Another Take on the Williams Deal
by timbo on Feb 28, 2011 9:27 AM MST
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PrintThis is a section of my column no. 59 that was just published at the new independent Blazer blog, Pinwheel Empire. Owing to a register-to-read system at the new site, which makes linking via a FanShot difficult, I've decided to extract the Jazz-related section, with a bit of snark to set the table, and to post it here. Hopefully that is okay with the management.
Perhaps this outsider's take on the Williams trade will be of interest. —timbo
Trade Deadline Hilarity.
I was planning on having a snark-a-thon breaking down the winners and losers of every NBA trade hitting the fan during the recent trade deadline frenzy. Bill Simmons the Sports Guy produced a hilarious 7,000 word treatise on the topic for ESPN though — which you can and should read by following THIS LINK FOR PART ONE and THAT LINK FOR PART TWO. After that Pulitzer Prize-worthy mega-rant, it's time to go small or not at all...
Still, I do have a physical need to get my digs in at some of the stupidity, headlined by Memphis' dump of their #2 Overall Catastrophe Hasheem Thabeet to the Houston Rockets along with a first round pick (!!!) in exchange for Shane Battier — a long-in-the-tooth glue guy who already spent 5 full seasons in team colors. Battier has averaged less than 10 points and 5 rebounds a game over the course of his career, which seems to be in decline. Ummmm, not very good value for that elite lottery pick, eh?
Memphis GM Chris Wallace, unquestionably the most incompetent front office executive in the entire NBA, never stops entertaining, that's for sure. Was his choice of Thabeet the worst draft pick ever? The 2009 Draft Class will never be the stuff of legend, for sure, but going all in for the obviously scrawny and inept Thabeet over the likes of Steph Curry, Tyreke Evans, DeMar DeRozian, Ty Lawson, Darren Collison, Tyler Hansborough, James Harden, DeJuan Blair, and Hall of Fame lock Omri Casspi certainly has to rankle. Even Kevin Pritchard's wasted 1st Round draft pick of Victor Claver doesn't look so bad next to the Memphis mess.
Adding to my draft day mirth was International Super Genius Wallace's inability to dump OJ Mayo for former Blazer scrub Josh McRoberts and a future 1st Round draft pick, a deal which was so close that it was officially announced and then embarrassingly rescinded when the teams failed to come to terms ahead of the 3 PM EST deadline. What time zone is Memphis in again, Chris? "Doggonit, I coulda swore we had another hour..."
The free agent-to-be Mayo has been coming off the bench for the Grizz, a team with no chance in hell of being able to sign the scorer with the sweet stroke that I liken to a poor man's version of Kobe Bryant. He's not in the budget, not in the plans, and now not gonna bring anything to the table in the wake of his inevitable departure from the hapless Grizzlies. Tee hee.
The exile of one of my least favorite players in the NBA, Baron Davis, to the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers was also Comedy Gold™... Enjoy your stay in America's Wonderland, Baron! The Davis Dump was a brilliant piece of addition-by-subtraction by the Clips, who managed to land Mo Williams and Jamario Moon from the Cleveland train wreck in the switcheroo, at the cost of a future 1st Round Pick for which the already-too-young Clips have no need.
The big, ugly contract for the portly chucker is now off the books of the San Diego Clippers of Los Angeles. Now if the team's long-suffering fans could figure out a way to accidentally knock racist greedhead owner Donald Sterling into a brush chipper, all would be be right with the world...
Deron Williams and the Finances of the Utah Jazz.
I was snorting around last night trying to assess how the Deron Williams trade was playing in Utah, particularly in the aftermath their team dropping a close one to the shorthanded chemistry catastrophe known as the Detroit Pistons. One thing I uncovered in the course of my Salt Lake Schadenfreude was a debut podcast by the TrueHoop Jazz blog, Salt City Hoops.
Lead blogger Spencer Hall managed to get a little face time with team Prez Greg Miller and addressed worries among the Jazz fans that the team was being streamlined for a future sale and move:
Q. "What is your response to fans who, with the talk from Stern of contraction and the relocation of teams, ...are saying that this is a downsizing move to package the team. What is your response to those kinds of things?"
Greg Miller: "Anybody who has that mindset isn't paying attention because we're the 5th smallest market in the NBA with the 6th highest payroll, and that should say enough in and of itself. You look at what we did this year to go way beyond the salary cap, into the luxury tax realm — it's unprecedented. I mean, I could really get on a soapbox here, but I won't."
The Williams deal was financial, it would seem — the club less worried about being given the LeBron treatment or the Carmelo treatment by its future free agent superstar than it was worried about its immediate financial viability as a big payroll, small market team with shallow-pockets ownership.
Deron Williams was already scheduled to make $16.4 Million next season and with a player option for $17.8 Million the following season. The Jazz managed to turn him into a well regarded replacement Point Guard and a promising young big man earning a combined $13.7 Million next year and $13.3 Million two years hence.
The salary differentials enabled the Jazz to save $1.8 Million in luxury tax payments this season, $5.4 Million in salary and tax next season, and $9 Million in salary and tax in 2012-13. In total, Utah dumping Deron Williams to the Nets represented a savings of $16.2 Million to the small market, shallow pockets Jazz over this and the next two seasons.
It is through this prism that the sudden and surprising Williams deal must be viewed. As a two time All Star and highly desirable player, Williams would have required a max money extension that the Jazz could ill afford. Utah faced its future immediately rather than deferring the difficult decision for another day and thereby helped maintain its financial viability.
