Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Random thoughts from the draft lottery ...

- Is Mike Dunleavy potentially dumb enough to trade the #1 pick and a terrible contract (Zach Randolph maybe?) to the Bulls for Kirk, TT, Noah, BG (sign-and-trade) and a future #1?? Paxson better be on the phone.

- How fun are the team-who-shall-not-be-named going to be to watch for the next few years? Young core of Durant, Westbrook, Jeff Green and Ricky Rubio ... I might sign up for league pass just to see them play. (Random side note: I am looking to get 100 level seats for a couple games next year (maybe $100-$150 seats), and this is likely to be the first game I try to get ... does anyone want to go with me??)

- So glad D'Antoni cannot get Rubio.

- Not lottery related, but Melo looked ultra good last night. He's so very under-rated. If LeBron (the athletically-gifted-man-child-freak) did not exist, people would talk about Melo as the prototype player to build a team around.




The D-Rose draft lottery from a different perspective
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As soon as they announced the pick, and you knew you the Bulls had won, is there a particular moment that stands out in your mind, considering that you had been the city's good luck charm?

Steve Schanwald: (Laughs) It was one of the most memorable moments of my 30-year career in the industry. It was beyond belief. If I was gonna beat the odds though, it might have been a little bit better if I had beat the odds in the state of Illinois' lotto drawing, personally. But, no, it was a real thrill and of course, it was national TV, and I remember my cell phone, which was in my pocket, was just exploding, 'cause it was on vibrate, with texts and e-mails. All I could think of was Andy Warhol's famous 1968 quote about everybody in the world is gonna be famous for 15 minutes, and I think that was my 15 minutes.

I was surrounded by microphones, which, of course, you see on TV all the time, but you never think you're gonna be in a situation where there are cameras and microphones in your face, and people firing questions at you. It was quite an exhilarating feeling. [The Lottery win] was a break that at the time the Bulls organization desperately needed.

You might have seen the Internet coverage after the fact -- Everybody was wondering, "Who is this guy from the Bulls," considering that you were sitting up on a stage with celebrities and several former players. Were you looking around at any point going, "Wow!"

SS: Well, yeah. There's no question about it. It was like the multiple choice answers were, "Giraffe, elephant, rhinoceros, mouse" and I was the mouse. (Laughs) And, of course, everybody -- all my friends and family from around the country were watching and of course [Doris Burke] is going down the line and she introduces Jay-Z ... Dwyane Wade was down in front of me; she introduces all these guys, and she gets to me, and she introduces me as "Stan Schanwald" and not Steve Schanwald, and all I could do was say, "That's the story of my life right there." My moment on TV, on national TV ... it's bad enough that I'm in the shadow of Jay-Z but then she calls me Stan.

So they got it down to the top three, and the top three were me and Dwyane Wade (Miami) and Fred Hoiberg (Minnesota) ... and I told the floor producer, I said, "Please make sure you tell Doris that in the highly unlikely event we win this thing, please don't have her come up to me and call me Stan again. Once was enough." So I saw him kind of talking to her, and she was feverishly changing whatever card was given to her. So, it was typical.







***** UPDATE *****

This isn't the trade I had in mind for the Bulls
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LA's other team managed to keep itself in the news by winning the Griffin sweepstakes, but now attention immediately turns to how they'll juggle the frontcourt. The obvious solution would be to trade Randolph, but he has two years and $33 million left on his deal and he's one of the league's most difficult personalities. That shrivels the market for him to just a few teams, even if the Clippers are willing to take back bad contracts in return. (A lot of clubs won't touch the guy at any price.)

But it's hard to imagine the Clips playing Randolph and Griffin together, since both are natural power forwards and Randolph won't do jack on defense. So trading one of the other frontcourt players (Camby or Kaman, most likely) doesn't really solve the problem -- it has to be Randolph. One would also have to think the Clippers are desperate to provide a better role model for Griffin than Z-Bo, a gifted post scorer on the court but a scoundrel off it.

So where they can possibly offload Randolph? A few places, actually. A deal with Milwaukee for Richard Jefferson would work, providing the Bucks more post scoring and a replacement for likely goner Charlie Villanueva. However, the Bucks supposedly deep-sixed a deal for Randolph when he was a Knick and might turn their noses up at this idea too.

A few other partners come to mind. Golden State could even out its roster at a stroke by sending Jamal Crawford and Corey Maggette to the Clips, and we know they won't ask Zach to play any D. Memphis is desperate for a power forward and could do a deal for Marko Jaric, Darko Milicic and the Grizzlies' pick at No. 27. And Chicago, which really needs a post scorer to get to the next level, could make it work for Brad Miller and Tim Thomas … a deal that doesn't really solve the Clippers' frontcourt logjam, but does achieve the aim of ridding the team of Randolph.

All of this gets back to one simple NBA truth -- there is no such thing as an untradable contract. Every player has his price, and it's tough for the Clippers to make a deal that replaces Randolph's production because so many teams see him as radioactive. But if the Clips lower the bar to just clearing the deck for Griffin, they can make it work.

2 comments:

Kmart said...

You're assuming the Grizz will pass on Rubio? I know they've made dumb moves in the past, but I think they get this one right and take him to build a really solid backcourt nucleus of Rubio, Gay, and Mayo while trying to move Conelly in the offseason.

Also, I would rather see Derrick Rose play barefoot on a court of hot coals than ever have to meet Zach Randolph. The only big man on that team I would even think about looking at is Marcus Camby and I'd only do that deal if we were shedding salary (i.e. Kirk or Luol).

2j said...

All the boards I've seen have the Grizz passing Rubio ... even that article I linked to said "The Grizzlies have the second pick but are said to prefer Thabeet to the player most teams have rated second, Rubio."

And agreed about Zachary. The suggested trade doesn;t make us any better and poisons are young bigs ... it was a stupid suggestion by a dumb-writer - probably only because the salary works out.

I mentioned that I would take back Zachary's terrible contract as part of getting the #1 pick - which I stand by, assuming we pull a Pacers-with-Jamaal-Tinsley or Knicks-with-Starbury, and pay him to stay home. But I would NEVER give up Brad and Tim Thomas to get back a player who doesn;t help our team and has a terrible contract

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