We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com. Here are this week’s inquiries:
Does a trade where Ricky Rubio gets a fresh start in Sacramento and where Rudy Gay joins the up-and-coming T’Wolves make sense for both teams? — Matt Trapp
Arthur Hill: It makes a lot of sense. Kris Dunn and Tyus Jones are the point guards of the future in Minnesota, and the Wolves don’t need Rubio around to take away their playing time. He is signed for the next three seasons at $13.55MM, $14.25MM and $14.8MM, so he’s too expensive to keep as a backup. Minnesota is looking for one more wing player, while Sacramento needs help at point guard. Rajon Rondo left for the Bulls in free agency and Darren Collison may be looking at a lengthy suspension after his domestic violence case is resolved. Also, the salaries match almost perfectly, with Gay making $13,333,333 next season. It seems like an ideal trade for both teams.
Devin Harris is out of the Mavericks’ rotation now. Send him to Miami to be their backup point guard for a protected second rounder. Mavs save a little money, sign Jason Terry to be third-string/player assistant coach and reunite with buddy Dirk. Thoughts? — Beauen
Arthur Hill: Terry would probably love it, plus the Heat need an experienced backup to Goran Dragic. Harris makes a little more than $4.2MM next season and $4.4MM in 2017/18, so he’s a low-cost solution. Miami can’t consider many deals before the December 15th deadline to trade newly signed players, so Dallas will have to be patient. The Heat have too many experienced players and too few minutes to go around, so if they can unload maybe Wayne Ellington or someone else who falls out of the rotation, they might be interested in Harris.
What’s the role of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver? Does he or the NBA board have any veto power regarding player movement? Here in Manila, in our local PBA league, player movement, signings and trades pass through the commissioner before being finalized. If the Kevin Durant to the Warriors issue happened here, it would have been vetoed for causing team imbalance. — Greg Dizon
Arthur Hill: The commissioner has always had great power when it comes to settling league disputes and in matters of player discipline, but overseeing trades and player movement has never been part of the job description. What Durant did was perfectly legal under the existing rules. He honored his contract with the Thunder and became an unrestricted free agent. The Warriors had enough cap room to sign him, and both parties entered into the deal willingly. It’s up to each individual front office to keep its team competitive, not the commissioner. The one glaring exception when a trade was vetoed came in 2011 when the Hornets agreed to ship Chris Paul to the Lakers. However, the New Orleans franchise was owned by the league at the time, so David Stern had legitimate “basketball reasons” to stop the deal.
“so David Stern had legitimate “basketball reasons” to stop the deal.”
Legitimate? Like making sure Lebron wins a championship?
Tiny quibbles:
1. While Kings need a point guard and Wolves need a SF, and while their salaries match, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to make a playoff push by acquiring Rudy Gay, then giving the keys to a rookie and a second year point guard who hardly played last year. Great trade for the Kings, not so much for the Wolves. Would take a lot more for the Wolves to move off of a great backcourt in Rubio, Lavine, Dunn and Jones; with Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad at the three.
Rudy Gay fits a lot better in Phoenix. They have no frontcourt to speak of, at the same time they’re paying veterans like Tyson Chandler. Brandon Knight is highly expendable, since they have Booker, Ulis, Goodwin, and Bledsoe,
Rudy Gay for Brandon Knight
2. Although they tend not to exercise it, sports leagues commissioner have the power to veto trades and signings pursuant to the “best interest of the sport”. Kennesaw Mountain Landis insisted on it before he assumed the position of baseball commissioner. By legal precedent, other sports commissioners also have czar-like powers, UNLESS specifically limited by the owners in the league charter or in the collective bargaining agreement. In Kuhn v. Finley (1978), Bowie Kuhn vetoed a bunch of Oakland A’s moves (think Sam Hinkie and the Sixers) because he felt selling off their best players would hurt the league. US Supreme Court backed him up.