Around the League
Bulls, Clippers trying to make a deal? The Bulls and Clippers began discussions about a week ago on a way to get big man Melvin Ely to Chicago. At the time, talk of a possible Marcus Fizer-for-Ely swap seemed to be about as far as either team was willing to go. The Clippers are trying to clear more cap room to make a run at Kobe Bryant, and getting Ely's contract ($1.7 million next year) off the books helped.
Since then, however, talk of a larger Bulls-Clippers swap has taken hold. Bulls GM John Paxson likes Clippers' combo guard Marko Jaric and has tried to get him worked into the deal. The Clippers are balking unless the Bulls throw in their combo guard, Jamal Crawford. That may be too much for Paxson to swallow. Paxson likes Jaric's tough defense and ability to play three positions on the floor, but Crawford is a high price to pay for Jaric. Clippers president Elgin Baylor likes Crawford's ability to run the point and scoring ability in the backcourt.
Can the two sides make a deal? If the Clippers were willing to substitute local product Quentin Richardson for Jaric, the Bulls would give up Crawford in a heartbeat. However, it's very unlikely that the Clippers would do that, even with the possibility of landing Kobe Bryant to replace Richardson this summer. More realistically, Ely, Jaric and Keyon Dooling for Fizer and Crawford works salary-wise and would address the needs of both clubs.
Boozer not going anywhere this summer: I got a flood of e-mails on Wednesday asking why Carlos Boozer wasn't on Insider list of top 2004 free agents. The answer is pretty simple. The Cavs have a team option on Boozer's third season. That means that Cavs fans call breathe a little easier. Cavs GM Jim Paxson had the foresight to lock Boozer up for three years. When he becomes a restricted free agent in 2005, the Cavs will own his Bird Rights and be able to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him.
Carlos Boozer
Power Forward
Cleveland Cavaliers
Profile
2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM
PPG
RPG
APG
FG%
FT%
38
14.0
11.0
2.1
.505
.763
Had the Cavs only locked Boozer up for two years, they would be faced with the same dilemma that the Warriors faced last summer with Gilbert Arenas and that the Pistons (Mehmet Okur) and the Spurs (Emanuel Ginobili) face this season. A team that has a player under contract for only two years only gets Early Bird Rights, meaning that it can only offer a player its available cap room or, if over the cap, only up to the average player salary (around $4.9 million). If another team offers more, the chance that you lose your free agent is high. It's a lesson that NBA GMs are slowly learning. You see a lot more second-round picks now getting two-years deal with a team option for the third year to protect team from having to deal with an Early Bird free agent.
Isiah begging teams to take Shandon Anderson: How desperate is Isiah Thomas to trade Shandon Anderson? According to Newsday, Thomas has tried to pawn him off on the Blazers (for Ruben Patterson, a convicted felon), the Mavericks (for Tariq Abdul-Wahad who basically can't play) and the Raptors (for Lamond Murray).
Patterson? Abdul-Wahad? Murray? Are there three uglier contracts in the NBA? Apparently, Anderson's is worse as Thomas has been unable to convince any of those teams to take on Shandon. Anderson is due a whopping $23 million over the next three seasons and Thomas wants him out of there, despite that fact that he may be the Knicks' most athletic backcourt defender. Anderson's refusal to go on the injured list this week (he claimed he wasn't hurt) has only caused more grief. According to the New York Daily News, Thomas' inability to trade Anderson has lead to buyout negotiations but so far, no deal.
Hawks free to deal? Hawks GM Billy Knight claims that he has the power to make trades now, even though the sale of the Hawks is still pending. "I haven't come across anything that makes enough sense for me," Knight told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "I'm talking about everything. That's trades, rumors of coaching changes, everything. I'm not going to do anything until I see something that makes sense for us."
"Everyone thinks we should do something," Knight said. "I don't care about everything else that goes on in the league. When I think we can do something that makes sense, I will do it."
That's at odds with what GMs around the league have told Insider. With new ownership and potentially new management set to take over in the next few weeks, several GMs have claimed that Knight's hands are tied until the new guys take over.
