J.R. Smith has literally been shanghaied away for the foreshortened 2011-2012 NBA season: rolling ILH sandbox thread

adbrandt Andrew Brandt
The NBA just sent Kris Humphries back to Kim Kardashian.
7 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
Retweeted by @johnhollinger

what's so fucking stupid is that Paul will become a free agent.... and dictate where he wants to go.

"In the end, the players didn’t like that the david stern was dictating where they would go,"

i mean the bottom line is with this deal the lakers moved laterally, the hornets (or whatever they'll be called) were set up to rebuild better than they would have been w/ cp3 becoming a free agent, and the rockets probably improved. and the nba vetoed it

lol the big blazers blog has this poll running:

Should the NBA have stepped in and vetoed the proposed trade sending Chris Paul to the Lakers?
48%
Yes
138 votes
48%
No
137 votes
2%
Other (explain in the comments)
7 votes
short-sighted blazers fans just mostly like to see the lakers "punished: i'm assuming.

basically 48% thought it was good for the lakers, 48% bad for the lakers.

@CP3
Chris Paul WoW
1 hour ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry

The developments were "unbelievable," said another team executive, given that the league-owned Hornets had been allowed to conduct basketball business without interference from the league office since the other 29 owners assumed temporary ownership of the woebegone franchise in December 2010. Also, the league office technically was not supposed to be open to evaluate, approve or disapprove trades until Friday.
http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/33759917

meanwhile:

Frank Isola @FisolaNYDN -- Chauncey Billups' agent, Andy Miller, confirms that his client has returned to home in Denver.

____________________________

Jeff Zillgitt @usat_jzillgitt -- RT @NYPost_Berman: #Knicks did not tell Chauncey Billups to head back to Denver. He did it on his own without club's blessing.

WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski
To listen to the GM's, coaches, players, agents reaching out to me tonight: I think the NBA has changed forever with Stern's act tonight.
2 minutes ago

alright dude chill

changed how? in ways different or more dramatic than the near-insurgency created by small-market owners during the lockout?

i mean, it's possible, but it would only be if the key constituencies involved -- e.g., players, owners, small-market owners, big-market owners -- saw this trade and/or its invalidation as a referendum on the post-CBA league or a statement-of-purpose in light of the new CBA.

ArashMarkazi Arash Markazi
CP3 never publicly demanded a trade and always went above and beyond in the community. He deserved better from the NBA.

it's definitely going to be a black mark on stern's legacy and it will be a dark cloud hanging over the season, but as i said earlier, no precedent is being set here, except maybe for chris paul trades w/in the next month or two

I think the fallout from tonight will lead to Stern being gone within a year.

it's definitely going to be a black mark on stern's legacy and it will be a dark cloud hanging over the season, but as i said earlier, no precedent is being set here, except maybe for chris paul trades w/in the next month or two

correct, and any power to repeat this move will evaporate if and when the league sells the hornets to a new owner.

Stern saves Lakers from themselves
Questionable decision to nix CP3 trade only helps pave way for Dwight Howard to L.A.
By John Hollinger

We've long suspected that many of the league's owners are only dimly aware of what makes a basketball team successful.

Now we have proof.

Set aside the league's laughable press release that the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers was blocked "for basketball reasons." I guess David Stern was concerned about Kevin Martin's defensive plus-minus.

No, the widely suspected reason that I'm only writing about an imaginary trade instead of a real one is that the league's owners were so irate over the agreed-to deal to send Paul to the Lakers that they implored commissioner David Stern to block it & apparently, because they were so focused on the idea of another shiny object going to the Lakers that they didn't really look at what was happening.

The Lakers had agreed to trade Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom to New Orleans to get Paul, a trade that sent from Los Angeles an All-Star power forward and the league's best sixth man, also a forward. As a result, L.A. was left with just one credible frontcourt player -- Andrew Bynum, who has missed at least 17 games in each of the past four seasons. Bynum will be suspended for the first five games this season after belting J.J. Barea in the playoffs, meaning the Lakers were looking at an opening night frontcourt of Derrick Caracter and Luke Walton.

