Transactions

Coaches are starting to drop.  This time we are asked to make sense of the firing of Knicks coach Derek Fisher.  Was this firing justified?  Sort of.  Let’s weigh the pros and cons: Pros/reasons to keep Fisher ­-Fisher was hired as a beginner coach to learn and grow with a young team.  He has done a nice job bringing along Kristaps Porzingis and has gotten solid enough play out of players who previously weren’t very good (Derrick Williams, Langston Galloway, and Lance Thomas). -The … [Read more...] about Fisher Fired…A Mistake?

New York trades Iman Shumpert and JR Smith to Cleveland for Louis Amundson, Alex Kirk, and 2019 second-round pick from Cleveland and Lance Thomas from Oklahoma City, which traded a 2014-15 protected first-round pick to Cleveland for Dion Waiters. New York Waives Samuel Dalembert This isn’t exactly an earth-shattering deal but it certainly makes some sense for every team involved.  For the Knicks, this is just a trade to clear some cap space (Smith has a player option for 2015-16 for $6.4 … [Read more...] about Transactions: The Dion Waiters Trade

Atlanta Hawks 7/10       Signed Paul Millsap 7/15       Signed Elton Brand 7/29       Signed Gustavo Ayon 8/3         Waived DeShawn Stevenson and DeMarre Carroll In all, the Hawks have stocked up quite well after losing Josh Smith.  Millsap can’t do quite as much as Smith but at the price difference (2 years and $19 million for Millsap versus four years and $56 million for Smith) the choice makes sense.  Millsap and Smith are the same age and Millsap actually had a higher PER … [Read more...] about Transactions 7/7-8/22 (Part 1)

Atlanta Hawks 5/28       Named Mike Budenholzer Larry Drew didn’t actually do anything wrong that merited him losing this job.  The Hawks had a little talent and not much depth and played accordingly.  The Hawks apparently decided that the decent team of the past six years was over and it is time to rebuild.   It’s not clear if the Hawks will be terrible without Josh Smith.   A core of Al Horford and a free agent or two to be named later is not an awful team (or at least not bad enough to … [Read more...] about Transactions 4/18-7/6 (Coaching Edition)

Like the Thunder trading James Harden, Memphis found that the new CBA luxury tax penalties cost prohibitive and they therefore decide to unload Rudy Gay.   The calculus is more complex than just luxury tax considerations.  I imagine the Grizz had to ask themselves several questions before reaching this conclusion.  Let’s run though the analysis and see if we agree with logic train: (a) What would the outcome be of just leaving the Grizz roster intact? Memphis had a tougher call than most … [Read more...] about Transactional Analysis: The Gay Trade