Comments on: Getting Team USA Right

By: tisbee

tisbee — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:22:40 +0000

Kurt,
This will be long so forgive me.
There seems to be a little confusion about Trade Exceptions. They can only be created in “legal” trades.
Teams above the cap that trade players HAVE to take back salary roughly(w/in @ 25%) equal to trade salary. Teams under the cap can pretty much do anything they want,until they go over the cap.
Both Seattle and Orlando were under the cap by an amount large enough to “trade” away a player for nothing thus creating the large TE. Same w/Charlotte and Golden State.
The NBA decided they needed something to help teams trade large contracts,esp the grandfathered in ones. Suppose a team over the cap traded a star making $23mil for 3 players whose combined salary came to $20mil.The team trading away the star can justify they got young talent to build on/trade away,draft picks and the $3mil(or $6mil if over lux tax) in salary reduction will cover an awful lot of $40-50 tickets not sold because the star is gone.
The team getting the star has stripped their roster and being over the cap has nothing but vet mins and the MLE,which may have been used to resign a player. So the CBA created the TE which is an imaginary salary that can be used to trade for another player-in this case $3mil. It cannot be combined w/anything else,and it can only be used in a trade for a signed player.
Suppose a second trade was reported as the team getting $5mil and a $2.75mil players in exchange for the TE and a $4.5mil player. That is bad/lazy reporting/editing. What really happened is 2 trades were made,but announced at same time=the 5 for the 4.5 and the 2.75 for the TE.
Most TEs are very small and often are not worth using. For instance a team in the lux tax gets a $1.25mil TE. The vet min is about as much and the League pays 25% and doesn’t count the Leagues portion on the cap.Using the TE instead of the vet min may get the player a few extra thousand,but costs the owner half a mil…what do you think the wise GM will do.
It’s very difficult to create a large TE. If the Lakers traded away Kobe,Lamar for the max allowed,they’d only create @ an $8mil TE.
Hope this was of some help.

By: Xavier

Xavier — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:48:18 +0000

39. International basketball is not about having a great playmaker and good finishers.
maybe the US team will have enought with that fro the Americas Tournament but in the Worlds? nah

the exemples to follow lately are Spain, Greace and Argentina.
They all play a well rounded game offensively, where all players can create plays for the others more thant creating its own bucket.
That’s where moving without the ball is so important in FIBA’s rules.
the defense is played in a diferent way, zones are allowed and teams usually shift diferent styles of defens during the game. I can tell you that these guys have been doing that since they started playing basketball.

there is where US team fails. Lebron can’t defend in all the ways international ball plays to, neither he knows how to atack them.

They rule the NBA, but they are rookies in international ball. How hard have you talked about all those NCAA stars who hasn’t been able to adapt his game to the NBA? Morrisson, Redick most recently…

It’s all about adapting. Gasol is by far the best international player in FIBA rules nowadays because he knows them and take every little advantage of them. He’s even more valuable than new nba-MVP Nowitzki, because Nowitzki never was an important force in Europe and jumped from a 2nd division team to the NBA. But then in the NBA, Nowitzki is more adapted to the style of game and rules where Gasol is getting used to them and being more of an all-star NBA player.

US team has the talent. now its time to absorb what international ball is about

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:36:19 +0000

Sorry for the double post but I wanted to add one more thing.
PHX trading future 1st round picks becomes really bad if ATL makes the playoffs next season. Then PHXs first round pick from ATL in the next draft will not be that good. If ATL is bad again and that pick is in the top 3-4 then they might be able to get a replacement for Nash in Mayo or Rose if either are in next years draft. Then the Thomas trade would not be too bad. But I think ATL has a chance to make the playoffs so their pick might not even be in the lottery.

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:32:08 +0000

I agree. The Thomas trade was done solely to save money. I think it was a horrible move, especially for the future of that franchise. But it was fantastic for Seattle PHX would have been better off keeping Thomas for 1 more year and let his contract expire. That way they save money next year and get to hold onto their picks. But I am not paying the 6M in luxury tax that they are saving.

How many more years before Nash starts to decline and the team with him? .Once Nash starts to decline they will not have any picks to rebuild. That 2010 1st round pick might not be that bad of a pick if Nash gets injured or starts to decline after next season.

By: WarrenWeeLim

WarrenWeeLim — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:45:09 +0000

Thanks for the clarification ryan… perhaps so too. I will have to read the CBA again to confirm that one I said in contradiction to that of ryan’s …

I guess the idea for Phoenix was to give up Kurt Thom’s salary to stay away from the tax. They had the 2008 and 2010 1sts as the deal sweetener. What a way to mortgage the future. Suppose Amare gets crippled this year? What now?

By: ken

ken — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:07:40 +0000

indianapolis was the 2002 world basketball championship — 2006 was in japan.

last year’s semi-final games between argentina and spain was a game for the ages — beautiful off-ball movement with plethora of cuts and backdoors, tough-as-nails rebounding and defense. the other national teams have been playing together for 6-8 years, while team USA is still treating this as a game of individual talent. I’m not sold on their chances for the 2008 olympics at this point.

