Personnel moves for matchup reasons. Name some

[Daddy_Of_All_Trolls]

It's offseason, let's talk basketball. Having followed the NBA for about 50 years, I have accumulated a vast amount of knowledge about the sport, although the older you get the more blurry those classic days become. I just have to think longer.

One thing that always intrigued me were roster changes contending teams made to counter a player on a rival team.

Here's a few:

1971-72 December: Milwuakee Bucks trade small forward and starter Greg Smith (he had a son play later) for Curtis Perry, 6'7". Back then, few forwards were over 6'5" and the move was to compete with the size of the Lakers who had recently added John Q. Trapp 6'7". Lakers beat Bucks in WCF.

1982-83: Philadelphia 76rs draft Marc Iavoroni (Later coach of Memphis). Move made to counter Kurt Rambis of the Lakers. Marc was a tall athletic white guy who banged bodies around. Sixers beat Lakes in finals

1986 Draft: Boston selects Len Bias as Red Auerbach needed someone to counter James Worthy of the Lakers. Never saw that matchup, Len OD'd on coke and the matchup never happened. Lakers beat Celtics in finals.

2008: Suns trade for Shaq to compete with Spurs. Suns lose in round one against San Antonio.

So, sometimes a change worked, and sometimes it didn't. There are plenty more matchup trades. Which ones can you recall, why were they made, and how did they turn out?

[Leetonidas]

Spurs trade for Bowen to stop Kobe

[Steve Kerr]

The funniest part of that is that in January of 08 Antoni said that Pau Gasol wasn't worth Shawn Marion and then he traded Marion for a 37 YO Shaq.

[Koolaid_Man]

Off the top real quick here are some I can think of:

1.) My recollection was the Suns traded for Shaq to compete with Kobe and Gasol...in 2008 it was Kobe doing work....

2.) Even though a trade wasn't made I think the Spurs got relevant by virtue of tanking for Tim...

3.) Summer of 2010 Boston signs both Oneal's to keep up with Lakers front line...problem is they're washed up. I think Sheed was way more effective than both Oneal's will be.

4.) I don't even want to mention that spectacle in Miami...

5.) Mark Cuban goes for anyone with a nice name that's on the market. Boston has become the new Dallas when it comes to hoarding players

6.) NY signed Amare to save face

7.) Chicago made decent 2010 summer signings to compete in the east

8.) Spurs sign RJ in 09 to compete / compare with the Ron Artest signing. Epic Fail

9.) No trade but Hawks over pay out the anal cavity for Joe Johnson to stay relevant in the east...Epic Fail

10.) 2005 Lakers sign Smush Parker to defend Steve Nash...Epic Fail

11.) 1996 Lakers trade Vlade for Kobe ( draft day trade)

12.) 2010 Lakers compete with themselves by dumping basically their whole worthless bench for a new one

[BlackSwordsMan]

2010-2030 heat trade for lebron and bosh to take on the nba

[JamStone]

1988-89: Pistons traded Dantley for Aguirre to give them a better chance at preventing the Lakers from 3-peating. Pistons went on to win the finals that year and defended their crown the following year.

Trading Dantley for Aguirre wasn't a move to match up better against the Lakers. The Pistons didn't become that much better of a team because of Aguirre. The move was made because Isiah didn't get along that well with Dantley and Aguirre was one of his gay boyfriends. Most people know that Isiah pushed for the deal to happen when they didn't really need to make the move. They were 32-13 when they traded Dantley.

It was a bitch move by Isiah. A lot of Pistons fans were upset about it and a lot of us feel like Dantley deserved to get a ring for that 1989 title.

[Venti Quattro]

2009-2010: Lakers acquire Ron Artest to counter strong and big small forwards. Shut down Durant in the first round and disrupted Paul Pierce in the Finals. Lakers win title.

2009-2010: Cavs acquire Shaq to try and match-up to the likes of D-12, Gasol, Bynum. Cavs got totally beat by a team with an entirely different makeup.

2009-2010: Orlando acquires Vince Carter to make the likes of Kobe and Pierce work on both ends of the floor. He fizzles out in the ECF. They lose to Boston.

[sefant77]

Mavs sign Dampier instead of Nash in 2004 to match up with Lakers and Spurs.

[Ashy Larry]

1987: Lakers scoop up Mychal Thompson for the sole purpose of Kevin McHale

[JamStone]

Mavs sign Dampier instead of Nash in 2004 to match up with Lakers and Spurs.

Dampier has more NBA Finals appearances than Nash. Good move.

[Giuseppe]

1987: Lakers scoop up Mychal Thompson for the sole purpose of Kevin McHale

Lot of hard feelings over that one. Kinda like the Gasol business.

[Steve Kerr]

Mavs sign Dampier instead of Nash in 2004 to match up with Lakers and Spurs.
Or so they could become a real basketball team that plays defense.

[Steve Kerr]

The Bulls wouldn't give up Deng for Pau, then turn around and overpay for Boozer.:lol
Yeah, these examples are why teams shouldn't whine about Gasol going to LA, they should whine about the shitball GM of their team being too stupid to trade for Gasol/too stubborn to give up on the team they insisted was capable of winning a title. The Western conference outside of LA is only gonna get weaker because players are getting tired of Western Conference GMs who think making minor tweaks every year will position them to beat LA.

[timtonymanu]

8.) Spurs sign RJ in 09 to compete / compare with the Ron Artest signing. Epic Fail


Uh the Spurs TRADED for RJ before the Lakers signed Artest.

[Giuseppe]

.........alrighty:::Spurs trade for RJ,,,,Lakers mash panic button and sign Artest to matchup. RJ manages to pass a very large egg out his asshole culminating in The Skunker. Artest comes to Los Angeles, watches his p's and watches his q's for like an entire season...only at the very end does he go ape shit, and then only on KD, JRich, and Paul Pierce culminating in Doug Collins contemplating doing the Dutch and Luva gettin' his reinstatement in the nick of like time.

