2022 NBA Offseason Thread — Trades, Free Agency, Firings, Sacramento doing dumb things, etc

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/34227679/inside-secret-most-sacred-nba-summer-league-tradition-tribute-jerryoke
 

THE MOST UNLIKELY tradition of the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League began in 2009 inside a dingy third-floor ballroom of the Imperial Palace -- a mid-strip casino that has since been renamed.
About eight members of the Washington Wizards' staff -- including Flip Saunders, just starting his tenure as Washington's head coach -- were at dinner nearby when someone mentioned the Imperial Palace had a cheap karaoke bar. Jerry Walter, the team's legendary -- and legendarily quirky -- equipment manager over three decades, let it slip that he enjoyed karaoke.

 

Tim Connelly, then a Wizards scout and now the president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, hoped karaoke might keep Walter away from blackjack tables.
"He is the world's worst blackjack player," Connelly says. Walter once hit on 18 despite colleagues shouting in dissent, Connelly recalls. "'I feel good about this one, bud,'" Walter assured them. (Everyone is "bud" for Walter.) He busted.

 

They entered and found a smattering of about 20 people. "I guarantee you Flip Saunders is the only NBA head coach to ever set foot in the third floor of the Imperial Palace," Connelly jokes.
Walter signed up to sing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." Ryan Saunders, Flip's son and then an assistant coach with the Wizards, recalls Walter scribbling down lyrics. The Wizards' staff riled up a dead crowd. They split into two groups, stood across from each other, touched their hands above their heads, and formed an aisle for Walter to run through on his way to the stage.

 

Walter is not what you might call a good singer. "You can always count on Jerry messing up a few words," Ryan Saunders says.
He is a showman. "You don't have to have the greatest voice," Walter says. "You have to belt out the song."
To the astonishment of everyone, Walter brought the small crowd to its feet. Some remember him coaxing one or two patrons onto the stage with him. His coworkers held up phones as faux lighters, the signal for an encore; the rest of the crowd joined them.

 
Spoiler

"My god, he put on a show," says Randy Wittman, then a Wizards assistant who succeeded Saunders as Washington's head coach in 2012.
They wanted to run it back the next year but found poker tables had taken over the ballroom. They were determined to keep the tradition going.
They pulled it off -- creating an event that got its own name (Jerryoke) and eventually grew so large the host venue posted security to turn away would-be attendees once it was over capacity.
It may have wrapped last night with one final blowout -- a twist that Walter, 65, did not anticipate when the Wizards furloughed him at the start of the pandemic and didn't bring him back.
If this was it, Jerryoke ended in spectacular fashion.

