Chris Paul traded to the Clippers!.... for real this time

(Getty Images)

Chris Paul has been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Minnesota's unprotected 1st round pick in 2012. The Hornets will also send two second round picks.

Well, I'm glad David Stern finally got a deal that he liked. After days of speculation and conversation with the Lakers and Clippers, the Hornets were finally able to give David Stern an acceptable deal and land Chris Paul with a team that he'll likely re-sign with.

The fact that David Stern let these proposed trades go public is really what bothers me. In a normal situation, the GM would consult the owner behind closed doors and details of the trade would not have gotten out as easily as they did. It's good that the Chris Paul debacle won't drag on all year (don't worry, we still have Dwight Howard) but Stern could have handled this MUCH better.

The interesting thing about this is the impact that it's had on the players that weren't actually traded. The previous offer involved Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Goran Dragic. Once news of the rescinded trade broke, Lamar Odom was so upset that he instantly requested a trade and ended up going to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a trade exception. Kevin Martin was also reportedly not going to attend Rockets practice.

I'm not really sure what this means for the Clippers. They recently claimed Chauncey Billups off waivers and now have an abundance of quality point guards: Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, Mo Williams, Randy Foye, and Eric Bledsoe. You've gotta think they'ed try to move a few of these guys for some quality players to fill out their roster now that they lost their starting shooting guard, small forward, and center.

Not a bad deal for the Hornets, but it's definitely not as good as the previous one that was on the table from the Lakers and Rockets.

The best Pokemon card I've ever seen

Courtesy of Pocketballers

NBA lockout over! (reportedly)

I got as much money for the league as I possibly could, while at the same time, starting the season on Christmas Day, one of the league's most popular draws, which will effectively help the hordes of angry fans forget that they missed any games at all. Not too bad...
(REUTERS / Lucas Jackson)

Finally, after what's seemed like forever, the NBA and it's players have come to an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Nothing is official yet, as both sides still have minor issues to figure out, but boy does it feel good to have some actual basketball to talk about now.The season is set to begin on Dec. 25 with a triple header that includes Boston vs. NY, Miami vs. Dallas, and Chicago vs. the Lakers. Free agency and training camp will begin on December 9. Most free agent signings are expected to take place quickly. The players have sure had long enough to think about where they might end up. The season will last 66 games, as opposed to the usual 82 games.

 Details of the agreement can be found here, courtesy of NBA.com writer Steve Aschburner.

A few highlights of the new deal and how they affect us, the fans:

1. Salary matching for trades has been lessened. This should enable trades that otherwise could not have happened before, which will lead to more trading.

2. When signing a free agent, teams can offer up to four years for a contract with a maximum yearly increase of 4.5% . When re-signing their own free agents, teams can offer up to five years with a maximum yearly increase of 7.5%. This is intended to help teams retain their free agents.

3. The extend and trade (a la Carmelo Anthony) has been kept in the agreement, despite the owners having removed it from the previous offer. This will ensure that ESPN can shove as much Dwight Howard/Chris Paul trade talk as is humanly possible down our throats. Joy.

4. The Amnesty Clause is included in the deal, much to the delight of New Jersey Nets fans everywhere (Oh, hello Travis Outlaw). This clause allows teams to eliminate one contract off of their books on a one time basis.

5. The agreement is for 10 years with an opt out available after 6 years. Mark your calendars for the next lockout accordingly.

Union disbands; legal battle to follow

(AP)
"I've got them right where I want them..."

The NBA Players Association has decided not to accept the NBA's latest deal and has chosen to dissolve the union and prepare to file an anti-trust lawsuit against the league. Essentially, this means that the chances of losing the entire season just increased dramatically.

This is extremely saddening news for anyone who loves or is involved with the game of basketball. The fact that the players are taking legal action that could/should have been taken months ago shows that they are in over their head, and really, have been the entire time. This process could drag out for months and months. More players are already negotiating contracts with teams overseas.

I wouldn't say that I have an allegiance towards the players or the owners, but the players really do look foolish here. What did they expect to happen? They haven't had any leverage from the start, and now that they've been backed into a corner (and faced with the harsh reality that the deal that was just on the table was the best one that they were going to get), they desperately turn to the courts to bail them out.

Let's face it: they beat the owners the last time around. Bad. They had to know that the NBA was going to do as much as it could to even the odds this time around. The union should have made a few concessions, see how bad the owners were pushing, and accepted as close to 50/50 as they could have gotten before losing any games. Instead, we're here.

Man I wish I liked hockey.

Oh well, at least the Eagles are good this year, right?

Oh wait...

NBA lockout talks end in stalemate; players given a Wednesday deadline

(TMZ)
Derek's face says it all.

Now the frustration is really starting to set in.

