2018-19 NBA Bric-a-brac (Week 15)

Trades
Bulls gets Carmelo Anthony, the rights to Jon Diebler, cash; Rockets gets the rights to Tadija Dragicevic
Bulls waived Melo immediately, this was just a chance to get him back out to the free agent market  for...whoever might actually want him (can you see him on the Nets? Maybe the Clippers?). The teams wisely threw in some draft rights guys just to make it look like an actual trade happened and the Bulls got well paid to make Melo disappear from the memories of Rockets fans. (Haven't been able to confirm reports that heartbroken youths throughout Houston are burning their Jon Diebler jerseys)


Mavs get Kristaps Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr, Courtney Lee, Trey Burke; Knicks get Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, DeAndre Jordan, two Mavs 1st rd picks (likely 2020, top 10 protected 2023)
Hmmmm.....okay. The Knicks dumped two of their three largest contracts and a PG that was never gonna hang to clear cap space for the summer and all it cost them was their best player, an intriguing youngster who could still become the best player in the game. They get a coupla vets that will be gone soon without any hope of contributing, a coupla vague 1st round picks (no reason to think those picks will be particularly good--especially considering how remarkably bad the Knicks have been at drafting over the years) and an intriguing young headcase that never fit in Dallas.  Okay, so what do they have going forward? After they clear house they'll have a top 5 pick, a shit ton of money to spend and a batch of intriguing young talents (Dennis Smith, Kevin Knox, Alonzo Trier, Mitchell Robinson, Damyean Dotson, (their largest contract next year is currently Lance Thomas which is not guaranteed and I can see them trading Frank Nkilitina any day now (how about to the Hornets straight up for Frank Kaminsky?))). I can see them bringing back Noah Vonleh and Emmanual Mudiay (though not if they're expecting big raises) and maybe DeAndre Jordan (if he's up for a big ol' pay cut), to go with Durant and Kyrie (I mean....right?). Sure, that's a playoff team in the East but are they really better than the Celtics, Sixers, Raptors or Bucks? Ehhh, maybe, but these New York teams don't care about getting good, they only care about box office and TV ratings, which is driven by stars--even mediocre stars that don't contribute to a winning environment--more than a youth movement. Is this a good deal for the Knicks? Well...yeah, I'd say it is. The bottom line is the franchise is still in excellent shape even if the team on the court isn't actually any good....so why bother to be good when you're mostly rewarded for being controversial? (My dad's example: Ben Affleck can meticulously put together a masterpiece film that grosses $105m or he can toss off a dumb piece of shit in 1/10 of the time and effort that makes $104m at the box office. When quality doesn't make a difference to the audience, why should it matter to the producer?)

As for the Mavs, well this kinda tanks them for this year but sets them up well going forward. Their 1st rd pick this year is already promised to Atlanta, so this felt like a good chance for them to charge hard for the playoffs, go ahead and get the youngsters some post-season experience and get back in the habit of winning; they were probably planning on a deadline deal that would strengthen the roster for this year but when a deal for the future came along, they had to go for it (though wouldn't it be cool to see Dirk getting one last crack at the #1 Warriors as the #8 seed?). This deal doesn't make them wildly worse right away but it makes them different enough that I don't anticipate they'll make a playoff run (though if KP can play, I'd go ahead and play him--he's a Mav now, play him). So let's look ahead: feels like we've finally hit the end of the line for Dirk, Barea, Devin Harris, and Mejri, I don't see any reason to bring back Trey Burke and I can see them keeping Finney-Smith and Kleber at the bottom of the roster but not for big raises; they'll have to re-sign Porzingis but he's not in crazy-money territory til his next contract (they're getting him at just the right time). They'll have money in the summer, so who do they add in the summer? I don't see them being in on Klay Thompson (though he'd be a great fit), the buzz is that they'll be going after Nikola Vucevic (good call) and if I were them I'd take a run at Julius Randle (player option with the Pelicans) and see if they can get a deal with Ricky Rubio, after that they'd do well to round out the second string with guys like Jeremy Lin, Patrick Patterson, and/or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The squad is built around the Luke/Zingis combo now, packing defensive minded rebounders for Coach Carlisle to mold. It'll take a while and they're missing their next two 1st rd picks, but they'll wheel and deal and once they get the winning back, they'll be attractive to free agents. 

