That Was the Week That Was …
It’s Over, Let it Go …
We Had a Lot this Week and We’ve Nothing Left to Wait For
But Total Snow …
— That Was the Week That Was, BBC TV, Dec. 29, 1962
SUNDAY, FEB. 19
Let’s face it, the All-Star Game last Sunday was awful — a 192-184 exhibition
that was, even by the All-Star Game’s historically paltry standards for defense,
painful to watch. The hometown guy, New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis, got
the MVP away from Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook — who at least
put on an impressive display of 3-pointers and explosive drives — with about
752 dunks in the second half.
Afterward, all anyone could talk about in the hallways of the Smoothie King
Center was about how someone had to do something to make the game more palatable
going forward. Meanwhile, the Sacramento Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins only played two
minutes — by design, according to Western Conference team coach Steve Kerr,
because Cousins was a little beat up and asked for a light workload. Made sense.
But there were stirrings in the building. There had been increasingly loud
chatter during All-Star weekend that the Kings were seriously considering
trading Cousins, but that seemed impossible — Sacramento had publicly gone out
of its way to express not only support for Cousins, who leads the league in
technical fouls, but its intentions to give Cousins that $209 million contract
for which he was eligible under the new Designated Player Exception in the newly
signed Collective Bargaining Agreement.
And, indeed, by the time most had left the arena, the Kings had finalized a deal
to trade their All-Star center, along with Omri Casspi, to the Pelicans for
rookie guard Buddy Hield, veteran Tyreke Evans, and first- and second-round
picks in the 2017 Draft. It was stunning across the board — stunning that the
Kings had given up so quickly on Cousins as their franchise’s standard bearer,
and stunning that they’d gotten so little for him.
On the other hand, the Kings’ willingness to settle instead of waiting it out
was indicative of the franchise’s collective exasperation with Cousins — who
didn’t help his case by quickly racking up an 18th technical foul on the season
two games into his tenure with the Pelicans, assuring a second one-game
suspension from New Orleans’ next game. It did, in some ways, feel more like a
divorce than a trade: take whatever you want; just get out.
MONDAY, FEB 20
Answers, sort of, came from Kings’ GM Vlade Divac in a news conference with
reporters in Sacramento — before which, the Kings put out a press release
officially announcing the deal in which Divac said “Winning begins with culture
and character matters,” a fairly clean kill shot to Cousins’ reputation.
Divac said that the Kings had a better offer for Cousins on the table two days
before from an unnamed team, but that that team pulled the offer back before
Sacramento could act on it. He intimated that Cousins’ agents were responsible,
by warning the unnamed team that Cousins wouldn’t re-sign there when he became a
free agent in 2018 (that team, like everyone else other than Sacramento, would
not be able to offer Cousins the $209 million DPE. Only the team that drafts the
player is allowed to use it on the player). He also said that he believed the
offers for Cousins would get worse as Sacramento neared the trade deadline
Thursday, not better.
Divac was crushed nationally for these explanations, as people noted that a) the
actions of Cousins’ agents, if true, were fairly predictable, considering the
most Cousins could get from any other team in the league was $180 million — a
loss of almost $30 million from what the Kings could offer him with the DPE, b)
trade offers historically tend to improve as desperate teams see the looming
trade deadline as the last best chance to improve their rosters before the
playoffs, c) Divac never explained the team’s backtracking on either the leaked
commitment to paying Cousins the $209 million or their pledge to his agents the
day of the trade that they weren’t going to trade him.
Some have defended Divac by saying reporters may have misinterpreted what he
said because English is not the Serbian-born Divac’s first language. I’ve been
covering Divac since the Lakers drafted him in 1990. The story then was he
learned English watching “The Flintstones”. It was a cute story as thin as
phyllo dough. Divac’s English was fine then — like many people who come to the
States from another country, he just wasn’t comfortable yet speaking English
conversationally, lest he make a mistake with a colloquialism — and, almost
three decades later, it’s fine now. That’s not what got Divac in hot water.
At any rate, the Kings were finally done with Cousins, but Cousins wasn’t done
with Sacramento. Such a softy.
