Paul should make for some nice highlight reel material.

I might even like that combo better than James/Wade.

 

[Chev-boyar-sky]

ESPN now reporting the Clippers close to acquiring CP3 for:

Chris Kaman, AlFaruq Aminu, Eric Bledsoe, and a first round pick in 2012


It's not finalized.  But it's believed to be something along those lines.  I heard Eric Gordon may be in instead of Bledsoe.  If I was the Clippers I would try desparately to keep Gordon, I think that guy is a budding star. 

Griffin and Paul should make for some nice highlight reel material.

How is this better than the original deal, for the league and for New Orleans?

The other deal appeared, to me at least, a win-win-win, for NO, LA and the fans of the league.

I still don't get why it was vetoed and this is allowed to go through instead.

 

[Kin]

How is this better than the original deal, for the league and for New Orleans?

Well, it'll depend a lot on whether it turns out to be Eric Bledsoe or Eric Gordon in the deal. Eric Gordon, if he's included, would be by far the best return the Hornets would get for Paul. He's 22 and averaged 23 points a game last year. The package the Hornets would have gotten from the Lakers would be good in terms of immediate competitiveness but they were requiring a bunch of guys who were pushing 30. This deal, again if it's Gordon and not Bledsoe, would give them a young star to build around as well as good complimentary pieces in Kaman and Aminu.

If it's Bledsoe and not Gordon then at least you can say it's still a trade built around young players who some believe to have high ceilings.

edit: Also, I just read that the 1st round pick that the Clips would throw in would be Minnesotat's which very well could be a top 5 pick.

 

[Erndog]

How is this better than the original deal, for the league and for New Orleans?

Well, it'll depend a lot on whether it turns out to be Eric Bledsoe or Eric Gordon in the deal. Eric Gordon, if he's included, would be by far the best return the Hornets would get for Paul. He's 22 and averaged 23 points a game last year. The package the Hornets would have gotten from the Lakers would be good in terms of immediate competitiveness but they were requiring a bunch of guys who were pushing 30. This deal, again if it's Gordon and not Bledsoe, would give them a young star to build around as well as good complimentary pieces in Kaman and Aminu.

If it's Bledsoe and not Gordon then at least you can say it's still a trade built around young players who some believe to have high ceilings.

Pretty much.  The Hornets won't do better than Gordon.  And I imagine the attractive thing for the Hornets here is they are getting good young players on cheaper contracts then older players who cost quite a bit more.

Also:

Chris Broussard @Chris_Broussard 1 min Reply Retweet Favorite ? Open
Source insists LAC offering Gordon, Kaman, Aminu & Minny's pick for CP. LAC dont want Gordon's name reported in deal in case it don't happen

Chris Broussard @Chris_Broussard 1 min Reply Retweet Favorite ? Open
LAC don't want a LOdom situation on hands. Wants to extend Gordon if CP deal don't happen. NBA running deal for NO & wants Bledsoe added


If it's true that NO wants Bledsoe AND Gordon then it looks like they are getting pretty greedy.  That would severly gut the Clippers just while they appear to be building something special.

I'd like to watch a Griffin-Gordon-CP3 trio.  Heck, I think highly od Deandre Jordan although I don't know if they are going to match the Warriors offer sheet.

 

[Kin]

If it's true that NO wants Bledsoe AND Gordon then it looks like they are getting pretty greedy.  That would severly gut the Clippers just while they appear to be building something special.

Well, yes and no. It'd be a very high price to pay, obviously but if the Clippers get Paul it basically relegates Bledsoe to the bench for the rest of his time with the Clippers anyway. From a duplication of talent standpoint it wouldn't really kill the Clippers to throw in Bledsoe although they could probably deal him elsewhere for an ok return.

 

[Erndog]

Pacers acquire OJ Mayo

What a great summer.  George Hill (draft day deal), David West and OJ Mayo for nothing really significant.

This is the classic buy low scenerio.  He had a bad year last year.  Had some off court issues, wasn't happy in Memphis, playing time cut, etc.  A fresh start could be huge, this guy was an 18 pt, 4 reb, 4 ast player his first 2 years.  He's only 24!


C- Hibbert
PF- West
SM- Granger
SG- Mayo
PG- Collison

Off the bench is Hansbrough, Paul George and George Hill.

