NBA free agency’s winners and losers
By Adrian Wojnarowski
As the rejections and criticisms mounted lately, NBA executives and agents described Portland Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard as “agitated” and “panicked” and even “desperate.” He kept returning to teams with the same proposals, only to be dismissed again and again. All his plans had imploded.
Pritchard has long liked to talk about never laying up on the golf course and burning through cell batteries and the way that the Blazers had outworked and outsmarted the NBA. Few have been terribly impressed with how Pritchard handled the highs of the job, and now there are doubts about how he’s handling its lows.
After the first 10 days of free agency, so far Pritchard stands as the summer’s biggest loser.
Hedo Turkoglu humiliated him with an 11th-hour dash for Toronto. By then, Trevor Ariza had already taken the Houston Rockets’ money. Pritchard couldn’t pry Detroit Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince nor Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich. The job wasn’t as hard when owner Paul Allen gave him tens of millions of buy up draft picks, but free agency is a far more level playing field. Truth be told, Pritchard has failed.
All this cap space, all these big plans, and Pritchard offered a $34 million offer sheet for Paul Millsap to play behind LaMarcus Aldridge. They need a small forward, but he refused to make a bid for the most talented one on the market – the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lamar Odom.
Odom could’ve been had for the Blazers, but Pritchard has, for now, committed his money to a backup power forward. He could’ve dented the Lakers and met his most pressing need with Odom’s length, athleticism and versatility.
For every advantage Pritchard had in assembling these Blazers, he’s struggling with the next step: managing it all.
Pritchard’s greatest gift has been his ability to persuade owner Paul Allen to spend money. Now, Pritchard is struggling to convince Allen to give Brandon Roy a full five-year max extension. The process has increasingly stunned and angered Roy. Whatever anyone thinks, no one has had more to do with the Blazers’ revival than Roy.
Beyond that, Pritchard has a problem with one of the most well-regarded coaches in the NBA: Nate McMillan doesn’t want to sign a contract extension. He’s tried to explain his desire for one-year contracts as some kind of self-motivational tool, but no one buys it. It’s clear that McMillan wants to be a free agent in 2011.
“He knows Portland isn’t the last place he’ll be,” a league source said. “Everyone will want him.”
Multiple league sources believe there’s a wedge between Pritchard and McMillan, but both general manager and coach have long denied it. Even so, it makes league officials wonder how deeply McMillan believes in his boss’ blueprint that he refuses to commit long-term to it.
The rapid rise is over in Portland, and now, Kevin Pritchard has to manage his creation. So far, he’s endured the most rugged summer of his executive career. Here’s the rest of the losers and winners in free agency.
Losers
• David Lee, Trevor Ariza’s agent
His tough talk and chest thumping bought his client, Trevor Ariza, a one-way ticket to post-Yao lottery land in Houston – for essentially the same contract the Lakers were willing to pay him. Way to earn your 4 percent, David.
• The New York Knicks
So, what happened to everyone dying to play for Mike D’Antoni in New York? So far, the AARP free agents – Jason Kidd and Grant Hill – used New York as leverage for more money in Dallas and Phoenix.
Now, the shrinking 2010 salary cap makes the chances of luring LeBron James even less likely. James would have to take even less money to go the Knicks, and there’s little chance New York will have the room for a second max-out free agent. Without it, New York can forget James.
• Lamar Odom
His agent has been desperately trying to find a sign-and-trade around the league, but there’s little there but the Lakers’ offer of $7 million per season. Odom had a terrific playoffs and Finals on L.A’s championship run, but he has few options to make the Lakers raise their offer. Why has Portland so far sat it out with him? It still makes no sense.
Winners
• Tim Duncan
Spurs executives Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford aggressively remade the Spurs into the Lakers biggest challenger again. Now, Duncan, 32, has a legitimate chance to beat Shaq and Kobe to a fifth championship.
