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| Tuesday, October 24 Updated: October 25, 9:14 AM ET Grant, Ewing at center of wild summer By Peter May Special to ESPN.com |
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It was a summer unlike any other. It went counter to just about everyone's predictions and expectations. Three teams had cap room, but one of those was the Clippers, which means only two teams had available cap room. There were maybe a half dozen marquee free agents, which means you didn't need a Trig degree from MIT to figure out the math.
Executives prepared for a long, dry summer while trying not to chuckle as they competed against each other with only league-allowed exceptions to offer. Agents decried the inhumane conditions and prepared their clients for the worst. Then, Aug. 1 arrived and teams could talk -- legally, that is -- and a landscape thought to be barren and desolate instead turned into a Garden of Delights. All of which drove home the point -- again -- that this is indeed a great country.
Until this summer, there had never been a four-team trade. This summer, there were two. Until this summer, it was widely presumed that players like Ewing and Shawn Kemp would not/could not be moved because they made too much money. Both were traded. For every team trying to cut costs or deal bloated contracts, there were willing spendthrifts available to bail them out. Dallas, for goodness sakes, even surfaced as a desirable landing spot. Panicked execs desperately tried to get something instead of nothing, which led to a rather startling development: outside of the Clippers (four words, incidentally, that must be used in every NBA analytical piece) there was no team that lost someone it really, really wanted without getting something in return. The converse, of course, is that one team -- Chicago -- got no one it really, really, wanted.
"At all costs, you wanted to get something," said Celtics GM Chris Wallace, who was in on one of the four-team deals. "You want to be able to come away with something so you can live to fight another day." The NBA champions, who won 67 games last season, upgraded. Their main competition in the West -- OK, their only competition -- also improved. The only team to stay intact was the 76ers, which, when you consider the dynamic there between Gangsta/guard Allen Iverson and coach Larry Brown, makes them maybe one team that shouldn't have stayed intact. In the end, the simple addition of Horace Grant to the Lakers or Derek Anderson to the Spurs may be the difference maker come next June. But they are cherries on the sundaes. Three trades stick out as landscape-altering and Red Sea-parting. When it's all said and done, the Lakers may indeed repeat, but it won't be because the competition stayed pat.
We could go on and note a couple other moves. Suddenly chic Dallas traded 10 players, signed four free agents, and might end the longest current playoff drought in the league (10 years.) Indiana lost three starters and still might repeat in the junior varsity East. The Sonics will be better with Ewing, but not good enough. Utah will be better with Donyell Marshall, but not good enough. And the Clippers, who lost two free agents without compensation, will still be Clippers. In that, we can all take comfort knowing that some things never change. Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. |
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