TUESDAY, FEB. 21
A woman fires her brother from the job their father gave him helping to run the
family business, and hires a Hall of Famer to replace the brother. The Hall of
Famer, in turn, hires Kobe Bryant’s agent to run one of the NBA’s two most
historically important franchises … and everyone acts like it’s a big deal or
something.
So that was the state of things when the Los Angeles Lakers announced they were
cleaning house Tuesday, with Jeanie Buss finally dropping the hammer on her
brother, Jim, the team’s longtime GM, Mitch Kupchak, and the team’s just as long
PR director, John Black. Jeanie Buss, the team’s Executive Vice President and
representative at the league’s Board of Governors meetings, made the call, with
the Lakers facing a fourth straight season out of the playoffs and the team’s
inability to attract difference-making free agents an increasingly public
problem.
Jeanie Buss wasted little time formally giving Magic Johnson the reins, naming
him the team’s President of Basketball Operations, substantially increasing the
“advisor” role he’d been given a couple of weeks ago. Johnson has become a
wildly successful businessman since his playing days ended, hoisting a second
career on top of his first. That he’s never run a basketball team from the front
office before makes him not at all different from Larry Bird or Michael Jordan
or Isiah Thomas or Kevin McHale or any of the other superstars of his era that
got a crack at it.
But the Lakers aren’t any other franchise.
Only the Boston Celtics rival them in terms of championships and Hall of Famers.
No one rivals them — even now — in brand recognition. But the franchise was an
afterthought for many modern players — many of whom barely remembered the
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe days, much less Magic’s on-court reign. The Lakers
couldn’t get audiences with Kevin Durant or LeBron James when they were free
agents. They reached for the likes of Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng in free
agency last summer, and that use of the cap room that was finally freed up after
Bryant’s $48 million contract came off the books may have been the last straw.
Jeanie Buss told the Lakers’ broadcast partner in an interview, “this was a very
difficult decision. It was probably so hard for me to make that I probably
waited too long. And for that, I apologize to Laker fans. But now, with clarity
and direction, and after talking with Earvin, really knowing that a change was
needed. And that’s why we’re here today…I wanted for the current front office to
have their opportunity to show us what Laker basketball was going to be. And it
just wasn’t going in a direction that was satisfactory for what this
organization stands for.”
Johnson quickly took over, dealing veteran Lou Williams to the Rockets for Corey
Brewer and a first-round pick. And the team quickly chose Rob Pelinka, the
well-known and respected player agent for Bryant and other stars like James
Harden, Andre Iguodala, Avery Bradley and Trevor Ariza, to be GM. The deal was
done with Johnson’s blessing; Bryant being, like him, something of a favorite
son in LakerLand. Even if Kobe wasn’t/isn’t going to be involved in the
day-to-day operations of the team, his preference that Pelinka be involved was
immediately clear.
That blessing caused a bit of sturm und drang among many African-American
executives around the league, who had to sit on the sidelines while yet another
player agent with no front office experience was given a chance to run a team —
in this case, one of the league’s marquee teams. It cut especially deep given
Johnson’s standing in the African-American community not only as a businessman
and role model, but as one that has given all manner of opportunities to
entrepreneurs of color in his various endeavors, including his own companies.
Johnson was of course not obligated to hire an African-American to be his
general manager, and the frustration wasn’t necessarily directed at Pelinka. But
the lack of opportunity executives of color continue to have in a league that
has been the most progressive among all the major sports in giving opportunities
to minorities and women in many other league and team positions drew some ire.
Black executives continue to feel marginalized, as teams increasingly go for GMs
with analytic backgrounds or the agent route. And even then: if you’re looking
for a high-profile agent with people skills to recruit stars, why doesn’t
someone like Bill Duffy — like Pelinka, a former college basketball player who
built a sports agency that represents some of the NBA’s biggest stars (Andrew
Wiggins, Mike Conley, Jr, Goran Dragic, Zach LaVine, Danny Green) — ever get a
call?
