Basically Stern killed 3-way deal between LA/Houston/NO. LA would have gotten Paul but would have given up Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol who were instrumental in LA’s last championship run. NO was getting Odom, Louis Scola, Goran Dragic, Kevin Martin and 2012 1st rd. draft Pick. Houston was getting Gasol.
Stern stepped in for “basketball reasons” despite assurances that NO’s GM had autonomy to run NO as he saw fir. NO happens to be NBA owned.
Everything I’ve read says this is a fair deal given the fact that CP wants out of NO and is a free agent next year anyway. So Stern intervening did NO no favors as now they’ll lose their superstar for nothing. Anyone think Stern did the right thing? I don’t.
Full disclosure: Rooted for player’s side during the lockout.
I was waiting for someone to post something about this. Surprised that it took this long, and I wonder if it’s indicative of slipping interest in the NBA?
As to Stern’s actions, I think it’s hideous. He let the original Pau Gasol trade go through, never mind the circus that was the Heat last year, but stops this trade for being anti-competitive?! Complete garbage. And a giant conflict of interest for the NBA to have held onto the Hornets this long.
Reading places like Wages of Wins, it seems what the other owners were really scared of was L.A. retaining Bynum and enough other pieces after the trade, to then make a play for Dwight Howard. I have not looked at the numbers or other competitive offers to see if that fear was realistic.
It’s crap. The other owners are screwing New Orleans here: Paul is gone, and this would have been a really good trade for them. In the name of ‘not letting big market teams leverage star players’ they want to force the Hornets to keep him longer, which decreases the value the Hornets can get in a trade. Are they going to give the Hornets a list of teams they are allowed to trade him to or a date they can’t trade him until? The Hornets made some good basketball decisions and the league is vetoing them. It’s a conflict of interest that hurts the Lakers and Rockets, too.
Does anyone think that this may have to do with the owners thinking of contracting NO?
And after the Jazz moved to Utah and the financial black hole of the Hornets, how long after the Hornets contract will it be before the NBA lets a THIRD team into NO? My guess? 5 years.
As a Lakers fan, I wouldn’t want to see them dish Pau or Lamar unless they were also going to figure out some way to trade for Howard.
The worst part about this whole thing (for the Lakers), if this trade doesn’t go through eventually, is that now Gasol and Odom are completely distraught. I can’t imagine them really wanting to produce for the Lakers after the team traded them away.
Also, good luck getting anybody to attempt a trade with NO. Who is going to want to try and go through this whole process knowing that the league has a good chance of stepping in and blocking a trade - leaving them trying to explain to the traded players why they should continue to be valuable members of the team?
I was just coming on to make a topic about this. I would have said “Fuck you David Stern and Thank you David Stern”
I don’t think this deal’s going to help the league long-term. Stern’s wielding his power arbitrarily, and yeah, the Lebron deal and Pau’s deal that brought him to LA was much more lopsided.
However, as a Lakers fan, I kind of am happy. I don’t want to give up a combined 14 feed of forwards for Paul, no matter how good he is. And I think that even if we lack a point guard (and a point guard in JJ Barea killed us last year), we’re still better off with a possible Howard <-> Bynum trade with Pau and Lamar than with Paul.
They really screwed NO though, didn’t they? Wow, now if Paul goes anywhere this season, it will be as if Stern dictated the trade. Either Paul has to go to LA or he can’t go anywhere, because any other option and there would be massive cries of collusion.
Also, I’m sad that Brandon Roy’s probably going to announce his retirement today. That kid was great, he was a franchise player and a top 5 SG. He would have brought the Blazers back to respectability even with a constantly hobbled Greg Oden. It was truly magnificent to see him during that one game in the playoffs last year where he basically willed his team to win the game. Unfortunately, he couldn’t will them to win the series.
Now if only the Lakers get Howard for Bynum, I can still heartily stand up and shout “Fuck you David Stern!”
I don’t like the NO side of the deal as much as most people. If they were to make that trade, they would have no chance to re-sign David West. So, in a way, they’re trading Chris Paul and David West for Scola, Odom, and Kevin Martin. I don’t think it looks as good when viewed through that prism.
That was a horrible trade for both houston and new orleans, i don’t know what any of those guys were thinking. New Orleans took on more salary and didn’t get any good future picks or young prospects, they basically doomed themselves to mediocrity for years.