After last night's meeting between the NBA and NBAPA, in which federal mediator George Cohen returned to the conversation, the owners offered the players a deal. Cohen got creative with the two sides and combined their views on the issues to try and make the proposal as fair as possible to both parties. For the BRI, the offer contained a system where the players have an opportunity to earn up to 51% if revenue meets a certain number, but also allows them to drop to 49%. David Stern has said that if the players do not accept the deal by Wednesday, the owners will drop their prior offer and return to the stricter stance that they started with, which is 47% BRI and a flex cap.

This whole circus will stop soon, one way or the other. If the players do not accept the deal by Wednesday, which all signs are pointing to them not doing, then the threat of decertification that they tossed around earlier in the week will become very real. If the union is decertified, it will mark the beginning of a long, tedious, grueling legal battle that would almost ensure the entire season's cancellation.

I think it's safe to say that fan's disgust with the league is at an all time high. This is exactly what the NBA needed to avoid.

This "negotiation" has gone wrong right from the start. It's not too late to fix it, but very soon, it will be.

NBA cancels first two weeks of season

(Clark)

NBA Commissioner David Stern has announced the  cancellation of the first two weeks of the regular season. Despite reported progress with the mid-level exception, Stern says the sides are still "very, very far apart on virtually all issues". He also said that there is no chance for an 82 game season.

This is not good for the players. They claim that they can survive losing games, but I think that the deal that they will ultimately agree to will be much worse than if they'd just accepted the owner's offer of a 50/50 BRI split. By losing games, the players will be losing more money than they could have imagined.

All the fans want is basketball. The popularity of the league was at an all time high in June, and people were excited to see the how things were going to unfold this year. It's all in jeopardy now, and we've already lost a significant portion of games.

A January start to the season is looking more and more likely.

More updates on the way...

Training camp, preseason games in jeopardy

(Wilfredo Lee/ AP)
I wonder where the Heat will hold training camp this year...

            At this point, it's basically a done deal. Based on the current pace of talks, training camp will be missed, as will preseason games. This is seriously starting to look scary. There are guys signing overseas that won't be coming back, whether we have a season or not. China is accepting free agents who are willing to play the entire year overseas, and J.R. Smith and Wilson Chandler have already signed. If games start to be missed, I have a feeling that a lot more players will pursue employment in China, one of the biggest basketball markets in the world. If that happens, what will NBA rosters look like once play resumes? I bet the D-league has a record year for call-ups.
         
            There is a meeting scheduled for today between some of the staff members from each side, and league officials would then attend a follow up meeting on Thursday. Honestly, I know this is getting extremely old to anyone who follows basketball, but it's quite interesting to see how the league operates behind the scenes. Never have I been so interested in revenue sharing and the mid-level exception.

             The NBA needs to figure out how it's going to share revenue among it's teams. Players are going to want to know how that affects them before they can agree to a new CBA. However, owners are going to want to know what kind of money they are working with before agreeing on how to split revenue, so really, I can see why the negotiations are at a standstill. The good news is that it's rumored that the players have agreed to come down from their previous 57% of basketball related income to a number closer to 53%. 

           
             If you have an hour that you really want to dedicate to this issue (which I seriously doubt you do) then check out this Bill Simmons interview with NBA Commissioner David Stern.

             Go Eagles.

Fruits of their labor

And so, it begins.

After 45 days, the NBA lockout has officially started to affect my day-to-day happiness (as pathetic as that sounds). I crave free agent signings, and yet, there are none. I long for any non-lockout news, but alas, my yearnings go unquenched.

The NBAPA President Billy Hunter is saying that the upcoming NBA season could be lost. Commissioner David Stern feels otherwise. All in all, both of these guys are just blowing smoke, and no one really knows what's going to happen.

Both sides are so far apart that it will surely take some time to come to an agreement. The owners want to completely change the system. They claim that they are losing $300 million dollars a year and they want to reduce player salaries and implement a hard salary cap. The players, of course, are opposed to those changes, but have expressed their willingness to compromise. After the players received the owners first proposal, they submitted a counter proposal (which the owners promptly scoffed at). Since the lockout began, there has only been one meeting between the two sides, and naturally, nothing was accomplished. Now the NBA has filed two counts of unfair labor practice towards the NBAPA, claiming that they are threatening to decertify their union and file an antitrust lawsuit, just like the NFLPA did.

Many players are now seeking employment overseas. Deron Williams has already signed a deal in Turkey, and many lower tier players have agreed to deals as well. This appears to be a move by the players to show their independence from the NBA, but it remains to be seen whether there will be enough of an exodus to put any pressure on the owners. I'm not sure if the risk of injury is worth it. If even a few players were to suffer significant injuries while overseas, the bargaining sessions would get ugly real quick.

And then there's the potential impact that the lockout could have on next summer's Olympics. This is the summer in which the countries hold their qualifying tournaments. Normally, the NBA would insure it's player's contracts during international competition. However, due to the lockout, the NBA can no longer provide that insurance. I mean, if they won't even display images of players on their team's websites, then I doubt they'd be willing to cover their insurance.

So that's pretty much where things stand at the moment. I guess I'll just have to get by on fantasy football and labor updates for the foreseeable future.

Can't wait...