RE: [CBA] NBA Business practices and Antoine (was ANTOINE IS A SCUMBAG!!!)

["Noah P. Evans" <ishbak@conknet.com>]

> I don't get this part.  Fair value for Antoine can and will be had if
> we hold on to him until the trading deadline. If a team wants him, it
> will pull the trigger.  I don't believe I can remember a time when a
> team was forced to take less than value because other teams knew the
> clock was ticking.

Look at every trade Golden State has made in the last five years or so. The
Austin for Barry trade was a pretty poor decision in Miami's case.

>The Bottom Line is that a bad team or a team
> without much cap room has to acquire Antoine and his bird rights via
> trade, since in unrestricted free agency, only two or three teams have
> the cap room and general appeal (weather, winning, etc.) to acquire
> him.

True but how is that good for us? Antoine only needs one other team with cap
room(probably Chicago) to go somewhere else.
>  I can go either way on this Antoine thing.  He might end up as the
> next great player, or he might stay pretty much as he is now.  If we
> trade him, we have to get a great player in return.  Two good players
> will not cut it.  Or will it?

Depends on who the "good" players are. And what they do for the team. For
instance if Pitino traded Antoine and all of our cap hogs to Orlando for
Outlaw and Anderson(if Orlando is far enough under the cap to take our
garbage of course) I would say go for it(if we definitely couldn't resign
Antoine) because while we wouldn't get a "great" player we would get the cap
flexibility to sign one. Like the Eric Williams trade, you don't have trade
a player for equal value if you can use the cap room you free up to get
equal value in return(note that I'm not equating Mills with Williams, just
describing the theory). So a team doesn't have to stick to a straight
great--great swap if they want to improve.

Noah