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In general, it's presumptuous for Steve Kerr to be second-guessing Sam Presti on personnel decisions. But I'm damned certain that Kerr hasn't earned the right to question Presti's integrity. (Or Barry's, Holt's, and Popovich's.) And don't try to sugar coat it, that's exactly what he did. He said straight out, "I think maybe there was something behind the scenes there." That's for the league to decide, and unless Kerr has some proof he has no business saying it. Stern ought to hit him with a fine.
The Sonics are building a young team around Kevin Durant. In all their trade negotiations, they made it plain they wanted expiring contracts, draft picks, or young prospects. Everything about this trade is consistent with their very well understood strategy.
This season is clearly a lost cause for the Sonics, so their focus is solidly on next season. Kurt Thomas is an older veteran, and he becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season. He's not part of their building program, so the trade makes perfect sense there, too.
Here are some other facts that give some context to the trade:
1. Kerr gave the Sonics Kurt Thomas PLUS two first round draft picks, in exchange for an $8M trade exception. (Okay, Phoenix also got a conditional future second round pick.) If the Sonics had been more compe ive this year, Thomas would have helped. But the real prize was the two first round picks.
2. For sending Thomas to the Spurs, the Sonics got two expiring contracts plus another first round pick. That's consistent with what Presti was asking from all his negotiations. The trade gives the Sonics 2 first round picks in each of the next three drafts. Not to mention the 7 second rounders in those three drafts. Gee... what could Presti be thinking?
3. Others have already mentioned that Marshall was not an option, no matter what Kerr says. Even if he was, Barry was never going to be a part of the Sonics building program either. But they still have to field a team for the rest of the year, and Marshall is averaging about 13 minutes for them. Barry plays the same position as Kevin Durant, Damien Wilkins, Delonte West and Mickeal Gelabale. Plus, he's out with a recurring injury. What would make Kerr think the Sonics needed to keep him? Everybody knew Barry was going to get offered a buyout. They even mentioned it in the press releases when the trade got made.
Kerr has proven to be quite an asshole. He was totally out of line while announcing for TNT after accepting the GM job in Phoenix, and he went too far with some of his comments. (Not just my opinion... Pop verbally kicked his ass for it too.) If he had any class at all, he would have stopped some of the crap that got talked during those playoffs, rather than participating in it. He backstabbed people who had been his teammates, and an organization that had treated him very well. I never thought he fit with that whiny-ass D'Antoni, but I was wrong.
But this recent commentary is something else again. If he really thought there was a back-door deal, he should have brought his case to the league instead of courting Barry. But making those unsupported public statements after the fact is way over the top. He attacked Barry's integrity... and Presti's... and Holt and Popovich's. But it's also an attack on the credibility of the league. None of that should have been done publicly.
I wrote Kerr off after the TNT incident, and this incident doesn't surprise me. But he ought to have to answer to Stern for his comments, if not all the other people involved.
