- I haven’t seen mention of this anywhere – I was watching ESPNNEWS the other day and caught the tail end of an interview with Ric Bucher where he said, in response to the question of why we were seeing such outrageous contracts for marginal players, that there might be a thinking among the owners that there might be a stipulation in the new CBA that would allow them to renege on these deals. I really wish I had heard the entire thing because it struck me as both interesting and confusing. We’ve heard the rumors for quite some time that the new CBA could place tighter limits upon contract guarantees but surely this couldn’t work retroactively….? Surely it could only apply to the deals signed under the new CBA? Even if there was a grace provision, as heavily rumored, allowing teams to waive one albatross contract, surely it wouldn’t wipe out the owner’s actual monetary obligation to the player, but rather just the cap hit as was the case in 2005…..?
- What are the Suns doing exactly? Not re-signing Amare was fine and justifiable but I can’t make much sense out of the Warrick and Frye signings. There’s really nothing worse than overpaying for mediocrity. It will be interesting to see what happens with Nash now as surely he cannot be too happy. Perhaps a reunion in Dallas via Dampier’s contract?
- Larry Coon wrote a must-read piece yesterday detailing why the Knicks will not, in all likelihood, be players for Carmelo. As I tweeted, there’s nothing better than rational thought and mere logic dashing the hubristically deluded hopes/expectations of fans of big-market teams. This notion from the Knicks that they could sign Carmelo with the whopping (sarcasm) $12million they stand to be under the cap next summer just one year after most no one signing for 15 was just too rich. That it was propagated in the press as possibility and not called out before that point was sad and illustrative of a failing of our industry.
- While we’re on the topic of the Knicks, I’m also loving the links to Tony Parker. It’s great how one of the constants in NBA reporting is that no matter how barren their roster, you can expect the Knicks to always have a great chance to land any number of All-Stars just simply due to their having interest in said player(s). They stand a great chance now to land Carmelo and TP because Amare sent them text messages. Forget about why Denver or the Spurs would ever even consider such deals, who cares about logistics? I’m almost half-expecting to see a Peter Vescey report that the Knicks have found a way to unload Eddy Curry’s contract, agreeing to send Hubert Davis and Anthony Bonner along with him to the Heat for a traded player exception.
- A lot of whining about the length of this process. Surprising considering it’s been ongoing for not even half a week. But of course, I’m sure we all make major life decisions within 4 days.
- With that said, Bosh’s incessant purposefully-suggestive tweeting has grown incredibly tiresome. Ellipsis-laden hinting messages will not make me leap to my computer like Sherlock and try to unravel the mystery as to what Chris Bosh is doing/thinking. It’s absurd that so many no longer want him or want him less for his immaturity and attention cravenness (we want him because he’d be great at the ‘4’ next to Yao, not because we want him for public office), but the shtick got old sometime in June.
- Just now from Y!: “The Raptors are still open-minded about the possibility of a sign-and-trade with their All-Star and have done extensive research on possible scenarios with each potential trade partner. The Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers are among the teams in the luxury tax who have interest in a possible sign-and-trade for Bosh. The San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets are other possible sign-and-trade partners.” Weird how the text of the entire blurb is exactly verbatim from what was posted last night except that now, the Rockets are listed as being among “other” possible partners, whereas last night, they were listed first amongst potential trade partners. Not sure what that’s supposed to mean…