Weird to say but I think I like this deal for both teams. Granted, it could go badly sideways for the Knicks but that's always true for them so it's an interesting gamble (also worth noting that Porzingis is whispered to be kind of an annoying dick in real life and seemingly injury-prone so it's not exactly money in the bank that he's a hall of famer). The Mavs have made a bold move and it's a good one.


Waivings
Cam Payne (Cavs), Quincy Acy (Suns), Stephan Hicks (Pacers)
Are the Pacers clearing space to take a run at someone?


Signings
Rockets sign Kenneth Faried (1yr/$?)
Dang, he's been great! Why wasn't he doing this for the Nets? Seems like they really could've used a rebound sucker-upper down low that can block shots and finish on the break.

Knicks sign Kadeem Allen (1yr/$?)
Had to fill the roster after that 4-for-3 trade. The upside: he'll get an NBA paycheck and some playing time for a very thin squad; downside: the Knicks aren't looking to win so if he's actually any good, he might get benched!


10-Day Contracts
Gary Payton Jr (Wizards), Bruno Caboclo (Grizzlies), Corey Brewer (Sixers), Mitch Creek (Nets), Kobi Simmons (Cavs), Emmanuel Terry (Suns), Isaiah Canaan (Wolves)
Still waiting for Brewer to make an impact with the Sixers but I reckon he will eventually (wonder why he's still on 10-days? Seems like they'd just up him for the rest of the season, right?).


Retirings
Pero Antic announced his retirement
I was ready to write something snarky, researched him to refresh my memory and--wait, oh shit, I loved that guy! Played with those really good Hawks teams a few years back, big sweaty European guy ran the floor better than you'd think, used to chuck 3's, kinda Nurkic-like but with more skill on the ball. Yeah, I remember that guy, I totally dug his game, wish he'd had more of an NBA career (seems like he should've been with either the Spurs or Jazz the last few years). This is why you do your research, kids, I was all ready to bag on a dude totally worthy of a toast (unlike, say, Jon Diebler, who I threw under the bus without hesitation).


Fined
Anthony Davis (Pelicans) $50k
Why? What did he do other than announce that he wouldn't be signing his extension next summer? Jimmy Butler actively, openly sabotaged the Wolves and sat out for weeks but gets no fine and the Knicks make a trade obviously (tamperingly obvious) meant to signal an aggressive push toward this summer's big free agents (ahem, Kyrie and Durant) but Davis simply does the polite thing of announcing his intentions ahead of time and he gets tagged? Makes no sense.

An odd observation on the Davis trade situation: The Pelicans will obviously be fielding trade offers but until they're ready to make a move, I think they just should play Davis like normal. They absolutely should NOT trade him until the end of the season and shouldn't necessarily trade him this summer. They still have another year to get the best deal and until then, they should treat Davis as they always have. (But wouldn't they risk him getting injured?) Yeah....so? (Duh, that would lower his trade value!) Oh really? Teams are not gonna want Anthony Davis any more if he gets hurt? I don't think an injury would make any difference at all to his overall value. (What if he gets a career-ending injury?) Well, that's what the Pelicans have lived with since the moment they drafted Davis, it isn't a function of trade demands.

Something everyone seems to be forgetting: the Pelicans don't want to trade Davis. If they play him and that lowers his value, then that max deal from the Pelicans looks even better, doesn't it? The Pelicans would be foolish to not gauge his trade value but they're not likely to find any package out there that would be better than Davis by himself (at max money), so they should just keep playing him like normal. Weird to say but if a calamity befalls Anthony Davis, that probably works for the Pelicans rather than against them. 