WALTER IS ONE of those anonymous characters who keep the NBA running. He worked for the Bullets-slash-Wizards in various capacities for about 40 years, the last 30 as equipment manager. He is 5-10 and skinny, with a gregarious personality that belies his physical stature.
He greets everyone with "top of the morning," no matter what time of day or night it is. He sometimes changes his voicemail greeting daily so that it might say, "Top of the morning! The weather today in our nation's capital is 80 degrees and sunny!" He was relentlessly devoted to the unglamourous parts of the job -- laundry, shoes, travel details, lugging giant trunks of equipment from arena to bus to plane to hotel.
Despite an insurmountable size disadvantage, Walter would sometimes challenge the Wizards' strength coaches to wrestling matches. Before one road game in Atlanta, two players gathered a stack of money and said Walter could have it if he jumped and touched the ceiling of the visitors' locker room. He tried a half-dozen times and did not come close, witnesses recall.
"In our business, you need that kind of consistent positivity with all the ups and down," says Brett Greenberg, the Wizards' assistant general manager.
Players who never suited up for the Wizards often remember the thin, bespectacled equipment guy who said hello and offered extra help.
"He always greeted me as a visiting player," Wittman says. "He likes everyone. Even if there is a player who doesn't treat the equipment guys well -- and that does happen -- Jerry sees the good in them."
When Walter's mother died in 2008, the Wizards rented a bus so staff members could attend her funeral.
"Jerry is a special person," Ryan Saunders says. "The kind of person who makes an organization great."
When Zac Walsh, the Atlanta Hawks' equipment manager, broke into the league, Walter took him to dinner and gave him advice on the job. John Coumoundouros, the Detroit Pistons' longtime equipment manager, leaned on Walter when he had to redesign the Pistons' equipment room.
Decades of goodwill is how that night at the Imperial Palace morphed into Jerryoke -- a cherished NBA insider phenomenon that settled for the past decade at Ellis Island Hotel & Casino, an off-the-strip hole-in-the-wall that hosted again last night. (I am a Jerryoke veteran but was not in Las Vegas this time. Details and video were sent to me by Wizards employees and others in attendance.)
"It's an equipment manager's type of place," Coumoundouros says. "A dive bar."
WIZARDS STAFFERS AND friends made up early Jerryoke crowds. As Wizards employees moved to other teams, word of the event spread.
By 2015, Ellis Island had to hire extra security and some NBA attendees were turned away at the door. (Ryan Saunders once had a friend pull him through security when a guard wasn't looking.)
General managers, media members, and head coaches -- Wittman, Jeff Hornacek, Scott Brooks, current Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard -- dotted the crowd. (Brooks -- Washington's head coach from 2016 to 2021 -- once coerced Walter into performing "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. "Jerry would have made Vanilla Ice proud!" Brooks says.)
Greenberg, the Wizards' unofficial Jerryoke coordinator, confers with Ellis Island staff several days prior just to make sure they are ready for the onslaught. He might also authorize some greasing of the wheels with the venue's staff to shove Walter's name up the song list -- if only to placate the Jerry Springer-style "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" chants coming from the NBA contingent. (I vaguely recall one year in which the announcer called a woman named -- I think -- Mary as the next performer, only the NBA crowd thought she had said "Jerry" and playfully rained boos upon poor Mary.)
Walter dialed up the showmanship. He tossed dice upon singing the "payin' anything to roll the dice" line in "Don't Stop Believin'." He dedicated each song -- Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" is Walter's second staple -- to "the troops." (Walter served in the U.S. Army before his career in sports.) He points out Pistons employees at Journey's reference to "South Detroit," and smells his armpits at the song's reference to "cheap perfume."
After one peak Jerryoke performance, the audience near the stage picked Walter up and crowd-surfed him to the back of the room.
For lots of people within the NBA, Jerryoke -- and thus Walter himself -- became a touchstone of summer league, emblematic of why Vegas is such a popular trip and so different from the rest of the NBA calendar.
The season is long over, and the main offseason business is usually done. You can feel the break in competition. In a party city, rivals rediscover they are really all colleagues. It is the week the NBA lets its hair down.
"It's a fun place to see everyone," Connelly says. "You're not stressed out. You're not in a rush to catch a plane. You're not in season. And Jerry is so beloved, the whole event just snowballed."
"I've met some of my closest friends through Jerryoke," Greenberg says.
As the summer league schedule filled with formal events -- various committee meetings, buttoned-up team dinners -- Jerryoke became a laid-back oasis. Walter senses it, and is proud of it.
"We all saw each other in a different light," he says. "We put aside our egos and have a club soda, or a beer, or a glass of wine, and just have fun. It was a cool feeling."
AND THEN IT ended. The Wizards furloughed Walter. (Furloughs were typical across sports and other industries after March 2020.) The pandemic tempered summer league nightlife.
When regular travel resumed, equipment managers from other teams would meet Walter for coffee or lunch in Washington. They could feel his hurt.
"He wanted to go out on his terms," Coumoundouros says. "He wanted to have one last go-round, and see everybody and say goodbye." Connelly, then running basketball operations with the Denver Nuggets, called to offer Walter temporary work supplementing Denver's staff. Walter turned him down, fearing he would struggle moving heavy trunks.
"I didn't want to give a bad performance," he says. "It's a young person's job."
When the Miami Heat played in Washington this season, they arranged for Walter to join their equipment staff for the game.
At the NBA Equipment Managers Association annual May meeting at the pre-draft combine in Chicago, Coumoundouros pitched the association on using some of its funds to fly Walter to Las Vegas for one last Jerryoke. It was a unanimous yes.
"There is not one equipment manager who doesn't love Jerry," says Joe Cuomo, the Brooklyn Nets' equipment manager and immediate past president of the association.
"It really is a fellowship," Walter says, his voice breaking. "I warned them all about my emotions."
His colleagues knew Walter might have trouble keeping it together Monday night. "Oh, he's going to be emotional," Coumoundouros said days before the event. "And we are gonna be there to hold him up."
Walter indeed had to pause and collect himself while dedicating his first song. A woman broke the silence: "We love you, Jerry!"
"I warned you all," Walter told the crowd. He paused again. "But we're gonna make it."
"We're gonna make it!" a man shouted from the audience.
Walter continued: "One more time." And then, the opening piano strokes of "Don't Stop Believin'" swept the audience into a frenzy.
Walter hopped and jumped when the chorus hit; the crowd hopped and sang along with him. The "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" chants broke out during instrumentals. Walter pantomimed the dice throw and smelled his armpits, like always.
When it was over, Connelly and Jared Jeffries yanked Walter off the stage, lifted him above their heads, and began a crowd-surfing wave that carried Walter to the back of the room. As Walter got to his feet, the NBA crowd swarmed him, chanting, "One more year! One more year!"
Walter would be open to coming out for future Jerryokes but realizes that may be unlikely.
"If circumstances allow, I'd love to do it," Walter says, "but it's understandable if, you know, this is the farewell. The older guys are on their way out. It's time, probably."
 

