NBA Rumors Chat With Steve Kyler 12/13/12

1. Peter

   Hi Steve! How are u? Seems like Toronto is ready to blow up their team. Where do you see Jose and Andrea going? They have been linked with the Lakers in the last couple weeks. Do you see that happening?

   • Steve Kyler

     Welcome in, I hope the week was good for you… in about two days things on the trade front should start to heat up as players signed to contracts this summer can start to be traded. There are lots of questions pending, so lets get after them.

     I think there is something to keep in mind about Toronto. Bryan Colangelo isn’t exactly on steady ground these days and I am not sure what ownership will allow to happen. I think there is an inevitability to Jose Calderon being traded, but as for Andrea Bargnani – I am not sure Toronto gets nearly the value back for him mid-season as they might around the draft. In both cases this would be selling on the low.

     I think you also have to consider Kyle Lowry’s trade value too… while he is arguably the best talent right now, he likely won’t sign a new deal in Toronto, so can he be the path the fastest turn around? I think Kyle in a trade yields twice the return of assets as Jose and Bargs and that has got to be whats its about. How can you turn the ship the fastest with an eye towards the future? Not sure Bargs and Jose can return that kind of asset.

2. john

   Hey Steve!!! How are you?
   Which is your opinion for Lakers. W

   • Steve Kyler

     I am good… thanks for asking…

     I think that until you have Steve Nash and Pau Gasol back your talking about a team with two bona fide All-Stars playing with guys that might not start in the D-League.

     I have said from the beginning of this… age, durability and Steve Nash… Nash makes this work. I know the response to that is Nash isn’t gonna play defense either, but the Lakers will get better defensively, when they don’t have to work so hard offensively.

     When the game is “bucket and get back… bucket and get back” that is when things will get easier. The Lakers are missing their best playmaker and their second best rebounder and post player… that is a ton of what this team is.

3. Alex

   Kobe seems frustrated. But his defense is poor and he passes the ball from the right to the left hand. Do you think thats a main issue for Lakers? Minus 1 in defense, minus 4 in offense. For instance vs Cans Kobe scored 42 and the rest 54. That is not a team, even if i admire Kobe as one the top 5 nba legends.

   • Steve Kyler

     See my response above… there are not meany teams that can be missing their starting point guard and power forward and win a ton of games… they are dysfunctional because the bench can not replicate what the starters bring… a mile wide and inch deep.

     Until Nash and Gasol are back, you can’t judge this Laker team fairly, they have all their money invested in four all-stars… the bench is either inexperienced or past their prime, save Jodie Meeks and he plays the same spot Kobe does.

     Rome was not built in a day and the Lakers still don’t have the team they thought they’d have. Don’t blame Kobe, he trying to keep his team afloat.

4. Wil

   Hi Steve, for Toronto and LA (our two underachievers) I think coaching is part of the problem. Specifically, when you have pros that won’t do what you want, but you play them anyway; then you are going to have a problem. For Toronto, he needs to stop developing JV and over-playing Bargnani and let them EARN their minutes. For LA, Kobe has to change gears and realize he is not AI and the team depends on more touches for everyone else. Thoughts? What leverage dose a coach really have in today’s NBA?

   • Steve Kyler

     Its easy to second guess coaches from the cheap seats… but you have to play the guys you have and most coaches are going to play the guys they trust and feel can give them the best chance to win.

     Dwane Casey has a lot of faith in Andrea Bargnani and Jonas… Not sure he’s going to depart from that until his trust in those guys changes.

     As for leverage, it depends on the coach… Gregg Popovich has a ton, so does Eric Spolestra… when you win, you have influence, when you lose you do not. That is life in pro sports.

     There was a time when Tracy McGrady had the power to get a coach fired, now he can’t win games in China… when you win you have power, when you lose you don’t.

5. sammy

   How come the hawks refuse to trade josh smith?I heard last year that smith hates to be on the hawks because the hawks use him as a scapegoat if something is wrong and smith was frustrated by it. Also smith is like jr smith, delonte west more or less. He takes too many threes even when coach advises him to shoot less, he cant make free throws, has a lot of games with under 30 percent shooting.good player but bad iq.

   • Steve Kyler

     I know Josh fairly well and I can tell you he likes whats happening in Atlanta. A lot has changed in the last year and he is feeling the love.

