There's a loophole in the NBA's trading rules that goes something like this: one team will include a player in a deal -- usually a guy who's older, can still play a bit, but won't command a ton of attention on the open market -- only to see that player waived by his new team, and be signed a month later by the team that dealt him in the first place.
Many observers wondered if that's exactly what San Antonio was planning to do with Bruce Bowen, after he was included in the deal with Milwaukee that brought Richard Jefferson to town. But according to Gregg Popovich, it's not likely that Bowen will be back as a member of the Spurs next season.
No one can stopKobe Bryant. The Laker is too talented, too aggressive and too focused to let any defender keep him under lock and key. Houston is a team predicated on tough defense, with arguably the conference's two best perimeter defenders in the line-up. One can imagine Kobe figured in Daryl Morey's decision to trade for Ron Artest in July.
But in Houston's Game 1 win over the Lakers, Shane Battier covered Kobe almost exclusively. As Matt Watson wrote, Battier did a fantastic job, hassling Kobe into an inefficient game. How did he do it? Or did Kobe do it to himself?
I can't say I was surprised -- I was in the Pistons' locker room after they were eliminated from the Conference Finals last year, and I saw McDyess fight back the tears while admitting to reporters that he already asked himself, "Hey, should I just retire?"
He added, "I don't want to be no ring-chaser, I don't want to be moving team to team being a ring-chaser. I can't do that. If I have to do that, I would definitely give it up. I mean, if I stay on this team another couple of years, we still have a chance, we just got to put our heart into it and do it."
It's been rumored that Brent Barry wants to go elsewhere, and that seems to be just fine with the San Antonio Spurs. Barry has seen some interest from the Suns and the Rockets, with Houston being the leading candidate to sign the aging sharpshooter. Before Barry has been able to reach a deal elsewhere though, the Spurs have already replaced him with a version who happens to be about nine years younger.
The Spurs signed free agent guard Roger Mason to a two-year deal worth $7.3M, and theoretically should be able to step right in and contribute, Brent Barry-style. Barry shot almost 43% from three-point land last season on 112 attempts, while Mason hit on almost 40% from downtown, over a whopping 327 attempts -- statistics certainly skewed by the Wizards' run-and-gun (read: no conscience) style.
It's not that the Wizards didn't want to retain Mason's services ... well, that's what they said, but their actions of not actually extending him an offer kind of speak louder than their alleged wishes, right? Anyway, Mason is likely to see more playing time and lots of open threes from the corner playing for the Spurs, both of which are things that he thinks will increase his value for his next contract negotiation two years down the road.
An NBA spokesman, commenting on the play involving Brent Barry and Derek Fisher at the end of Game 4 between the Lakers and Spurs, stated that, "With the benefit of instant replay, it appears a foul should have been called." While that might make some astute (if admittedly petty) observers of the game happy, I think it sets a bad precedent and will only create more controversy for a league that already has so many of its foul calls questioned on a nightly basis.
If we're going to look at a call that could have decided the game, why not examine the play before that? Derek Fisher's shot on that possession (with seconds left on the clock) was ruled to be an airball, when it clearly (again, with the benefit of instant replay) hit the rim. The shot clock should have been reset, which would have forced the Spurs to foul, which could have pushed the Laker lead up to four. Had that play been ruled correctly, we likely wouldn't even be talking about a controversy on the game's final play.
Do you see the problem with this? We could go back through every possession and find plenty of calls throughout the game that were questionable. Because the game's final possession is always magnified, the league felt the need to comment on it. But they really shouldn't have. Not unless they want whining about officiating to take over the game.
Trailing 93-91 on Tuesday night, the Spurs inbounded the ball with 2.1 seconds left to Brent Barry, who was bumped by Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher on the floor. No foul was called, and Barry missed badly on a 3-pointer before time expired.
[...] "With the benefit of instant replay, it appears a foul should have been called," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said.
I'm glad the league stepped up and did the right thing. I mean, this all the Spurs really wanted, right? A little apologizing goes a long way. In fact, I'm sure it makes the sting of being down 3-1 instead of all tied up actually quite bearable ... right?
Of course not! The Spurs got screwed, plain and simple. The fact the league is sheepishly hanging its head saying "my bad" doesn't change a thing. Sure, chalk one up for transparency, but only if you chalk another one up for bad officiating dictating the outcome of a game -- and possibly the entire series. This apology is too little, too late.
The Lakers effectively ended the Spurs' championship reign by taking a three games to one series lead with a 93-91 victory in Game 4 in San Antonio. There's no way the Spurs are going to win three games in a row over this Lakers team, especially with two of the next three being played in Los Angeles. It's over Spurs fans: deal with it.
