What is Happening to the NBA?

Josh Childress just signed a three-year deal to leave the Atlanta Hawks for, get this, Olympiakos of Greece. Yes, the Euroleague is a decent one and, yes, Childress is no Kobe Bryant. But, the steady stream of players leaving the NBA for Europe gives me pause.

Consider the following:

• A handful of second-tier foreign talents moved back to Europe this summer--or decided to stay. Tiago Splitter, long valued by the Spurs, decided to stay in the EU. Carlos Delfino, Primoz Brezec, and Juan Carlos Navarro decided to leave the NBA and go to the Euroleague.
• Brandon Jennings, supposedly the top high school guard prospect in the country, is going to Rome instead of Arizona.
• Now, Josh Childress, a solid swingman on an up-and-coming but dysfunctionally managed team, is leaving Atlanta for Athens.

There are disparate reasons for these signings: the strength of the euro, the mismanagement of the Hawks organization, Jennings' low SAT scores, the restrictive nature of the NBA's restricted-contract rules. The NBA should not be worried about Delfino, Navarro, Brezec, and Splitter opting for Europe: they're Europeans and they're not top talents.

The NBA SHOULD be concerned about Jennings and Childress because both went to Europe to circumvent NBA rules. Jennings decided to go to Rome instead of spending a rather useless (from his perspective) one-year at Arizona. The NBA tried to force high school talents to play for free in college. This talent said, "No, thanks" and is playing for big bucks in Italy. It's unclear whether he'll get the minutes or exposure that he would get in the NCAA, but he'll get paid.

Childress could have signed a one-year deal with Atlanta and then become an unrestricted FA. Instead, he signed a three-year deal with Olympiakos, which has opt-outs in each year. Basically, this gives him a lot of leverage with the Hawks for whenever he chooses to come back to the NBA. Europe is beautiful and I don't blame Childress for taking the money to go there. But, where's the thrill and excitement for playing against the top-competition in the world that only the NBA provides? He could be competing with LeBron, instead he'll be up against NBA retreads and a few European stars, playing less games, and getting very little exposure. Anthony Parker managed to get to the Raptors after a trip to Europe (he was drafted by the Sixers and played for the Magic). But, Childress doesn't have to prove himself like Parker did. Childress is basically just leaving a bad situation in Atlanta and taking the money. This is not about love of the game, this is about quality of life and the freedom to choose your employer.

Maybe the NBA should be worried....

Cabbagehead out of Canada

Posted on Thu, Jul. 17, 2008

Dalembert parts ways with Canadian team

It was unclear whether the Sixer left the squad or was dismissed by coach Leo Rautins.

By Kate Fagan

Inquirer Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS - Samuel Dalembert is no longer on the Canadian national basketball team.

It is unclear whether Canadian coach Leo Rautins gave the 76ers' starting center marching orders or whether Dalembert left on his own. But after Canada beat Korea in Athens, Greece, yesterday without Dalembert, Rautins told the media: "He's not on the team. I'll leave it at that."

Rautins, who could not be reached for comment, went on to say, "Everyone who is here wants to be here and wants to be on this team."

The Sports Network of Canada reported that Dalembert had a confrontation with a Canadian team official.

Dalembert, a 27-year-old native of Haiti who attended high school in Montreal, joined the Canadian national team last August, ostensibly to help Canada earn an Olympic berth.

The center averaged 10.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game last season for the Sixers.

The Canadian team is at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens. Canada advanced to play Croatia in the quarterfinals. The top three teams will play in Beijing.

After an 86-70 loss to Slovenia on Tuesday, Rautins criticized Dalembert's effort in the postgame news conference, saying: "He never got on track offensively or defensively. I didn't see him leave the floor to challenge people defensively, and on the offensive end he struggled not only with his shooting but with the decision-making behind the shots."

Dalembert finished that game 1 for 8 from the floor with four rebounds.

The 6-foot-11 center's agent, Marc Cornstein, could not be reached for comment. He told Canada's National Post that he had not spoken to his client, who was still in Greece.

"I think it's unbelievably disappointing and wrong to even hint at all to his [lack] of commitment to the national team," Cornstein told the newspaper.

"If Sammy isn't there or isn't committed to Team Canada or the country as a whole, what would his reason for being there have been?"

