HIGH STAKES: Because of the NBA’s new CBA, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Dwight Howard would lose millions if they don’t opt out and become free agents. (AP (2) Getty Images (Howard))
Congratulations to David Stern: Here were are, into December, and not one team has been eliminated from contention or contempt, heavy on the contempt slant.
I could’ve sworn the brainstorm behind the NBA lockout — and inescapable loss of countless millions as well as 16 games — was to ensure owners of regaining control of their product once business reopened.
I thought the league’s intent was to quash the CBA system that allowed quasar Carmelo Anthony to hold the Nuggets’ franchise hostage by disrupting a season with a trade demand?
Exactly who won that contentious concern?
On the first day players were allowed to work out in team facilities in preparation for the start of practice on Dec. 9, it appears Chris Paul already has polluted his position with Hornets fans.
Through agent Leon Rose, the rising free agent supposedly notified general manager Dell Demps he wants to be dealt to a Knicks team, sooner than later, like today vs. tomorrow … a Knicks team that can’t remotely reimburse New Orleans. … I know, I know, so why am I devoting today’s column to it?
According to someone very much in the know, this is not true. “Paul made no such trade demand. Rose is simply putting it out there to the media where his client wants to go.”
That racket you hear in the background, I suspect, is Dwight Howard warming up his vocal cords to alert the Magic he has agreed to become a Jay Leno regular and, thus, would appreciate being relocated in Los Angeles with either the Lakers or Clippers.
Then there’s Deron Williams, who holds the same seemingly loaded cards as Paul and Howard. All three have two years remaining on their contracts. Each owns an opt-out clause after this season.
To Williams’ credit, he has being very professional about his hand. Evidently, he’s content to play out the season and see how much talent Nets management is able to assemble. If this is not truly his stance, at least he’s not going public with a contrary one.
Clearly (I think), Paul, Howard and Williams continue to possess the preponderance of clout.
“They really don’t,” one team executive refutes. “Because they take a huge financial hit if they leave at the end as free agents. Paul and Williams are owed $53 million. If they stay put and opt out at the prescribed date after the season they’re entitled to sign for $100,000 over five years. If they sign elsewhere that number drops to $74 million.”
That is precisely why players now have an added incentive to try to get moved. Another club executive emailed: “That way the new team can offer the extra year and higher annual percentage bumps. So the player has more incentive to make a stink to get moved.
“At the same time,” the executive underlined, “a team has more leverage to play it out, and, ultimately, to force the player to choose between money and location.”
In Paul’s case, the team is owned by the league. This makes this situation particularly precarious, prickly and problematic.
Hugh Weber may be the Hornets’ president but there ain’t no way he and Demps are making a trade decision involving Paul without the express written consent of the commissioner.
Though I applaud Paul’s pitiless competitive spirit, does he honestly believe Stern can be intimidated into donating him to the Knicks? And, as a result, devalue a team so badly it can’t be sold for anything vaguely close to the going rate of other floundering franchises.
At best, the Hornets would have to shuffle off to Seattle or St. Louis or Suffolk County. At worst, the league would be forced to schedule a Christmas Day dispersal draft.
In other words, a Hornets-Knicks swap involving Paul is not going to happen. Amar’e Stoudemire qualifies as acceptable compensation except … oh, yeah, except that his contract is uninsured against bodily injury.
While on the subject, why would anyone (oops) think the Knicks might designate Renaldo Balkman as their amnesty contract over the course of the CBA, column contributor Michael Catareva correctly questions?
“You can’t delete chump change when you’ve got Stoudemire’s this [ACL], that [back], or the third thing threatening to vacate MSG at a moment’s notice. Makes a little more sense to save the amnesty exception for a catastrophe.”
Meanwhile, if Paul is dead set on leaving his heart in New Orleans and forming a defensively and medically tipsy tripod with Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire, he will have to play out this season for the talent-challenged Hornets.
Even with Paul as a alluring inducement, it never has been easy to recruit quality free agents. So, imagine how difficult it’s going to be now that everyone knows for sure he’s on the way out. Why would David West want to return to such unstable circumstances, other than for larger bi-monthly paydays, of course?
That’s the way it goes, and that’s the way it is.
At the risk of being a comprehensive crapehanger, before the actual time comes, Knicks management might want to assess what Paul brings to the Garden Party without Melo looking over its shoulder.
As much as he’s got going for him, Paul is a less athletic Derrick Rose and you saw how the Heat handled him. In other words, he’s too short to cover Dwyane Wade, and, at $13 million per ($55.5 million tops without benefit of a sign-and-trade), it will be impossible to bag a worthwhile big man.
In case you missed The Finals, the lone way you stop Miami is to flaunt big men that guard the paint and force Wade and LeBron James to take jump shots. Short guards only work when they have big men behind them. Allen Iverson wasn’t a winner until Dikembe Mutombo got to Philadelphia. Chauncey Billups’ skills weren’t fully appreciated until Ben Wallace had his back. Without someone like Tyson Chandler to correct their habitual defensive mistakes, Paul, Anthony and Stoudemire will look like Morgan Freeman. Are the Knicks trying to put together a title or a fantasy team?