NBA Chat With Joel Brigham, 11/17/11

1. Chris

   Hi Joel. David Stern has threatened to void players’ contracts. A.) Is he serious? B.) Does he have legal grounds to do so?

   • Joel Brigham

     A.) I doubt it.

     B.) Maybe. Depends on what the courts come up with. Would you watch your favorite team with scabs in uniform? I actually probably would.

     Talk about a crazy free agency when THAT lockout gets over, right?

2. cj

   which of these trades is most likely to happen.
   w.matthews for j.thompson and f.garcia
   w.matthews and m.camby for m.speights and a.igoudala
   w.matthews for t.gibson and r.brewer
   n.batum for d.favors
   n.batum for e.davis

   • Joel Brigham

     w.matthews for j.thompson and f.garcia – Blazers say no.

     w.matthews and m.camby for m.speights and a.igoudala – Sixers say no.

     w.matthews for t.gibson and r.brewer – Bulls say no.

     n.batum for d.favors – Utah probably says no, though I don’t love this for either team.

     n.batum for e.davis – Probably the most possible, but I think Toronto says no.

     In short, I’d be shocked if any of these actually happened.

3. Matt

   Nuclear winter, and now hell freezes over. Give me something positvie Joel…anything!

   • Joel Brigham

     Beavis and Butthead are back on television!

4. Matt

   Im kinda curious. We all know the story of Antoine Walker’s bankruptcy. Do you think some players might get in financial troubles if this lockout continues for any longer?

   • Joel Brigham

     Absolutely, 100% yes. That’s what the league is hoping for should this thing stretch out for a long time, that young or financially irresponsible players will blow all their cash and be forced into taking a deal they don’t love just so they can pay the bills. Over half live paycheck to paycheck, despite the fact that one of their paychecks is worth more than an entire year’s worth of ours. You get accustomed a certain lifestyle and start spending your money at a pace to keep with that. Money runs dry, you’re in trouble. That’s the problem Walker had and others will surely have after him.

5. BSaintM

   Hey Joel hows it going?

   I was wondering if you had an opinion on the rumor about AI wanting to play for the C’s if there is a season. It’s been two years since he played an NBA game and he has never been a great shooter but I feel like if he would accept a bench role he could be a great fit as bench offense for the C’s…your thoughts?

   • Joel Brigham

     I actually kind of like it for a few reasons. The first and most obvious one is that if AI is going to legitimately play a full season as a backup in this league and not throw a hissy-fit three games into the year because his playing time is not what he’d hoped for, then he’s going to have to back up somebody he genuinely knows is better than him (or at least on par with him, in his own mind if not real life). Ray Allen might be one of the only starting two guards in the entire league that could command Iverson’s respect to the point where Ivo could say, “No, he’s the starter.” I think Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade are probably the only other guys for which that’d be the case. Maybe Manu Ginobili. Beyond that, Iverson would eventually start feeling like he was better than the young pup taking all the minutes, and we’re right back to where we started. Ray Allen ahead of Iverson makes sense to everybody, even him, so that’s a good start.

     I also think a team full of vets like KG, Paul Pierce, and Allen, along with a coach he genuinely respects in Doc Rivers, would be enough to keep him in check for a full season. He might not worry so much about playing time if he’s having fun with his contemporaries.

     A one-year deal to prove himself and maybe contend for a championship seems fair for Iverson. I think he deserves that much, and since KG and Allen’s deals expire at the end of the year, it’d be a good time to start over. It’s the perfect year for Iverson to land with the C’s, who by the way have only six guys under contract and already are bumping up against the cap. I’m for it. I really am.

6. Diddy

   Good afternoon Joel. Not that I’m for it or at all; but if the league is hurting so bad financially, why not look into putting sponsors on jerseys much like MLS and soccer overseas? Not to sound sexist or anything, but why not scrap the joke of a league we call the WNBA? I cant imagine they pull in that much revenue to justify having the league overall..?

   • Joel Brigham

     Ads on jerseys is something that’s been discussed before, and uniform purists (ever read uniwatch.com? Amazing stuff if you’re into that sort of thing) absolutely hate the notion. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of it from an aesthetic standpoint myself, but if the revenue could help bridge the gap between player salaries and owner costs, then fine. Go for it.

     WNBA should’ve ended years ago. There are some talented women playing ball in that league, but there’s just no market for it to be profitable. Don’t know if that solves the problem (or else they would’ve done it), but you’re right about that. And I’m not sexist either, I’m just being realistic about what the league brings in.