Richard Jefferson gives the Spurs a younger, more athletic scorer and defender. Antonio McDyess was the Spurs’ top priority in free agency. Perhaps DeJuan Blair’s knees won’t last a decade in the NBA, but for a minimal second-round investment he could contribute through what’s left of Duncan’s window. They just need Manu Ginobili to be himself again.
Spurs owner Peter Holt has boldly pushed his franchise into the luxury tax for next season, a small-market owner -bent on winning another championship.
• Marcin Gortat
As a 12-minute-a-game center for the Orlando Magic, Gortat scored himself a five-year, $34 million offer sheet from the Dallas Mavericks. Nevertheless, two sources familiar with Orlando’s plans believe Magic GM Otis Smith is strongly considering to match the offer and keep the 7-footer.
• Joe Dumars and Bryan Colangelo
This was the summer to get the most out of your money in free agency, and the GMs of the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors understood that waiting for 2010 wasn’t the wisest move.
Dumars gets a terrific young core with free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva and can still use Prince or Richard Hamilton as chips for a frontline big man. Utah’s Carlos Boozer still lingers as a possibility.
Colangelo stole Turkoglu out of Portland’s clutches, and then worked a sign-and-trade with Orlando to spare his mid-level exception. Colangelo won’t give up on convincing Chris Bosh to stay with Toronto.
• Eastern contenders
Despite the bleak economic climate, ownership in Boston, Cleveland and Orlando pushed themselves deep into luxury tax for next season. The arms race in the East escalated with Shaquille O’Neal to the Cavs, Vince Carter to the Magic and Rasheed Wallace to the Celtics. Nevertheless, this has been a summer of the haves and have-nots. Those with a chance to win are going for it, and yet a lot of the NBA is determined to cut costs and spare themselves financial losses.
So it was McDyess and not Wallace?Antonio McDyess was the Spurs’ top priority in free agency.
yeeeeehawa small-market owner -bent on winning another championship.
Has Ludden, in an effort to seperate himself from the Spurs, been handing of his Spurs information to Wojnarowski?Antonio McDyess was the Spurs’ top priority in free agency.
Maybe he just meant that finding a starting-4 was there top priority, but it's been a little odd that all of the breaking Spurs news and better insights/tidbits have been brought to light by Wojnarowski..
the AARP free agents – Jason Kidd and Grant Hill
Is it me, or is it kind of funny how people seem to be taking pleasure in Pritchard's perceived comeuppance?
Two interesting things:
Antonio McDyess was the Spurs’ top priority in free agency.Gortat scored himself a five-year, $34 million offer sheet from the Dallas Mavericks. Nevertheless, two sources familiar with Orlando’s plans believe Magic GM Otis Smith is strongly considering to match the offer and keep the 7-footer.
What's the rep on Pritchard? Seems like a lot of people enjoy watching him fail. Is he just not liked around the league? Anybody with some insight?
Wojnarowski also wrote an article last season critisizing Pritchard a lot and now he comes with this.Is it me, or is it kind of funny how people seem to be taking pleasure in Pritchard's perceived comeuppance?
Miles separated Blazers GM from greatness
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
Jan 17, 7:50 pm EST
The bully-boy bluff ends now because the Portland Trail Blazers always were without the guts to file a lawsuit over Darius Miles. Their threatening email had been a desperate final act of a franchise awash in arrogance. Blazers officials hoped the threat of Paul Allen’s riches could scare the NBA. Mostly, it made everyone laugh.
For whatever hollow intimidation they used to try to stop the signing of Miles, Blazers officials understood this: They were the last people who would’ve wanted to go under oath about the behind-the-scenes machinations of Miles’ injury retirement. Only the Blazers would’ve been on trial. Only they would’ve had to answer the most uncomfortable of questions.
From leaked drug tests and public proclamations of private medical records to trashing Miles to rival executives and daring to claim him off waivers to stash him away on the inactive list, Portland’s front office acted in bad form and bad faith. Yes, the Jail Blazers lived again.