Everybody walked over, but, Artest sent 'em all limpin' back.

Testify, Cubby, testify!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Killakobe81]

1987: Lakers scoop up Mychal Thompson for the sole purpose of Kevin McHale

This and the artest signing are probably two of the best in Lakers lore ...not saying they are more critical than signing shaq or trading for kobe ...but they fit the original criteria. My organization wins more than they lose ...

And yes, i said my!!!

[picc84]

Spurs trade their best defensive player for Dick Jefferson to keep pace with the rapidly improving NBA. Their doormat, the Suns, turn them into the doormat with a welcome message reading 0-4, Dragic 23 in 4th. Their window remains closed forevermore.

[Giuseppe]

.......Suns try similar stunt with Dragic Vs. the Lakers and Nash has to throw off his blanket, get up off his ass and come back in tootsweet.

[Booharv]

Trading Dantley for Aguirre wasn't a move to match up better against the Lakers. The Pistons didn't become that much better of a team because of Aguirre. The move was made because Isiah didn't get along that well with Dantley and Aguirre was one of his gay boyfriends. Most people know that Isiah pushed for the deal to happen when they didn't really need to make the move. They were 32-13 when they traded Dantley.

It was a bitch move by Isiah. A lot of Pistons fans were upset about it and a lot of us feel like Dantley deserved to get a ring for that 1989 title.

That trade had nothing to do with the Lakers, that's definitely correct. I agree with Jamstone and basically iirc the boiling point is when Dantley had a party and invited everyone on the team but Thomas and Isiah crashed the party anyway and made it as uncomfortable as possible. But Bill Simmons had a talk with Isiah that he reported about in his book and he has a different take:


"For the next few minutes, Isiah explained it to me. After coming soooooooooo close for two straight postseasons, the chemistry for the ’89 team was off for reasons that had nothing to do with talent. Chuck Daly needed to give Dennis Rodman more playing time, only the Teacher (Dantley’s nickname, in an ironic twist) wasn’t willing to accommodate him. And that was a problem. Rodman could play any style and defend every type of player; he gave the Pistons a uniquely special flexibility, much like Havlicek’s ability to play guard or forward drove Russell’s last few Celtics teams. There was also a precedent in place from when John Salley and Joe Dumars came into their own in previous seasons; Isiah and Vinnie Johnson gave up minutes for Dumars, and Rick Mahorn gave up minutes for Salley. But when Rodman started stealing crunch-time minutes from Dantley, the Teacher started sulking and even complained to a local writer. You couldn’t call it a betrayal, but Dantley had undermined an altruistic dynamic—constructed carefully over the past four seasons, almost like a stack of Jenga blocks—that hinged on players forfeiting numbers for the overall good of the team. The Pistons couldn’t risk having Dantley knock that Jenga stack down. They quickly swapped him for the enigmatic Aguirre, an unconventional low-post scorer who caused similar mismatch problems but wouldn’t start trouble because Isiah (a childhood chum from Chicago) would never allow it. Maybe Dantley was a better player than Aguirre, but Aguirre was a better fit for the 1989 Pistons. If they didn’t make that deal, they wouldn’t have won the championship. It was a people trade, not a basketball"

Simmons then runs down a list of contenders and says:

"Year after year, at least one contender fell short for reasons that had little or nothing to do with basketball. And year after year, the championship team prevailed because it got along and everyone committed themselves to their roles. That’s what Detroit needed to do, and that’s why Dantley had to go."

[Booharv]

Here's a link to that Dantley-Isiah party incident I mentioned:

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/item_i4xDAmsyOEEsL3ssahHUWO;jsessionid=057E3EE2925 A857022E6F154F98D885A

[monosylab1k]

tbh one of the more genius personnel moves happened in this year's finals.

In Game 7 right at the end of the first half, Doc Rivers put in Brian Scalabrine. At the time I was thinking "WTF????" but then I realized exactly why.

Rivers put Scalabrine on Lamar Odom. The plan was to have the Lakers see this matchup, think to themselves "lol Scalabrine on Odom", and decide to give Odom the final shot of the half instead of Kobe. Rivers obviously expected Odom to then do something retarded with the basketball.

It worked beautifully. Kobe didn't get the ball at all on the final possession of the half and Odom dribbled the ball like a retard before turning it over.

Unfortunately, as genius as that call was, Rivers wasn't smart enough to bench Ray Allen the rest of the game :lol

[monosylab1k]

Spurs trade their best defensive player for Dick Jefferson to keep pace with the rapidly improving NBA. Their doormat, the Suns, turn them into the doormat with a welcome message reading 0-4, Dragic 23 in 4th. Their window remains closed forevermore.

:lol that was pretty damn good.

[Latarian Milton]

houston assigning Ryan Bowen to curtail Dirk was a classic one, and also a successful one. although the mavs finally won the series in game 7, dirk played fairly bad the entire series. I believe the series wouldn't have last that long if Juwan Howard hadn't been injured.

great fucking manmarking strategy.

[Venti Quattro]

Denver brings in Afflalo to stop Kobe in the playoffs... didn't pan out as planned.

[MavDynasty]

ay remember det one time were dem mavericks traded for dat jason kidd to give dirk da damn ball

[Veterinarian]

Yet another thread where Laker fan acts like the entire NBA world revolves around them.

[Steve Kerr]

Yet another thread where Laker fan acts like the entire NBA world revolves around them.


Because it does! 16 rings baby! F the haters, best fans in the NBA!!!

[Giuseppe]

Denver brings in Afflalo to stop Kobe in the playoffs... didn't pan out as planned.

Big shots.