7. B-Man

   i was wondering, if the entire season is cancelled but manage to reach a deal for the 2012-2013 season, can the NBA just cancel the 2012 draft altogether. its better for the teams to have more seasoned rookies coming in and would be more fair to get the order right. in exchange, they could have a mega draft in 2013 which there would be 3-4 rounds where the first two rounds give guaranteed contracts. what do you think?

   • Joel Brigham

     There’s one really obvious reason you can’t do that, and it has everything to do with the talented seniors who may have gotten drafted. For guys like Anthony Davis or Austin Rivers, going back to school for a year is no big deal because they have no eligibility. How is a graduated senior supposed to continue proving himself for a year after playing college hoops in hopes that he gets drafted in 2013? That’s totally unfair to those kids, and to the teams who may have been interested in selecting them.

     Beyond that, though, you can’t just skip a draft, especially not one with as much substance as the 2012 draft. Besides, with no season, that means there’d be some crazy draft lottery for all 30 teams (most likely), and we’re probably talking about some decent TV ratings on something like that. Nah, they’ll have the draft. Hell or high water.

8. dyrese

   i feel billy hunter should re-sign and derek fisher owes the fans the workers everyone thts losing income because he screwed up and instead of admitting thier trying to use tactics tht wont work in their benefit.do you agree?

   • Joel Brigham

     Not particularly, because these tactics might actually work before it’s all said and done. It’s not working for saving a season, but it could work in getting them a better deal. That, obviously, is what’s most important to them.

     As for Fisher, you really can’t blame the guy too much for this. This would all be easier if lawyers or professional negotiators handled it in the first place, then passed offers onto to Fisher and the player reps to check out. Fisher doesn’t necessarily need to be in their to negotiate himself. I don’t want to negotiate my CBA as an educator. There are people who do that for me, and I’m cool with that.

     Let’s just agree that the whole thing is a mess, and everybody involved in negotiating on both sides is at fault.

9. James

   Will Howard leave Orlando in your opinon I don’t think so after all he and like the other stars and plus we built the state of the art amway centre for him and plus I keep hearing day Josh smith wants to come to Orlando. With him. will j smith help keep him here

   • Joel Brigham

     If I was Dwight Howard (and I’m not… I’m sure we have completely different ways of thinking about things, but still… roll with me here), I’d have a hard time justifying staying.

     From a financial standpoint, I could make more money staying put, plus Florida doesn’t have any state income tax. So that’s a check in the Orlando box, for sure.

     Everything else, though… I think I’d be looking for greener pastures. With a big personality like that, I’d be looking for a bigger city and bigger market that gets to more fans on a nightly basis. For me, that means L.A., New York, or Chicago. That gives me five options (Lakers, Clippers, Nets, Knicks, and Bulls), and three or four those are actually pretty realistic. A trade to the Lakers, Clippers, or Bulls puts me with the sort of talent that I can win a championship right away, and in Chicago or with the Clipps we’re looking at half a decade or more of killing everybody in the league.

     I just feel like if the money is more or less the same (and for the most part, it really is), I’d be trying to find a place that was in a better situation to win while I’m in my prime, and isn’t so strapped down with bad deals that they couldn’t make necessary changes moving forward. I’d bolt, with the Clippers (to play with Blake Griffin) or Bulls (to play with Derrick Rose) being my top choices.

10. James

    Hey Joel,
    Do you think Spurs’ rookie, Kawhi Leonard, has All-Star potential?

    • Joel Brigham

      Probably not immediately, but that’s most likely not what you mean by “potential.” You’re asking if he could an All-Star eventually, and I think of all the players drafted in 2011 he’s one of the guys I have the most faith in as a player who could someday transcend and get to that level, sure. We know about how huge his hands are, but he can really play ball, too. San Diego State was a darling all last year, and he was a HUGE reason why. I think him dropping to Indy at #15 was a steal, and I think trading George Hill for him was a bit of a gamble. But at this point you know what George Hill, but Leonard could be anything. I’ll say this about the Spurs–when it comes to the draft, they aren’t often wrong. And even when they aren’t exactly right, they almost never strike out completely.

      Other guys I think have All-Star potential in this class: Jonas Valanciunas and Derrick Williams (if he ever gets to play). I don’t see a whole lot of All-Stars beyond that, though.

11. Nick

    Why I want this to be settled is not the start of the season but the free agency and trades that leed up to the season…how fun will thoose 2-3 weeks be?

    • Joel Brigham

      Well, if what happened when the NFL settled their lockout is any indication, those 2-3 weeks are going to be extremely ridiculous. Actually, I’d expect them to be closer to 2 weeks than 3, because they’re going to have to squeeze in a little bit of training camp and are going to want to get started playing basketball as soon as possible. So yes, those are going to be some very crazy times. They’ll be crazy times for HOOPSWORLD, too, because guess where you readers are going to be heading to find out who’s going where? Exactly.

