http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebrewery/2012255156_call_it_dunce_cap_space_why_th.html
Call it dunce cap space: Why this fascinating NBA free agency is also foolish

Posted by Jerry Brewer
July 1, 2010 at 11:45 AM

Apologies to the World Cup, but the biggest event in American sports right now isn't really an event. It's a flirtation. It's a hope.

No, it's sad.

It's riveting, too.

Even though the NBA hosed Seattle, I'm paying attention to this monumental free agency period. I'm paying attention to what's going to happen with the so-called greatest free agent class ever. I'm paying attention not just because I want to see where LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Co. will land, but I'm also paying attention to find out which team(s) winds up looking foolish after spending the past few years dumping salary just for the chance to woo these players.

It's a stupid way to do business. Yes, I'm bitter because Friday marks the two-year remembrance of the day the city settled with Clay Bennett and allowed the Sonics to move to Oklahoma City. (Thank you, Greg Nickels.) But even if the Sonics were still here, it would be impossible to avoid sinister laughing while watching these teams scramble to rebuild via cap space.

Some teams, the New York Knicks being the most blatant offenders, put two years on hold just to try to make a splash this month. They traded away almost all of their good-to-decent assets and, even worse, dealt draft picks just to create a hole in their roster for LeBron and another star to fill. And now, hours into free agency, most people believe they have no shot at LeBron or even Wade. Bosh? Eh, who knows? Joe Johnson? Might stay in Atlanta.

After all the dismantling and waiting the Knicks did, they might hold a press conference in about a week or so and be forced to tell their fans, "We'd like to introduce to you the fruits of our idiotic labor: Luke Ridnour, Travis Outlaw and Carlos Boozer!"

And then they'll be doomed to mediocrity -- until their next ill-advised purge to pursue the next banner free agent class.

NBA economics are baffling. The best executives in sports all know that building through the draft is the most prudent way to build a team. But it takes time and guts, especially in this age. Technology allows fan complaints to be heard more easily, and ticket prices have risen so much that you feel your team owes you better than an elongated rebuilding process.

But why be short-sighted when patience and doing things the right way could lead to a championship? Most of these NBA teams playing the cap-space game probably won't do much better than put their teams in a position to win 50 games and lose in the second round of the playoffs every year. Sure, at least one -- Chicago and Miami would be the favorites to do so -- will hit it big, but you also have to remember that they're in such a position because Miami already has a superstar it drafted three years ago (Wade, assuming he stays) and Chicago is attractive for a free agent because of players it drafted (Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson).

Most of the teams playing this game are giving their fans false hope.

Of course, Seattle understands the short-sighted business practices of the NBA as well as any city. Such foolishness cost us the Sonics because Howard Schultz felt he needed a new or upgraded arena to make money, grew impatient when it didn't happen and sold the team to a bunch of Oklahomans intent on moving the team. Clay Bennett and his group gave Seattle a year to find a way to build him a new palace, which he knew wouldn't happen. Then he took the team home with him, ignoring that, in the long term, the franchise would be much healthier financially in Seattle than in Oklahoma City, a smaller market.

Throughout the NBA, in everything they do, the business plan seems to be, "Let's tear it up today, make a quick fix tomorrow, and see what happens." It's why the league let teams relocate to Oklahoma City, Memphis and New Orleans in the past decade. It's why teams trade good young players to get rid of players with bad contracts (from past silly free-agent binges) and play the free-agency game all over again.

Does anybody know how to evaluate talent anymore? Does anybody still subscribe to the traditional belief that you use free agency to plug a hole or finish off a good, well-crafted roster -- not try to create an instant contender from scratch? Well, the good teams do. That's why they're in the championship hunt every year. Meanwhile, the rest of the league is trying to clear the room to play fantasy basketball.

As an NBA reporter in Orlando, I covered a free-agent coup gone bad. The Magic took apart their team and committed $186 million to sign Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady to seven-year contracts in the summer of 2000. They almost got the most coveted player in that class, Tim Duncan, but he stayed in San Antonio.

It was incredible work, but the Magic never advanced past the first round of the playoffs during the Hill/McGrady era. McGrady blossomed into a superstar, but Hill struggled through numerous surgeries to fix a mysterious ankle injury. We were all left to wonder what would've happened if they played together for an entire season. They could've been a new-agent Jordan and Pippen perhaps, but it never materialized.

After four years, the coach of that team, Doc Rivers, was fired. So was the general manager, John Gabriel. In frustration, McGrady forced a trade to Houston. Since then, we've learned Rivers is one of the best coaches in basketball. And though Gabriel hasn't gotten another GM job, he's a former NBA executive of the year and should receive another opportunity. Perhaps he'll be in the mix in Portland.

Anyway, the point is, the Magic had everything going for them -- good coach, good GM, good role players like Darrell Armstrong and Mike Miller, plenty of cap space that turned into two stars -- but free agency still failed them.

Hill had a bad wheel. No one could've imagined it would take him five years to get right. Every team pursuing him would've signed him anyway. But it still didn't work out, and the franchise probably prolonged the misery by not forcing Hill to sit out until he was completely healthy.

Meanwhile, several of the players the Magic got rid of to create that cap room flourished elsewhere. The best among them were a Corey Maggette (only 20 back then), Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups (who was acquired during the 1999-2000 season but was injured and didn't play a game for Magic).

Sometimes, it's best to realize the talent you have and develop it.

Oh, by the way, many of the top free agents this summer might stay home because salary-cap rules mean they can make more money sticking around. For superstars worthy of max contracts, they'd have to $30 million on the table to bounce out of town. So we began this thing speculating about The Biggest Three Ever -- Wade, LeBron and Bosh all in Miami -- but it could wind up that LeBron, Wade (as well as Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen) all wind up remaining with their teams. That means the best free agents who are really available would be Bosh, Boozer and David Lee.

Nothing would be better than seeing a franchise put its team on hold for two years, only to be left to wonder, "Can we save face by signing Raymond Felton and Mike Miller?"

NBA full agency is in full swing. Enjoy the lunacy.

fishmike wrote:tell me again about the great players and assets we let walk. 23,33,23,33,39,37 and 30 wins last seven years.

Now if we dont sign FAs and lose Lee for nothing then there is a beef, but we Walsh did was an accellerated gutting of an overpaid bloated roster that needed to wiped clean.

walsh can only be judged by what happens over the next week. Come july 8th, he will either be knighted or crucified...