TripleThreat wrote:Welpee wrote:What leverage does Kyrie have? If Cleveland decides to move him they don't have to comply with his request to go to certain teams. He has three years left on his current deal.
Nike.
The networks pay the NBA billions to air their games. The networks can only afford to do so because of corporate sponsors who buy commercial time/ad space/etc Many players in pro sports make more from their endorsements than they do their playing contracts.
Case in point. LeBron James was not married and had two children out of wedlock with his long time GF. As the story goes, Nike says, OK, this is bad for the image of the brand, it's bad because we want stability and the perception of it ( i.e. why Tiger Woods kept apologizing to his sponsors and not his wife during his bizarre "I'm A Sex Addict" mea culpa) So as the rumor goes, LBJ told his GF to flush her third pregnancy. Then they got hitched.
Irving doesn't ask for a trade without first consulting his agent AND consulting Nike. If you doubt the power of Nike, look at the Oregon college football program. It because a litmus test of how much money and influence could you pump into a non entity and make it a power house.
To get MAX VALUE in trading Irving, the Cavs need to trade him with about two years left on his contract. Trading him in his walk year just reduces too much leverage. In situations like this, it takes half a season or a full season for a team to explore a deal and see what might work. ( Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, Melo in Denver, lots of these situations played out for a long time) He's not expecting to be traded now, he's expecting the timeline to work he's traded around this coming offseason, after the Warriors curb stomp the Cavs and LBJ clearly leaves for some other team.
Melo alone is not enough to trade for Irving. Everything is relative to what Irving might garner from the TWENTY EIGHT OTHER TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE. The Knicks offer has to be the BEST OVERALL OFFER OF ALL TRADE OPTIONS THEY HAVE to work. It also has to operate as a win/win for both franchises in place.
If the Cavs say, Melo for Irving, you do that, without hesitation. Any team that would not ( and this trade would never get offered ever) would basically have a target on the back of it's entire front office. It would be seen as administrative negligence of a front office to turn a deal like that down.
If the Cavs say, Melo and Frank N and something else, you do that. No hesitation.
If the Cavs say, Melo and Zinger, with Melo really operating as the salary offset, you do that. No hesitation.
You take the best talent you can, and you figure the rest out later.
Yes, yes, someone will say Irving is a blackhole on defense. That's true. So what, then RETRADE HIM LATER. The point is to have OPTIONS. Irving on the roster opens up a ton of options all over the league. Not trading for him means the Knicks have no options period as Melo is a sunk cost and a millstone around the team's neck.
Irving should have been traded, the first minute LBJ came back to the Cavs roster. So the team could get a pivot, rim protection, wings and defense. But LBJ is just the village idiot. He keeps demanding stupid rosters that don't fit then blaming the teams front office later for being cap and asset locked for going on his BS whims to appease him. He's a player who transcends jut about any individual expectation of how one athlete can dominate a game. But he's just plain stupid otherwise. We are talking rock hard dumb on the level of Kevin Garnett and Emmitt Smith and even Harold Reynolds. ( you have to basically have the brain size of a parakeet to be as stupid as Reynolds, but LBJ finds a way...)
That LBJ can walk in front of the mic, really try very hard to not say another stupid thing and everyone seems to kiss his butt anyway is a testament to the sheer willpower of Nikes marketing department.
Irving is a franchise player. Not a top tier one, but still a franchise player. And whatever his weaknesses, Nike will make sure the league makes sure the refs give him every single advantage possible. If you can trade for a franchise player, you do it, and you don't look back.
No one from the Knicks or the NBA is going to trade Porzingis AND Carmelo for Kyrie.
Kyrie ran a 30 win team before obj came back. Look at his stats last year with lbs off the floor-8
Carmelo vet vet restricted pick or zero. I'm not even that hot on Kyrie but for a Carmelo package I know it's something we can do. If we give the Cavs Melo Lee Oquinn they. Ompete with Golden State again. That would force us to take one junk contract back plus Kyrie
7/22/2017 12:10 PM