     As for his game, Josh is who he is… he shoots too many threes because teams give him that look defensively and he makes a lot of them. Check the stats, he’s like 42% from three this year, that’s a good enough percentage for the three point shoot out, but also check the stats, he has attempted 28 threes on the season. That is less than two per game on average.

     I would agree that Josh doesn’t make great decisions, but he is still an elite player and likely an All-Star this year.

6. Steve Kyler

   Hi, thanks for the chat

   How will you remember nash, kobe, dirk, duncan, and kg on and off the court when they retire?

   Which players are your favorites to interview?

   What is your favorite memory of basketball?

   What inspired you to be a writer and co-founded hoopsworld?

   • Steve Kyler

     Am I interviewing for a job?

     How will you remember nash, kobe, dirk, duncan, and kg on and off the court when they retire?

     – Nash arguably the best pound for pound point guard of his generation… Kobe, the best player of his generation and arguably one of the best to have ever played the game… Dirk, one of the best offensive players the NBA has seen for his size and the best International players of his generation… Duncan, the best power forward the NBA has seen… KG the meanest nasty player of his generation, and a players who;s true value to a team can;t be measured with stats.

     Which players are your favorites to interview?

     – Wanna list… There are guys I enjoy talking with more than others, but I have about 100 guys that I consider friends and enjoy all of them.

     What is your favorite memory of basketball?

     – I am not done yet, so not sure I have one… I would say being able to share my basketball journey with you guys is probably the best so far.

     What inspired you to be a writer and co-founded hoopsworld?

     — I am not a co-founder of HOOPSWORLD… I am the founder. It was me before it was anyone else… and I was never inspired to do this. It was an accident that became something it was never envisioned to be, but it was guys like Bill Ingram, Jason Fleming, Ravi Singh and Darren Andrade that challenged me to be better than I wanted to be.

7. Chris G

   Mavs, Pacers, Bulls–all are missing their best players, yet all are .500 or better. Can the Lakers really use injury as an excuse when they have two of the league’s top 10 players playing night in and night out and still can’t win half their games?

   • Steve Kyler

     Those teams are significantly deeper and more stable than the Lakers… everyone thinks its easy to change coaches mid-stream… the players on all of those teams fit the coaches they have… not sure you can say that with the Lakers,

8. Jaimeson

   Saw an offensive player get a flagrant 1 last night. That’s a first! Cavs Thompson with mask half off ripping rebound away from t handsbrough & inadvertently catches b hansbrough with elbow. Ben drops like he got shot & should be fined for floppin. Refs review play and automatically flagrant 1for elbow to the head. WEAK! Zero intent to injure anyone. I guess this isn’t really a question.

   • Steve Kyler

     No it really isn’t, but I’ll let you vent.

9. Jim in CyberSpace

   Finally Scott Brooks has decided to let Reggie Jackson get some meaningful mins, against the Hornets. It’s early in the season. The guy is Hyper Athletic, super long arms, he’s been practicing against some of the best long enough. Just like Ibaka….he just needs playing time to “develop”?

   • Steve Kyler

     You don’t “develop” guys in game, you do that in practice — once a guy shows you he has a grasp of what you want from him, then he gets minutes if the situation allows for it.

     The Thunder like Maynor as the backup guard a lot more than Reggie, so its always going to be up to Reggie to maximize his floor time, but also to illustrate he can run the show thee way Scott Brooks wants it ran.

     This is not Tee ball, everyone does not get a chance to play… The Thunder are playing for something significantly bigger than Reggie.

10. Jody

    Hello Steve,

    You’ve said Josh Smith wants to stay in Atlanta and feels the team is a contender. I don’t think they’re contenders yet. Any sense of what moves they might make or who they’ll look to bring in to make themselves “legitimate” contenders?

    • Steve Kyler

      They have come together in a very interesting way and they like the chemistry that is developing. In talking with all of the guys last night, they view themselves as a team like the Thunder, The Mavs or the Pistons – when they got to the Finals… they feel they are good enough, deep enough and talented enough to play with anyone.

      Not sure they make a move unless they can get the guy that locks everything in place.

11. Golden Refugee

    This Warriors team looks legit. 5 road wins in a row, including miami. They’ve beaten nets (twice), Atlanta, the Clips, Denver. Can they break into top 4 in the West and isn’t Myers the exec of the year (great draft, Jack and Landry)?