* * *
All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.
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Yeah, good take. The Millers have about 1/20th of the money your owner Paul Allen does
The Miller’s are great to spend what’s needed to field a competitive team, and I’m grateful for that. I don’t think money is why we traded D Will, but it certainly made letting him go easier for ownership.
Andrei Kirilenko is Russia's most important export
Of course financial gains and outlooks were part of the decision. But probably not even the 4th highest priority of the trade.
The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.
Dunno.
It’s the one thing that makes 100% sense about this deal, if one starts to think of a million dollars as a million dollars — this deal saves a ton of money in years 0, 1, and 2. If the assumption is made that the price in year 3 is too steep, and the second assumption is made that this year’s team was flagging and falling out of the top 8, there’s a strong logical case — a financially-based case — for the deal to be done when it was done, as it was done.
In the off season or at the deadline next year I would additionally expect Harris to be flipped for a lower cost option at PG.
Read my stuff at http://pinwheelempire.com/
like your style - nice write-up
but this all happened too quickly. the financial savings is a bonus — but no way was it the number one factor.
yojimbo is jazzed
There are at least 5 things that make more sense to me than financial savings.
1. Losing Deron to free agency was too great a risk to make.
2. This was the year the Jazz HAD to trade Deron if that is what they decided they were going to do. They would have lost leverage and wouldn’t have been able to trade him if there is a lockout next season. This was the last chance to trade him.
3. Derrick Favors has been a coveted player by the Jazz since he came into the league. The Jazz realized they needed big men more than point guards. At least Point Guards are more easily found.
4. Deron’s surly attitude had already helped quench Jerry Sloan’s fire for coaching and was probably rubbing off on the team. Deron never expressed a desire to want to stay but only said privately and publicly that he wasn’t pleased with the moves the front office was making.
5. The front office was realizing that when times got tough, Deron was finding it hard to be a leader, pointing the finger of blame all around the place.
6. There were much much easier ways to cut money without giving away your franchise point guard. If the Jazz really wanted to just save money, they could have traded Millsap to anyone for free, or probably Jefferson. But without the previous 5 statements having some truth, saving money by trading Deron is not an option.
The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.
I don't blame Deron Williams. Even if these statements are true, which is front office's story, most are understandable. But I really think money saving was so far down the list of why to do this trade.
The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.
This article is interesting.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/jazz/51325001-87/williams-jazz-utah-trade.html.csp
The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.
I've been thinking about the financial aspect of it too
And D Will getting $18 mil would have been crippling to the team. Point guards are great and all, but I don’t believe that they can carry bad teams. They’ll make the players around them better, but I’d rather have a junkier point guard and just sign better players around him instead.
I am in no way affiliated with the blog of the same name.
No position can carry a bad team
MJ couldn’t, Kobe couldn’t, Charles Barkley couldn’t, Hakeem couldn’t … nobody can. Deron’s contract wasn’t crippling the team at all. Not one bit. They could have made cost cutting moves, like trading AK, trading Millsap (every team in the league would have traded for Millsap).
The money was a small part of the trade. The big part was the FO decided the team wasn’t a contender now, they did not trust Williams to resign, so there wasn’t the chance for a 2-3 year rebuild around him, and they wanted the highest return they could get for him.
I got the crap beat out of me in Provo one time
He's only making $15m this year
I am in no way affiliated with the blog of the same name.
Uhh
how would it hur the jazz to be paying 17-18 mill for a superstar. The Jazz have already shown they are willing to do that when they think a player is the face of the franchise. They did it with Kirilenko and they never moved him. Ak also had issues with Sloan, didn’t like the system for a while, and was even put on th ebench for a few seasons. Still was never moved despite his huge payroll. The jazz were also still able to compete. They got Memo, Boozer, resigned Williams, Korver etc etc.
They again paid Boozer the final year of his contract and didn’t trade him even though they had Millsap waiting as an adequate replacement when they could have easily saved money just by trading Boozer.
The Jazz do tend to make moves based on finances but they are never major players and they rarely do it if they don’t have a cheaper/better option. Finances are always going to be a factor when making trades etc, but the Jazz as a small market team are very good at balancing money and talent.
I really don’t think it was a financial move to trade Williams. There was probably discussion about it but that wasn’t one of the main reasons.
For the Love of the Game
Stockton to Malone- The perfect combination!!
"I think he just said, 'Oh my Gosh,' or whatever they say in Provo."- ESPN talking about QB. Max Hall after BYU defeated third ranked Oklahoma (2009).
MonSTARZ forever!
This article is so, so, SO wrong
Greg Miller wanted to get on his soapbox because he’s NOT downsizing the team to trade it. He’s emphasizing that the Jazz ARE willing to pay for a top notch team.
I got the crap beat out of me in Provo one time
This is absurd
The logic is shoddy. If they traded Deron Williams to save money why would they just now start? Explain paying approximately $232 MILLION to Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Deron Williams over the last 6-7 years. All of a sudden they can’t afford it? Really dude?
That doesn’t take into account this season nor does it account for other players over the last 7 years. Matt Harpring had a decent sized contract as well. Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap made over $20 Million combined in that time.
Next season and the one after that they are on the hook to Big Al for $29 Million, Harris and Favors about $26 over the same period. Take CJ, Paul and Raja into account as well.
That’s a lot of money for a supposedly “Broke” franchise to pony up.
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