Sports Bric-a-brac

Kevin Garnett has officially retired. I thought Garnett had one more year of player-coach left in him, guiding a young Wolves team toward the future, getting back together with his one time mentor, Coach Thibodeau. Uh, apparently not. I assume that Thibs wasn't eager for KG's tutelage, wasn't eager to have KG hanging around and being a distraction, wasn't eager to have another voice besides his own--why else would Garnett leave? I'm torn: Garnett has been done for a while now but I was impressed with his veteran leadership last year and though I wasn't a fan of Coach Mitchell last year I thought he and KG had a great rapport with the team and keeping them both around in some capacity would have been a good move for the franchise. But once the reins got handed to Thibs, Thibs' first move was redecorating. Thibs is a rugged taskmaster and a bloodthirsty tyrant and while he's indisputably a great coach, I still think this young team needs some tenderness as opposed to an iron hand. Okay, well, the iron hand is fully in command, and apparently KG wasn't welcomed back. Garnett was one of the best I ever saw, toiled for years for crappy teams in Minnesota, finally got his glory with the Celtics, but that brief period was over a long time ago. Garnett is the kind of personality that can do whatever he wants....except play one more year for the Wolves. 1st ballot Hall of Famer, no doubt.

Chris Bosh is apparently done in Miami (and likely the NBA). Bosh's blood clots have returned and it seems that the Miami Heat have no interest in trying to bring Bosh back to basketball. Bosh wants to play, even going so far as firing his agent, but if win-at-all-costs Pat Riley wants no part of him, then who would? Bosh was a great player who never really even peaked. 1st ballot Hall of Famer, in my opinion. Contractual obligation makes him unlikely to get a chance to play at all this year. But perhaps he comes back next summer and tries to find a suitor (but I don't like his chances to ever play again).

Miami Marlins SP Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident over the weekend. There are a lot of baseball players in the world and when a young passes away (not an uncommon thing), we get the typical round of shoots and shames and then we get back to business. But this one's different. Fernandez is one of the best young pitchers in the game: 1st round pick, Rookie of the Year, 2-time All Star, top five in Cy Young voting in his 1st year (and probably again in his 4th). The dude was a legit star and still ascending. Damn shame to see him go (and I don't look forward to the sordid details of his death, which are surely still on the way). Tough blow for the Marlins and another blow for South Florida sports.

Hillary debates Trump. Honestly I found this to be a real disappointment. Reminded me of that Saints-Giants game from last week: felt like it was gonna be a shootout, both teams up and down the field, lots of points on the board...instead a 16-13 snoozefest.  Yeah, that was the 1st debate. I watched because hey, man, say what you will about Trump, he's a showman, he's a wild card and seeing him and Hillary on the stage together sounded like it could be some fun. Instead of the shootout we got the predictable snoozefest: Trump had some highs and lows, Hillary really had neither but in the end they both did what they've been doing for the last year. Trump hammered a coupla points well but floundered around on the points beyond his grasp; Hillary's job was to not look like a crazy person and, well, she succeeded. No notable drama, no substance, no one got served, which bodes well for Hillary. I suspect the next round of polls will show a drop for Trump while Hillary holds position, maybe even gets a little bounce. (A modest plea: having a debate with any moderator other than Brian Lamb is like having a Super Bowl with college referees)

Sam Allardyce out as England's manager. Allardyce just took his 'dream job' about six weeks ago, win his 1st and only match, but has already been terminated after a newspaper sting operation purports to show him circumventing rules to manipulate player movement. Uhhh, I dunno, I don't see any crime here. Sure, he kinda looks like a boastful, obnoxious jackass but I certainly don't see any criminal activity and everything he does actually do is nothing more entrapment. A bunch of reporters claimed to be Asian businessmen interested in paying Allardyce to give a series of speeches for a shit ton of money. Happens all the time, what's the big deal? He talks to the reporters about how to get in on player movement by bribing agents to convince players and managers to make certain moves. Okay, unethical if he ever actually did anything. But not illegal and in this context just philosophical talk. There's no corresponding moves that indicate a pattern of illegal behavior and, again, this is all just entrapment, none of this actually happened, nor did Allardyce try to make anything happen. I don't know how libel laws work in the UK but if I were Allardyce I'd lawyer the fuck up and sue everyone I could. It'd probably take a few years but I suspect he'd get paid off in the long run. And since his career looks to be over, its not like he's got something better to do. Personally I'm rooting for him, sure he's a jackass but he got a raw deal.

