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I’ve been sitting here for a few hours trying to find the right words to express what I’m feeling about this Paul/Lakers/Stern hoopla. I’ve got nothing… I don’t know what to say. Instead, here’s a timeline of last night’s events as they unfolded to me:

3:58 pm: The trade was originally reported as follows (by a twitter MUST follow Adrian Wojnarowski):

I was furious. Not at the league, per se, but at the Lakers… here they were pulling off another blockbuster trade, while keeping all their major pieces of a championship contender in place. Imagining the Lakers with Paul, Kobe, AND Gasol was too much. Super teams… you guys win.

At 3:58.30 pm I tweeted this:

And I meant it. The league JUST went through a lockout with a major focus on bringing parity and competitive balance to the league! This particular trade seemed to flush all of that, and let the Lakers trade three quarters for a silver dollar.

At 4:06 pm this happened:

That changed my feelings completely. Suddenly, the Lakers didn’t seem so scary. They were forced to give up Gasol and Odom (the length that REALLY killed the Jazz year after year), and they were left with Kobe (bad knees), Bynum (bad knee), and Chris Paul (no knee at all). In a compressed 66 game season, they’d be hard pressed to come out of it in one serviceable piece. I mean, sure, they’d be scary in spurts… but when you’re playing back to back to backs on those legs, you’re going to have major rotation problems.

The three team trade was supposed to go something like this:

Lakers:

Get: Chris Paul
Give: Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom

An exciting gamble for the Lakers. They get the (second) best point guard in the league, and pair him with Mamba. This gives them at least two seasons to make a run at the finals with two of the best five players in the league.

Rockets:

Get: Gasol, cap room for new free agent
Give: Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin

They get one of the top centers/players in the league to replace Yao, and have a ton of cap room to get a new free agent. The Rockets are a team that have notoriously stashed assets for a moment like this, and they finally made their move.

New Orleans:

Get: Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin
Give: Chris Paul

New Orleans made the most of the hand they were dealt, and turned their all star PG into a core of players they can build around. I’ll be honest, if the Jazz had pulled this trade off for D-Will (who I consider to be better than CP3), I’d have been happy.

Looking at it like that, things seemed relatively fair. I started to feel better. Sure, the thought of Chris Paul on the Lakers forced blood from my eyes, but when you see what LA had to give up to get him, it made sense. And it was finished. Done.

Then at 7:07 pm THIS HAPPENED:

Turns out the league owned Hornets (see: 29 owners and David Stern), were not impressed with this trade, and they were not going to let it happen. Owners lost it, complained to David, and Stern made the final decision to kill the trade. Unprecedented. All hell broke loose, EVERYWHERE. My twitter feed, emails, and texts blew up. Before I went to bed, I had over 50 emails in my inbox, and when I woke up I had almost 30 more waiting. I saw everything from “David Stern was right” to “David Stern has lost his mind.”

Today:

The overwhelming emotion I’ve seen is one of disappointment and confusion. People don’t understand why Stern felt like he had to move on this. Local media is furious, the National Media is gathering pitchforks, and the TrueHoop network is going nuts. NBA fans are in shock. I’ve heard educated journalists say that this is the end of David Stern. Some are even saying this is worse than the Donaghy game fixing. I wouldn’t go that far, but the waters are certainly muddied, and here’s why:

This comes across like Stern, as commissioner, killed the deal. This isn’t true. Stern killed the deal as a representative of the collective Hornets ownership (the other 29 owners). Boiled down, it would be like Gail Miller saying “no” to the Williams trade at the eleventh hour and (as an owner) it’s her right.
This is the problem with the LEAGUE OWNING A TEAM. It’s idiotic. How can a collective ownership of 29 individuals be trusted to make the same choices an independent owner would in a vacuum when bajillions of dollars are on the line? It’s not possible. Not when the stakes are this high.
If this doesn’t get resolved in a satisfying way, does it hang a “Fire Sale” sign around the Hornets franchise? I say yes. If this trade block stands, CP3 ain’t getting traded… ever, which means in all likelihood he’ll leave for nothing next season. If there wasn’t an argument for contraction before today, here it is… signed, sealed, & delivered. This effectively neuters the Hornets franchise.