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:27:40 +0000

Warren (40) I do not think a trade exception can be used to match salaries for a player worth more than the trade exception. I could be wrong but I thought I read that when reading an article on GS trading for Garnett after they got the trade exception in the Richardson trade. I think if you wanted to use the 6M trade exception to acquire JO you would have to trade for a player worth 6M, wait the 60 days then trade that player to Indiana.

By: Elyse

Elyse — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:43:03 +0000

I watched the whole game (they have been playing it non stop on NBA TV, and on fox sports west) and I thought it was exactly what you would expect of a bunch of incredibly talented players who have only played together for three days, and probably many after shaking some rust off. When either team slipped into zone defense there were still some issues offensively adjusting. And fifteen players who were invited were not there (Wade, Brand, etc.)

As for Kobe, he had 26 pts. on 10-22, 5 assists, and five rebounds… (that is from memory so it may be wrong..) He also had something like 6 steals compared to only three turnovers. He had a great shooting touch and hit some pretty killer and very deep threes earlier in the game. At the end with the game on the line he was the one everyone on the team deferred to, and scored the last 7 pts of the blue team, making the go ahead jumper with Prince guarding him and 6 seconds remaining. He then played pretty good defense on Lebron to end the game. I don’t know if “he had something to prove” or that he was just a veteran player whom the other players look to, but you def. noticed him playing a leadership role.

Carmelo, Durrant, and Kidd also all played excellently. Although Kidd was playing for the other ‘team’, watching him gave me visions of what he and Kobe could have looked like.

Watching Kobe and his on court magic and simultaneously thinking of the scenario where he isn’t wearing a laker jersey also makes me cringe.

By: WarrenWeeLim

WarrenWeeLim — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:56:42 +0000

In relation to that Trade Exception thingie…

I was greatly surprised upon reading that Odom was supposed to be shipped out to NJ in a 3-way while Gerald Wallace (signed-and-traded) to LA. This was not a trade I was expecting but I was disappointed it did not happen.

Had the deal gone through, we would have accepted a trade exception from Charlotte worth 6M, valuable for a JO pitch. We could now trade Bynum and Kwame + the 6M TE to Indiana for JO without hampering our lineup. We will then have 2 new players (JO and GW) traded indirectly for Odom, Kwame and Bynum.

Farmar / Fisher / Crittenton
Kobe / Evans / Sasha
Wallace / Walton
JO / Radmanovic / Cook
Mihm / Turiaf

Defensively, this is an excellent team. We will be well rounded on offense with a 3-man attack while being stellar on defense. Since JO plays center at times (many times in Indy), we can move Turiaf to the 4 and JO at the 5. I’ve also noticed that GWallace sometimes shifts to the 4 spot. He is essentially a 2-3-4 type of player.

This would have made an instant contender – the right way. Balance, defense, systematic offense and hustle.

In my opinion, we could stil deal with Charlotte on this one. Making it an Odom for GWallace trade.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:45:20 +0000

Re the scrimmage.
Blue squad started Carmelo as a PF and the White squad dominated inside and on the boards.
Simple 2-3 Zones gave both squads problems.
The refs didn’t seem to call some of the fouls the way International refs would. There were some traveling and push-offs that I think International refs would call.
There were an awful lot of quick hands on the floor w/alot of deflections,steals.

Dwight was only big who was routinely contesting shots and he was doing alot of jumping on high screen/rolls and often was able to recover on his man.
Stoudemire has developed a nice mid-range jumper but to me looked horrible on D.
Chandler did a good job on boards.
Bosh is an incredible athlete for his size,but his numbers didn’t seem to impact the game.
Kobe can guard LeBron,Lebron can’t guard Kobe.(Duh!)
LeBron killed ball movement much too often,dribbling pointlessly too often. I never felt any of his outside shots were going in,even when they swished.Could be because he’s more explosive than other players so I haven’t mentally adjusted to his shot,but I believe it’s because he hurries his shot,is too abrupt and his body rarely squares up. On the other hand he is devastating on the break.
Kobe did as much one-on-one,but he seemed to do it so much smoother. Kobe would make his move immediately-he knows what he wants-whereas LeBron seemed to be thinking about what he wants to do.
Anybody who wouldn’t want Kidd on their team is a fool. Young players should watch where he delivers the ball-always in the hands in a position where the receiver can immediately go into his shot.
Miller was firing 3s from 4-5 ft beyond the line and made it look easy.
Even tho Durant has Manute Bol’s arms he can score.

CA-Born,
This will be Kidd’s team. Kobe will be the designated scorer. Duncan will be thw other focus. The rest had better accept being role players or there will be problems. One problem right off the bat is the probable starting line-Kidd,Kobe,Lebron,Duncan and who gets the other spot? Carmelo for outside shooting or Bosh/Howard for inside defense/rebounding?