So sure, go ahead and sue the Memphis Grizzlies for signing a player to a 10-day contract who had 13 points in a quarter on LeBron James, then 10 points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes on the Utah Jazz. Miles played his 10th game of the season on Friday night, and this saga finally is over. His $18 million goes back on Portland’s salary cap, and the Blazers deserve the return of every cap-clogging cent.
It isn’t a matter of whether Miles can play in the NBA again, but how well and how long. If he’s just a 10-day contract player, well, he’s the best of those available on the market. When his deal ends Monday, several league executives told Yahoo! Sports they’ll contact his agent about signing him.
Memphis is expected to offer Miles a second 10-day contract, but there could be better opportunities for him.
“I’m pleased with the production Darius has had, especially considering that he’s been off the court for over a year and a half,” Miles’ agent, Jeff Wechsler said by phone on Saturday. “He’s shaken the rust off, and he’s been very productive in the games that he’s played.”
The irony of it all, of course, is that Miles has turned into an improbable teacher to the Blazers, giving them some lessons on professionalism and humility. Yes, he had been immature for most of his career. He had made terrible mistakes. Only now, he has grown up. After having him with the Celtics in the preseason, the Boston Celtics’ Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers believe it. So does more and more of the league now.
Through it all, Miles never wished ill will on Portland. His comeback never has been about costing them salary-cap space on his injury retirement case. Management wanted out of his $48 million contract in Portland and found a way. All along, Miles told the Blazers he would try to play again. He honored his word.
And the better he has looked, the worse it has reflected on Portland GM Kevin Pritchard. As much as anyone, this mess has exposed him. He wanted to be the star in the good times in Portland, wanted all the bouquets and bows for his work on the job. He started to believe his own clippings, his own mythology, and he thought he could get away with anything.
From the start, Pritchard stumbled into the one rabid NBA market where a general manager can aspire to celebrity. Portland declared Pritchard the Golden Boy, the Gambler, and played songs about him on the radio. Never once did he seem embarrassed. Never did he do much but furiously feed the rush to declare him a genius.
He bragged of draining three cell-phone batteries a day. He bought high-risk stocks, and he never laid up on a par-5. He loves those little details about himself getting into the papers. True? Who knows? It sure made for a fast-rising legend, though. He wanted everyone to believe that he worked harder and longer and smarter. Maybe he thought it all portrayed a confidence, but it mostly masked an insecurity.
He had taken the San Antonio Spurs’ computer scouting programs and made them bigger and better. “Kevin’s baby,” the local paper said the Blazers called it in their offices. Rip City wanted a hero to make the Jail Blazers go away, and Pritchard indulged himself in it all.
Portland owner Paul Allen gave Pritchard the biggest stack of chips to bring to the table, and Pritchard flaunted them to everyone. He stockpiled draft choices like Reagan did nuclear warheads, buying up millions of dollars worth of picks from cash-strapped teams over the past several seasons. He never has been afraid to rub that advantage into the faces of his peers. The Blazers still haven’t been to the playoffs under him, but any opposing GM on the wrong side of a deal with Portland is considered to have been Pritch-slapped.
It’s strange, but every transaction in Portland has been treated like a validation of Pritchard’s genius. Now, his apologists are blaming Paul Allen and president Larry Miller for the Miles mess, only it doesn’t work like that. Pritchard is the face of the franchise because he made it that way.
Pritchard has mismanaged the Miles situation from the beginning. Once the league doctor agreed that Miles’ knee injury was a career-ender, Pritchard’s dubious intentions came tumbling out of him.
“Two doctors said Darius had the worst microfracture injury they had ever seen,” he publicly said. “They would never have him play basketball, and the odds of having knee replacement surgery [are] high. I hear that, and as a general manager, I didn’t want it on my conscience – that I had a kid have to go through a knee replacement surgery.
“That’s a pretty major surgery. They saw [two bones] and replace [the knee]. It’s a bad deal.”