The Canadian national team is scheduled to play the U.S. national team in the 2008 State Farm USA Basketball Challenge on July 25 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Iguodala selected. Yesterday, USA Basketball named the Sixers' Andre Iguodala to the USA basketball men's select team that will help prepare the senior national team for the Olympics. Iguodala is one of 10 players chosen for the team, which also includes Kevin Durant, O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose.

Iguodala averaged 19.9 points per game last season for the Sixers. He is a restricted free agent, which means the Sixers have the right to match any offer he receives.

Ed Stefanski, the Sixers' general manager, said yesterday that the team met with Iguodala's agent, Rob Pelinka, on Tuesday in Las Vegas, where the Sixers are competing in the NBA Summer League.

Stefanski said the two sides would keep talking and added that the team aimed to bring back Iguodala along with guard Lou Williams, also a restricted free agent.

As for Dalembert, Stefanski said he had not spoken with him.

"He was very excited about playing this summer and playing for Canada," Stefanski said. "Until I know all the facts, I can't say too much. Sam is great to be around, he's very coachable, he's a fun kid. We're very happy with him."

Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks was also in the dark, saying he had not spoken to Dalembert and had no knowledge of the situation.

Sixers Dodge a Bullet

With Elton Brand locked up, the Sixers now must turn to the signings of Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams. Earlier in the week, while Thaddeus Young and M. Speights tore up the summer league, Sixers fans worried that Iggy might receive a huge deal from the Clippers that would either force the Sixers to have a worse salary cap situation than they should or force the Sixers to lose last year's team leader.

Last year's playoff run may have exposed some of Lou and Iggy's flaws: Iggy needs to improve his offensive game and Lou needs to work on his PG skills. But, one can focus too much on the flaws of young players; Iguodala in particular is one of the league's best rising stars and Lou Williams at worst will be a Barbosa/Monta Ellis-type.

Now that the Clippers have traded nothing for Marcus Camby--and, in essence, added a second center and a second injury-prone star (Baron Davis being the other) to their roster--Sixer fans can rest easy. Barring an incredibly unlikely sign-and-trade deal, which would bag us a player in return, both Lou and Andre will be Sixers next year.

A team that looked lost at the beginning of last year, now appears set for a strong playoff run. The starting line-up is very solid: Dalembert, Brand, Young, Iguodala, and Miller. And the bench, though needing improvement is also fairly strong with: Willie Green, Reggie Evans, Lou Williams, Marreese Speights, and Jason Smith playing back-up roles. The team now needs some of what it traded away to get Brand: shooting and swingmen. It also may need a back-up center, though Smith could play that role. If it were up to me, I would fill out the roster with a couple of swingmen/shooters and a point guard.

Bullets:

• Summer league play has begun and a few of this year's draftees are looking very good, particularly Jerryd Bayless, OJ Mayo, Michael Beasley, and DJ Augustin. The Sixers' Speights and Young are also doing very well, though second-round pick from a couple years ago Edin Bavcic looks like a bust.
• I think that the Grizzlies re-build project may be further along than people give them credit for. They traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers in order to dump salary and re-build given that with Gasol they had not won a playoff series (nor, I believe, a playoff game!). What they got in return has been mocked, but right now they look like they could become a very exciting team. At point they have Mike Conley, Javaris Crittendon and Kyle Lowry; one of those last two will be traded but Conley at least is a stud. OJ Mayo will be a great swingman. Up front, there's Darrell Arthur, Marc Gasol, and Darko Milicic. Those guys may not strike fear in anyone, but there is good potential in that group. Then there's Rudy Gay and Hakim Warrick. Sure, this team will lose a lot of games, but between Conley, Mayo, and Gay they have a solid core to build one, and if M. Gasol, Arthur, or one of the other young guys becomes good, they will be ahead of schedule in rebuilding.
• I really don't like what the Clippers, Nuggets, and Warriors have done this summer. The Nuggets, wisely I guess, shed Marcus Camby, their only defensive player, in order to keep a team that features the bloated payroll of Allen Iverson, Kenyon Martin, and Nene. The team's salary situation is a disaster, and until they can rid themselves of the aforementioned three, they won't be good for a while. The Clippers essentially traded Elton Brand and Corey Maggette for Marcus Camby and Baron Davis. They did get a great point guard and a great defensive player to replace a top-5 power forward and a very solid swingman, so overall they didn't do badly, but I just don't like how their pieces fit together. They should roll out a line-up of Davis, Mobley, Thornton, Kaman, and Camby. That team could play good D, and could be solid, but it is injury-prone and could have trouble scoring. Even with Brand, I don't think this team would have competed in the West... at least now the Clips are committed to mediocrity rather than complete ineptitude. Finally, the Warriors are the last of the 3 West teams that will be fighting for 9th place in the Western Conference. The Warriors and Nuggets followed the Grizzlies lead and have decided to back off of the Western playoff race for now and instead look to build stronger contenders for tomorrow. The Warriors lost Baron Davis, their heart and soul, and last summer traded Jason Richardson and in return got Brandon Wright, drafted Anthony Randolph, and signed Corey Maggette and Roni Turiaf. This team, like the Clips and Heat, is a weird mess of old and young with some positions unfilled and others logjammed. Monta Ellis should be exciting at the point, Andris Biedrins, Wright, and Randolph could easily become an extremely formidable frontcourt, and Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington can add surliness to the mix. The starting line-up in GSW looks like it will be: Ellis, Jackson, Maggette, Wright/Randolph/Turiaf/Harrington, and Biedrins next year. That should be solid; but, again, I don't think those pieces fit together well.
  