 

Having to furlough a legendary team manager but pay Bradley Beal 256,000,000 must be a tough decision for upper management

[Fastbreak 3,984]

Having to furlough a legendary team manager but pay Bradley Beal 256,000,000 must be a tough decision for upper management

Equipment managers aren’t going to help you win 36 games…

[HornOnTheBayou 8,921]

11 hours ago, HtownHorn said:

and change the games to use the Elam Ending.

[Fastbreak 3,984]

I was watching a mic’d up. This was the best.

Jason Tatum “i think I’m top 5”

Other guy walking off “top 5 what?”

Tatum thinking…”top 5…”

[Fud 9,552]

https://www.si.com/nba/2022/07/13/nba-summer-league-paolo-banchero-chet-holmgren-jabari-smith

[shadow_operative 15,932]

just saw on espn that the knicks are ready and willing to deal some combination of Randle/Toppin/Quickley/their 8 future 1st round picks for...Donovan Mitchell. what in the hell does donovan mitchell do to help a team/franchise win? you've already got a taller/better donovan mitchell in julius randle. i just have no clue what it is that the NYK brass is doing this summer.

[SilasCoade 2,622]

38 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

just saw on espn that the knicks are ready and willing to deal some combination of Randle/Toppin/Quickley/their 8 future 1st round picks for...Donovan Mitchell. what in the hell does donovan mitchell do to help a team/franchise win? you've already got a taller/better donovan mitchell in julius randle. i just have no clue what it is that the NYK brass is doing this summer.

The jazz should be all over that deal. Maybe even try to create a 3 team deal to take Randle for even more picks. 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

Wheels in motion beginning to turn on Donovan Mitchell being traded to the Knicks?

[Patrick Bateman 3,911]

5 hours ago, Llogg said:

The jazz should be all over that deal. Maybe even try to create a 3 team deal to take Randle for even more picks. 

They should if they can get 2 or 3 first round picks.  I don't really understand what the Knicks are trying to do..... but I haven't understood them since Ewing was center.

 

[Fastbreak 3,984]

They should if they can get 2 or 3 first round picks.  I don't really understand what the Knicks are trying to do..... but I haven't understood them since Ewing was center.
 

They are trying to build an undersized team of guys who can’t really shoot or defend.

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,547]

It's like the Knicks tried that one year to tank for Zion and it didn't work so they just said fuck it, let's go back to what hasn't worked for the past 20 years. It took them a decade to recover from the Carmelo deal and here they go again. Overpaying for marginal talent, squandering their draft capital / perpetually being stuck in the mid first round, and then gutting the roster for a one dimensional scorer with a history of butting heads with his teammates. It would suck to be a Kings fan or a Sterling era Clipper fan, but being a Knicks fan would be infinitely worse. At least with the other two, there is no delusion or expectation. 

 

[HookEm 2,467]

Any halfway competent owner should be able to win big with the Knicks.  Literally every major free agent would be lining up to play there.  Instead it is a clown show.

[d2o 1,602]

 

This should rule BKN out

[SilasCoade 2,622]

How does that make sense for the pacers? Are they shopping turner? 

[d2o 1,602]

49 minutes ago, Llogg said:

How does that make sense for the pacers? Are they shopping turner? 

They've been shopping him for the last couple yrs reportedly.     Guess they can look to move him elsewhere now

[Patrick Bateman 3,911]

1 hour ago, d2o said:

They've been shopping him for the last couple yrs reportedly.     Guess they can look to move him elsewhere now

Gonna guess they have a deal they like but want to see where this lands.  This also puts stress on Phoenix to work out a KD deal quickly.  They probably will match so they have that asset to ship out if they can't agree to a trade quickly.

