The Lakers’ offense hasn’t ranked worse than 11th in points scored per possession since 1994-95, but one quarter of the way through this crazy season, the L.A. offense ranks 18th, below the Timberwolves and the Nets. The Lakers are shooting an incredible 25.6 percent from three-point range, putting them on pace to be the NBA’s worst three-point shooting team since (basically) the league figured out how to shoot three-pointers in large volume.
There are lots of things wrong here, and Darius Soriano of the Lakers-themed blog has an absolute must-read post, detailing all of them – overlapping skill sets (the Lakers’ three best players all prefer to operate in the post area), cold outside shooting, the lack of a dynamic ball-handler other than Kobe Bryant and many others. Soriano also stresses some positives and explains, in precise terms, what the Lakers are trying to do on offense and how they are going about it. If you want to understand what’s happening to the Lakers, read this post.
Here’s an important excerpt:
The lack of capable shooters is truly hurting this team. As mentioned earlier the Lakers are last in the league in [three]-point shooting and this ineptitude in hitting the long ball has a domino effect on how good the offense can be. Kobe, Pau, and Bynum often deal with guards digging down in their lap and the paint is more congested than it’s ever been. On too many possessions the Lakers see a half-court defense with nearly every defender having one foot in the paint. The positioning of these defenders cuts off passing angles and denies driving lanes.
Players settled their antitrust suit against the NBA, paving the way for free agency to begin Dec. 9. (AP)
The NBA and the players who served as plaintiffs in a landmark antitrust case against the league struck a deal late Tuesday night to settle the lawsuit, pending the re-formation of the players’ union and the writing of a new collective bargaining agreement, according to sources close to the talks.
The settlement had been expected since early Saturday, when the players and owners announced a tentative deal to end the lockout and preserve a 66-game season. And Steve Aschburner of NBA.com reported late Tuesday that the players’ legal team had begun distributing the authorization cards players must sign in order to reconstitute the National Basketball Players’ Association as a true union with the power to collectively bargain on behalf of the players. The union dissolved itself a little more than two weeks ago, clearing the way for an antitrust suit in which the players accused the owners of engaging in an illegal group boycott (the lockout) and requested damages equal to triple their lost salary.
That decision took the negotiations from the boardroom to the courtroom, a change that added a few formal hurdles to the process of writing a new collective bargaining deal. Settling the litigation is the first step in that process. The settlement will include the economic nuts and bolts of the new agreement — the revenue split, the cap and tax rules and other similar items the two sides agreed upon before Saturday’s announcement. The two sides Tuesday got the federal judge hearing the case in Minnesota to stay all proceedings until Dec. 9, signaling a settlement was close. Read More…
By using the full mid-level exception, the Celtics would likely lose free agents Glen Davis (above) and Jeff Green. (Greg M. Cooper/US PRESSWIRE)
It was perhaps the thorniest “system” issue of all, the one the players were willing to go to war over: Should teams that pay the luxury tax have access to the full mid-level exception, worth $5 million per year over four seasons?
The owners had proposed banning any tax team from using the full mid-level and instead allowing it to use a “mini” mid-level worth $3 million per year over three seasons. The players, knowing how many of them get their career-making contract via the mid-level and how many benefit from the leverage that comes when every team can offer it, wanted something better.
Here’s what they got, according to a source familiar with the deal:
• Every team can use the full mid-level exception, provided doing so does not take the team more than $4 million over the tax line.
• Sounds great for the players, right? Here’s the rub: If you use the full mid-level to get to or approach that barrier looming $4 million over the tax line, you cannot cross it by re-signing your own free agents via Larry Bird Rights. You can cross it to sign rookies or players on veteran minimum contracts. (Update: 8:29 p.m.: The NBA informs me via Twitter that teams in fact cannot cross that barrier $4 million over the tax line via veteran’s minimum deals if you first use the full mid-level).
