http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/03/26/hornets/index.html?eref=T1 An interesting, but also somewhat disturbing article from SI. The economy is causing a change in league dynamics. Young teams no longer have the long term "window of opportunity" that they used to. With talk of non-guaranteed contracts and mandatory 3 year limits on contracts, it will only get worse. The "build slow with youth" model may become obsolete. Any time a team has even a chance at contending, they may have to go "all in", as "wait till next year" may no longer be an option. The NBA could become like the NFL, where constant player turnover seriously undermines team continuity. Not to sound melodramatic, but fans need to take what is happening in NO seriously. This is a young team that should have had a 3-4 year window. Instead they didn't even make it through year 2 before ownership started trying to dismember the team over $$$$.
Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who That it's namin'. For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin'.
Sure. To millions he's the greatest songwriter ever. But to others, he has always just been a shambolic bloke who sounds like he sings through his nose.
there are lots of reasons why I think the Hornets are a poor comparison for the Blazers. No doubt impacted by Katrina, they've been one of the poorer drawing teams in the league despite being pretty darned good. Their owner (George Shinn) was so cheap in Charlotte that even NC wouldn't support hoops. He started handing out big contracts a couple years back so I can't say I'm all that surprised that he seems to be reverting to his tightwad days with the financial clouds looming. STOMP
NO screwed themselves. They really aren't that young of a team- Paul is 23 and Chandler is 26. But West is 28 and therefore theoretically in his prime, Peja is going on 32, Posey is 32, Mo Pete is 31. All those guys got big, long term contracts when few other teams were offering comparable deals because of concerns about these guys' age and injury histories. All these guys still have like 3 or more years left on their deals after this year and they're all making pretty big money. New Orleans was foolish to have given all these old, injury prone players really big deals. All that money thrown at the players is a lot for any team to handle, they were particularly stupid because they're in a crappy market and they don't have unlimited money to spend like the Knicks, Mavs, Lakers, etc. The economy might have some effect but it was easy to see this was going to come sooner than later for the Hornets. They screwed themselves by throwing huge money at guys instead of being more frugal and trying to get good value. They're a relatively small market team so you think they'd be smarter with their money. Now their injury prone players are, well, injured. Chandler and Peja both had major injury histories when NO signed them to huge deals, I was surprised last season when they went relatively injury free. They're back to their old injury-prone ways this season. Mo Pete has fallen off HARD this season due to age. Posey hasn't been overly impressive but his real worth ought to be seen in the playoffs, in any case he doesn't start for them either. Things are going bad for them but it was ultimately their stupid decision making that lead them here. They threw huge money at aging, injury prone players and now they're seeing why no one else was willing to offer these kinds of contracts to said players.
I don't think that this is that big of a deal, and I also think it is good for the league. I have actually been surprised by how many times I see fans with the expectation that when you bring in a player, you bring them in for 5 years plus, whereas I am usually happy if you get a good player for a few years of their career. I see comments like "They only have 2 years left on their contract." 2 years out of a player is a good amount of time. Then you either re-sign them or get a replacement. It just means you have to negotiate more often. Plus look at how many times the league has been burned over the last decade. Blazer fans shouldn't have to look far, with Darius Miles contract and the damage that did to this team. I bet you won't find many that wish his contract had been limited to a much shorter period, or even be able to cut him for non-performance would have been a nice luxury. The league would have saved a ton of money if it could just cut losers who don't back up their contract. I can think of 3 players alone that would have saved the league 100 million dollars. (Miles, Francis, Marbury) and that is not chump change, that is enough to change the leagues financial statement in a big way.
The Hornets might be facing financial troubles, but I thought Chandler's potential long term availability had a lot to do with the trade? Based on comments from current NBA players, I dont think we'll ever see non-guaranteed contracts. Not for regular rotational players at least. They can concede a lot more critical points before giving in on that.
I really, really hope the NBA never adopts the NFL system. The NFL system has turned players into nomads. It has made sustaining continuity and success almost impossible. They have sacrificed quality in favor of "parity"...ie any team that gets hot for a month can play in the Super Bowl. I can't speak for other fans, but my interest level in the NFL has taken a serious drop because of this.