And I don't really understand shipping out Sabonis and now Turner for Ayton, but Indy gonna Indy.

 

[Aqua Buddha 14,588]

I thought they were tanking to go full on rebuild?

[d2o 1,602]

1 hour ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Gonna guess they have a deal they like but want to see where this lands.  This also puts stress on Phoenix to work out a KD deal quickly.  They probably will match so they have that asset to ship out if they can't agree to a trade quickly.

And I don't really understand shipping out Sabonis and now Turner for Ayton, but Indy gonna Indy.

 

48hr clock officially starts at 12AM tonight (according to Woj) so we will see but they would have to get something done with BKN before that time.   If not, Ayton will go to either IND or back to PHX if they match.    If they do they cannot trade him until Jan and he can veto any trade they want to make for one yr.

[Kermit 3,156]

Phoenix has to match. 

[d2o 1,602]

45 minutes ago, Kermit said:

Phoenix has to match. 

 

Couldnt lose him for nothing.  

[Patrick Bateman 3,911]

1 hour ago, d2o said:

48hr clock officially starts at 12AM tonight (according to Woj) so we will see but they would have to get something done with BKN before that time.   If not, Ayton will go to either IND or back to PHX if they match.    If they do they cannot trade him until Jan and he can veto any trade they want to make for one yr.

The new rules…. Yikes.  Still have to match.  Find a taker next summer if they can’t do it in 48.

[Vic Mackey 47,019]

Phoenix matches because they need assets to trade for KD mid season. No way they can get KD without Ayton. 

[Quagmire 2,147]

Good on the suns for giving 2 soft players top deals

[Murfdogg21 4,412]

2 hours ago, d2o said:

Couldnt lose him for nothing.  

They could lose him to save $33M/yr?

1 hour ago, Vic Mackey said:

Phoenix matches because they need assets to trade for KD mid season. No way they can get KD without Ayton. 

For the Nth time on this page, Ayton cannot be traded for 6 months (realistically 12 months). This was not to flip Ayton for KD, unless you are poorly describing a scenario where they had to resign Ayton to pair with KD after trading Devin Booker to the Nets?

[Zonahorn 8,079]

Rumor from NOLA beat writers the Pelicans turned down KD in exchange for Nance jr and BI. I’m honestly fine with that.

[A-Tex Devil 2,446]

KD is playing for the Nets next year.  

[shadow_operative 15,932]

2 hours ago, Zonahorn said:

Rumor from NOLA beat writers the Pelicans turned down KD in exchange for Nance jr and BI. I’m honestly fine with that.

yeah, i'll call BS. i mean why take one of the ~15 best players ever/a guy who has proven that he can be the best player on a title team, when you can hold onto a 3rd tier NBA player and Larry Nance Jr?

[conVINCEd 21,469]

9 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

yeah, i'll call BS. i mean why take one of the ~15 best players ever/a guy who has proven that he can be the best player on a title team, when you can hold onto a 3rd tier NBA player and Larry Nance Jr?

Because KD didn’t sign off on playing with an eternal injury risk.

[Zonahorn 8,079]

23 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

yeah, i'll call BS. i mean why take one of the ~15 best players ever/a guy who has proven that he can be the best player on a title team, when you can hold onto a 3rd tier NBA player and Larry Nance Jr?

KD is 34, has played a whopping 10 games more than Zion over the past 3 years, is a malcontent, and probably doesn't want to be in NOLA. There's no reason for the Pelicans to rush our window. Ingram is 24 and put up 27/6/6 while carrying the team through the play in and pushing the 1 seed to 6 games without Zion. He's also on a 5-year rookie max and actually wants to be here. The Pelicans don't need to win a title within the next 2 years, why should we push in all our chips right now?

[SilasCoade 2,622]

Calling KD a malcontent is libelous. No drama at okc until he left. No drama at GSW until draymond created it. No drama from KD at bkn. He wants a trade, sure, but that doesn't make him a malcontent like he's going around poisoning the locker room. I don't think the pelicans should have taken the deal but if someone had suggested a deal for zion and KD to swap they should have jumped at it. 

[Michael Knight 12,977]

KD isn't a malcontent he's just an idiot that has attachments to the loudest players on the team like Draymond and Kyrie . His plan to join with Kyrie and his injuries have basically torpedoed his legacy

Edited July 15, 2022 by Michael Knight

[d2o 1,602]

9 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

They could lose him to save $33M/yr?

