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

rosssiler Ross Siler
Chris Paul also now needs to follow in the Donald Tokowitz (Sterling) tradition and change his name to Chris Phenomenal.
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Aw theo, will miss you for sure

here's to the great all-defensive second team in the sky

hollinger:

Fi.

Nal.

Ly.

Chris Paul is being traded from the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Clippers -- for real this time -- and now we all can get on with our lives. Bravo for the beleaguered Clips, who get both their second superstar, to pair with Blake Griffin, and their moment in the spotlight in a market in which the mighty Lakers blot out the sun 99 percent of the time.

While Paul is both a superstar and a perfect complement to the high-flying Griffin, he doesn't come without warts. He has a bad knee, and that's a problem, especially for a 6-foot point guard; 7-footers can overcome stuff like this because their primary advantage, height, remains in force, but if a small guard loses a step, he immediately becomes much more ordinary.

Second, he's committed to the Clippers for only two years. He might very well sign on for three more after the season, but if Donald Sterling pulls his usual shenanigans, Paul also might decide this wasn't worth the trouble and threaten to bolt again.

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Kirby Lee/US Presswire
Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman now take their skills to the Big Easy.Nonetheless, it was a no-brainer for the Clippers to leverage their assets in a deal of this type, although they must wish they didn't have to leverage so many of them. The NBA, acting as legal guardian of the New Orleans Hornets, drove a hard bargain, ending up with the better of the two Erics (Eric Gordon) they haggled over as well as Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and an unprotected 2012 first-round pick belonging to Minnesota.

Ultimately, I think this was basically a fair trade. Give the Clips a slight advantage since they got the blue chip and because this couldn't possibly have been a better fit -- L.A. has shooters galore around Paul and two dunkers in the middle to throw down his passes.

Nonetheless, New Orleans didn't come out badly. The Hornets will miss the playoffs this season, but they won't be terrible and have cleaned up their balance sheet nicely going forward.

As for the assets sent out for Paul, the package looks logical from here. Part of the reason the Clippers had to include Gordon, I suspect, is that the Minnesota pick might not be worth as much as people think. Despite all the half-witted things the Timberwolves have done the past few years, I have them projected as an almost-decent team in 2011-12. Thus, the Hornets might end up receiving more like a No. 11 pick than a coveted top-three selection.

Gordon, of course, is a prime asset, a potential All-Star shooting guard; you can't blame the Clippers for wanting to keep him and the Hornets for wanting him included. Had the Clips been able to insert Eric Bledsoe in Gordon's place, they might very well have won the Western Conference this season.

Now they won't, although they'll still be very good -- a solid playoff team. For the moment, some holes remain. They're badly in need of a defensive stopper on the wing and some backup frontcourt players; they likely will trade Mo Williams to solve one problem and use their two-year, $2.5 million "under-cap" exception to tackle the other. They need a coach, too, but that's a story for another day.

The Clippers also generated two small trade exceptions with this deal, one for $3.8 million and another for $2.5 million. Their size limits their effectiveness, but they could come in handy either now or at the trade deadline. (Those two 2015 second-rounders, by the way, are basically nonexistent junk that had to be included, per league rules, because this deal was effectively three separate trades: Paul for Kaman and the first-rounder, a junk second-rounder for Aminu, and another junk pick for Gordon. One of the picks is from Memphis and has conditions so tight it will never get to the Hornets to give to the Clippers; the other is from the Hornets and has similar conditions).

The Hornets, meanwhile, can get on with their lives as well. Presumably they'll re-sign Carl Landry and possibly Willie Green and Jason Smith, as they're still well under the salary cap. Additionally, expect a trade of either Kaman or Emeka Okafor some time between now and the trade deadline.

Long term, the Hornets get a solid forward prospect in Aminu, a no-brainer keeper in Gordon and effectively two lottery picks -- the one the Clippers gave them and the one they'll get on their own now that Paul is gone. They'll almost certainly sign Gordon to an extension, but even so, the Hornets have max cap space going forward and a nice, clean balance sheet to present to potential buyers.

(And you'd better believe they'll have a buyer before June 28. Can you imagine the conspiracy theories if the NBA-owned Hornets won the lottery?)

So call it a win-win. The Clippers are more relevant than they've been in years, and will stay that way as long as Griffin's and Paul's knees remain intact.

The Hornets, meanwhile, get a second chance. The unwritten story behind the Paul trade is how badly the New Orleans franchise squandered the prime years of Paul and David West with a series of bloated contracts and bizarre decisions. Under new ownership and Dell Demps' management, they'll try to avoid repeating the same mistakes with Gordon, Aminu and their two 2012 lottery picks.

i can't fuckin wait to watch this team

stern comes out of this looking really good imo, hate to say

chris kaman is gonna look weird in blue

chris sheradin is adamant that clippers will miss playoffs.

adamant? adament? add-a-mint? spellcheck, dammit.

stern comes out of this looking really good imo, hate to say

― k3vin k., Wednesday, December 14, 2011 9:18 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

no

had adamant rigt but sheridan wrong lol

I'm sure this will be the spin of the weird people like Simmons who have some weird dad crush on Stern. But Stern and the league flagrantly lied to the fans and colluded against league rules.

xp meddlesome yes, but he got them a better deal. i'll give my grudging respect.

cp3 even ended up on a better team because of it than he would have

Stern said publicly that Demps and Sperling would make all basketball decisions and then hung them out to dry and screwed over two franchises. Then he handed Chris Paul to the second worst owner in the history of pro sports.

it wasn't honest, at least not at first, but i haven't read anyone who said paul had any grounds for a lawsuit

That's because Paul has to establish damages.

