Around the League: The Off-season

[Split T]

If the Pels were refusing to trade him, I don’t blame him for leaking it. It didn’t work out, but he was just trying to do what his client wanted.

As for the silver thing, where does this come from? I’m not saying you made it up, I just never heard this and it just doesn’t add up to me. How did the public find out he talked to silver?

[ShelC]

It was in that SI article

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/05/28/rich- ... mes-lakers

It didn’t work out, but he was just trying to do what his client wanted.

Or was he doing what LeBron wanted, to the detriment of AD?

[Split T]

It was in that SI article

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/05/28/rich- ... mes-lakers

It didn’t work out, but he was just trying to do what his client wanted.

Or was he doing what LeBron wanted, to the detriment of AD?

Silver stuff is weird...not sure why someone reported that...seems like Paul could have just been voicing displeasure. Can’t imagine he thought silver would do anything.

And I think assuming he’s looking out for Lebron and not AD is unfair...AD clearly wants to leave and LA is his choice.

[Indy]

He leaked the Pelicans/Lakers stuff to the media to force the Pels into the trade. It was a bad look all around, made AD look bad after the trade fell thru and he had to keep playing for them. It blew up in his face.

And there was nothing Silver would/could do about Walton but Paul probably thought he could push Silver to make a call to the Lakers about it to get his/LeBron's way.

Didn't Demps bypass Paul and go to AD directly? After he said he wouldn't? That is when it leaked?

[ShelC]

According to Paul, Demps said he would talk to ownership and called Davis.

I don't really care either way. I'm just saying how he does things is what's rubbing people the wrong way and the Pelicans/Lakers thing made everyone look bad - especially his client.

[Indy]

According to Paul, Demps said he would talk to ownership and called Davis.

I don't really care either way. I'm just saying how he does things is what's rubbing people the wrong way and the Pelicans/Lakers thing made everyone look bad - especially his client.

I don't think there is anyone outside of the NOP fan base that thinks it is unreasonable for AD to want to play elsewhere. And probably half of them think he is right, too. I mean, how many of us will blame Book if we win 22 games this year and he wants out?

[Split T]

I think it’s just because we’re not used to players looking out for their own interests. There is still too much expectation that players do everything for their team and remain loyal their whole careers. Yet teams hardly get any backlash when they trade players away. The clippers traded Griffin 6 months after signing him to a 5 year deal and telling him he’d be a clipper for life. No backlash. To me that means if a player wants to request/force a trade, he should be able to.

Now we can talk about how to go about requesting it, but if the team says nah, we’ll just make you play out the contract, I have no problem with the player/agent going public with the request.

[Indy]

I think it’s just because we’re not used to players looking out for their own interests. There is still too much expectation that players do everything for their team and remain loyal their whole careers. Yet teams hardly get any backlash when they trade players away. The clippers traded Griffin 6 months after signing him to a 5 year deal and telling him he’d be a clipper for life. No backlash. To me that means if a player wants to request/force a trade, he should be able to.

Now we can talk about how to go about requesting it, but if the team says nah, we’ll just make you play out the contract, I have no problem with the player/agent going public with the request.

Yeah, it is thought of as a bad thing when a player wants what is best for them. They should sacrifice themselves for the ownership group...

[Split T]

I think it’s just because we’re not used to players looking out for their own interests. There is still too much expectation that players do everything for their team and remain loyal their whole careers. Yet teams hardly get any backlash when they trade players away. The clippers traded Griffin 6 months after signing him to a 5 year deal and telling him he’d be a clipper for life. No backlash. To me that means if a player wants to request/force a trade, he should be able to.

Now we can talk about how to go about requesting it, but if the team says nah, we’ll just make you play out the contract, I have no problem with the player/agent going public with the request.

Yeah, it is thought of as a bad thing when a player wants what is best for them. They should sacrifice themselves for the ownership group...

I get why it’s more common to side with the team/owner. We get so attached to teams that when a player leaves, it often feels personal. But if we want to be able to dump a guy like Brandon Knight when he sucks, we should accept that Booker might request to leave if management/ownership sucks.

[ShelC]

I agree completely with all of that. It sucks when teams do it to players. But is the team obligated to make a deal they don't want to make just to trade a player who wants out? If Booker asks out and James Jones can't get a good deal and Booker's agent goes public to try and push a less than ideal trade thru just to get Book out, would you be pissed? I'd understand Booker wanting out, but I'd pissed at James Jones for making a bad deal just to appease Book and his agent.

And while you may not have a problem with the player/agent going public, the league certainly does.

For the record, I'm the first one to say Book ought to ask out if we don't get things on the right path this year. He's given the org enough chances. But how he/his agent does it is important too.

[carey]

I'm interested to see how things fare when LeBron is out of the league. He's getting guys because of LeBron now, but if he's burning execs and loses some clout, the next generation of stars may avoid him. He's got LBJ, AD, Dray, John Wall, Simmons, Bledsoe as his top guys. In 5 years...?

This is a great point and one I've been making privately since the Bledsoe debacle. Does everyone know who David Falk is?

He was Michael Jordan's agent and he had a ton of players during Jordan's heyday. Now? He runs a boutique agency with very few clients (though I give him credit for empowering the only female sports agent to have her own NBA clients.)

The Klutch sports era will burn brightly and fade just as fast once James retires.