Bulls, Clippers trying to make a deal? The Bulls and Clippers began discussions about a week ago on a way to get big man Melvin Ely to Chicago. At the time, talk of a possible Marcus Fizer-for-Ely swap seemed to be about as far as either team was willing to go. The Clippers are trying to clear more cap room to make a run at Kobe Bryant, and getting Ely's contract ($1.7 million next year) off the books helped.
Since then, however, talk of a larger Bulls-Clippers swap has taken hold. Bulls GM John Paxson likes Clippers' combo guard Marko Jaric and has tried to get him worked into the deal. The Clippers are balking unless the Bulls throw in their combo guard, Jamal Crawford. That may be too much for Paxson to swallow. Paxson likes Jaric's tough defense and ability to play three positions on the floor, but Crawford is a high price to pay for Jaric. Clippers president Elgin Baylor likes Crawford's ability to run the point and scoring ability in the backcourt.
Can the two sides make a deal? If the Clippers were willing to substitute local product Quentin Richardson for Jaric, the Bulls would give up Crawford in a heartbeat. However, it's very unlikely that the Clippers would do that, even with the possibility of landing Kobe Bryant to replace Richardson this summer. More realistically, Ely, Jaric and Keyon Dooling for Fizer and Crawford works salary-wise and would address the needs of both clubs.
Boozer not going anywhere this summer: I got a flood of e-mails on Wednesday asking why Carlos Boozer wasn't on Insider list of top 2004 free agents. The answer is pretty simple. The Cavs have a team option on Boozer's third season. That means that Cavs fans call breathe a little easier. Cavs GM Jim Paxson had the foresight to lock Boozer up for three years. When he becomes a restricted free agent in 2005, the Cavs will own his Bird Rights and be able to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him.
Carlos Boozer
Power Forward
Cleveland Cavaliers
Profile
2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM
PPG
RPG
APG
FG%
FT%
38
14.0
11.0
2.1
.505
.763
Had the Cavs only locked Boozer up for two years, they would be faced with the same dilemma that the Warriors faced last summer with Gilbert Arenas and that the Pistons (Mehmet Okur) and the Spurs (Emanuel Ginobili) face this season. A team that has a player under contract for only two years only gets Early Bird Rights, meaning that it can only offer a player its available cap room or, if over the cap, only up to the average player salary (around $4.9 million). If another team offers more, the chance that you lose your free agent is high. It's a lesson that NBA GMs are slowly learning. You see a lot more second-round picks now getting two-years deal with a team option for the third year to protect team from having to deal with an Early Bird free agent.
Isiah begging teams to take Shandon Anderson: How desperate is Isiah Thomas to trade Shandon Anderson? According to Newsday, Thomas has tried to pawn him off on the Blazers (for Ruben Patterson, a convicted felon), the Mavericks (for Tariq Abdul-Wahad who basically can't play) and the Raptors (for Lamond Murray).
Patterson? Abdul-Wahad? Murray? Are there three uglier contracts in the NBA? Apparently, Anderson's is worse as Thomas has been unable to convince any of those teams to take on Shandon. Anderson is due a whopping $23 million over the next three seasons and Thomas wants him out of there, despite that fact that he may be the Knicks' most athletic backcourt defender. Anderson's refusal to go on the injured list this week (he claimed he wasn't hurt) has only caused more grief. According to the New York Daily News, Thomas' inability to trade Anderson has lead to buyout negotiations but so far, no deal.
Hawks free to deal? Hawks GM Billy Knight claims that he has the power to make trades now, even though the sale of the Hawks is still pending. "I haven't come across anything that makes enough sense for me," Knight told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "I'm talking about everything. That's trades, rumors of coaching changes, everything. I'm not going to do anything until I see something that makes sense for us."
"Everyone thinks we should do something," Knight said. "I don't care about everything else that goes on in the league. When I think we can do something that makes sense, I will do it."
That's at odds with what GMs around the league have told Insider. With new ownership and potentially new management set to take over in the next few weeks, several GMs have claimed that Knight's hands are tied until the new guys take over.
