While this off-season cannot and will not compare to the rock concert that will ensue next July 1, this off-season had some intriguing story lines to follow. Aging veteran future hall-of-famers, restricted free agents looking for big deals, the Minnesota Timberwolves, all of these were primed and ready to provide some off-season excitement. The problem is that they started to lag and drag from speculation in June, excitement in July, boring in August and now down right annoying in September.
Yes he has finally made his decision, he has the comfort of knowing he can feed his family for at least one more year. This story in particular has taken on so many differant moods and can be seen from a few differant angles. Coming into this off-season Iverson was looked on as a guy that could be had for cheap and potentially turn a team into a contender if he was put in the right situation. As his contractual anonymity wore on as the summer did, it actually started to turn sad. This is a guy that less then 3 years ago was one of the best player if not the best in the league and was thought of as untouchable in Philadelphia. Like him or hate him, and there aren't many that are in the middle, the guy was one of the pound for pound toughest athletes to play the game and seemingly never took a play off, even if he wasn't a fan of practice (which should be be obvious from his now infamous quote).
Fast forward to September where the only real concrete offers seemed to be from perennial bottom feeders in Memphis (who he eventually settled on) and the LA Clippers. Miami had been rumoured to have interest but considering how much he ended up signing for (roughly $3 million per year) money could not have been the issue in Miami which makes me think Pat Riley had cold feet. It goes from sad to annoying when he waffles back and forth between the two with the probable intention of enticing Miami to make a formal offer. All this because his ego could not take the bruising of being a bench player. After his proclamation in Detroit that he would rather retire then come off the bench you would have to think that took more then half of the teams that may have been interested in the off-season out of the mix. It's unfortunate to see a future hall of famer at the end of his career consider the Clippers, but it become annoying when he has no one to blame other then himself.
Knicks/Restricted Free agents
Note to David Stern:
Nice try with the restricted free agent thing in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement, but coming into the talks in 2011, it has to be changed.
The whole point of restricted free agency back in 1999 when this current CBA was negotiated was an attempt to keep players with their original teams longer. Reggie Miller had just retired and was thought of as one of the last professional athletes to stay with one team for his whole career. Stern wanted to try cut down on the free agent carousel so restricted free agency was born. 11 years later and it has become a farce. Marquee players are not effected by it because they have to power to stay or leave with one call to an agent. It effects the next tier of free agents and low level free agents that are handcuffed by this provision. It detracts most other teams from tendering them a contract offer sheet because:
A) They think the other team will match the offer sheet
B) Even if there is a chance the restricted free agent, it will lock up any fee agency money that team will have for a week.
During that said week, their plan "B" free agent target and back up to the back up plan could both be signed by other teams and at the end of the week, the team with the right to match the offer does, and your team is left with nothing.
A prime example of this is the New York Knickerbockers. Can you believe that as we start training camp that both David Lee and Nate Robinson both do not have contracts in place for next year? These are guys that averaged 16.0 ppg, 11.70 rpg and 17.2 ppg, 4.1 apg last year! Yes they played on the Knicks last year, a team that won 32 games and under the leadership (or lack there of) of Jim Dolan is quickly becoming the Clippers East (or at least the Grizzlies). Yes David Lee is doing his best to eat his way into the "round mound of rebound" category. Yes Nate Robinson is quickly becoming Steve Francis lite, but damn, these gentlemen can still play basketball at an extremely high level. In both cases (especially with Lee) you could argue they are starters on 90% of the leagues teams. They will probably end up signing qualifying offers with the Knicks which is significantly less then they would make on the open market, and they will probably sign contracts for only 1 year because the elephant in the room is that the Knicks clearly do not like them enough as players to build around them, or include them in their future plans. In an instant one of these guys could pull a Jorge Garbajosa and shatter their ankle, or knee, or whatever and never end up playing in the NBA again or professional basketball in general. This could, and should be a major sticking point for the players association come CBA talks in 2011.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Finally the Minnesota Timberwolves... The mere thought of this organization puts a smile on my face and I'm chuckling right now I have to tell you. David Kahn may be my favourite person in professional sports right now. Another executive that has taken over a pretty respectable team, with good basketball minds around the organization (Glen Taylor, Kevin McHale) and decided that there was no place for them under his new regime. David Kahn, the President and General Manager then decided he would impose his will on the NBA community. Unfortunately he has made an ass of himself, and diluted the image of the Timberwolves franchise.
Lets start with his proclamation that going into the off-season, his team were going to be major players in anything NBA. If your Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs, maybe you get away with this, if you're David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves you are setting yourself up for some serious zingers. Most General Manager go into an off-season thinking that they would love to make a big splash, the good ones though would never say this because it creates the pressure to pull through on the promise. When pressure is on a young or inexperienced GM, things can go a little wonky, you'd think Kahn could maybe ask our friend Mr Babcock about that.
Next came the draft. The Timberwolves had the 6th pick in the draft and were bound to get a pretty good player (most said the draft was 9 deep), but maybe not a franchise player. This is when we found out about Mr Kahn's secret addiction. For some it is the bottle (alchohol), others maybe heroin, or cocaine, but for Kahn it was something far more dangerous; point guards.
Reports were starting to leak out saying that Minnesota was really in-love with Ricky Rubio and as Rubio's stalk began to fall becuase he did not want to play for certain teams, certain small market teams, certain small market teams in US out-posts (like, Minnesota?), Kahn worked furiously on a deal to acquire another pick higher up in the draft. When Minnesota acquired the 5th pick from Washington for a couple of good players (Randy Foye, Mike Miller) most thought the price was steep just to gain another pick only one spot in front of their own. However they we gave Kahn the benefit of the doubt, and thought there had to be some careful planning, strategy, maybe a couple promises that went into this. The Timberwolves luck had finally come through and their prayers were met when Ricky Rubio was still available at 5. Kahn could feed his addiction by drafting the best point guard in the draft. Now with the 6th pick they still had so many options, draft a high flying potential all-star wing to play with Rubio in Demar Derozen, maybe a big banger that could shore up their big rotation in Jordan Hill, or even trade the pick for a quality veteran to play alongside Rubio. We forget though about Kahn's addiction, so of course when they drafted Jonny Flynn, a young electric point guard out of Syracuse, conventional wisdom was thrown out the window. In the later part of the draft the Timberwolves quest for a point guard monopoly continued by drafting two more point guards, one was eventually traded but Kahn was still able to feed his addiction for another instant.
After the draft, a mess ensued when to their shock and dismay Ricky Rubio decided not only did he not want to play for Minnesota this year, but also for the next two years and used the team as leverage his European club to trade him to another European team closer to home. Of course the madness doesn't stop there, after months of Ramon Sessions being held in limbo between the New York Knicks, that don't seem to know their ass from a hole in the ground, and the Milwaukee Bucks who held his rights, Ramon decided to go where he thought he would really feel appreciated. He went where all point guards go when they are young and talented, he was lured by Kahn and his insatiable addiction to the position.
The bottom line is, in a world where people are going to rehab for anything from alchohol, drugs, racism, or sex addiction, the man really needs to be helped. For those closest to him, intervene...
It turned out to be a heck of a summer in some of the worst ways.
- J.Moore
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