Yes, this was offset with a monumental upgrade at point guard, but look at the big picture. Pau-for-Paul is pretty much an even swap. Last season they had virtually identical marks in PER (23.33 for Gasol and 23.76 for Paul) and Estimated Wins Added (17.9 and 18.3). Yes, Gasol is five years older, but he also has a much better injury history. Additionally, bigs age much better than small guards, primarily because it doesn't make them any shorter.

Plus, I would argue that Gasol is a better fit in L.A. than Paul. For starters, Kobe Bryant and Paul have only one ball to share on the perimeter. But more importantly, Paul is a pick-and-roll maestro who thrives when surrounded by spot-up shooters, pick-and-pop big men and a finisher who can roll to the rim. This isn't Kobe, who struggles as a spot-up shooter, and it isn't Bynum, who likes to catch and hold in the post. In fact, the only four Lakers who really fit that style are Gasol and Odom, who were getting shipped off, and Derek Fisher and Steve Blake, whom Paul would have replaced.

All of that makes me queasy from L.A's end about Pau-for-Paul straight up. Throwing in Odom, when the team has no depth and little means to replace him, tilts it heavily in the Hornets' favor. The Lakers would have had an $8.9 million trade exception, but with no meaningful assets (and I mean NONE) to put in a trade, they were going to have a big problem using it to get anybody good.

I suspect this is actually a case of misplaced anger. The owners were so upset about the possibility of Dwight Howard forming a "Superfriends" team with Paul and Kobe that they forgot the logistics of doing so.

Newsflash to L.A.: Andrew Bynum alone doesn't get you Howard. Not even close. Trade Bynum and Gasol and you might get Howard, but you might not. A lot of teams are fishing in that pond and most of them have better bait.

This is where people argue that Howard can "force" his way to Los Angeles, just like Chris Paul forced his way to New York. Er, check that ... Carmelo Anthony.

But there was one big difference during the Melo chase last year: The Knicks were going to have cap space, so the leverage Anthony held was real. Trade me there now, or I'll go there on my own later. In Howard's case, the Lakers have no plausible means of signing him as a free agent, and they wouldn't have had the trade assets to strike a deal with the Magic had they made the Paul deal.

The irony of all this, in other words, is that the owners were so upset about the Lakers potentially getting Howard, that they nixed a trade that would have virtually killed any chance of that happening.

In the meantime, the Rockets have to be upset. Houston took a gamble here, but it getting Gasol would have opened up a crucial $3 million more in cap space they could have used to offer Nene a max contract. That frontcourt, combined with great depth and several underrated perimeter players, would likely have propelled Houston to a top-4 seed in the West, if not further. (Scoff if you will, but Houston had the scoring margin of a 48-win team last season. They didn't need to improve that dramatically to join the elite.)

And if the Rockets are upset, the Hornets must be apoplectic. New Orleans scored three very solid, not-quite-All-Stars in Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Odom, plus they added a scoring guard in Goran Dragic and a first-round pick from New York. The Hornets could have started those four and Emeka Okafor and likely been a one-and-done playoff team just like they were with Paul, except with a brighter future.

Instead ... now what?

What does the league tell them when they have to settle for a lesser deal instead of this one, or lose Paul outright in free agency? Or when the Hornets have trouble even negotiating another Paul deal, for fear the league will swoop in at the last second after everybody on their roster has heard their name in trade talks?

Big picture, the league put itself in a tough spot the day it bought the Hornets & but it put itself in a much tougher one today. By setting an ugly, awful precedent, they've shown the entire league the ramp to a long, slippery slope.

correct, and any power to repeat this move will evaporate if and when the league sells the hornets to a new owner.

― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, December 8, 2011 10:25 PM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

Stern can veto any trade he wants to in "the best interests of the league." That's essentially what happened tonight.

shit is fucked up

yeah... but he would never do that for two third party teams

I can't be sure of that, honestly.

this is the same guy who tried to browbeat the Mavericks GM into giving the Cavs back a pick in 1983 so they could have an easier time finding a buyer for the team.