    • Steve Kyler

      Not sure I am ready to give away an award in December, but that Warriors team is pretty good. Lets see if they stay there.

12. Roon

    Do you think Rich Cho will make a deal involving either Gerald Henderson or Ben Gordon? With Jeff Taylor playing so well, one of those guys have become expendable. Both of these guys would provide a spark off the bench for a contending team. I could definitely see a lot of interest in Gordon. He is playing well and may choose to decline his player option if he thinks he could earn a long term deal in the offseason. What could the Cats receive for one of these two players?

    • Steve Kyler

      Didn;t we cover this last week?…

      They really like Gerald Henderson, so no… I don;t see that. They also want to be in a position to make a splashy free agent offer, so they need Ben’s money to come off the books. Unless a deal returns the would-be free agent they covet like a Brandon Jennings I don’t see it.

13. #tradeBargnani

    Bargnani was a tough sell before. Does this injury make him impossible to trade now?

    • Steve Kyler

      I’d never say impossible, but it would be hard to extract value out of him… like I said earlier in the chat you’d be selling on the low.

      I think people just believe Jose and Brags have to go, and I am not sure that’s how Toronto sees the world… that might be part of the problem, but you can’t always apply your logic to the problem, you have to try and understand what the people making the decisions believe and they live in a bubble. What you and I may think does not factor into the equation.

14. nykfanct

    with their early season sucess without amare, any rumblings on the knicks attempting to move him before the deadline? would there be any takers and what do you think they could get if anything in return?

    • Steve Kyler

      That contract is unmovable without taking back pure garbage in return. I think you may see the Knicks try Amar’e from the bench in his return. His knee as too suspect, its uninsured and there are few teams that can afford to take the fincial hit his deal represents, unless they are in turn dumping off equally bad contracts and there just are not that many bad deals out there.

15. Jeff

    Do you think the Magic will re-sign JJ Redick?

    • Steve Kyler

      I think they’d like to, but not sure they will be able to… JJ wants to win and he is going to have suitors and will be unrestricted, so he can go where he wants. The only saving grace is he likes living in Orlando, but money and a chance for a championship talks.

16. Tyrober

    HEAT have lost to Knicks, Griz, Clippers, and Knicks twice who all seem to be legit title contenders. They are also 29th in rebounding. The HEAT have closed out close games well, but their record could easily be a lot worse than it is. I know the HEAT are the NBA champs, but they were down in 3/4 series last year before they became champs. That just doesn’t look like it should happen with it comes to the NBAs best.

    • Steve Kyler

      They are sleep walking through this season. We’ve seen this before. The Spurs do it a lot, its hard to get up for Game 22 of the regular season when you’ve been to the NBA Finals… it takes a special group of guys to play as hard in the regular season after tasting real success.

      I don’t think Miami will fall into a deep enough hole not to have home court, and from there they are so deep its hard not to believe they can beat almost anyone in the field in a series.

      They just don’t seem to care about the regular season.

17. Tyrober

    Why did Mayo not have this success in Memphis? I was so high on him and followed him since highschool so I was quite disappointed during the years with the Griz.

    • Steve Kyler

      He never fit the culture of the team. I spent some time with those guys in New Orleans last week and the story there is this… they have a very tight nit group of guys led by Zach Randolph and Tony Allen and they set the tone for things and OJ never accepted that, and pushed back on almost everything. It was not a good fit culturally… now Rudy Gay was very tight with OJ, but OJ never fit into with the other guys because he didn’t want to. Rudy is fitting in better with those guys this year and I think thats why they are having such success.

      Zach and Tony are the Alpha males of that locker room and they set the tone of things, some guys accept that some guys don’t… the group that is there now accepts it.

18. Kurt

    What do the Jazz do with Big Al or Millsap? Hate to lose one or both without getting any assets back.

    • Steve Kyler

      Everything depends on where they are at the trade deadline. If they are rolling and in the thick of it, they’ll take their chances. If they are bottom tier, I think they move one or both.

19. Lakers#1 Fan

    Hi Steve. Hope all is well. What are your thoughts on the Bynum situation in Philly? Do the Sixers wait till the end of the season to sign him, or do they trade him away as his future is uncertain with all of those knee issues. Will any team take a gamble and give him a max deal?