Let’s use a real-world example: The Celtics have about $66 million in salary committed to seven players next season, putting them about $4 million under last year’s tax line of $70.3 million, which we’ll use as a projected tax level for the upcoming season. Using the full mid-level on, say, Jason Richardson, would take the Celtics’ payroll to $71 million — over the tax line. Under the owners’ old proposal, Boston would have thus been prohibited from using the full mid-level.
Under the current proposal — the one to which the two sides have tentatively agreed — Boston could offer the full mid-level to Richardson. But it would leave itself only about $3 million of room with which to sign its own free agents — Glen Davis and Jeff Green being the headliners — using Bird Rights. In other words: Using the full mid-level would likely mean losing both Green and Davis.
On the 149th day of the NBA lockout, players and owners agreed on the framework of a new deal that would allow the 2011-12 season to begin on Christmas Day. The deal must still be ratified by all players and owners before it can be put in place, but both commissioner David Stern and union chief Billy Hunter are optimistic their parties will sign off.
Top officials from the league and union met in New York for more than 15 hours before emerging bleary-eyed at 3 a.m. on Saturday to relay their good news. Here’s how players responded to the tentative deal:
Mannnn im bouta to get a ratchet tattoo on my ribs that say "survived the nba lockout in 2011"— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) November 26, 2011
The math is simple: NBA commissioner David Stern has said that 30 days are needed between a handshake labor deal and the start of the regular season. So, if the league wants to begin the season on or before Christmas, it has to agree with the players on the framework of a settlement in the next few days. The two sides are at least trying, it appears.
It would be fascinating to see who called whom, but sources are mum so far. The players dissolved their union last week and filed a class action antitrust suit against the league, claiming the lockout represents an illegal group boycott and requesting damages equal to triple any missed salaries, court records show. The union, in other words, no longer exists, and the first step to saving the 2011-12 season would be a settlement of the players’ case against the league. That settlement would include the guts of the next collective bargaining agreement, but not the whole thing; the union would have to re-form first for the sides to write and sign a new deal. All involved agree that process could happen in short order, even if the move to the courtroom has added a step or two to the process.
The NBA is looking to help small-market teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers retain star free agents such as LeBron James. (Heinz Kluetmeier/SI)
In the spring and summer, before it became clear that lockout negotiations were going to slip into a depressing stalemate, there was a lot of interest in the NBA’s possibly adopting an NFL-style franchise tag. The rule allows football teams to use the franchise tag to keep one core player off the free-agent market for one year. Such a rule could give small-market teams an extra year to persuade their star free agents — ahem, LeBron James — to stick around long term.
In May, the NBA proposed a less restrictive version of the franchise tag, one that would not allow teams to unilaterally prohibit a player from entering free agency. Instead, teams could label one guy a “designated player,” and offer him more years and money than any rival could. The old system already did this with Larry Bird Rights, but the idea was to increase the gap between offers so that the incumbent team had an even greater advantage–and to craft a rule the union, concerned about freedom of player movement, would accept.
It got very little press amid the drama over the players’ decision to dissolve their union, but the “designated player” concept remained in the league’s final offer, which was rejected on Nov. 14. It would apply only to a player eligible for an extension to his rookie contract, and it would allow teams to offer that player a five-year extension instead of a four-year extension. The deal would come with 6.5 percent annual raises — the maximum raise available only to players with full Bird Rights.
All other players, including those who lose Bird Rights by switching teams via free agency, would be eligible for only 3.5 percent annual raises and four-year deals. That gap of three percentage points is a hair larger than the gap of 2.5 percentage points — 10.5 percent raises for Bird guys, 8 percent maximum for everyone else — in the old collective bargaining agreement.
Recent history suggests that an extra year and a few million dollars isn’t enough to stop stars from bolting if they really want to, and increasing the available raise totals by half a percentage point amounts to about $200,000 more in missed money over two years for a player making $20 million per year. That’s nothing, which is why the league has proposed other ways to give incumbent teams a meaningful advantage. Chief among them:
1. A ban on sign-and-trade transactions for teams in the luxury tax. Under the owners’ proposal, tax teams could not use sign-and-trades after the 2012-13 season–a key system issue the union opposes, and one linked to the “franchise player” discussion.