      With so many players moving in so little time (and we’re including those cut with the amnesty provision, as well), what’s probably going to happen is the start of a regular season in which many people have “Hey, that guy’s on this team now?” moments because you’ll have missed that particular transaction. But it’s all in good fun. Folks love trades and signings, and to smash them all into a two-week span will be pandemonium. Good pandemonium, but crazy all the same.

      Now, if there’s no season at all, things get even crazier, because you’ll have two years’ worth of free agents in the same pool with team rosters that are going to be, for the most part, probably only half full. The summer of 2012 was going to be pretty wild anyway, but the potential for that makes it even crazier…

12. Jack

    As a resident of Orlando, I am deeply upset about possibly losing the All-Star game this year. I know we get it back in 2014, but by that time the Magic probably won’t have anyone to represent us. I guess my question is, why couldn’t the All-Star game in Houston be pushed back a year instead? If it, “only takes a month” to get basketball started after the lockout, why cant those plans be altered too?

    • Joel Brigham

      Because cities have to play for these types of huge events long in advance, and Houston likely already has a lot of things underway to make this thing happen. To squash that would put Orlando in a pinch to get things done faster than possible, and it would screw over the groundwork the city of Houston has undoubtedly already laid down.

      And hey, there’s no guarantee there will be an Orlando All-Star in 2013, either.

13. Mario

    Hey joel what’s up buddy love the chats plus you cover my favorite team Da Bulls. Anyway lets say d12 does want to come to chicago I’m all for that but I would want to do that deal without losing luol deng my question is there anyway that could be pulled with noah, taj, and other players and picks perhaps involving another team without gutting our bulls . Thx

    • Joel Brigham

      Orlando is going to have to try and get max value out of Dwight, which is pretty much impossible, and if they can they’ll try and pawn off a bad contract on the team that takes him. I think Luol is safe because he is, for the most part, a pretty bad contract himself. Swapping him out for, say, Hedo Turkoglu as part of a Dwight deal doesn’t do much to help Orlando’s cap situation. I suppose it does get them more out of their $12 million a year, though.

      Either way, a Dwight trade HAS to start with Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. Those are two really nice assets. Maybe Ronnie Brewer and picks, too? As long as the Bulls can keep Derrick and Dwight, it wouldn’t really matter who else was left standing, though I think you’d at least have D-Rose, Luol, Boozer, and Dwight in the starting lineup. Not a bad little core, is it?

14. Jenson in Australia

    Hi Joel, what are you thoughts on nugs moving Nene to PF and Mozgov to starting C. What’s Mozgov’s ceiling?

    • Joel Brigham

      Mozgov showed flashes, especially in New York, and I can see where you’re going with this gameplan since there really isn’t a whole lot of legit post presence on this current Nuggets team. Seems do-able, though I don’t know how much of that we’ll actually end up seeing.

15. Norman Volsky

    How do you think the NBA draft order will be decided if there is no season? It seems very unfair to teams like toronto and cleveland to average the last 3-5 years records and determine the lottery that way. Isn’t accomplishing competitive balance a priority for owners and wouldn’t determining the draft this way be counterproductive?

    • Joel Brigham

      It might be unfair, but that is what it is. Toronto and Cleveland got their rewards for recent badness in the 2011 draft. The 2012 draft is entirely different animal, and if there’s no basketball all season I think it’s only fair to even things out for the overall success of the franchise the last five years. It might have been a hard 2011 for Cleveland, but they aren’t hurting as much as Sacramento or Golden State or Minnesota. They’d look at the ’12 class just an anomaly, and like I’ve said before, I think that gives us a pretty interesting draft, especially with so many studs waiting to get snatched up in this one.

16. Josh

    How likely is it the Clippers trade Kaman for Gay or Iggy? Which would be a better fit?

    • Joel Brigham

      Kaman for Iggy is out there for Philly, but the Sixers still haven’t signed off on that. I think we can all figure out why… Iguodala is a better player than Kaman, no matter how badly Philadelphia needs a center.

      As for Gay, I still don’t get the impression Memphis wants to move him right now, but everything in that team’s future relates directly to what happens with Marc Gasol. I just don’t see them being able to retain him, which means they may have need for a center, and Gay, it could be argued, is expendable. But if they were going to trade Gay, it would be to keep Marc Gasol, which kind of kills the whole point.

      I think they could get a serviceable center by trading O.J. Mayo instead, something I’m sure they’d much rather do if they had to do something in the wake of losing Gasol. I just don’t see Kaman at this point in his career being worth either guy. Though LAC really, really needs a small forward.