First of all, I agree David Stern really messed this up. The deal is really not that unfair, especially considering the Hornets will end up getting nothing for Chris Paul next year.
Second, is there any possibility that the Magic would trade Howard straight up for Bynum? Seriously? Now, that would be a lopsided deal. I remain very unimpressed with Bynum.
Houston wanted an upgrade at C/PF and felt Gasol was it, and that they’d little chance of getting a comparable player. From what I’ve read, by getting Gasol and moving Scola/Martin, they’d free up enough money to take a run at Nene. I am not encouraged by Martin’s injury history, nor his lack of defense, to cry too loudly if he leaves. He is a very efficient scorer though. I guess the Rockets think they’re good with Courtney Lee. Still wish they made a run at Gerald Wallace when the Bobcats were trying to dump him.
For New Orleans, Odom only has one more year on his deal (the 2nd year is a team option). Scola/Odom/Martin with Dragic coming off the bench, and the Rockets’ 1st rounder from the Knicks, is realistically the best deal you are going to get for Paul. I imagine that any/all of the incoming players would have value at the trade deadline, should New Orleans want to go that route.
Weren’t the Lakers also throwing in a pick, or did I read that wrong?
Lamar Odom is one of the most versatile players in his position, of which he could play almost all of them. Luis Scola is a 18-10 guy who can run the floor, and Kevin Martin is young and can already get you 20 a night. I don’t see how NO loses in this deal even if you’re accounting for the short term deal of Odom because everyone and their mothers know that Chris Paul is leaving at the end of the year. He has no reason to sign with them at all!
And if I were the Hornet, I wouldn’t worry too much about resigning David West. At his best, he’s better than any of the pieces they’re getting, but he’s been injured and he’s getting older. His contract coming off the books would be great for NO.
I think NO is getting some good young prospects. Odom isn’t too old, Kevin Martin is young, and I think there was a Knicks first round pick in there somewhere. They are not going to get better in a deal for Paul, ESPECIALLY now that teams will be scared to trade for him since Stern has been shown to have a hand in things. How can NO trade him now? Every trade rumor will be questioned, even when its done on paper teams can’t be sure the league won’t block it, and it will smack of underhanded backroom deals if Paul doesn’t go to LA. Paul’s not going to stay past this year on 90% of the teams, no way any team makes a trade for him now, especially seeing how much the Lakers were willing to give up for him
It’s a horrible deal because the worst place a team can be is in the middle of the pack with no hope of winning and no hope of rebuilding through the draft. This deal would have crippled New Orleans for the next half decade at least, it is beyond ridiculous. LA not only got the best player in the deal they also lowered their payroll and Houston traded Martin Scola Dragic and a pick from New York for Gasol, that’s just insane.
Word was that the other owners killed the trade because they didn’t want too many marquee players in too few cities w/o a better revenue sharing program.
I don’t think it would be a straight-up deal. The crazy part is that the Magic would be looking to give up Turkoglu, so I’m not sure where the other players and salary are coming from. Bynum is solid, but I think people are in the habit of assuming he will get better and become really outstanding. Based on his injury history and dimwittery, I don’t think that will happen. But he’s a solid true center. I was surprised to see Odom included in this trade and I figure it’s primarily so the Lakers can clear enough space to sign both Paul and Howard if they can get them. (The fact that the Nets and Rockets are being accused of tampering with Howard just makes the Paul trade more interesting.) Word today is that the trade could still happen in a modified form, although nobody’s been specific on what that form would be. But it almost has to happen somehow because otherwise the league is dicking over three teams at once.
I think if you compare this to what Denver got for Carmelo Anthony, it looks really good for New Orleans. Odom is mostly there to even out the salaries and they won’t resign him, or they could deal him. They’d have Scola for three or four years, Martin for two, Dragic for one (he’s a restricted free agent after this year), and what figures to be a mid/low first round pick.
I had always assumed that if they kept Paul, they would re-sign West to some reasonable deal. But apparently Denver (if they lose Nene), New Jersey and Indiana also have interest.
It’s complicated by the fact that he tore his ACL late last year, so teams might be a bit risk-averse when it comes to signing him to a long-term deal.
The latest reports are saying that the league wants the Hornets to get more out of this trade. I guess that’s a defensible position if you ignore the conflict of interest, but I’m thinking it’ll get done one way or another. The Lakers and Rockets are appealing the decision and the players union is threatening to sue if the deal doesn’t get done by Monday.