It’s complicated | Bandera

It’s complicated

Henry Liao |June 19,2019
facebook
share this

It’s complicated

Henry Liao - June 19, 2019 - 03:49 PM


THERE are some complications to solve in the Anthony Davis-to-the Los Angeles Lakers agreement.

If the Lakers immediately finalize the proposed trade during the first day of the free-agency race on July 6, their salary cap space will shrink to $23.7 million while assuming that Davis opts not to rescind his 15 percent trade kicker worth $4 million.

If the New Orleans Pelicans are graciously enough not to consummate the trade until July 30, the Lakers are expected to have a $32.5 million cap space  — enough to sign another topnotch free agent to a max contract.

The problem is that the NBA draft will be held on June 21, Manila time. The No. 4 pick that the Lakers currently own will have to be transported to the Pelicans as part of the Davis swap.

The Lakers are bound to pick New Orleans’ choice at No. 4 first then sign him to the NBA-mandated two-year pact before he could be sent to the Pels in a trade.

But what if the Pelicans intend to trade the No. 4 selection to another team to maximize their own salary cap space? (New Orleans will have a cap space of $19 million if the Davis trade goes down on July 6 but only $15 million if it was completed on July 30.)

Davis is headed to Tinseltown all right but the narrative on the other details of the trade has yet to be determined.

Once Anthony Davis officially become LA Lakers property, the team will have only five players under contract for the 2019-20 NBA season — LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, Germans 6-foot-11 center Moritz Wagner and seldom-used 6-9 guard Isaac Bonga, and Davis.

Unrestricted free agents include Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson, Mike Muscala, Reggie Bullock and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who along with James and Davis is a client of sports agent Rich Paul at Klutch Sports Group. (His other clients include Golden State’s Draymond Green, Washington’s John Wall and Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons.)

Ask me and I’ll say that I want the Lakers to re-sign Rondo and McGee for the veteran minimum contract amount (granting both are willing to do so for another year).

Since February when news of a potential trade between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Lakers for Davis were first being discussed, the name of Kuzma was always included in the proposed package.

But, Kuzma, a 6-9 power forward with an excellent three-point range, played well down the stretch during the 2027-18 season (especially with Brandon Ingram already gone in the final 2.5 months due to a blood clot in his right shoulder) so much so he endeared himself to Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss.

Amid the trade talks and rumors, Kuzma has been posting photos with Buss, representing the Lakers at the draft lottery (a good luck charm as the club leapfrogged from No. 11 to No. 4 in the lottery), and not bad-mouthing the dysfunctional team of the past season before the media.

For that alone, Buss embraced him and so did LeBron.

The LA Lakers are lucky to hang onto Kuzma, who fits nicely alongside James and Davis in the frontcourt.

* * * * *
The Boston Celtics lost out in the Anthony Davis sweepstakes because the club refused to surrender the young, soon-to-be-a-star Jayson Tatum in their proposed package for New Orleans.

It looks like the Celts are also winners by retaining Tatum. (I am not kidding, Celtics Nation.)
Problem is backup point guard Terry Rozier, who played exceptionally well during the 2018 NBA playoffs when Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving were cooling their heels in the sidelines due to injuries, is a restricted free agent and wants out of the Hub if the Celtics don’t retool their roster for next season, such as moving out Irving.

* * * * *

One interesting question to ask Houston’s NBA scoring champion James Harden when he sets foot on Philippine soil on June 26 courtesy of the shoe and apparel company adidas:  Why is your Rockets teammate Chris Paul unhappy with your play, terming your relationship as “unsalvageable?”

Next question please:  Are you really a ball hog, unwilling to share the rock with Paul and other teammates?

After Houston’s unceremonious second-round playoff loss to Golden State, Paul went to Rockets management allegedly to demand a trade while the ball-dominant Harden himself was said to have issued a “him or me” threat.

It’s hard for Houston to accede to the 34-year-old playmaker’s trade demand for it comes with limited capabilities.

Based on his monstrous four-year, $160-million contract that he inked with the Rockets in July 2018 (bigger than LeBron James’ four-year, $154-million deal with the LA Lakers), Paul is set to earn $38.5 million, $41.3 million and $44.2 million in the next three seasons.
No other sane championship-caliber team will gamble on the aging Paul at that amount.

* * * * *

The NBA season is not really over yet.

The league’s rookie draft will be held on June 21 MT at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.  The New Orleans Pelicans own the first overall selection and is a cinch to pick College Player of the Year Zion Williamson of Duke University, a bull-strong 6-7, 285-pound forward.

The Memphis Grizzlies (which was formerly located in Vancouver from 1995-2001) as one of the NBA’s two Canadian expansion franchises, have the No. 2 choice and will be nabbing 6-3 point guard Temetrius Jamel (Ja) Morant of Murray State.  The sad-sack New York Knicks, who posted the worst regular in the NBA this past season at 17-65, will have the No. 3 selection and could go for Williamson’s Blue Devils mate, 6-7 wingman Rowan Alexander (R.J.) Barrett who is a member of the Canadian national team, or 6-7 guard Jarrett Culver of Texas Tech.  The LA Lakers own the No. 4 choice but will be drafting on behalf of the New Orleans Pelicans following the impending trade of Anthony Davis to Hollywood City.

The fifth pick belongs to the Cleveland Cavaliers while the sixth selection will be consummated by the Phoenix Suns.

Rounding out the top 10 in the NBA draft are as follows:  7-Chicago Bulls, 8-Atlanta Hawks, 9-Washington Wizards and 10-Atlanta Hawks.

Meanwhile, the official 3rd annual NBA Awards will be held on June 25 (Manila time)
The Greek Freak, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, is expected to win the Maurice Podoloff Trophy that goes to the NBA awardee, beating out the 2018 winner, Houston’s James Harden and Oklahoma City’s Paul George.  The 6-7, 20-year-old Slovenian guard Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is favored to beat 6-2 point guard Rayford Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks for the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy that goes to the Rookie of the Year winner. The two were traded for each other during the 2018 Draft Day, with Doncic being selected by Atlanta at No. 3 and Young being corralled by Dallas at No. 5.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.

Other awards that are to be given on that day include the Most Improved Player (a favorite is Toronto’s Pascal Siakam), Sixth Man Award (it looks like Lou Williams of the LA Clippers will win it again for a second consecutive season), Defensive Player of the Year (will it be the Utah Jazz’s French mastodon Rudy Gobert), Coach of the Year (I like the chances of Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer, who piloted the Bucks to the NBA’s best regular record at 60-22)  and Executive of the Year.

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Bandera. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.

What's trending