The Dugout - The Frenzy & The Fireworks
The Free Agent Frenzy
Who gets who for what and for how long. Free agency is here in the NBA.
But first, a disclaimer. Did you know that there is a league-wide moratorium on roster moves and therefore no deal can be signed or confirmed until July 9!? Yeah, same. It’s the last paragraph of literally every contract story on every site. We get it, yo.
There were far too many signings to go through them all, so instead we’ll play it like this.
Top 5 Free Agent Signings of 2015
- LaMarcus Aldridge to the Spurs – LMA gets paid and he gets to play for glory. The Spurs get another superstar talent. Everybody wins except for everybody else in the NBA, who will now repeatedly lose.
- DeAndre Jordan to the Mavericks – The Mavs finally catch a big one, and DAJ finally catches a break and some love.
- Kevin Love to the Cavaliers – A lot of these re-signings were always bound to happen, so they don’t count. This one wasn’t. Great move for the Cavs, pretty beneficial for Lover Boy too.
- Tyson Chandler to the Suns – Even with an option, four years seems like a lot given Tyson’s injury-prone nature. But even though this move didn't pave the way for Aldridge as hoped, it was a major declaration with Chandler not waiting to be anyone's backup for DeAndre Jordan.
- Greg Monroe to the Bucks – Hey, whaddayaknow? The Bucks are for real. Monroe gives them a huge boost and his contract – three years, $50m with an option – is pretty riskless. May not fit, but worth a gamble.
5 Dumbest Free Agent Moves
- Reggie Jackson to the Pistons – Bringing back Reggie for $16m a season over five years. There’s overpaying a bloke, then there’s this.
- DeMarre Carroll to the Raptors – Better hope those two good years in Atlanta were legit.
- Al-Farouq Aminu to the Trailblazers – Great young player, but unproven. They’re giving him $30m over 4 years based on one playoff series off the bench.
- Rajon Rondo to the Kings – Only a one year deal, but seriously. Rondo and Boogie together?
- Aaron Baynes to the Pistons – Geez, Detroit know how to overpay a guy. Baynes joins a long list of players to leave the Spurs with an inflated market value.
And then there’s this…
David West. Bro, what are you doing!? West declined an option worth around $12m with Indiana to sign for a veteran minimum $1.5m with San Antonio. That is a lot of money left on the table there, matey. Brave call. "At this point in my career, it's all about winning." – David West
The only person not enjoying all the FA hype was Kobe Bryant. Probably coz he kept getting blame online for ruining all the Lakers’ recruitment meetings with his intensity and general Kobe-ness.
DAJ vs CP3
One of the undercover fascinating storylines of free agency was the emerging beef between Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan. We already knew that the Jordan didn’t feel that respected by the Clippers (beyond maybe Doc Rivers’ obvious emotional handouts) and that the Mavericks played off that to help win him over. Promising him the chance of serious usage on offence and actual love and affection within the organisation.
If you’ve watched the Clippers closely then you will have noticed some of this before, but it’s coming to the front of the line now. Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan did not have a good relationship. This from Kevin Arnovitz’s ESPN piece on Jordan’s decision:
“Jordan and Chris Paul had gotten into it more than once, which led Jordan to start seriously contemplating what it might be like to play elsewhere in 2015-16.
He was tired of Paul's constant barking and petty gestures, like distributing high-fives to the three other guys on the floor following a timeout but somehow freezing out Jordan.”
It’s funny because Blake Griffin is probably DeAndre’s best mate in basketball but the Chris Paul thing seems legit. According to reports, while Dirk Nowitzki cancelled a family vacation to be back in Dallas for DeAndre’s recruitment meeting, while Chandler Parsons and DeAndre went out to dinner for five nights in a row, not a single Clippers player was at their meeting. Chris Paul made zero contact right up until it became clear they were losing the guy… and even then he only set a text message.
MLB All Stars Arise
AMERICAN LEAGUE
C: Salvador Perez, Royals
1B: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
2B: Jose Altuve, Astros
3B: Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays
SS: Alcides Escobar, Royals
OF: Mike Trout, Angels
OF: Lorenzo Cain, Royals
OF: Alex Gordon, Royals
DH: Nelson Cruz, Mariners
NATIONAL LEAGUE
C: Buster Posey, Giants
1B: Paul Goldschmidt, D-backs
2B: Dee Gordon, Marlins
3B: Todd Frazier, Reds
SS: Jhonny Peralta, Cardinals
OF: Bryce Harper, Nationals
OF: Matt Holliday, Cardinals
OF: Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins
FIRE IN THE HOOOOLE!
Jason Pierre-Paul had a bit of a contract situation on his hands recently. Now he’s lucky to even still have his hands.
The drama started early with some heavy foreshadowing. JPP was throwing a big 4th of July bash and he’d bought a VAN FULL OF FIREWORKS! To paraphrase from a clip at the bottom of this page, “Why not celebrate the birth of your nation by blowing up a small part of it?”
Next thing you know the New York Giants Defensive End has burns to each of his hands, skin damage and potential nerve damage. There was a rumour he’d lost part of his fingers. There was even talk of a Coral Springs police investigation into the possession of said fireworks but it turns out that’s beyond their jurisdiction.
Subsequently the Giants have pulled the $60m long term contract offer they’d had on the table to JPP, though he wasn’t gonna sign it anyway. The dude’s been franchise tagged but is bartering for a better deal. He mighta just lost some leverage with this stunt.
UPDATE: Hooooly crap. This thing just took a turn...
James Harrison Does His Bit
"Whatever it takes!!!"
CarGo, Always Looking Out
Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder, is a man who care for his fellow professionals. After his Cincinnati Reds counterpart Billy Hamilton lost his chewing gum during a game between the teams, CarGo left some of his, along with a note, waiting for Billy in centre-field. Billy got there, saw it, and cracked up laughing.
Haters Anonymous
"#BrotherHood"
Quote of the Week:
Matt Bonner’s three point shooting dropped from 41.4% to 36.5% this past season. A large part of that was because of a tennis elbow injury. The reason for that injury?
"Everybody is going to find this hilarious, but here's my theory on how I got it. When the new iPhone came out it was way bigger than the last one, and I think because I got that new phone it was a strain to use it, you have to stretch further to hit the buttons, and I honestly think that's how I ended up developing it."
There ya go.
Good Week:
The Bloody Spurs – Gotta hand it to Gregg Popovich and company, people wanna play for the San Antonio Spurs. For big money, for small money. People just wanna play for them. It’s ridiculous.
The Bloody Angels – The GM steps down, concluding a vicious power struggle. Next thing the LA Angels go rampant, they’ve won 8 games of 9. In a three game series against Texas they scored 33 runs. Then put 10 on Colorado the next game. No surprises that Mike Trout and Albert Pujols are at the centre of it all.
Bad Week:
Carlos Carrasco (Cleveland Indians) – It wasn’t really a bad week, in fact he had a career day against the Rays this week. But the dude lost a no-hitter with 2 outs down in the ninth innings. Poor lad. It’s actually the sixth time in the last five years that a pitcher has been one out short of a no-no, compared to 18 no-hitters in that time. 27 outs, the last one is the hardest as they say. It was a Joey Butler single that broke it up.
Chris Sale (Chicago White Sox) – Useless muppet only got 6 strikeouts in his latest game. That ends the record-tying streak of 10+ Ks at 6 games. He still won, but.
Jason Pierre-Paul (New York Giants) – “D’oh!”
Player of the Week:
LaMarcus Aldridge (San Antonio Spurs) – It must feel nice to be so wanted. And to win this title without even playing a game.