Well, he hasn't in nearly 30 years, so I would deem it unlikely.

xpost

he never had ownership that was this juvenile and idiotic.

He also never had league interest directly in one team.

in retrospect, dan gilbert using comic sans presaged a lot of things.

Rachel__Nichols Rachel Nichols
ESPN's Stan Verrett reporting Chris Paul will not show at Hornet's camp Friday

hornet is gonna be pissed about that

if Stern had another trade happen on the same day as a board of governors meeting held to sign a new cba, and everyone flipped shit and told him to veto a trade, I think he would veto the trade

the CBA wouldn't have been signed, not a chance

Mike_Bresnahan Mike Bresnahan
Odom unhappy, tells The Times he might skip first day of camp b/c "You don't want to go no place you're not wanted."

so b/w paul, odom and billups, three guys are gonna sit out camps on account of trade talks

Stern's nixing a trade that met all of the league's multitude of rules is some stupid shit for any commisioner to pull.

hm.

Chris Sheridan @sheridanhoops -- I'm told there is a school of thought in informed circles that Stern vetoed C.Paul trade because a D.Howard-to-LA trade was coming up next.

maybe this is just karma for kobe forcing his way out of charlotte

the shaq thing was way worse. Obvious collusion.

timkawakami Tim Kawakami
So when is David Stern's full statement coming out? Printed in comic sans, of course.
2 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

As one rival executive with strong ties to the league office said, “Stern cared about two things: Selling that franchise for the best possible price; and showing the players that they weren’t going to dictate where teams could trade them. But now, there’s no way that the league can allow Chris Paul to be traded at all, otherwise Stern is basically deciding where one of the top players in the league is going versus having any fair process.”

Officials from New Orleans, Houston and Los Angeles were stunned Thursday night. The killed trade had ripple affects everywhere in free agency and potential trades, and literally pushed the market into paralysis on the even of training camps opening up.

“We were all told by the league he was a trade-able player, and now they’re saying that Dell doesn’t have the authority to make the trade?” said an NBA executive who had periodic talks with New Orleans throughout the process. “Now, they’re saying that Dell is an idiot, that he can’t do it his job. (Expletive) this whole thing. David’s drunk on power, and he doesn’t give a (expletive) about the players, and he doesn’t give a (expletive) about the hundreds of hours the teams put into make that deal.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=At_MCea0tR2fjoZ6_q4Uws28vLYF?slug=aw-wojnarowski_chris_paul_lakers_hornets_nba_120811

shame on woj for that affects/effects mix up tho

“To me, this makes the league feel like it’s rigged, that Stern just does whatever Stern wants to do. He’s messed up the competitive balance of this league a lot worse by killing the deal, because you’ve completely destroyed the planning that New Orleans, Houston did and left them in shambles over this. I’ve never been so discouraged about this league, never so down.
“I mean, come on: Chris Paul is leaving New Orleans in 66 games. He’s gone. And what’s Dell Demps, and that franchise, going to have to show for it?”

i'm just glad david stern didn't kill the heat signing eddy curry.

*scooby bark*

netw3rk netw3rk
RT @basquiatball: Damn, Stern vetoed Demp's resignation too

All of this is so awesome and weird.

https://twitter.com/#!/StephenCurry30/status/145006746128236544

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-nba_dan_gilbert_email_lakers_hornets_trade_120811

I just don’t see how we can allow this trade to happen.

I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do.

When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?

Please advise….

Dan G.

god, this is such a fucking shitshow

hon i feel like at this point stern might just let it thru tomorrow morning

Chris_Broussard Chris Broussard
Nets have emerged as No. 1 choice for Dwight Howard, multiple sources say. D12 is expected to ask Magic to trade him to NJ.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f123/Radid/dramatic-chipmunk.gif

I thought you called me "hon" for a second

ha, that's not the first time someone has said that :-(