Frugality of Western contenders proves puzzling
Just wondering.
In this summer of transition, it just keeps getting more befuddling as we watch good teams cut into their core over relatively meager sums of cash for key role players.
If we learned anything from the Detroit Pistons' run to the title, it was that players that fit together should stay together.
One of the key stories this summer is in Salt Lake City, where Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor convinced owner Larry Miller they'd have to spend over the top to coerce top free agents to come. With the acquisitions of Mehmet Okur ($50 million) and Carlos Boozer ($68 million), neither the Pistons nor the Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively, will touch those figures. Along with those additions, they also got two very high quality rookies in the draft -- Kirk Snyder and Kris Humphries -- that puts them atop all other teams in the West so far when it comes to upgrading personnel.
 | |
| The Timberwolves aren't willing to pay the price to keep Trenton Hassell. (Getty Images) |
That includes Okur and Boozer.
Already the Sacramento Kings waved goodbye to their locker room leader and best interior passer -- center Vlade Divac -- to save a few million dollars. Then they signed Greg Ostertag, the favorite whipping boy of Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan as an unmistakable underachiever.
Evidently, the Kings have tired of the 36-year-old Divac and his confusing look of lethargy. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers welcomed him back after an eight-year absence.
Just wondering why.
The Portland Trail Blazers signed Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Trenton Hassell to a six-year, $27 million offer sheet. You remember Hassell, the defensive wiz everyone was talking about during the playoffs as he shut down scorer after scorer, while burying open 15-foot jumpers and running the break. Evidently, the 'Wolves, at the moment, believe that's too much of a commitment for a role player and former second-round draft choice.
Then again, at what cost to the strength and versatility of the team should they decide not to match?
The Dallas Mavericks seemed to be loading up their franchise with talent to make the biggest pitch to the Lakers for All-NBA center Shaquille O'Neal, but they were left at the gate when the Miami Heat were able to coax the Lakers into shipping the big man to the Eastern Conference. And this came after they let point guard and floor leader Steve Nash head to Phoenix on a free-agent contract. Now they have rookie Devin Harris, Tony Delk and whoever else they can get to pose as a championship caliber point guard just two seasons removed from a spot in the Western Conference finals.
Just wondering why.
On the surface, it is pretty easy to figure out. Owners in the Western Conference believe they can save a few bucks and still have a chance to win the conference finals or more now that the Lakers have rid their frontcourt of O'Neal.
Then again, isn't that precisely why it would be even more wise to load up your team because the window is now wide open?
The thing about multiyear free-agent contracts that can be misleading is like any other commodity. Cost vs. value. In the case of the Kings and the Timberwolves, Divac and Hassell were both key barometers to success for the team. Divac is older and would have cost a few more bucks than Ostertag -- but has already proven he can lead the team to Game 7 of the conference finals in a series they actually lost with missed free throws.
Ostertag? Constantly chastised by Sloan for his lack of energy (sound familiar?), Ostertag would sit on the bench for games at a time for ineffectiveness. For a couple of years, they've got a much better chance to win with Divac, particularly when you consider the trend of how their starter Brad Miller tends to break down physically late in the year. Besides, if they should win the title, it would more than compensate for the extra money invested in Divac.
Hassell is even more of a head scratcher -- should the Timberwolves fail to match the Blazers offer sheet. What's the big deal about signing a starter to a six-year contract at $27 million? Even if it begins at the mid-level exception of $4.9 million, it then obviously has to decrease. That kind of figure over a long-term deal means that three years into this deal, they will have had a couple of great shots at winning the West and both Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell will be well into their 30s and ready to retire.
Hassell will be 28 and in his prime, and his contract very movable.
Just wondering why the Timberwolves wouldn't re-sign him.
This talk of business sense and labor problems is getting tiresome in the NBA, and lays the groundwork for another protracted negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement that could produce another lockout in the summer of 2005.
This is the time of year where you can tell the difference in general managers by their golf handicaps. The lower the handicap, the less a GM is getting done. This is the time of year when they show the guts to make big deals that will solidify their jobs and reputations for years, or lose their jobs altogether with a lot of rhetoric and little action.
Strangely enough, Sacramento's Geoff Petrie and Kevin McHale at Minnesota have been two of the best general managers in recent years. It would be natural to assume they know what they're doing.
On the other hand, the moves to frugality may have been orders from above.
And they were not heaven-sent.
