Tag Archives: CP3

The NBA is back.  Which for Knick fans is actually a good thing.  Of course, that’s about all the optimism I’m going to give them here.

After about two years of telling us there was going to be a long labor strife, and then going through with it for a few days, decertifying, a couple of captivating 3 AM press conferences, threats, the long-awaited usage of the term “nuclear winter”, the NBA finally came BACK to the bargaining table after Thanksgiving and realized how utterly ridiculous all this was.

Want an analogy?  Here’s one:  It was like two kids getting ready to fight, going around in a circle while a group of friends were on the periphery talking shit about both and finally being pushed into each other by the crowd who got tired of watching them just go in circles and before either got to throw a real punch an adult entered the circle and stopped the fight.

Yeah, that about sums it up.  The adult in this analogy is reason.  See, the NBA needed perspective and reason to understand that what they were about to do was colossally stupid.  They were about to go through the kind of shit that makes people have to move away from home out of embarassment and never want to come back kind of shit.

Luckily the day after Thanksgiving after a turkey-induced epiphany made both parties realize their mistakes, they got back into the board room and in the span of about 15 hours came away with the outline of a deal that both sides didn’t like however ultimately both sides could live with.  Or as everyone likes to call it: what should’ve happened 5 months ago aka compromise.

But this isn’t about semantics.  In the end, Knick fans woke up Saturday and realized that the Amar’e and Melo experiment was back on and it was time to finally finish the dream team scenario by getting CP3.  Knick fans knew they would have to wait till after this season when free agency started so there would be no “will he get traded” drama in season to keep Knick fans tuned into the pale white musings of Chris Broussard and his “NBA Sources tell me” talk.

Right?

This time we would happily wait knowing that at the end of this season, we were guaranteed to get better.  But sins of the past will come back to bite you and Knick fans, more than most know this.

As details leaked about the new deal fans became interested in how exactly this new deal would affect that bottom line.  Well, its emerged and you’re not going to like it.  Unless Chris Paul wants to come to New York so badly and unless Nike has inserted that mysterious Lebron James clause that no one wants to talk about (or maybe it just never existed) being paid more to play in New York, Chris Paul will have to take a massive pay cut to come to New York.

And you know who you should blame?  Lebron James.  No, I’m kidding.  No, New York, you should blame Carmelo Anthony and I’m going to break down why.

The Knicks with JUST Carmelo and Amar’e will have almost 40 million tied up.  That’s before accounting for Imam Shumpert’s yet to be determined salary.  The Knicks DO have a team option on Toney Douglas and his play will determine whether team officials think of him as a long term fit or not.  If not, his $2 million salary will be off the books to leaving the Knicks at about $42 million in commitments for 2012.  That’s three players, and that’s before the possibility that Isiah Thomas calls James Dolan the night of December 8th before free agency begins and convinces him to make signing Nene priority number one and offers him a max deal for no reason.   Don’t even make me start naming similar circumstances where that occurred.

Now, working on the assumption that the salary cap remains steady at $58 million as most economists expect once the NBA’s 50/50 BRI split comes into effect (for this upcoming season the Players Association will get one last year of financial supremacy over their plantation owners), the Knicks will have about $16 million in cap space.  Granted the figure is actually $70 million before we enter the dreaded luxury tax area, the Knicks if they so wished COULD end up paying him $14-16 million a season.  Now that would ultimately not be as much as some other team may be willing to offer, like say a team that traded for him mid season.

Here’s where the new labor deal will come back to haunt us.  The new deal’s major calling card is that it will lead to more player movement.  So fans of the Carmelo trade and the ESPN trade machine will see more of their hair brained trades come to fruition than not because this new NBA will be more trade freindly and thus create far more talk and hype and buzz which ultimately will help the brand.  Which is why in the end this lockout was as much about the negatives of the Decision as it was the positives.  As negative financially as it was, the owners knew how absolutely mind blowing it was as it pertains to ratings and realizes that even in much smaller ways other players can have this kind of sway in individual markets and create the kind of energy and buzz that will give them what they want: ratings, which will lead to a fat new television contract.  Which in the end is why the owners fought for a bigger share of BRI in the first place.  They are counting on that new TV contract to be VERY high.  And if it is, you can believe that players will go right back to the bargaining table in 2017 and ask for a bigger share leading to quite possibly another 5 months of posturing and stupidity.   But more on that in 2017.

