Action at deadline will be underwhelming
There remains a couple days more than a month until the NBA’s trade deadline, and you should all be burning with anticipation, right?
Rumours, innuendo, extrapolations that may have nothing to do with reality; all the fun and games that go with this time of year.
Sorry, but the growing expectation is this will be more boring and uneventful than ever, and a league that loves conversation about it regardless of its connection to the truth has only itself to blame thanks to parity and a coming influx of cash.
With so many teams still so heavily in the mix, especially in the tightly clogged Eastern Conference where the Raptors reside, the chance of any blockbuster — or even truly franchise-altering transactions — taking place are dwindling to almost an alltime low.
Outside of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who seem to be runaway favourites right now to win the conference, there are a handful of legitimate contenders who think they are quite capable of playing for the East.
Toronto, Chicago, Atlanta. A case can be made for any of them to be second to Cleveland and take a run deep into the post-season and none seem poised to make some earthshattering move to add something for a few months in case it does damage to what they already have.
The next tier — Miami, Indiana, Detroit, Washington, Boston, Charlotte, Orlando — all have intriguing rosters and grandiose hopes that will probably preclude them from doing anything major. They aren’t likely to rob Peter to pay Paul, either, and even teams like the Knicks have enough hope to lead them to stay the course.
And because they are so tightlybunched, only 41⁄ games separated
2 third from 12th going into Thursday play, enough teams have enough hope to preclude making deals of substance and few would be interested in helping some close rival fill a hole.
The bottom-feeders — Philadelphia and Brooklyn — don’t have any- thing obtainable and the few veterans who might be worth a look have longer-term contracts that make them poisonous going into what should be a free-spending summer with an unprecedented salary cap bump that has general managers salivating.
The money is a huge issue, because even teams that fall short this season will have a chance to spend in the summer to address issues rather than trade now and disrupt what they already have approaching the true playoff run of late February, March and April.
The West is similarly constructed now, although the separation at the top comes after Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City rather than just one team as it does in the East.
The bottom playoff layer is tight — 51⁄ games between sixth and 11th
2 before Thursday games. There is more chance of a team trying to address a need but just as few rivals willing to blow their teams up to possibly help out a rival but it is less than it has been in the past.
Sure, there will be rumours as the deadline approaches, that can’t be helped and is traditional as anything in sport, but the chance of anything significant developing seems lower than it’s ever been.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
An unwelcome break: It’s that time of year, when teams start thinking long-term and resting players some nights. The Dallas Mavericks gave four starters the night off Wednesday in Oklahoma City after a Tuesday night overtime loss to Cleveland. It makes sense but it doesn’t mean the players like it, and Wes Matthews said he “saw red” when told of his mandatory night off. Coach Rick Carlisle almost had to get physical when he told Mathews about the decision. “Wes Matthews, he’s difficult when it comes to this stuff,” Carlisle said. “He and I have been close to a couple of fistfights but hey, that’s all right. I like guys that are battlers, but we have a big picture to consider.”
Still up and down: From the department of “Can’t Stand Prosperity” or perhaps “Can’t Catch A Break” we present the New York Knicks.
There’s been something of a resurgence from a team that won a whopping 17 games last season and they climbed to .500 approaching the halfway mark of this year earlier this week. With entering the playoff race a real possibility, New York promptly lost Carmelo Anthony with a wonky knee and spat up a game Wednesday in Brooklyn, where the awful Nets had lost10 in a row. That kind of maddening inconsistency is what’s likely to keep New York in touch with the race the rest of the way.
Speaking of trades: There was a move this week that didn’t move the needle a millimetre and likely went unreported many places because
Cleveland dealing Joe Harris, a heavily protected second-round pick from Sacramento and cash to Orlando for a heavily protected second round pick so the Magic could waive Harris is beyond inconsequential on its face. But what it does is create a roster spot in Cleveland if they need to pick up some unemployed veteran for the playoffs or the run-up to them, they can do it. And what selfserving vet looking for a job wouldn’t want to go to Cleveland for a shot at a deep playoff run?
All of them probably would.
Speaking of unemployed veterans: Word got out this week that old-timer Baron Davis (36 years old, last seen in the NBA in 2012) and John Lucas III (ex-Raptor and half a dozen or so other teams) are going to sign, or have signed, D-League con- tracts so they can be placed with a team is something of a plea to get some NBA team to bite. There’s no way either is going for the riches (pro-rated portions of $35,000 contracts probably aren’t as big as their residual endorsement cheques), exotic locales like Sioux Falls, Erie and Mississauga can’t be it. But if they play passably well and some NBA team finds itself in dire circumstances, they could get 10-day deals and a chance to lead the NBA high-life again. That’s good living if you can pull it off.
A belated run? By all measures, the first half of the season has to be seen as a disappointment for the Houston Rockets.
They’ve already fired a coach, the Ty Lawson experiment has basically been an abject failure and they’ve done nothing to create confidence they are anywhere near Golden State, San Antonio or Oklahoma City. But James Harden rolls on.
Harden had 27 points and 11 assists when the Rockets beat Minnesota on Wednesday, his fifth 20-10 game of the year. Only Russell Westbrook of the Thunder (16) and Washington’s John Wall (13) have more. Harden’s not enough on his own to get Houston into championship contention but he’s playing pretty well.
The man in charge: It’s blatantly obvious who’s calling the shots around the Los Angeles Lakers — Kobe Bryant. General manager Mitch Kupchak admitted last week the team won’t go full rebuild this season because he wants Bryant to have the proper sendoff to his final season; coach Bryon Scott is giving Bryant full rein most nights and Bryant isn’t about to listen to team trainers about his own health, it seems.
A tender Achilles tendon should put Bryant on the shelf for a couple of weeks and that’s the wish of the medical staff. It doesn’t matter: (Athletic trainer Gary Vitti”) “would love to shut him down,” Scott said this week. “But that ain’t probably going to happen. He (Bryant) doesn’t want to shut it down.”
Taking care of priorities: The death of former NCAA Butler Bulldogs player Andrew Smith this week was a sad and tragic tale, he was just 25 years old when he lost a battle with cancer.
It hit home particularly hard for Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who coached Smith in college and who missed a game against the Chicago Bulls so he could visit his former player in the last days of his life. Stevens’s eyes welled during a Wednesday pre-game availability when he talked about Smith, who he called “the toughest guy I ever met.”
“I was happy I got a chance to say goodbye,” Stevens said. “This is really about, when you coach somebody, you get a lot more out of coaching them than they do from you.”