Transactions

Transactions: 8/17-9/28 Part 1

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Atlanta Hawks

9/2    Signed Etan Thomas

Only 32, Thomas hasn’t been healthy or very good since 2006-07.  While he was a nice player at one point, it’s hard for me to believe that he can get back to that level from four years ago.  The Hawks have plenty of big bodies already so Thomas will just be another six fouls and if he still has some skills it’ll only be gravy.

Boston Celtics

9/1    Signed Delonte West

On the surface, West’s return to Boston is a nice bench player for a contending team.  But this represented a nice decision for the Celts.  Boston has opted to let Tony Allen go for West.   Allen is more athletic and a better defender than West but West is also a nice defender and is much more effective in the half court (he has a surprisingly good post up game too).

In terms of cash, Allen received three years and $10 million while West is on a one-year $1 million deal.  There is a pretty good argument that West is better than Allen without considering money issues.  Given the cost disparity, West over Allen makes all the sense in the world.

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FIBA Tournament Post Script

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1.    We Got Gold…Yay?: The evolution of the United States view on international basketball competition has drastically changed over the years.  In the late 1980s, the fact that our collegians couldn’t guarantee a gold medal bothered the U.S. committee enough to authorize the use of pros by 1992.  After a few years of success with NBAers, the world caught up enough to beat the U.S. pros in the early 2000s.  Now the U.S. committee has “professionalized” the whole process, having a regular coach and choosing players strategically enough that the gold medals are rolling again.  The present mood towards the U.S. team, however, is slightly more than apathetic.  It’s not that the U.S. team didn’t accomplish something significant in winnings its first FIBA World Championship since 1994 but that certain truths have become clear.

The most obvious one is that while the U.S. has the best players but some other countries have some serious talent sufficient to beat the U.S. team on any given day in international competition.  The games are shorter, the three-point line is closer, and the round robin format make upsets more likely too.  The risk of losses have been tangible since 1996.  Only recently, however, have NBA fans come to accept this fact as the number of international players who have starred in the NBA has grown.  But this isn’t just about stars.  There are a lot of good foreign role players now.  There are plenty of Yi Jianlians, Jose Calderons, Marc Gasols, who range from acceptable NBAers to pretty good starters all around international competition.

On some level, the belief that some have in some inherent American basketball exceptionalism has made this truth harder to embrace.  Still, now the U.S. teams face some serious threats in two or three games each tournament, which has helped ratchet expectations closer to reality, namely that the U.S. have to work to get a gold medal.  Now that this fact has been embraced more, the U.S. has focused in maximizing its advantages (athleticism and depth) without adding the types of players who really don’t translate as well in this context (high volume/low efficiency scorers).  The larger lesson is that humans, with proper training and planning, are as likely to be good at basketball anywhere in the world.  Rooting for your country is fun but, in the real world, rooting for a good basketball game to watch really is the best result for fans.

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Transactions

Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 3

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Orlando Magic

7/15    Matched offer tendered to J.J. Reddick

8/4      Re-signed Jason Williams

I was a little surprised to see Orlando bring back Williams after previously giving Chris Duhon a moderately generous four-year deal.   But, as we noted last time, Williams is probably a better short term bet and he has agreed to a one-year contract.  The worst that could happen is that Duhon or Williams falls to third string, neither of which is too big a deal.   Reddick’s return is also potentially a bit of an overpay (three years and $20 million) but he showed marked improvement last year and the Magic were good enough that they should spend a little extra to keep their best shooter.

Philadelphia 76ers

7/21    Signed Tony Battie

8/12    Named Rod Thorn team president

The Thorn situation is quite weird for many reasons.  Let’s count the ways:

-By all public accounts, Mikhail Prokhorov and the Nets really wanted to keep Thorn.  Also, the Nets were finally willing to spend money after previous ownership had forced Thorn to cut payroll for several years.  Thorn’s stated reason for leaving Jersey was that “it was just time.”  It’s possible that Thorn had wandering eyes after a decade in New Jersey but more likely, he saw a better opportunity or he believed that the Nets situation would get messy for some reason or he felt that Prorkhorov really didn’t want him around.

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Transactions

Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 2

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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%

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Transactions

Transactions 7/14-8/16 Part 1

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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.

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The Eddy Curry Story: More Money, More Problems

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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.

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