Howard saga stinks on a lot of levels and a real Home Run Derby

As you listen to the out-of-world Dwight Howard trade scenarios (and it’s beginning to make Toronto’s four-team, double sign-and-trade epic that ended up with Turk with the Raptors seem like a simple transaction) one word keeps popping into mind:

Why?

Why would the Cleveland Cavaliers want to help the Brooklyn Nets get any better?

Why would the Los Angeles Clippers or Charlotte Bobcats – the possible fourth teams in the convoluted transaction – come late to the table to facilitate a trade that makes a rival better.

Take the Cavs, for instance.

At one point they were going to get – and may still get – Kris Humphries as the centerpiece of their end of the transaction. Now, I like Hump a lot and he’s become a very solid player now that he realizes what he’s with and I hope he has a long and productive and lucrative career. But doesn’t he play the same spot as Tristan Thompson, a younger, cheaper Cav piece as that team tries to re-establish itself.

And shouldn’t the Cavs, more than any team in pro sports perhaps, be averse to letting other teams create all-star casts?

Didn’t the scream bloody murder when LeBron exercised his contractual right to join another team with two other all-stars and now they’re perhaps going out of their way to let a star get his way despite him not being able to move freely on his own?

I don’t get it, I truly don’t.

The league, once again, will look ridiculous when this is all over and done with if Howard has finagled his way to the one team he wanted to go to.

It will once again send the message that petulant players – and their agents – can hold teams hostage to get whatever they want.

I’m sure there will be more venting and whining and commenting if and when this gets done but right now, the salient points are that if I was a fan of a team facilitating a deal that would seemingly make a rival far stronger, I’d be ticked.

And for those who might think this is a player – Howard – getting tired of being treated like chattel and trying to simply work where he wants, here’s the main point: He willing told his team last March that he was “all in” and would stick around this year; he made quite the fuss about that and now it’s apparent he cannot be trusted.

This is not a free agent finding a new home, I have no problem with that regardless of the team a guy wants to go, this is a guy holding a franchise hostage with his petulance.

If I’m the Magic, I find some trade with some team that isn’t New Jersey, force Howard to go there, play a season and then become a free agent so he can go wherever he wants. For the salary that’s available next summer.

This whole Howard saga has stunk since it started, I guess it’s fitting that the greatest stench will come when it’s over. And will permeate the entire NBA.

-

Apropos of nothing and only because a reader mentioned it and it made me smile, I think you need to put Bilko on a par with McHale, don’t you?

(And, yes, we need to some day take a poll of the greatest of the old-time sitcoms).

-

Got another one of the silliest e-mails we get on a regular basis yesterday:

“Wade undergoes successful surgery”

Duh.

I’m waiting for the one that lands and says:

“Player X in danger of losing leg after minor surgery goes horribly awry”

Or:

“We think the doctors did a good job, as soon as the leeches get done cleaning up the wound we’ll know for sure.”

-

I’m honoured to work in a craft with some great writers, insightful commentators, excellent reporters and generally good women and men.

And when I read something like this – my man Marc Stein’s tremendous recap of the Steve Nash story – it reaffirms that thought a hundredfold.

This is as good as it gets for its thoroughness and insight. And I know our business; this story could only be written after years and years of getting to know players and coaches and agents.

It’s great. I told Marc that last night; you need to read it.

-

So, of all the contrived, made-for-TV pre-all-star events in any sport, I think I’ve got the home run derby near the bottom.

It drones on and Chris Berman has got to go and it was weird seeing a BP pitcher looking like he was pitching around Jose Bautista in the final round. The kids in outfield are kind of cute, I guess, but I half expected some brawl to break out when they were fighting over pop ups.

Now, I will admit it’s a shallow pool – the Saturday night of the NBA all-star weekend and the pucks thing are far from must-see TV – but I’d probably like to see four innings of a prospects game and some other skills competitions than three hours of batting practice.

Besides, the only true Home Run Derby has been off the air for decades.

Remember this?

-

Oh yeah, the Raptors.

A whole bunch of travelling yesterday as Bryan, the Henchmen, the coaching staff and various others headed to Vegas for the Summer League (a little training camp this week, games start later on) so it was uber-quiet on the roster front.

But now that BC’s out there with a couple of dozen other GMs, who knows what might happen. The sense on the weekend was that things were going to calm down a bit, I hope that’s the case but, as we know, things have a way of heating up rather quickly.

One thing we don’t know yet, though, is who’s on the Summer League roster. It’s a rather fluid situation as teams try to piece together workable groups and agents try to get their clients into the most enviable situations.

One thing to know, though: The only people on the Toronto roster who really matter are Ed Davis, Terrence Ross and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Quincy Acy.

The rest is flotsam and jetsam and while someone will undoubtedly score a lot of points and make their names known, this is all about seeing how Davis and Ross and Acy perform.

-

 

 

Comments

[Al]

Mack Lee Hill (Kansas City Chiefs) died during routine knee surgery after the 1964 season.

[Chris]

I can't see why Cleveland would help facilitate the Howard trade except for two possibilities:
1) They REALLY don't want LeBron to get another Championship and figure that helping a rival possibly beat Miami is the best way to do that.
2) They suspect that Howard in Brooklyn will turn into another Melo in NY scenario and are "helping" the Nets only because they believe it will ultimately blow up in their face and actually make them worse off.
But either way... whining to force a trade when you're being paid stupid money to play a game is pretty distasteful to "average" folks and does not make the league look good. However, if people continue to buy tickets and jerseys....

