Quote:
Originally Posted by moon
Trade him for an actual decent package not a pile of crap. The owners of the team did a smart thing in stopping a trade by the GM that would hurt the team in the long term and short term, that is what any owner should do when the GM is making an awful deal.
I think it is in the best interest of the league that superstars aren't dealt for 5 cents on the dollar to big teams meaning that now only 5-6 teams have a shot at competing while the other teams end up as feeders to the big wigs.
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Thing is that was probably the best package they were offered. What was a team going to trade for Paul? No small market team is going to offer a godfather package and give up great young talent because they know that Paul is just going to bolt to the New York or L.A. in the offseason anyways.
As I said if the "Owners" didn't want Paul traded they should have told the GM before trades were even offered that all trades needed to be ran past an "owner" first. Instead they set terrible precedent by using the league's internal trade approval system to Veto the trade.
It is rumored that 5 teams were offering a package for Paul and New Orleans GM felt this was the best package.
Lets look at the rumors:
Golden State: Curry or Monta Ellis + Ekpe Udoh
Boston: Rondo+
New York: Amare
L.A.: Gasol + Odom (Martin, Odom, Scola, NYK 1ST)
Clippers: Bledsoe, Aminu, Kaman, Minnesota's 1st round pick
Of these offers the only one that I think would be any better would be the Clippers deal because Minnesota's pick has lottery potential. Personally I would have taken that offer, and that offer probably doesn't get Vetoed.
If Stern and the owners really wanted to create a league where the big markets couldn't hoard all the talent they shouldn't have given up on the lockout so early and should have fought for a hard cap.
They allowed this to continue by continuing with a stupid luxury tax and even helped it along by allowing teams to take on more salary during trades then previously.
Allowing the small market teams to pay more to retain their own free agents means nothing because if these players get to a large market they will make millions more in endorsements anyways.
The league did this to themselves and now they are taking bushleague methods to try and prevent it from happening.