Free agency got off to a frenzied, somewhat hilarious start early Wednesday morning, when teams with competent front offices started making solid moves, while teams with incompetent front offices and/or broken down superstars did exactly what you’d expect. Two storied franchises (of widely varying degrees) fall into the second category in one way or the other (or both!).
The Lakers had a meeting with Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who reportedly walked away underwhelmed by the basketball portion of the meeting.
LaMarcus Aldridge will not be joining the Lakers, The Times has learned. They were a 50-50 choice but he disliked bball part of presentation
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) July 1, 2015
One would think “basketball” is a very important aspect of an NBA free agency meeting, especially modern basketball, something the Lakers appear to be steadfast in not adopting. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs got all Spurs-ian on Aldridge, and — we hope you’re sitting down — impressed the hell out of him. Conveniently, the Spurs walked into the meeting with one less Tiago Splitter (traded to Atlanta) and a shiny new 4-year, $45 million deal for 3-and-D specialist Danny Green — highway robbery with the rising cap. The trade and signing helped clear cap room for Aldridge, the only non-Spur the Coach Pop & Co. seem to be willing to break the bank for.
Aldridge has said he intends to still meet with every team on his list, including the Houston Rockets and the Phoenix Suns — the former wowing him with analytics, while the latter dangled a newly-acquired Tyson Chandler (note: all agreements are verbal, as contracts can’t be signed until next week) in front of him. One of those teams Aldridge plans on meeting with is the Knicks, who, well, this is how things are going in Knicksland:
#Knicks have reached out to their former SG Landry Fields. Interesting story for Landry as he’s practicing shooting lefty this offseason.
— Marc Berman (@NYPost_Berman) July 1, 2015
At this rate, the Knicks might might as well go grab Andy Rautins from his unpronounceable Euro League team and reboot “The Andy & Landry Show”.
Not to be outdone, the Sacramento Kings pulled off a typical Kings move Wednesday, sending Nick “Stauskas? Stauskas?? Stauskas???….Stauskas” Stauskas to Philadelphia, along with Jason Thompson and Carl Landry. The Kings received — wait for it — two Euros you’ve never heard of that the Sixers picked in the second round of last week’s draft. Yep, Sam Hinkie just Hinkie’d the Kings with two of the approximately 538 second rounders he’d stockpiled over the last couple years. He just needed to find a willing participant to take some off his hands. Thankfully, Vivek Ranadive owns the Kings. That’s not even the best part (for the Sixers, that is). Not only did the Kings send Philly their #1 pick from the 2014 NBA Draft (Stauskas), they landed a future protected #1 (Top 10, via the Bulls) and the right to swap a future first rounder with Kings. Wait, did I say “a future first rounder”? I’m sorry, I meant to say two future first rounders.
Sixers will receive a protected 1st-round pick from the Kings, and swap rights w/ Sacto in the 1st round of two other drafts, sources say.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) July 2, 2015
The Kings’ motive is obvious: no free agent is going to sign for market value (whatever that may be), so they need to clear as much cap room as possible to overpay said free agents. So, which free agents are they looking at? After dumping three players and potentially four picks, reports began to surface that the Kings were interested in Monta Ellis, Rajon Rondo and Wes Matthews. The last guy is coming off an Achilles injury and wants $15 million per year, while the first two must be part of the plan to drive George Karl so mad that he quits.
Of course, it won’t matter who is coaching if this gamble backfires and the Kings end up losing multiple first round picks to the Sixers.
[ESPN]