And by the way, I've already begun to hear grumblings that the Joey Crawford conspiracy is in full effect, since there was no call made on the game's final play involving Brent Barry and Derek Fisher. Please. First the play, then the discussion.
First of all, forget that this was the end of the game, and pretend it was the end of the first quarter. Do you really think that Fisher's crowding of Barry and incidental contact before Barry chucked the ball at the rim 30 feet from the basket would have warranted a whistle? No way. Now, considering it was the end of the game, in what universe do you think a foul would have been called on a shot that had zero chance of going in that would give the home team a chance to decide the game at the free throw line? Certainly not this one.
With the truly shocking news coming down that Brent Barry would indeed be returning to the Spurs after the league-mandated 30 days have passed, at least one team doesn't believe for a moment that he was ever considering going anywhere else. Suns' GM Steve Kerr was in hot pursuit of Barry, and may be feeling a little bitter that he couldn't persuade him to finish out the year in Phoenix.
Kerr suggested on a Phoenix radio station it seemed to smell of an illegal, prearranged deal with Seattle GM Sam Presti, a former Spurs executive. "I think maybe there was something behind the scenes there," Kerr told KTAR-AM 620. "If I'm Seattle, I'm not going to let Barry go, I'm going to let Donyell Marshall go. Brent's a guy who is much more productive. Donyell Marshall doesn't have much more left in the tank. Sam Presti used to be in San Antonio as an assistant. Who knows? I don't have any proof."
As we've already discussed, the Spurs are way too smart to do what Dallas did when they had a similar situation going on with Jerry Stackhouse. The problem is not what the Spurs did, but the existence of the rule which allows it to be done. Kerr said it himself: there isn't any proof that the Spurs had a prearranged deal with Barry or the Sonics. So he needs to take out his bitterness over the Shaq trade being a complete disaster on somebody else.
The Suns expect to get word from the recently freedBrent Barry today on whether or not he has any interest in playing somewhere other than San Antonio. According to the Arizona Republic, Barry has told teams interested in acquiring his many, many skills that he won't lead them on any longer.
Phoenix will find out Tuesday whether Brent Barry will help. Barry, 36, has told his suitors - Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Boston - that he will commit to a team then.
"I've spoken with Brent and his agent (Arn Tellem), and we feel we have a shot at getting him," Suns General Manager Steve Kerr said. "We've reached out to him, and he knows what we have to offer."
The Suns do have plenty to offer in terms of minutes, especially now that they're down to just three decent 3-point shooters in Nash, Barbosa, and Bell. And those three never play at the same time due to size issues. So the Suns would be an interesting choice, if Barry were actually going to leave the Spurs. But we all know that's not happening.
This is exactly the same thing that Dallas tried to pull with Jerry Stackhouse, before he and Cuban blabbed about it too much, bringing attention from the league office that ended up making Dallas rework the deal. The Spurs are too smart for that, so Barry's been playing along by listening to offers from other teams. But it would be downright shocking if Barry ends up playing for any team but the Spurs, especially considering the fact that his locker and nameplate are still intact in San Antonio.
When the Sonics acquired Brent Barry from the Spurs in the Kurt Thomas trade, it was obvious that the only reason they wanted him was because of his expiring contract. Today, that point was hammered home when it was announced that the Sonics waived Barry before he even had a chance to suit up.
There's talk than the Suns and Warriors might be interested in him, but he could always just return to San Antonio -- and in hindsight, it's only natural to wonder if that was the plan all along. From Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News:
[The] Spurs should want him back, and maybe this is a Jerry Stackhouse arrangement. The Seattle general manager who traded for and then waived Barry, Sam Presti, once worked for R.C. Buford.
Why this would be more likely to pass an NBA inspection: Unlike Stackhouse, who blabbed about how he would return to Dallas, thus scuttling his deal, Barry would be too smart for that.
Of course, for Barry to return to the Spurs he'd have to sit out for 30 days, during which time he'll be courted by other contenders hoping to change his mind with bribes of more playing time. Considering the NBA threatened to squash the Stackhouse trade because of a similar arrangement, it'll be interesting to see how the commissioner's office would react to Barry's return. Maybe there's not enough evidence for David Stern to actually levy punishment or block the move, but it might be a loophole he'll want to considering tightening up this summer.
There's a loophole in the NBA's trading rules that goes something like this: one team will include a player in a deal -- usually a guy who's older, can still play a bit, but won't command a ton of attention on the open market -- only to see that player waived by his new team, and be signed a month later by the team that dealt him in the first place.
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