Ed Stefanski Rules

Ed Stefanski is brilliant. Billy King may have drafted many of the players that today are a big part of the Sixers' resurgence. But there's no way we get Elton Brand with BK in charge. At least there's no way we get Elton Brand and keep Andre Miller.

To recap here are Ed's masterful moves to date:

• Joins the Sixers as GM in December. Decides to spend time evaluating the product rather than making wholesale changes immediately.
• Trades Kyle Korver to Utah for a first-round pick (this would turn out to be crucial). BK would never have traded Korver, who was an on-again, off-again starter. This trade, innocuous at the time, set up the Sixers future in three big ways. First, it created cap space for a future acquisition. Second, it gave us a draft pick to use on a future acquisition. Third, it created playing time at the 2 and 3 spots so that Thaddeus Young (in particular) and Louis Williams could get more PT. This trade ALONE helped the Sixers get into the playoffs and provided the tools to snag Elton Brand.
• Stefanski saw that the team was gelling around Mo Cheeks and gave him a one-year contract extension. Philadelphians may feel that Cheeks deserves more years (and he does), but Stefanski wisely did not commit a million years to the coach before seeing more consistent results.
• Stefanski woos Josh Smith, BUT REFRAINS FROM OFFERING HIM A CONTRACT since the Hawks could match his deal. He waits to create more cap space to either snag Elton Brand or give Smith a bigger contract. Other options do not seem to appeal to Ed. When Elton considers the Golden State Warriors offer (and this is some speculation on my part), Ed swooped in and met with Brand somewhat secretly when he visited DC to speak with his agent David Falk. Stefanski realized he didn't have the money to match the Clips deal quite yet, but he felt Brand out and figured that he'd join Philly with some more cap room. So ...
• Ed trades Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth, and the first-round pick he got from Utah (Korver trade!) to Minnesota for a conditional second-round pick. This pick gives Ed the cap room to ...
• Sign Elton Brand! The press conference will be today at 5pm!!!!!!

Stefanski has now PROVEN that he is not just a good GM, but a great one. He got Elton Brand for a good value, without giving up an important piece in Andre Miller. When Andre Miller's deal expires next year he can do a number of things: 1) he can trade Miller mid-season for another piece, or 2) he can sign another good player for a decent sum and then sign Andre Miller, or 3) he can sign another player and let Miller go.

All of the prognosticators thought the Sixers HAD TO trade Andre Miller to free up space to get a guy like Brand. Instead, Ed traded Korver, Carney, and Booth. Now he also has plenty of options for the future! The man is brilliant!

For more on Ed see: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-33-29/Ed-Stefanski-
and-the-Philadelphia-Cure-to-Conference-Imbalance.html

Licky Boom Reports Breaking News

Posted on Tue, Jul. 8, 2008

AP Source: 76ers send Carney, top pick to ’Wolves

By Dan Gelston

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA - The 76ers are close to trading forward Rodney Carney and a future No. 1 pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal that clears salary cap space for Philadelphia to make a stronger push for free agents, a person in the NBA told The Associated Press today.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been completed and the NBA trade moratorium is not lifted until tomorrow.

