Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 2

by Harlan Schreiber

Houston Rockets

7/18    Matched offer tendered to Kyle Lowry

7/20    Signed Brad Miller

7/28    Traded David Andersen and cash to Toronto for a 2015 protected second-round pick

8/12    In a four-team trade, New Jersey traded Courtney Lee to Houston for Troy Murphy from Indiana, who acquired Darren Collison and James Posey from New Orleans, who acquired Trevor Ariza from Houston

In the four-team swaperoo, the Rockets have essentially dumped one good youngster with offensive issues in Trevor Ariza for another in Courtney Lee.  The only real differences are position and contract.  Ariza is still only 25 but just couldn’t score at all, despite ample opportunity to do so in Houston.  Lee also had his own scoring issues (though not as bad as Ariza) but both players are way too young to assume that their offensive games won’t develop.  It seems, though, that this trade was more about dumping Ariza (who has a long term deal) than acquiring Lee.  Indeed, the Rockets already have a long-term two guard solution with Kevin Martin and, at best, Lee will be a nice role player/third guard.  At small forward, the Rockets were not loaded (Shane Battier and Jared Jeffries are in the last years of their respective contracts and Chase Budinger looked pretty good but is not a 35-40 mpg player yet).  Even if the deal was more about buyer’s remorse with Ariza, getting cap room and a decent young player is a worthwhile decision for Houston.

Indiana Pacers

8/12    In a four-team trade, New Jersey traded Courtney Lee to Houston for Troy Murphy from Indiana, who acquired Darren Collison and James Posey from New Orleans, who acquired Trevor Ariza from Houston

For the Pacers, they are starting over, again, at the point.  Collison had a very nice first season in the NBA and the Pacers had struggled filling the point guard.  At his current level of play, Collison is better than any of the Pacers’ other options.  He will also be a nice fit for Jim O’Brien’s three-happy offense.  The offense was terrible at the point where they were terrible from distance.  Here’s a quick breakdown of the point shooting from three:

Earl Watson: 53-184, .288%

A.J. Price: 60-174, .345%

T.J. Ford: 8-50, .160% Continue reading Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 2…

Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 1

by Harlan Schreiber

Atlanta Hawks

7/14    Signed Josh Childress and traded him to Phoenix for a 2010 second-round pick

7/24    Signed Josh Powell

7/29    Re-signed Jason Collins

The Hawks flirted with Shaq but ultimately passed on him.  This gave Collins a shot to comeback as a third center.  It is hard to believe that Collins is only going to be 32, since he has always moved like he was 82.  Collins has very little left, basically designated to come in and use a couple fouls on big men in a pinch.  He’s probably not quite as bad offensively as he looked in 2009-10 (0.7 ppg, .348 FG%, and 0-2 from the line for the season) but how could he be that bad?  No doubt, Collins good nature has kept him around longer than most players with similar skill level would.

Boston Celtics

7/15    Re-signed Paul Pierce

7/19    Re-signed Nate Robinson

7/24    Re-signed Marquis Daniels

8/3      Signed Von Wafer

8/4      Signed Shaquille O’Neal

8/10    Waived Rasheed Wallace

The Celts are doubling down hoping for another title run.  In this case, the price isn’t too steep.  Robinson, Daniels, Wafer, and Shaq are all pretty useful and will make make less than $10 million combined next year.  Pierce’s deal is a bit rich (four years and $61 million).  He’ll be worth it for 2010-11 but it’s anyone’s guess how he’ll play when he hits his mid-30s.  Still, Pierce is a Celtic Emeritus and that combined with Boston’s immediate need to contend in 2010-11 makes the deal acceptable, despite the inevitable downside. Continue reading Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 1…

The Eddy Curry Story: More Money, More Problems

by Harlan Schreiber

One of the side stories that has consumed the NBA the last few years is the many high profile bankruptcies of NBA players after their careers end.  In a well-remembered Sports Illustrated story from 2009 by Pablo S. Torre, it was estimated that 60% of NBA players go bankrupt within two years of retirement.  The article discussed the factors that led to the players losing astounding sums of money so quickly: hiring cronies to manage the cash, investing heavily in real estate (and failing to allocate funds to steady securities), divorce/child support costs, and just playing spending too much.

Since the 2009 article, we’ve seen even more bankruptcy filings by former big earners Derrick Coleman (reportedly earned $91 million in the NBA) and Antoine Walker ($108 million), as well long-retired vets like Rick Mahorn. Interestingly, we have heard the low lights of certain athletes but the stories never detailed the descent and the multiple bad decisions that it takes to blow millions as they were being made.  Rather, we only heard the lament after the filing of the bankruptcy petition.  More recently, we now have an active NBAer who may provide us with insight into the problems before we get to bankrupcy in Eddy Curry, who will make over $11 million next year (and has been paid over $57 million for his career so far).  Just a few months ago, he was whacked with non-payment of a loan, as well as a failure to pay a settlement on civil claim in Illinois.

We obviously can’t know exactly is going on behind the scenes but Curry has left a trail of litigation that gives a nice little window into his activities.  So let’s take a look at what we’ve got.  Remember, we don’t know what’s true or not but that the allegations are taken from court pleadings that we found online.  Here’s what we have with Curry:

-July 2008: Curry is sued by Jacob & Company Watches, Inc., a well-known jeweler for athletes and other celebrities.  According to the complaint, Curry purchased multiple pieces of jewelry for a total cost of $952,000 in 2005 but failed to pay off the full amounts, leaving a balance of $452.686.88.  The matter was settled in March 2009.  It is not clear what the settlement terms were but annexed to the motion papers was an e-mail exchange between the attorneys for the jeweler and Curry’s attorney that implied that Curry would pay the full amounts by November 2008.  Apparently, the money was not paid at that time and the jeweler moved for a default judgment against Curry in January 2009.  Presumably, this move finally convinced Curry to pay. Continue reading The Eddy Curry Story: More Money, More Problems…

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