For the Nth time on this page, Ayton cannot be traded for 6 months (realistically 12 months). This was not to flip Ayton for KD, unless you are poorly describing a scenario where they had to resign Ayton to pair with KD after trading Devin Booker to the Nets?

Save 33M but have no adequate replacement and no cap room to sign one?

[LTtxfan 49,170]

9 hours ago, Zonahorn said:

Rumor from NOLA beat writers the Pelicans turned down KD in exchange for Nance jr and BI. 

[hobbes2702 13,032]

10 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

They could lose him to save $33M/yr?

For the Nth time on this page, Ayton cannot be traded for 6 months (realistically 12 months). This was not to flip Ayton for KD, unless you are poorly describing a scenario where they had to resign Ayton to pair with KD after trading Devin Booker to the Nets?

Save $33m for what? They don’t get that back as cap space.

They could still move Ayton in January. This absolutely doesn’t take a KD trade off the table 

Edited July 15, 2022 by hobbes2702

[Pimphand 5,735]

Kevin Durant's biggest issue is and will continue to be his thin skinned nonsense with reporters and social media.

When it comes to balling out on a basketball court the only issue he has ever had was the Achilles (right) & MCL (left)
 

 

[Message Board User 12,395]

And that anonymous GM's name rhymes with Rat Piley.

 

 

[VirginiaLonghorn 4,771]

On 7/13/2022 at 12:23 AM, Fastbreak said:

Having to furlough a legendary team manager but pay Bradley Beal 256,000,000 must be a tough decision for upper management

Equipment managers aren’t going to help you win 36 games…

Why you guys keep bashing BB?  He’s a solid citizen.  Money gotta be spent on somebody .. CBA and the folks of D. fuckin’ C. ain’t gonna sit still for cheapskatin’ any of their boyz.

Besides, Bullets are no threat to anyone .. they gonna suck regardless.

[Vic Mackey 47,019]

[Fastbreak 3,984]

Wow. Kyrie didn’t show up for the Drew League game he committed to. Something crazy must have happened as he is generally super reliable.

[ocugolf 1,214]

27 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

Wow. Kyrie didn’t show up for the Drew League game he committed to. Something crazy must have happened as he is generally super reliable.

Might have fallen off the flat Earth he believes in.

[Underdog 28,611]

Saw a squirrel. 

[Vic Mackey 47,019]

[closetohumping 17,438]

52 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

*commit each other

[Murfdogg21 4,412]

23 hours ago, Vic Mackey said:

“I WANT TO COMPETE FOR A
CHAMPIONSHIP. THAT'S ALL THAT
MATTERS TO ME AT THIS STAGE…besides strippers and cheeseburgers.”

[ChickenSandwich 9,832]

1 hour ago, Murfdogg21 said:

“I WANT TO COMPETE FOR A
CHAMPIONSHIP. THAT'S ALL THAT
MATTERS TO ME AT THIS STAGE…besides strippers and cheeseburgers.”

[ztejas 43,418]

I love Harden quitting on two teams within 18 months, being on the wrong side of 30, playing like shit for an entire season, then talking up how he's going to sign a team-friendly deal with the 6ers before inking 2 years $68 million. Like anyone in their right mind thinks that you're worth more than $34M per at this point. 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

It’s a pay cut. Did you expect him to survive on the 20 million that he’s still not worth?

[Francisco 2.0 32,389]

 

 

[UpperWestside 6,162]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

I love Harden quitting on two teams within 18 months, being on the wrong side of 30, playing like shit for an entire season, then talking up how he's going to sign a team-friendly deal with the 6ers before inking 2 years $68 million. Like anyone in their right mind thinks that you're worth more than $34M per at this point. 

Yesterday I mistakenly made a friendly bet with a longtime friend that Harden would finally make an unselfish decision. I owned up to being wrong and gotta do some push-ups…lol. I’ll do more push-ups to pay up on this bet than Harden has done in the last five years.

The Sixers are not serious about winning if you give that player that amount of money when he is, at best, your 3rd best player. It’s not even a given that he is that on a nightly basis since he flat out refuses to give even the bare minimum effort on the defensive end.

[UpperWestside 6,162]

14 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

Well he’s not wrong. The teams paying a tax should be the ones intentionally losing year after year and not the ones trying to field a good or even great team year after year.