    • Steve Kyler

      I have heard this from more than one person close to this situation. Bynum needs to pass a physical in July in order to get a serious contract, that is all that seems to be important at this point.

      I think much like Eric Gordon last year, he’ll play at the end of the year. He’ll showcase that’s his knees are fine and try and get as big a contract offer as he can get… there are so many bottom tier teams with capspace, someone is gonna do something silly with Bynum.

      Not sure they can get much in return for him, but if I am Philly. I call Houston at the deadline and see what I can poach from them.

20. keo

    I know yao retired but he’s still young on nba standards…with the two years he took off wouldn’t his feet heal within that time? Do you think he will made a nba comeback soon or later

    • Steve Kyler

      Yao has 12 pins in his foot. There is a spider like crack in the bone and that will never heal. Yao is done. He has moved on in his life.

21. Aristotle

    So much was said of Orlando for making the trade, but now a quarter of the season in how do you view that deal based on their performances? Anyone possibly traded?

    • Steve Kyler

      The magic are going to be active in anything thats going on… so when do they make a trade? When they find something they want.

      As for the trade… you can’t judge that today because none of the assets were about today, they are about the future… Mo Harkless looks promising if they’d ever run a play for him. Nikola Vucevic has been good and Aaron Afflao is sold as well.

      Truthfully none of that matters until you see what else the Magic do with the draft picks and the future cap space.

22. Aristotle

    Heya Steve
    Nuggets early issues due to the extensive road trip or Iguodala’s arrival has messed with the chemistry of a team who’s coach built their culture based on no Superstars?

    • Steve Kyler

      They have way too many guys that need the ball and play the same way… that will work itself out,. but they have a lot of average guys that are playing below average basketball.

23. La in La

    I read your Josh Smith article, and I have two questions:
    1: are the Hawks REALLY going to give him a max deal? Surely you jest. I don’t think he’s worth more than $15mil per year, and that’s being generous.

    2: any chance they trade him for another all-star player or some nice assets?

    • Steve Kyler

      1: are the Hawks REALLY going to give him a max deal?
      — Yes, he’ll get a monster deal from the Hawks.

      2: any chance they trade him for another all-star player or some nice assets?
      — Only if he changes his tune and says he wants out.

24. the wonderer

    As someone who watches every Knicks game – LA – It’s not just defense that’s the problem, it’s offense. NY was AWFUL to watch under D’A. Nothing but 3′s and complaints. Who wants to watch Spacing? Seriously L.A. your F-ed, and yes, Nash would make ANYTHING better!
    thoughts?

    • Steve Kyler

      Kind of what I was saying…

25. ed

    will the lakers trade gasol? if you think so, any idea for whom?

    • Steve Kyler

      I think they could trade Gasol, but I don’t think they get nearly what Gasol is in return… Could they move him for luggage, sure… can they get a better piece? no. There just is not market for a guy with his mileage and knee issues making what he makes this year and next… now next year when he’s an ending contract maybe teams covet him more, but the list of teams is small and the assets that would come back are not much.

26. dub

    NY seem to be doing fine without amare. Would the raps be able to take a gamble on getting amare, high risk high reward potential? Include a kleiza, and Bargs in the deal?

    • Steve Kyler

      Would be a terrible decision in Toronto and I am not sure ownership would sign off on it.

27. Seth

    What do you think ultimately happens with Tyreke Evans? How is he regarded in NBA circles as far as the type of player he is (i.e. role player, star, franchise player, etc).

    • Steve Kyler

      He is a ball dominating guy that some teams like… watch Orlando.

      I think Tyreke gets traded mainly because Sacramento does not want to pay him. So its about what do they get back for him. He knows a trade is coming.

28. lukas

    Hi. What is going on with Wade? As I watch Wade in D I don’t think he is 100% old D.Wade. And when he did block last shot ? … What is wrong with him? And what is wrong with Miami? They have loose few games in clucthe minutes… that’s not alike them

    • Steve Kyler

      Wade had knee surgery this summer… he’s got a lot of miles on him and he’s on the decline. I think you have to accept that he’s gonna be that kind of guy. He’ll have his nights, but he won’t be that guy every night.

      As for the HEAT, they are still figuring things out, but mainly they are sleep walking through the season and that’s dangerous.

      Guys… I am out of time. Thanks for all the questions. Make sure you are following me on Twitter (@stevekylerNBA). See you all next week.