But this new CBA wants stars to remain where they are.  They don’t mind the Toney Douglas’ of the world being traded, but their A-listers they want them to stay, they are offering the same green carrot they had in the last deal: the team with which you are currently gainfully employed with is the team that can offer you the most money.  So, what will a team like New Orleans do when faced with the prospect of allowing Chris Paul to leave for nothing?  They will canvas the league for offers and then take the best one and if you believe the rumors beginning today, the best one would be a Rondo for CP3 swap that Boston is playing the same old silly PR Game of “deny deny deny”.

Of course if New Orleans is smart, and the Clippers too, which is a rarity those two will connect on a deal for the point guard but again reading up on things, it seems that the Clippers have their sights set a little higher and a little more South and perhaps a little more Super on Dwight Howard.

But this new CBA almost forces the Hornets hand to make this trade which eventually begs the optimistic Knick fan to ask “hey why can’t we trade for him?”  Because you narrow minded schmuck all our trade assets are now either playing in Denver, carrying out hits for the Russian Mob in Moscow or putting together IPOD parts in his spare time while his communist Chinese basketball team refuses to let him out of his contract.  See, the Knicks last year when they lustfully went after Carmelo and when Carmelo made it almost impossible for the Nuggets front office to sleep without thinking up alternate solutions to get him out without having to take the Knicks poo poo platter of B- prospects, forgot that THEY had the leverage.

Well, in all fairness I think Donnie Walsh always knew that and was vehemently opposed to such a stupid trade for a player he correctly assumed he could get in the free agent market following the season, but was out voiced by he who shall not be named.  If Melo wanted to come, the thinking goes that he should’ve waited for the season to play out and then we’d carry him to New York.

Of course the lockout happened so that would’ve derailed any July 8th signing day ceremonies for Carmelo and the Knicks and he eventually would have had to take a less friendly deal to come here, which is the same situation with CP3 but the Knicks would be arriving at virtually the same position that they are in now.  But this time, with Wilson Chandler (though I doubt he would’ve done anything different), with Raymond Felton and with Timofey Mozgov.  Sure, extra money on the books but trade assets that would’ve certainly been more appetizing to the NBA controlled Hornets than say Imam Shumpert, and Chauncey Billups’ expiring contract.

By Carmelo pressuring the Nuggets and the Knicks to make a deal to get him to New York and allow him to sign the now crippling contract it leaves the Knicks with little to stop the Hornets from trading CP3 to another team, perhaps the Celtics or the Clippers who seem more win-now and win-future respectively than the Knicks do given all they have.  The Knicks have nothing to offer and will be helpless bystanders when a trade happens.

Of course there is the remote chance that James Dolan will appease Knick fans and agree that for all the egregious sins he’s committed like not allowing MSG HD to appear on any other cable outlet or not allowing his own Cablevision subscribers to get NFL Network or any Isiah Thomas era- related signing, he will be doling out the luxury tax fee every year just to ensure that the Knicks have a great team with CP3 and will be the envy of every single small market owner out there.  Of course that’s asking Dolan to do alot.

In the end, Knick fans wanting a winner sooner rather than later will cost us.  Ultimately CP3 must decide what he wants.  Does he want to carry the burden of expectation that comes with being a high prominent athlete in New York?  Does he truly care about winning and feel the Knicks are headed in that direction?  If so, then he should do the wise thing.  The selfless thing.  Come to New York and accept the smaller paycheck and do your best to win and so many doors will open up.  Its risky.  Its tough.  But hey, if you can make it here CP3, you’ll make it anywhere.

Ok so I lied about not being optimistic, I’m a Knick fan.  Sue me.