His conscience, huh? Those were words directed at the rest of the league, trying to tell every other team that Miles was too far gone for them to consider bringing back. He must have believed people were stupid. All around the NBA, it made everyone think: Pritchard sounds scared that Miles isn’t done at all. Why else would he be trying so hard to convince everyone otherwise?
Bad enough that Pritchard spoke out of turn on a player’s medical condition and possibly violated privacy laws, but it was clear that a campaign to frighten away potential teams was under way. From there, it went underground. If the Blazers couldn’t scare people on Miles’ knee, it wasn’t long, league executives say, until Portland turned to his character.
Pritchard has a great eye for talent, but that’s just the start of constructing a contender, a champion. The greats of his profession understand the humbling nature of the job – genius today, bum tomorrow – and mostly stay in the shadows, deflecting praise on coaches and players. Once you try to make yourself the star in the good times, you’re asking for trouble when they go bad. So now, his hubris has been Pritch-slapped into silence, and maybe in the long run, it’s the best thing that could’ve happened to the Blazers. Maybe they needed this sobering reminder of reality.
Portland loses cap space now, and it loses some respect. All that arrogance, all those threats and a 27-year-old that Kevin Pritchard and his posse had dismissed as character-free, as the last holdout of the Jail Blazers, taught them a lesson.
Yes, the Jail Blazers made a comeback this season.
Only this time, they wore suits.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns
Last edited by Spurs Brazil; 07-11-2009 at 01:00 PM.
He came from the Spurs FO. I guess people are bitter he isn't deliberately sabotaging himself to help the Spurs win a ring. There's also the Batum Thievery*.
* - perceived thievery
He was a complete regarding sending out that memo basically threatening every team in the league if they signed Darius Miles.Is it me, or is it kind of funny how people seem to be taking pleasure in Pritchard's perceived comeuppance?
Oh yeah I forgot about that.
I think down deep inside we all thought that, but with Sheed around didn't want to believe it.
McDyess = Spurs Material
Wallace = Big name but not Spurs Material
One wonders if that will be the case for the 2010-11 season.Spurs owner Peter Holt has boldly pushed his franchise into the luxury tax for next season, a small-market owner -bent on winning another championship.
Probably depends on the ROI for this year's moves ...
If the salary cap goes down even half as much as the doomsday scenarios, the Spurs obligations for that season will put them at or above the cap with about seven players on the roster. Resigning Manu or getting a player like him could put them into tax territory almost immediately.
What are the doomsday scenarios, CD?
This doesn't even factor Patrick Mills' broken foot...
Interesting. Wojo is pretty damn good about his info. He broke the RJ trade and the McDyess signing. He also broke the KT trade.Antonio McDyess was the Spurs’ top priority in free agency.
But ... we'll probably never know for sure.
Oh well, McDyess had to have been top two at worst.
I think there is a thread about the NBA memo predicting a possible drop of $10 million over the next two years. Apparently it could drop anywhere from $4 to $7 million next season.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index....ely_to_st.html
Karma beeach.He kept returning to teams with the same proposals, only to be dismissed again and again. All his plans had imploded.
Wow, perceptions change fast in the NBA. Last summer there was a poll on spurstalk asking if RC should be fired and, amazingly, 50% said yes, with many of them using Pritchard as an example of how a good & aggressive GM should behave. Now RC is back to being lauded as an understated genius, and Pritchard gets written up as arrogant jerk....
Hopefully Pritchard redeems his professional reputation by either landing Odom, or making the Lakers pay far more than 7m per year.Is it me, or is it kind of funny how people seem to be taking pleasure in Pritchard's perceived comeuppance?
KP using his capspace for a backup PF is damn stupid.
The only way it makes sense is if they plan on trading Oden or Przybilla and play some minutes with a LA/Millsap frontcourt.
Spurs have had a awesome offseason, it's a day dream.
$34M for Gortat is unreal, it would be quite stupid for Magic to match it
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