They clearly colluded, come on. If Stern took input from other owners on the deal and then vetoed, it's collusion.

That's why they said Demps and Sperling would make all decisions: to prevent collusion!

The fact that this collusion was good for the Hornets is immaterial. Why does it matter which teams get screwed by the collusion?

i'll let you in on a secret--no one actually gives a fuck about collusion!

i don't think stern comes out looking "really good" but this was much better than the deal with the lakers

i'll let you in on a secret--no one actually gives a fuck about collusion!

― cad, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:02 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

they sure do when players do it!

pretty sure the rockets and lakers give a fuck, too.

they sure do when players do it!

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:08 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

yeah wow so much direct action has been taken since players supposedly colluded!

and i eagerly await the formal complaints by the rockets and lakers

yeah wow so much direct action has been taken since players supposedly colluded!

― cad, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:10 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Dude Lebron became the biggest villain in the league because of player collusion. "People" gave a fuck.

who the fuck cares about the fate of the hornets, is the real question. Why does a good deal matter for the Hornets? Why do they have to be the winners?

what "collusion" is not why ppl h8 lebron, they h8 him because he's lame.

if chris paul and dwight howard "colluded" about where to play i wouldn't care at all because that team would be really fun. but lebron "colluded" with a redundant wing player and chris fucking bosh.

the "owners of the hornets," i.e. owners of rival teams, conspired to fuck the Lakers. You may not think people "give a fuck," but it's disgusting and corrupt all the same.

lol i don't really care at all abt the hornets but the clippers deal is much better than the lakers deal and you can't deny that that is a thing.

lol i don't really care at all abt the hornets but the clippers deal is much better than the lakers deal and you can't deny that that is a thing.

― cad, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:17 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

Yes I can. It's immaterial.

generally i associate "giving a fuck" with ppl taking action but maybe that's an unfashionable viewpoint these days

you can give a fuck and be unable to take action. Giving a fuck is an emotion.

giving a fuck = having strong emotions about something

when someone says "I don't give a fuck" they mean "I don't care," not "I don't take any action regarding that"

It's completely illogical to say that Stern is vindicated because the Hornets got a better deal. The quality of the deal for the Hornets was not the issue. It was the league screwing over the Rockets and Lakers because owners were butthurt. They said Demps had full power to make a deal, the Rockets and Lakers geared their offseason around that promise, and then Stern fucked both teams.

lol i don't really care at all abt the hornets but the clippers deal is much better than the lakers deal and you can't deny that that is a thing.
― cad, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:17 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

Better deal for who? Why do the nets deserve a better deal? If they were willing (stupid enough) to give up what they did to the lakers that's their bad.

Matt otm btw

well for one thing the lakers should be thankful that stern saved them from making a really bad trade!

anyway i don't think anyone (hopefully even k3v) is saying that stern is "vindicated" because this whole process was handled poorly but eh it's a results-oriented business and i'm sure the lakers and rockets both know that these kinds of trades are delicate fabrege eggs that can be broken really easily for all kinds of stupid reasons.

Houston is the team that really got fucked imo. The Lakers are fucked either way.

carnitas what youre saying essentially validates stern's line that the trade was canceled "for basketball reasons"

you know what i really don't give a fuck about? whether or not dell demps was "fully empowered" to make a trade. who is actually naive enough to believe that anyway?

Houston is the team that really got fucked imo. The Lakers are fucked either way.

― polyphonic, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Permalink

yeah houston got fucked but they're a smart team and had to know that they kind of lucked into a situation where they would be able to swing scola and martin for pau; they'll be ok

carnitas what youre saying essentially validates stern's line that the trade was canceled "for basketball reasons"
― cad, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:32 PM (3 minutes ago) BookmarkPermalink

Yeah , well fuck stern imo

you know what i really don't give a fuck about? whether or not dell demps was "fully empowered" to make a trade. who is actually naive enough to believe that anyway?

― cad, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:33 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Every executive in the league who tried to make a deal with him?

Like if the lakers were getting really screwed in that deal stern would have swooped in and saved them from themselves

as a lakers fan were you seriously in favor of that deal?

Not even. I'm just mad on principle

Swap for D12 in that trade and im down

yeah that's totally fine! but on a pure results basis this is better for everyone except the rockets, and the rockets will be ok.

Swap for D12 in that trade and im down

― Carnitas, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:48 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

um yah because then you traded a center and a pf for the best center in basketball, instead of trading a center and a pf for a point guard on a team that still has kobe!