RAPTORS DIDN’T FOUL DEROZAN BEFORE TRADE
Players who feel they should be notified about potential deals are sadly mistaken
At the end of May, plans for the 2018 edition of the NBA Africa Game were announced, with DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors as the headline star of Team USA. The game takes place next week in Pretoria, South Africa, and ticket advertisements still feature DeRozan, in his red-on-red Raptors gear, prominently.
It’s a little thing, but one more piece of evidence, and one more reason why DeRozan could have reasonably assumed he wasn’t about to be traded. Raptors president Masai Ujiri is famously involved in efforts to grow basketball in his native continent, and having his star guard take part in the annual game — Kyle Lowry participated last year — seemed perfectly natural. Why wouldn’t the face of the Raptors do some outreach in Africa? He is, you might have heard, no longer the face of the Raptors. And DeRozan isn’t pleased about it. In an ESPN interview that aired Tuesday night, the Raptors’ all-time leading scorer gave a reaction to the trade that was more clear than his Instagram posts of the past week. Had it been an emoji, like some of his previous statements, it would have been the red angry face. DeRozan said that, in all his post-season talks with Ujiri, “it seemed like I was in that discussion of moving forward with the team.”
Not only had he and the Raptors boss talked about ways to improve over the summer — Ujiri has acknowledged at least that part of the discussion — but DeRozan said he or his agent asked on “multiple occasions” whether a trade was possible, whether rumours of a Spurs deal were accurate. They were told, “No, it was nothing.”
Then, bam, he was traded. DeRozan’s unhappiness is understandable. He had agreed to remain in Toronto past the point where previous franchise stars had either bolted or forced their way out of town, he genuinely grew to love Toronto, and when the team asked him to change his game — shoot threes, pass more often — he had done so. There’s also the part that athletes sometimes don’t like to admit: a trade is a blow to the ego. Your own bosses have decided they’re better off without you. It’s enough to give even the cockiest of players a case of the feels, and DeRozan was never the cockiest of players.
It’s also true that DeRozan had been a selfless teammate in a number of ways, whether it was doing charity work, his own work ethic, or opening up about his mental health issues because he thought it might help others with similar challenges. He expected better treatment in return than to be blindsided by a trade. But the cold reality is that players aren’t owed that. They’re wrong to expect otherwise. NBA players are in an unprecedented era of control over their careers. They often hold the leverage over management in discussions over their futures, something that’s especially true of stars. Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Chris Paul, LeBron James: franchise-altering moves happen because the players deem it to be so. Kawhi Leonard used just that leverage to force his way, somewhat inadvertently, to Toronto. But the other part of that deal is that, when a player signs a contract without any trade protections, the team doesn’t have to pretend those protections exist.
Hardly anyone in the NBA has a no-trade clause, because the collective bargaining agreement restricts their use; DeRozan didn’t have enough service time to request one when he signed his US$139-million deal two summers ago.
When DeRozan and those who feel he was wronged — which includes a lot of Raptors fans — say he deserved more honesty from the team as it considered possible trade scenarios, I find myself imagining how that conversation would have taken place. Ujiri: DeMar, we really need you to work on your three-point shot.
DeRozan: OK, got it.
Ujiri: It has to become a key part of your game. You made zero threes against the Cavaliers in the playoffs.
DeRozan: Understood. I’ll get to work.
Ujiri: Also, we might trade you. Probably not. But maybe. These things are fluid. Anyway, gotta go (walks away).
DeRozan: Wait, what?
Ujiri (over his shoulder): Shoot more threes!
Teams don’t tell players they are in trade discussions because trade discussions happen all the time, and most of them never come to pass. The player might become angry over being shopped, and when they end up still on the roster, no one is happy.
And if the trade possibility is leaked — a favourite move of agents — then the team can be forced to take whatever bad deal is available because now someone has become disgruntled. Once that adjective has been attached publicly, the seller is dealing with a distressed asset. Not good.
Ujiri is unlikely to push back on DeRozan’s anger. Even though he might feel he owes nothing other than the apology already offered for a miscommunication, this isn’t a public relations battle worth fighting. When you trade a beloved star, you have to wear it for a while. That’s part of the deal, too.