The Commissioner’s office has defended the decision with the following:

“All decisions are made on the basis of what is in the best interests of the Hornets. In the case of the trade proposal that was made to the Hornets for Chris Paul, we decided, free from the influence of other NBA owners, that the team was better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform than by the outcome of the terms of that trade.”

Whether the decision was truly made freely from the influence of other NBA owners is debatable, and I’ll leave it to you to decide if the trade was blocked for true “basketball reasons.” Regardless, I think this trade will ultimately go through. David Stern is getting publicly crucified for his role in this, and he knows it. It’s only a matter of time before public opinion rings so loud that it deafens out his ability to lead effectively. Either he’ll step down, or fix it. I’m willing to bet that with the OUT he’s being offered with team appeals, he’ll ultimately let the trade happen. Otherwise… who knows where this will end up. As fans, we collectively got over the lockout pretty quickly, but what kind of lingering effects will this fiasco leave on the league? Time will tell.

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by Fareed Taghvaee
Special to Salt City Hoops
Follow @tag_fareed

Hayward’s Big Night leads Jazz to rare win in Staples

The Utah Jazz remain unbeaten in the preseason with a 99-94 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. All you need to know about the game is this: Gordon Hayward had a breakout performance with 26 points and 5 rebounds and Kobe Bryant showed he is still a beast by putting on a vintage performance in the third quarter. CJ Miles, Al Jefferson and Andrei Kirilenko added 15, 14, and 13 points respectively. These same teams go at it again Tuesday in Anaheim, and yours truly will likely be in attendance.

Hayward Breaks Out

The rookie out of Butler had a big time game against the reigning champs. Let’s repeat that line again: 26 points and 5 rebounds in a win against the Lakers at Staples. Hayward had his best offensive night, but did it in the most impressive way. He got points coming off baseline screens, jumpers from the elbow, wide open shots and baskets in transition. He had what I thought to be the play of the game with the baseline fake on Devin Ebanks, which lead to an acrobatic layup.

Hayward should get at least ten minutes a game early in the season. Jerry Sloan clearly appreciates what Hayward brings to the game. We haven’t seen many Jazz rookies this smart, this early. Tonight Hayward showed a glimpse of the player he could turn into. He may never be a consistent 20 ppg scorer, but he could thrive in this offense. His ability to hit jumpers, get to the basket and pass could turn him into a 13-16 ppg scorer. And while he showed his potential tonight, consistency will be his his biggest challenge this season. His other challenge will be managing the boarding passes for the Gordon Hayward Bandwagon. It’s filling up fast.

Rotations Set?

Jerry Sloan played 11 players tonight, and the remaining spots in the rotation will be decided by as the winner of the backup point guard battle. Ronnie Price plays hard and makes energy plays, but his inconsistency and predictable poor decisions hurt his momentum. Earl Watson has been steady, but unspectacular. Watson had the unfortunate task of guarding Kobe Bryant in the 3rd quarter and had and excellent view as Kobe poured in 19 points before mercifully sitting out for the fourth quarter. To Watson’s credit, he maintained composure on the offensive end of the court and kick started the Jazz rally that carried into the fourth quarter.

Andrei Kirilenko has been energetic and solid. His mini stat lines look similar to the AK of the past. His consistency in the preseason is impressive and bodes well for the Jazz this season. A happy AK is a productive AK and he seems to be both happy and healthy. The energy he provides is best served from the bench, in my opinion. I think a strong week from Hayward could land him starting at three alongside Raja Bell.

Mr. Whatupdoe? himself has really played himself out of the starting lineup, but in a good way. CJ Miles’ ability to be a scoring punch and spark off the bench may have landed him a role on the bench. It is worth noting that CJ had a very sneaky stat line (15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals). A second unit featuring AK and CJ Miles would be very strong.

Technically speaking

The new technical foul rules continue to muddy the game. Laker rookie Devin Ebanks was the latest victim. His late technical for a demonstrative gesture after being called for a foul all but sealed the game for the Jazz. Prior to his “outburst” there were veterans on both teams with similar reactions. Not to mention Lamar Odom hanging on the rim with no repercussions. Now I know that Kevin Garnett did get kicked out of a game because of the rule, but will there be a veteran exception? Will the rule even last? Read Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s screed against the new rules.