[Rob.V]

Anyone else just hear that the Raptors will play the Knicks in a pre-season game in Montreal?.
-
Just throught I'd pass it along for those who might live in Montreal.
-
Yeaaaah!, hopefully one less (home) for us!

[van city]

Why wouldn't DeMar be playing in summer league? Wes Matthews is 3 years older and arguably a better player and he's playing... DeMar still needs to work on his in-game 3 pointers and his ball handling... I don't get why he wouldnt play... Plus it would give him an opportunity to play alongside T Ross to help get some chemistry on the wings... Any insight to this?

Blogger's note: Yeah, he's been working all week with the USA Select team against the USA Olympic team.

[jc]

Have you checked out the front page of espn.com today/ Will Bautista get some razzing in the clubhouse for that one? (and no, it's not about the home run derby) Nice to see a Toronto guy finally getting some American network exposure.

[Jarrod]

I just read that Weems has been cut loose. Besides being nice to Sonny, why would they do that? His QO was chump change and he could possibly have netted the Raptors a second rounder or something. I'm surprised. Is it true and, if so, can you speculate as to why they'd do that?

Blogger's note: Not really; was entirely non-guranteed so if he took it, they could just cut him with no loss. Maybe he just wanted to be totally unrestricted. Hope he lands somewhere, was never going to be here

[J]

Doug,
If I were the owner of the Magic, I would bench his butt at the end of the pine for the year and bring in someone who wants to be there and play them for the whole year in front of him. The owner needs to grow some tomatoes and say screw him and make a stand. I'm sure the fans would love it, I know I would.

[GM]

Looks like the argument against the Cavs being involved in a Dwight trade is twofold: 1. they shouldn't help a team in their conference get better, and 2. they shouldn't be hypocrites.

1. A team can only do what's best for them. This isn't like the Miami situation at all. If the Cavs think they can improve (regardless of how the trading partner improves), they should make the deal. Otherwise team's would only ever trade with lousy teams (who don't have as much to offer) or with teams in opposing conferences.

2. See point 1. The situations are not alike. But even if they're morally opposed to super teams (as I am), it's understandable they'd want to get back at Lebron somehow (that also improves their own team at least a bit). It makes Miami's road the the finals tougher.

To point 1, to be consistent, people should be up in arms about Phoenix. How did they improve at all, and how did they not help the Lakers, within their own division? Getting low draft picks, I don't care how many, is a longshot at best. Maybe one of them pans out. We see around here how people think there's nothing good in the draft past 5 or 6, and Phoenix will get what? Late first round? Second round? It boggles the mind why they made that deal.

Bilko on par with McHale's Navy?! Bilko was in a league of its own. One of the all-time great sitcoms.

One commenter mentioned (and I hear this from others, too) about how the new way is at least better than the old days when owners could do whatever they want with players. But to my way of thinking, players are compensated so well, it makes up for having to play in a given city not of their choosing. They get paid millions and have lots of holidays in the off-season to live wherever they want. Would any of us agree to be paid 2 million dollars to work for 8 months in, say, Dubuque? (Apologies to Iowans. It may be lovely; I've never been. Just throwing a name out there.) I sure would. And if you're a superstar in your job, make that 10 million. It's a sacrifice but that's partly why they get paid the big bucks.

[J]

I thought I had been sleep-writing, but noooo, not another J.

@AT:

I think if you look closely at the evidence, there's an argument to be made that BC wants Fields regardless of Nash. Here's why:

BC offered Fields a back-loaded, "poison pill" contract in hopes of preventing the Knicks from matching. To prevent the Knicks from using Fields as a piece in any Nash deal, BC only needed Fields to agree to an offer sheet. It didn't matter whether they matched or not, so from the size and structure of the deal, we know that BC wanted more than to just prevent the Knicks from getting Nash.

[Cluck Kent]

So Cleveland exits the Howard fiasco. Perhaps, wise scribe, you are more influential than you know?

[LeeZ]

Doug, I just don't get it (then again, I'm a lowly volunteer bantam level coach, not the GM of an NBA team). Dorell Wright was on the block. Golden St. made no bones about it. They drafted Harrison Barnes, so Wright was expendible. Wright averaged 16.4 points and started all 82 games during the 2010-11 season. He led the league in 3-pointers made (194) and finished third in voting for the NBA's Most Improved Player award behind Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge. But Mark Jackson wasn't unduly impressed and cut back his minutes significantly, and Wright's production slipped (not a whole lot, but it definitely slipped). The kid is 6'9, has a silky smooth three pointer and gets to the hoop. Have to admit, don't know anything about his dee, but he would seem to be just what the Raps need to spread the floor. Even with his slipped performance, he shot something like .360 from 3 last year. So, GS just traded him to Philadelphia for the rights to some Croat whom the Raps traded to Philly back in '06. In other words, they just dumped him for a stiff who will never play in the league. Now, perhaps BC has an eye on some stud SF, but if not, if the Raps break camp with the same cast of SFs as last year (Fields and DD are not true SF's), then I guess my question is, what gives? Any insight would be appreciated.

Blogger's note: First out of the gate is they didn't have the $4 million or so; second, maybe they don't quite value his as high as you do