Thoughts About Retirement

This past NBA season was all about Kobe's last hurrah. Kind of a joke but the Lakers had nothing else going on anyway (and were playing to save their top 3 protected draft pick), so letting Kobe run roughshod of everyone one last time seemed fitting. Also fitting was that Tim Duncan did not give us a farewell tour, choosing to ride off into the sunset by issuing a minimal press release in August. Personally I thought Duncan had one year left in him, I thought his decline last year had more to do with changes in Spurs personnel than in his deterioration, but I can't say I'm surprised he decided to move on or that he treated his retirement like an afterthought. Kobe is perhaps the most self-important athlete of my lifetime (at least I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate anyone else being suggested for that title!) and watching him chuck 3 pointers at an embarrassing rate was predictable. Going for 60 in his final game was probably predictable: no one else had anything play for and if Kobe had gone 3-35, 6 turnovers, no assists or rebounds, well...that would've been every bit as fun to watch, so might as well keep feeding the guy who has never fed anyone else in his life. Who was the better NBA player all in all? I'll take Duncan. He was a quiet badass whereas Kobe was the ultimate attention hog. Both had top flight careers so frankly choosing your favorite personality is as good a tiebreaker as any.

Alex Rodriguez, one of the greatest baseball players of all time (whether you like it or not), was summarily drummed out of the Yankee lineup about a month ago and while no one would be shocked if he turned up on a spring training roster next year, his career is pretty much done. 697 home runs, only three other dudes in the history of the game hit that many, clearly ARod was one of the greats, right? Why does everybody hate ARod? He's a cheesy guy that needs to be loved (like Kobe) but is a rather low key personality that doesn't want to do stuff just to be liked (like Duncan). He's not an abrasive personality, he's not a shameless self-promoter, he doesn't endorse every product that comes down the pike, his private life is not something I know anything about, and, yes, he was busted for steroids but a) I couldn't care less and b) so was every other good player of his generation. So why does everybody hate ARod? I dunno but I will say when the career highlights were mentioned, I must confess I totally forgot he won 2 MVPs with the Yankees. I barely remember him with the Yankees though that was the bulk of his career. ARod is a guy that I tuned out so long ago that I didn't remember most of his best moments. Honestly, baseball is still in the steroid phase where its trying to undermine itself and demean its own stars for no real reason. ARod is going to be the face of the self-loathing period longer than the rest. I think he's a pretty good TV personality, we'll see how that changes the perceptions of his career over the next 20-30 years.

Michael Phelps won 14 more gold medals this summer in Rio and capped another brilliant Olympic run by announcing his retirement (for the 3rd time if I'm not mistaken). Yes, he's getting older, and, yes, he's already won 80 (roughly) gold medals, so maybe he's had his fill of guts and glory. But I gotta ask: why should he retire? He swims. That's the best exercise your body can get, why would he stop doing that? Why would his game deteriorate? Allen Iverson took a lot of abuse, you knew he'd wind down eventually; Deion Sanders had the best first step in the history of football and once that left him, you'd knew his game would suffer; Rafael Nadal throws everything he's got into returning every ball, you know these hard courts are going to shred his knees and ankles; even Tiger Woods played a game of repetitive motions that could lead to all kinds of nagging injuries. But why would Phelps ever deteriorate? He doesn't face defenders trying to physically stop him, there aren't any kooky herky jerky motions that might lead to muscle deficiencies or injuries, his body can still grow stronger (or at least not get weaker) for another decade or so (damn, he's not that old). I can understand that kids will come along and be better than him, than can happen. But I think he can still be better than what he's done so far, so why not keep coming back?

Meanwhile, Tim Tebow is trying to play baseball  after many years of NOT trying to play football. The guy who never really had a career--and yet never went away--is still trying to be something he's not. And what of Serena Williams? She's at that point where the up-and-comers of women's tennis are lining up to lay beat downs on her, how much of that do you think she'll endure? I suspect her retirement will come quickly and out of the blue probably in the next year.

I'm gonna miss Duncan. I guess I'll even miss Kobe. I'd already forgotten ARod before he left, I never thought twice about Tebow and honestly Serena is probably my all-time least favorite athlete. But I got a feeling Phelps will be back again (and again and again).