Still, one could argue that Jeanie Buss did hire a prominent African-American
with no previous experience running a team to run hers — Magic. That the woman
who is the highest-ranking team executive in the NBA did so should count for
something.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22
Trying to keep up with the Ujiris, the Washington Wizards sacrifice their 2017
first-round pick to expunge Andrew Nicholson’s ill-fitting contract from their
books and bring in much-needed bench pop by getting Bojan Bogdanovich from the
Brooklyn Nets. It’s the latest manifestation of the arms race by the Gang of
Three – the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Washington — that have risen in
the Eastern Conference as the most likely challengers to the Cleveland Cavaliers
in the playoffs.
It may well be Fools’ Gold chasing after Cleveland, but it’s still encouraging
to see teams making moves in order to get better this season, rather than
punting the rest of 2016-17 because they think a pursuit of the Cavs is futile
and a waste of future resources.
That pursuit comes into stark relief Wednesday night. A rumor gains centripetal
force that the Celtics and Indiana Pacers are deep in discussions on a potential
trade that will send Paul George to Boston. The deal is said to be very, very
close. There wouldn’t be a bigger game-changer among any of the contending teams
throughout the league than the Celtics adding the four-time All-Star and
Olympian.
Plans are made. Dinner reservations are cancelled.
And then…nothing.
This happens all the time in the last 72 hours before the trade deadline. Every
rumor, including the ones you never hear about, has to be vetted. Most turn out
like this: no truth to it, or at least not enough truth to go on air or online.
You are always weighing bits of information in your head: who would benefit if
this became public? Is this a ploy by one of the teams to put pressure on the
rest of the league to ante up? Or another team that may want Boston out of the
way to go after someone else?
In this case, for example: it surely wouldn’t hurt the Celtics to let everyone
know they’re about to pull the trigger on a George deal; anyone else looking to
deal with Boston would have to improve whatever standing offers they have on the
table, and pronto. (This is why offers frequently get better nearer the
deadline, not worse.)
There are surely discussions between Boston and Indiana, but no one believes
that the Pacers will make a decision deeper into the evening — Larry Bird is
viewed by many as a morning person who prefers to shut it down businesswise
after sundown.
THURSDAY, FEB. 23
Deadline Day turns out to be mostly a dud.
Even though George and the Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler are on the block, neither
Indiana nor Chicago moves their star. The Atlanta Hawks jumped in Thursday,
offering multiple first-round picks and players to the Pacers for George, but
was rebuffed. The Minnesota Timberwoves hold out for Mindaugas Kuzminskas in
addition to Derrick Rose. The Knicks say no. Toronto further fortifies itself on
defense, picking up P.J. Tucker from the Phoenix Suns. But none of the other
real contenders in either conference makes a significant deal.
That’s why Cleveland was the No. 1 big winner at the trade deadline. Cleveland,
which did nothing. The Cavs didn’t have to.
They can afford to wait everyone out, for they have LeBron and no one else does.
Cleveland’s at the top of every player’s wish list, so the Cavs know that there
will be players who will want to come there who will be bought out or waived
after the deadline. And so it came, with Deron Williams making it known he’ll
sign with the Cavs today after clearing waivers over the weekend. Andrew Bogut,
who’ll be bought out by the Philadelphia 76ers after being traded there in a
package for Nerlens Noel, may well follow.
Speaking of which, the 76ers finished No. 2 on trade deadline day. No, Justin
Anderson or the Mavericks’ 2017 first, both of which came along with Bogut,
don’t tip the scales that much. The Sixers are here because they can swap
first-round picks in June with Sacramento, one of the residual perks from the
2015 deal that sent Nik Stauskas and others to Philly so that the Kings could
clear cap space to sign Rajon Rondo, among others. The Cousins trade is almost
certain to send the Kings spiraling out of the playoff race in the West, thus
making their pick that much more attractive and valuable for the 76ers.
Toronto was No. 3, using a spare first-rounder picked up from Milwaukee for
Greivis Vasquez in 2015 to pry Serge Ibaka from Orlando — a potential
difference-maker in a playoff series. He will allow coach Dwane Casey to play
small and switch just about everything, while also providing rim protection on
defense and floor spacing on offense.
That was last week, though.
Longtime NBA reporter, columnist and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer
David Aldridge is an analyst for TNT. You can e-mail him here, find his archive
here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its
clubs or Turner Broadcasting.