They could be pretty good this year!  As long as West stays healthy and Mayo rebounds they could be a team fighting for home court.

 

[Erndog]

Darn.  McRoberts' agent says this is 'news to him' and it's not done yet.

THIS is one of the drawbacks to the social media networks like twitter, etc.  News gets leaked far to prematurely.

Hopefully they can still swing this.

 

[Kin]

I'll be honest, that looks like a 45 win team(or whatever the equivalent is in this shortened season) with no real chance to hang with the real contenders in the East and very little in the way of cap space to improve.

 

[Erndog]

They had the 3rd most cap space of any team in the league prior to West.  I don't think cap space is (will be) an issue.

Yeah, they won't have any chance to beat the big boys but they look to be a playoff team who might be able to win a round at the very least.

 

[Kin]

They had the 3rd most cap space of any team in the league prior to West.  I don't think cap space is (will be) an issue.

Going forward though they'd have to extend both Hibbert and Mayo this year and Collison the next. If they do make this deal and intend on keeping the team together past this year than, outside of some tinkering, this is the group they'd go to war with.

 

[Erndog]

They had the 3rd most cap space of any team in the league prior to West.  I don't think cap space is (will be) an issue.

Going forward though they'd have to extend both Hibbert and Mayo this year and Collison the next. If they do make this deal and intend on keeping the team together past this year than, outside of some tinkering, this is the group they'd go to war with.

Well, I imagine they will have some options with Granger and Hansbrough in a years time (Paul George is developing into our next Granger).  Not to mention West only signed for 2 years so they aren't married to the guy.  In one years time he becomes an expiring contract, and probably a pretty attractive one at that.  I don't worry about their cap issues at all.

Article talking about their cap space = $21M

I think the Pacers were in that position where they weren't bad enough to get a top pick, but obviously don't have that franchise player to compete against the big boys.  They weren't going to sign (or likely draft) that player either.  Howard/CP3/etc weren't coming to Indy one way or another.  So they decided the best route was to become a team filled with quality depth.  I think they accomplished that in spades this summer.  They added 2 upgrades to their starting five with West and, I assume, Mayo.  And they added their first option off the bench with George Hill. 

Like I said, they won't beat the Miami's or Chicago's of the world, but I wouldn't actually be shocked if they somehow upset, say, the Celtics because of the youth and depth factor.

They're also a pretty young team as most guys are in their mid 20's.  They actually remind me quite a bit of the Leafs (not sure if that is a good or bad thing?)

 

[Kin]

I'm not saying they're bad. Just that they're firmly in that middle tier with teams like Milwaukee and New Jersey. I think the top 4 spots in the East are almost certain to be some configuration of the Celtics, Bulls, Knicks and Heat. Being behind that group is better than where the Raptors are but it's not somewhere I'd want to be all the same.

 

[Erndog]

I'm not saying they're bad. Just that they're firmly in that middle tier with teams like Milwaukee and New Jersey. I think the top 4 spots in the East are almost certain to be some configuration of the Celtics, Bulls, Knicks and Heat. Being behind that group is better than where the Raptors are but it's not somewhere I'd want to be all the same.

Yeah, they are 'hoping' to win a round while the top 4 are hoping to win the title.  I know there is a big difference.

They actually JUST used their amnesty on Posey so they freed up $7M more, now have ~16-$18M in cap space apparently.

TimDonahue8p9s Tim Donahue
. @MikeWellsNBA Re: Posey Amnesty: Is that (a) just clearing the locker room and adding flex down the road or (b) Step 1 of something else?


Bird flew out to meet Nene.  Although with West on board now not sure where he'd play.  It's probably nothing more than to have the cap space available for the future.

 

[Erndog]

WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski
Clippers are refusing New Orleans-NBA steep asking price for Chris Paul, league sources tell Y! Sports. "Deal could be dying," source says

 

[Kin]

Bird flew out to meet Nene.  Although with West on board now not sure where he'd play.  It's probably nothing more than to have the cap space available for the future.

I don't know a ton about how Denver's been using him and I know they used to have a front court of him and Camby but NBA.com does have him listed as a centre and at 6'11 and 250 lbs. he's certainly got the size for it. Obviously Hibbert creates duplication there too and, from what I've read, the Nets are the real players for Nene so I agree it doesn't add up.