2. Restrictions on extend-and-trades. These are the Carmelo Anthony-style deals in which the player’s old team signs its star to the maximum-level extension he couldn’t get anywhere else and then deals him to the place he really wants to be. The NBA’s proposal wouldn’t outlaw such transactions, but it would make them difficult on both sides. Teams would have to wait six months to trade a player after signing him to an extension, and any team that trades for a player could not sign that player to an extension until six months after the trade. The trade deadline is in mid-February, meaning a team could not extend any player it acquires around that time until mid-August — six weeks into free agency. That creates obvious problems if the acquired player is a free agent you’d like to keep.
With Jeffrey Kesler (pictured) and David Stern unable to work out a deal, the sides could turn to someone like Jim Quinn. (AP)
As mentioned earlier today, the two sides in the NBA lockout have not spoken to each other — at least on the highest levels — since the union dissolved last week, making way for the players to file an antitrust suit against the league. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been talking about each other, and about a possible settlement. And, as Ken Berger of CBS Sports reports, they’ve been whispering into the same ears: those of Jim Quinn, an attorney at the megafirm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and a veteran of the sports labor world.
Quinn represented the union during the 1998-99 lockout, and he has also done work for the NFL players’ union in previous collective bargaining fights; Jeffrey Kessler, the union’s current outside counsel, started in that assignment under Quinn while both were at Weil. (Kessler has since moved to another firm, Dewey & LeBoeuf.) Quinn knows everyone involved, and if those folks are sick of each other, he is more than willing to hold their hands and get them back together, according to Berger:
Quinn characterized the conversations as “touchy-feely” and “off-the-record,” and said they have occurred “in the past number of days.”
“The reality is,” he said, “sometimes off-the-record conversations can be useful.”
Never more so than right now.
“I’ve always said that I’ll be helpful in any way I can be,” Quinn said. “Everyone would like to see that there is a season, so sure, I’d be helpful.”
And:
“The most favorable outcome is that they somehow get together quickly and reach an agreement so that they can have a reasonable season,” Quinn said. “I hesitate to guess what most likely outcome is.
“I think both sides want a settlement,” he said. “I just don’t know whether they can get one quickly.”
David Boies said the league has made it clear that it does not want to negotiate. (EPA/CRAIG LASSIG /LANDOV)
The lockout reached its height of absurdity early last night, when David Boies, one of the world’s preeminent litigators, engaged in a detailed back-and-forth about the mechanics of which side — the NBA or the players — should pick up the phone to renew contact, and which specific people should make and/or receive that phone call.
Chris Sheridan has the blow-by-blow, and as you can see, Boies essentially argued that he’d be happy to pick up the phone, if only the NBA side had not been so clear they had no interest in negotiating. Had the league’s tone to this point been friendlier, Boies seemed to say, perhaps he’d be more inclined to call the NBA’s outside counsel and set up settlement talks. It might be bad form for a plaintiff (the players) to initiate settlement discussions right after filing a lawsuit, but Boies has been clear from the outset that a settlement is the only real option here, and he told us last night he is well over the notion that calling first shows weakness. Still: “They have no interest in talking to us,” Boies said of the league. “It takes two people to make a deal.”
“Mr. Boies is wrong. As the union knows, we’re very receptive to negotiations without regard to who places the call.”
So by late last night, we had reached this point: Both sides had released statements to a third party — the press — affirming their willingness to talk, but neither had actually placed a call to the other to set up those talks. This is all very typical of high-stakes litigation, and it’s clear the first call is going to come soon — possibly by Wednesday, and, if the league has any interest in opening on or before Christmas, definitely by the end of this week.
After some early-summer excitement, it has been clear for months that these star-studded exhibition games do not resemble real basketball at all. But there is no way to be cynical about NBA players coming together to raise money for charities.