The 76ers will throw in reserve forward Calvin Booth, but are working out the particulars of what they will get back from Minnesota.

A proposed trade between the teams was first reported by Yahoo.com.

The deal clears the way for the Sixers to potentially offer a nearly $14 million starting salary and a long-term deal to free agents like forwards Elton Brand or Josh Smith. The emerging Sixers now have another $2 million in salary cap space to add to the $11 million in space available that they hope will land them the post player they badly need to become contenders in the Eastern Conference.

The Sixers had Smith in town for a visit last week but did not give the restricted free agent an offer sheet. As he's a restricted free agent, the Hawks can match any offer made to the 6-foot-9, 235-pound Smith.

Brand would clearly be the Sixers best option. Brand opted out last week of his contract with the Clippers, but Los Angeles is expected to make a strong push to re-sign him. Brand had said he plans to stay with the Clippers despite his decision, even if he must accept a contract below the NBA maximum for free agents.

Smith or Brand could make the Sixers instant contenders in the Eastern Conference. They were one of the surprise teams in the league last season, going 40-42 and stretching Detroit to six games in the first round of the playoffs. One thing they lacked was an athletic, consistent scorer at power forward.

Smith would be a good fit for the up-tempo Sixers and would be a huge upgrade over last year's power forward, Reggie Evans. He's one of the premier shot blockers in the league and could team with starting center Samuel Dalembert and small forward Thaddeus Young to form one of the top frontcourts in the Eastern Conference.

The deal allows the rebuilding Timberwolves, who have long been one of the worst cap managers in the league, to continue putting themselves in a position to be a major player on the free agent markets in 2009 and 2010.

Carney has one year remaining on his contract with a team option for 2009-10, while Booth will come off the books at the end of the upcoming season, unless a buyout agreement is reached before that.

The work started last season, when they traded Blount and Ricky Davis to Miami for Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien, allowing them to rid themselves of Blount's bloated contract.

On draft night in June, the Timberwolves were able to unload the Marko Jaric's hefty deal, shipping him to Memphis with O.J. Mayo, Walker and Greg Buckner for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal. All three of the Grizzlies in that deal have contracts that will expire no later than 2010.

That freedom will allow the team to pursue a big-name free agent or two to supplement a rising young core group of Al Jefferson, Randy Foye, Corey Brewer and Rashad McCants.

As a secondary prize on the court in the Philly deal, Carney will give them an athletic swingman who averaged 5.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in his second season out of Memphis. Booth, if he stays, will give the team a little more depth at center behind Jefferson and Collins.

Free Agent Rumblings

I'm a little worried about the Sixers' strategy with Josh Smith. I think that the likelihood that the Hawks match Smith's deal is over 50%, even though they have a lot of players that could fill in for him.

Smith really is a great player. An amazing defender, a great athlete, young, and very talented. Supposedly he has some attitude/motivation problems, but hopefully the other Sixers can knock that out of him.

At this point, it looks like we either get Smith or we have to pursue a totally different strategy. Elton Brand is not gonna be a Sixer. Josh Childress or Nenad Krstic may become Sixers but they don't really amount to homerun pick-ups.

Corey Maggette intrigues me. He's a great player with a great body, very athletic, who never put it all together in L.A. due to a poor team and a poor role. That said, I don't know where he fits on a team that is planning on keeping Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young. Maggette would be a decent signing, but he just doesn't fit well on the team.

Perhaps if the Sixers can't get Smith, they should wait for Andre Miller to go off the books and try again next year ... ?

Sixers FA Strategy

A perusal of NBA news sources leads me to believe that, in addition to re-signing Iggy and Lou, the Sixers FA strategy is as follows:

Option 1) Sign Josh Smith.

Option 2) Sign Elton Brand.

Option 3) Sign a few decent players while retaining some extra cap space for next year. Most probably: Mickael Pietrus and/or James Jones and Nenad Krstic.

What I'd love to see: Josh Smith and Jones/Pietrus (and maybe Krstic too).