John sees things others don’t see. From John Looney:
Many talking heads have argued that the Cavs should have kept Kyrie Irving throughout the season because Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did that with LaMarcus Aldridge, your far-distant “cousin”.
This seems flawed to me for several reasons:
1. I vaguely remember (you) reporting that Pop tried to deal LMA, but couldn’t find a deal.
2. Kyrie could have sat out most of the season by getting knee surgery.
3. Said surgery would diminish his value even more.
4. Kyrie may have killed a deal to Phoenix because he may have gotten wind that Boston would deal for him (your reporting again, I believe).
I believe this is accurate in the facts, from mostly your reporting. Please disabuse us all with the facts. And further, please illuminate with real analysis.
One at a time, John:
1) True. The Spurs were listening on potential offers for LMA before the Draft. They didn’t find anything close to what they wanted. The Cavs, I guess, did for Kyrie.
2) True.
3) True, but not to the point where they still couldn’t have done a deal. More than half of the league would still have lined up to make a legit offer for someone as talented as Irving, no matter when he actually came available.
4) Not me. And Kyrie wouldn’t have had any leverage to shoot down a trade with two years left on his deal, anyway. Why wouldn’t the Suns, even if they knew Irving was just a short-term rental through 2020, pull the trigger? They’d have two years to change his mind by building a good team around him, and if it didn’t work out, they could have traded him in the summer of ’18 or ’19. I think the Cavs and Suns just couldn’t come up with a deal that worked. The only reason Cleveland made the deal with Boston, IMHO, was the unprotected Brooklyn first. That’s their LeBron insurance.
5) He’s not really my cousin.
Charge of the not-so-light brigade? From Alexis Corona-Aguilar:
Hello, I was wondering what would Cleveland have to give to L.A in order for it to land DeAndre Jordan?
See above, Alexis. The Clips are holding out for that Brooklyn first. Now, L.A. now has a 2018 first coming from Detroit in the Blake Griffin deal, so its desire for another 2018 first may not be as great as it was before last week. But what else does Cleveland have that you’d really want (Tristan Thompson, who would almost certainly be part of a Jordan deal in any iteration, aside)? The pressure on owner Dan Gilbert in Cleveland to jettison that pick to make a season/franchise/please-LeBron-don’t-leave-saving move is going to be enormous in the next 72 hours.
California Dreaming! From Milan Veissi:
My question is: Do you believe the Clippers will make the playoffs this year?
No, I don’t. I expect them to move Lou Williams by Thursday, and maybe Jordan, too. And that won’t leave them with enough, in my opinion, to make a postseason run past Denver and/or Portland — who both have much more stable core groups, even if either makes a deal by Thursday.
Send your questions, comments and pictures of other unexpected patrons behind you at the Basra Starbucks to daldridgetnt@gmail.com. If your e-mail is funny, thought-provoking or snarky, we just might publish it!
MVP WATCH
(Last week’s averages in parenthesis)
1) James Harden (34.7 ppg, 6 rpg, 10.3 apg, .515 FG, .962 FT): A 60-burger as part of a historic triple-double caps an incredible first half for the runaway MVP favorite.
2) Kevin Durant (27 ppg, 4 rpg, 5.3 apg, .630 FG, .850 FT): He does not concur with the posit that LeBron James could be entertaining notions of joining the merry band in the Bay next season.
3) LeBron James (18.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 7 apg, .392 FG, .706 FT): You wonder what James is thinking this morning. For the first time since very, very early in his career — maybe 2005 or so? — what he’s selling isn’t working. His team isn’t buying in. It isn’t building good habits. It is floundering. This hasn’t happened to a LeBron James team, literally, for more than a decade.
4) Kyrie Irving (27 ppg, 3 rpg, 6 apg, .647 FG, 1.000 FT): Missed last three games (quad).
5) DeMar DeRozan (23.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 4.8 apg, .408 FG, .879 FT): After missing both of his 3-pointes Sunday, DeRozan remains just five makes short of his regular season record for 3-pointers in a season (64 in 2013-14).
BY THE NUMBERS
30 — Teams, for the first time, that will participate in the MGM Resorts NBA Summer League 2018. With the ending of the Orlando Summer League, which usually ran the week before Vegas, all NBA teams will participate in the heat of Nevada.
132 — Assists, in the last four games — which happen to be the first four games they’ve played without John Wall — for Washington, which won all four to match its longest win streak of the season. No, the Wizards are not better without John Wall. No, Bradley Beal was not hinting they were by saying “everybody eats” in the offense without Wall. Stop it.
7 — Minutes that Dirk Nowitzki needs tonight against the LA Clippers to become the sixth player in NBA history to reach 50,000 minutes played in his career. Nowitzki will join all-time leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (57,446), Karl Malone (54,852), Kevin Garnett (50,418), Jason Kidd (50,111) and Elvin Hayes (an even 50,000).
I’M FEELIN’ …
1) Fly, Eagles, Fly! And congratulations on out-dueling, out-toughing and out-playing a great champion in the Patriots to win Philadelphia’s first Super Bowl title Sunday in Minneapolis.
2) One suspects John Wall, not likely to make any of the three All-NBA teams this season, or to win Kia MVP or Kia Defensive Player of the Year, is an extra crispy bucket of happy that he signed the Designated Player Extension with the Wizards last summer.
3) Andy Jasner’s delightful compilation of stories and columns by his father, the great Phil Jasner, “On The Case,” is available on Amazon, barnesandnoble.com and many area bookstores. Andy spent the last four years meticulously going through three decades of stories his late dad wrote for the Philly Daily News and other publications, from the Eagles to the Big 5 to his more than 30 years writing about the 76ers, including the ’83 championship team, Iverson, the Dream Team, and on and on. Andy interviewed several Philly sports household names — Paul Westhead, Doug Collins, Billy Cunningham, Charles Barkley, AI and others — as part of new material that’s in the book as well. Andy wrote the book’s forward as well, detailing his memories of his dad and what having this collection means to him and his family. It costs $25. Here’s the link. Buy it and enjoy reading a great writer who was on top of his game for 40 years.
4) Faith in humanity, restored.
5) A beautifully written story about two men, one once famous, who became friends in the most unlikely of ways — and what happened to the once-famous man.
NOT FEELIN’ …
1) One cannot possibly process the sorrow everyone in the league felt upon hearing that Rasual Butler and his wife, the singer Leah LaBelle, had both been killed in a car accident in California on Wednesday. Rasual was, genuinely, one of the nicest, most grounded guys I’ve covered in 30 years on the beat. He had an athletic ego like anyone else in the NBA, but he became a consummate teammate everywhere he played — Miami and New Orleans and Toronto and Los Angeles and Indiana and Washington and San Antonio. Just a good, good dude. Thirty-eight is just too damned young. RIP, my man.
2) Will say this until they take the laptop away: fans in small markets need just as much reason to come out on cold winter nights to watch basketball as those in large markets. So if you understand why Detroit gambled on taking Blake Griffin to help fill up what has been an empty Little Caesars Arena, why would you not understand why Charlotte is compelled to hold onto Kemba Walker, even though the Hornets are likely not to make the playoffs and will be in a salary cap strait jacket next season? He’s the only compelling player the Bugs have. He likes it there. He wants to be there. The challenge for management in any city is to improve the talent around the best player, not move the best player to buy a couple of years of security as you cry “but we’re rebuiiding!”
3) This is a good idea … why?
4) Thumbs up, Isaiah Canaan. You’ll be back.
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Longtime NBA reporter, columnist and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer David Aldridge is an analyst for TNT. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here andfollow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.
