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

man he still hasnt responded to my tweet how inconsiderate

But there is a salary floor, and they have to pay someone to reach it. Could see a team take a flyer on Chauncey for a few million if it brought them to that level, hoping to convince him to help their youngsters. Maybe they could promise to cut him before the deadline for signing on with a contender.

no; billups made clear that's exactly what he doesn't want.

more likely, i'd say, is a below-cap team will choose him for spite or to trade him to the team of billups' choice.

either way, i think billups is creating leverage for himself.

and as i say, i think it's a fascinating new front in this war between owerns and players over player-movement. if the cba was supposed to settle these issues, it hasn't happened, and the compressed nature of this preseason (and the impending free-agent class of next year) is exposing the ugliness in owner/player relations.

tr: love this.

twitter abuzz with insightful speculation about rajon rondo. for instance:

LETS DO A DRILL.BANG @phyliis_brown -- Who ever likes rajon rondo is a goofie !

@DraftExpress
Jonathan Givony Strange twist to this Chris Paul saga. I'm told by a NBA source that the Lakers have just elected to pull out of the trade.

ESPNSteinLine Marc Stein
Sources say Lakers will instead trade Lamar Odom to Dallas into Mavericks' new trade exception
2 minutes ago

im confused

wojo tweets that the CP3 trade has totally fallen apart.

I guess LAL can't keep Odom after what's happened. Seems like a disaster for LA

incredible

HPbasketball Hardwood Paroxysm
Cuban blocks the CP3 trade, then uses it to get Lamar Odom, which allows the Lakers to get Dwight Howard after the Mavs traded their center
3 minutes ago

idgi

I guess LA could use the trade exception for something, but obviously dallas thought odom was worth the exception, so . . . Seems like LA just loses here.

That tweet is crazy. For other reasons, it's now been reported that Howard doesn't want LA (as much as he wants the Nets, at least).

But who knows? Maybe now LA can revive their trade talks with the Magic.

ChrisMannixSI Chris Mannix
Two rival GM's say they believe Boston will get back in it. "They have to sell Dell on Rondo," one GM says.
4 minutes ago

I don't see the positives in burning the reigning sixth man of the year for a TPE.

ESPNSteinLine Marc Stein
Sources say Lakers will receive unspecified draft considerations from Dallas for the rights to Odom, who slots in Mavs' new trade exception
56 seconds ago

WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski
Says one Western Conference executive: "The Lakers are shifting toward trying to make a Dwight Howard deal."
1 minute ago

bynum, gasol & picks for howard?

Yep.

Two big stars (one aging), but totally blows up the rest of the team.

yah lakers gonna be thiiin if this happens

boston on the other hand is set to have apparently every player in the world

And LA will have no flexibility, either. Who else can they get?

I doubt boston gets paul for rondo. If Paul opens up the net to teams such as Boston I think that net would include teams that would make a better offer.

Now, if LA can just trade Bynum and scraps/picks for Howard, it's a good deal for LA

boston is likely willing to rent him for a year w/o any long term guarantee, so no opening of the net necessary

Why would Cs do that, if out costs them Rondo?

god, that would be pretty reckless xp

because its their only shot at another ring

wow. I don't like it, Rondo is too good to let go for a (great) rented player.

no he's not

yeah the big three are so fucking old and will be gone soon anyway, whatre you gonna do rebuild around rondo

also pauls knees are nearing competition

and hey if you want to resign him next year youve got a good shot

UNBUTU!

i mean we are all members of the rondo fan club but you don't want him to be even the third best player on yr team

DraftExpress Jonathan Givony
NBA source tell me the Lakers did not approach other teams with cap space or trade exceptions before making the deal sending Odom to Dallas.
3 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

johnhollinger John Hollinger
Any exception created by dealing Odom isn't big enough to take in Turkoglu. I'm not seeing LA's endgame here, nor why Dallas would help.
5 minutes ago

lol wut wait BALL

what is la getting back??

picks

Maybe Lamar just told LA to f--k off, and they felt they had to trade him?

Really a bizarre move, unless they can deal for Howard.

lol if the lakers dont get paul or howard kobes gonna mass murder the whole organization

why wouldnt the lakers wait and do the odom deal as part of a three way trade w/orlando if they can get howard, doesnt make sense

if you were going to trade odom for picks, Dallas is like the last team you'd go to. They own no picks other than their own and they haven't had a bad season in around a decade.

we r in a weird zone right now

hey jho what do you make of this

"We'll move Kevin," Rivers said. "He will play the 5 this year. I honestly don't think that it'll be a problem. When he was younger it would have been a problem."

"He's older, bigger, stronger and can play both positions and can spread the floor from that position," Rivers said. "He can play the whole game at center and it wouldn't bother me at all."

"I was fortunate enough to play in the big era [from 1983 to 1996]. Right now there's not many of them," he said of the dearth of big men. "Dwight (Howard) and (Andrew) Bynum are two that come to mind. I might be missing one or two."

I thought the return for odom was dallas' trade exception (so, money, not picks)

Man, after Odom and Bynum in the playoffs last season, Odom on the Mavs is going to be, uh, interesting.