[O_Gardino]

I think it’s just because we’re not used to players looking out for their own interests. There is still too much expectation that players do everything for their team and remain loyal their whole careers. Yet teams hardly get any backlash when they trade players away. The clippers traded Griffin 6 months after signing him to a 5 year deal and telling him he’d be a clipper for life. No backlash. To me that means if a player wants to request/force a trade, he should be able to.

Now we can talk about how to go about requesting it, but if the team says nah, we’ll just make you play out the contract, I have no problem with the player/agent going public with the request.

Yeah, it is thought of as a bad thing when a player wants what is best for them. They should sacrifice themselves for the ownership group...

That's a petty take. Almost any job requires you to work in a specific location. Many companies move employees around the country to cover regional needs. Specialty industries are even more restricted; doctors, professors, actors, etc live where they can get work doing the thing they want to do.

Want to work in the NBA? There's a collective bargaining agreement that determines how labor can move around the various teams. It's certainly ok for players to ask to be traded, but there is no legal or moral obligation on the team to take a bad deal to make the trade. Davis signed a contract to work for a specific NBA team. He's not a victim if he is asked to work through the end of the contract.

And that is absolutely not an instance of mean old business owners taking advantage of poor helpless labor.

[Split T]

I agree completely with all of that. It sucks when teams do it to players. But is the team obligated to make a deal they don't want to make just to trade a player who wants out? If Booker asks out and James Jones can't get a good deal and Booker's agent goes public to try and push a less than ideal trade thru just to get Book out, would you be pissed? I'd understand Booker wanting out, but I'd pissed at James Jones for making a bad deal just to appease Book and his agent.

And while you may not have a problem with the player/agent going public, the league certainly does.

For the record, I'm the first one to say Book ought to ask out if we don't get things on the right path this year. He's given the org enough chances. But how he/his agent does it is important too.

If jones was trying to find a trade and couldn’t find a good one, no I wouldn’t want him to just take a bad deal. And booker throwing a fit would bother me. I don’t think that’s the case with AD...it doesn’t appear they made any effort to trade him.

[Indy]

I think it’s just because we’re not used to players looking out for their own interests. There is still too much expectation that players do everything for their team and remain loyal their whole careers. Yet teams hardly get any backlash when they trade players away. The clippers traded Griffin 6 months after signing him to a 5 year deal and telling him he’d be a clipper for life. No backlash. To me that means if a player wants to request/force a trade, he should be able to.

Now we can talk about how to go about requesting it, but if the team says nah, we’ll just make you play out the contract, I have no problem with the player/agent going public with the request.

Yeah, it is thought of as a bad thing when a player wants what is best for them. They should sacrifice themselves for the ownership group...

That's a petty take. Almost any job requires you to work in a specific location. Many companies move employees around the country to cover regional needs. Specialty industries are even more restricted; doctors, professors, actors, etc live where they can get work doing the thing they want to do.

Want to work in the NBA? There's a collective bargaining agreement that determines how labor can move around the various teams. It's certainly ok for players to ask to be traded, but there is no legal or moral obligation on the team to take a bad deal to make the trade. Davis signed a contract to work for a specific NBA team. He's not a victim if he is asked to work through the end of the contract.

And that is absolutely not an instance of mean old business owners taking advantage of poor helpless labor.

I am not sure what is petty about Davis saying he wants to play somewhere else. He didn't say he is going to quit playing. He just said he doesn't plan to sign a new contract in NO, and if they want value for him before his contract is up, they should trade him. That is much better than him not telling them and then just bolting after next year.

[Indy]

I agree completely with all of that. It sucks when teams do it to players. But is the team obligated to make a deal they don't want to make just to trade a player who wants out? If Booker asks out and James Jones can't get a good deal and Booker's agent goes public to try and push a less than ideal trade thru just to get Book out, would you be pissed? I'd understand Booker wanting out, but I'd pissed at James Jones for making a bad deal just to appease Book and his agent.

I agree with you. I would be pissed at Jones for making a bad deal too. His job is to get the best value out of the players. The agents job is to get the most value for their players. They are at odds most of the time, and that is fine. It is good checks and balance on the league. And as a selfish fan, I want my team to have the best players and be able to add even better players whenever we want. But that doesn't mean I don't support players when they are in shitty situations and want better ones.

[Mori Chu]

I am not sure what is petty about Davis saying he wants to play somewhere else. He didn't say he is going to quit playing. He just said he doesn't plan to sign a new contract in NO, and if they want value for him before his contract is up, they should trade him. That is much better than him not telling them and then just bolting after next year.

I thought one of the terms/rules of NBA contracts was that they were not supposed to make public comments disparaging their team or publicly requesting to be traded. Is that true?

[Indy]

I am not sure what is petty about Davis saying he wants to play somewhere else. He didn't say he is going to quit playing. He just said he doesn't plan to sign a new contract in NO, and if they want value for him before his contract is up, they should trade him. That is much better than him not telling them and then just bolting after next year.

I thought one of the terms/rules of NBA contracts was that they were not supposed to make public comments disparaging their team or publicly requesting to be traded. Is that true?

I think it is true. And I don't think he did either.

[Split T]

I think AD did get fined $50,000

[Split T]

Good for Igor

[Flagrant Fowl]

What's the status of the allegations against Luke Walton? Could Igor be the Kings head coach sooner than later?