So it is legitimately big news today that Chris Paul, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony have organized a four-city “homecoming tour” of games, all in early December, with the proceeds going to charity. The series will begin Dec. 1 in LeBron’s hometown of Akron, Ohio, and conclude Dec. 10 in East Rutherford, N.J., which will suffice as Anthony’s hometown for thematic purposes, per The Associated Press. In between, the four stars, plus Chris Bosh and a rotating cast, will play in New Orleans (Paul’s current NBA home) and Chicago (Wade’s hometown).
Even better: The stars will organize various charity events and fund-raisers on days surrounding the games, according to The AP:
Events begin Nov. 29 in New York with a court dedication and food drive, before the group moves to Akron for events the following day that include a Wheels for Education program — something James is extensively involved with in an effort to help keep kids from dropping out of high school — and a basketball clinic at the Boys & Girls Club bearing the two-time NBA MVP’s name.
Paul will host an education-themed event and a clinic in New Orleans on Dec. 2, in advance of the game there two nights later. Wade hosts two events for charity in Chicago on Dec. 6, and another clinic is planned for New York on Dec. 9.
Well done by all involved, assuming this star-studded tour actually happens, unlike the four-continent world tour that had been scheduled for this month but fizzled when the stars involved all simultaneously decided they wanted to spend more time with their families. That scenario would seem unlikely here, given the close ties between the organizers and host cities. A quick settlement to the NBA lockout could jeopardize at least the last couple of games because players could be in training camp by early next month if the league and the union shake hands on a deal in the next few days. Of course, that would involve the two sides actually deciding to pick up the phone and negotiate.
Wade is also promising that these four games will look something like real basketball:
“We want to get into work mode. When we get into the tour, we want to play. We want to be equipped to do that. We don’t want to just run up and down the court and jack up shots. We want to get into the things we need to do when it comes to strength, defense, all those things you usually do in training camp. So we’re getting into that mindset.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. Three NBA players — Rajon Rondo, Donté Greene and Drew Gooden — hosted charity games over the weekend, and by all accounts, the contests featured zero defense, lots of dunks and piles of hasty threes. DeMarcus Cousins lived his dream of playing guard during Greene’s game, which included a dance-off (video in the link above) between Sacramento rookies Jimmer Fredette and Isaiah Thomas. Kendrick Perkins ran the point in Rondo’s game, which featured this ridiculous “fast-break,” off-the-head alley-oop from Rondo to Rudy Gay.
Joakim Noah, who played in Gooden’s game, concluded, “You can’t say much about a game like this,” and Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com wrote that “calling it a game was a stretch.”
No matter: That game raised $10,000 for the Make-A-Wish-Foundation, and that’s the only thing that matters. These four games, given the stars in the mix, could raise much more. Good for all involved.
Tickets will go on sale this week, and the games will be streamed live via Google Plus, The AP reports.
• Now that the players have sued the league, collective bargaining has broken down and the owners are showing no interest in starting settlement talks before Thanksgiving (the players will miss another paycheck on Dec. 1), you can expect international clubs and NBA agents to start talking more. Roster spots abroad might be limited, but clubs will work to make them available, and some of them will court willing NBA guys aggressively.
Just in the last 24 hours, we’ve learned news of the following: Chicago’s Luol Deng (whom I assume is still exhausted from logging so many minutes last season) is looking abroad, and Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski says the Turkish team Besiktas, the same team that landed Deron Williams, is chasing both Deng and Kevin Love now. Insuring Deng’s NBA contract will cost $50,000 per month, Wojnarowski reports, and policies like that are going to be no-gos for lots of international teams.
• The Xinjiang Flying Tigers, an elite Chinese team, has offered J.J. Barea a contract, per ESPN.com’s Marc Stein. Teams in the Chinese league can only sign NBA free agents (Barea is one), and they are not allowed to offer opt-out clauses that would allow such players to return to the NBA immediately when the lockout ends. Barea, should he sign there, would be in China through as late as mid-March. Read More…
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