KG ending up in Boston

[Roy Hobbs]

It's hard to say, after watching how Big Al has developed, that another team could have made a better offer.  Minnesota got cap space, a star big man, and two part-time starters / rotations players.  That's a good haul.

No doubt, Golden State could have made a good package around Biedrins and/or Ellis; that package looked better at the time than it does now, of course.  As for Dallas, they couldn't have given Minnesota the young big man they needed.

[BballTim]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

[Fafnir]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

Which meant that McHale was asking for Dirk as part of a package for KG. Otherwise what could he mean?

I still love the way the KG trade worked. Take the worst team in the NBA. Trade all of your players except for your 1st, 3rd, and 4th best players for two HoFs. Instant contender!

[BballTim]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

Which meant that McHale was asking for Dirk as part of a package for KG. Otherwise what could he mean?

I still love the way the KG trade worked. Take the worst team in the NBA. Trade all of your players except for your 1st, 3rd, and 4th best players for two HoFs. Instant contender!

  It could mean that he was trading Howard, Harris, Terry and Stackhouse and/or Dampier so he'd still have KG and Dirk and not enough other players to win with or any decent tradeable assets left.

[Fafnir]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

Which meant that McHale was asking for Dirk as part of a package for KG. Otherwise what could he mean?

I still love the way the KG trade worked. Take the worst team in the NBA. Trade all of your players except for your 1st, 3rd, and 4th best players for two HoFs. Instant contender!

  It could mean that he was trading Howard, Harris, Terry and Stackhouse and/or Dampier so he'd still have KG and Dirk and not enough other players to win with or any decent tradeable assets left.

I'm not sure why McHale would take back Dampier's awful contract along with Stackhouse's deal. Sure he'd be getting a good combo guard, a good point guard, and a good small forward. But he'd have no cap room anytime soon and no big man. It was always clear to me that McHale wanted cap relief and a big. Maybe if the Mavericks had included Howard/Harris/Terry and some expiring contracts, I'm not sure what options they had during that particular moment.

[Bankshot]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

Which meant that McHale was asking for Dirk as part of a package for KG. Otherwise what could he mean?

I still love the way the KG trade worked. Take the worst team in the NBA. Trade all of your players except for your 1st, 3rd, and 4th best players for two HoFs. Instant contender!

  It could mean that he was trading Howard, Harris, Terry and Stackhouse and/or Dampier so he'd still have KG and Dirk and not enough other players to win with or any decent tradeable assets left.

I'm not sure why McHale would take back Dampier's awful contract along with Stackhouse's deal. Sure he'd be getting a good combo guard, a good point guard, and a good small forward. But he'd have no cap room anytime soon and no big man. It was always clear to me that McHale wanted cap relief and a big. Maybe if the Mavericks had included Howard/Harris/Terry and some expiring contracts, I'm not sure what options they had during that particular moment.

Not only that.  KG and Dirk don't fit together on the same team.  They are both jump shooting power forwards.  One of them would have to come off the bench.  So I think they would have had to trade Dirk if they were getting KG.

[Roy Hobbs]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

Which meant that McHale was asking for Dirk as part of a package for KG. Otherwise what could he mean?

I still love the way the KG trade worked. Take the worst team in the NBA. Trade all of your players except for your 1st, 3rd, and 4th best players for two HoFs. Instant contender!

  It could mean that he was trading Howard, Harris, Terry and Stackhouse and/or Dampier so he'd still have KG and Dirk and not enough other players to win with or any decent tradeable assets left.

I'm not sure why McHale would take back Dampier's awful contract along with Stackhouse's deal. Sure he'd be getting a good combo guard, a good point guard, and a good small forward. But he'd have no cap room anytime soon and no big man. It was always clear to me that McHale wanted cap relief and a big. Maybe if the Mavericks had included Howard/Harris/Terry and some expiring contracts, I'm not sure what options they had during that particular moment.

They could have signed-and-traded Keith Van Horn as an expiring contract to make salaries work, much like they did in the Kidd deal.  They wouldn't have had to insist on the Twolves taking Dampier.

[Who]

Dallas didn't offer Dirk. At the time Cuban wouldn't trade Dirk for anyone, not KG and not Kobe.

The package was based around Harris+Howard ... if my memory serves me, I recall grumblings in the media about Dallas even being reluctant to include both players in the deal.

If they had of made the trade -- I think Dirk+KG would have played alongside one another very successfully but the lack of talent on the perimeter would have doomed any chances of advancing far in the postseason.

[Cman]

Henry Abbott is putting up some quite interesting info from a recent Sports Business conference at MIT Sloan.... one of his tidbits:

19. Mark Cuban was clear that he thought a key factor in Kevin Garnett ending up in Boston was Danny Ainge's relationship with Minnesota's Kevin McHale. Cuban says the Mavericks were one of several teams that thought they had a deal done to acquire Garnett (he also mentioned Golden State) and had even heard from Garnett's agent who was wondering about an extension. But it didn't happen. "At the end of the day," says Cuban, with a wry smile, "relationships matter in the NBA."

See the rest here.

My impression of Mark Cuban: 

He has always bugged me and I agree that it just smacks of sour grapes. 

[2short]

if cuban didn't have all the money he does what would people think of him and his unique ideas that come out of his big mouth 

[Thruthelookingglass]

It's hard to say, after watching how Big Al has developed, that another team could have made a better offer.  Minnesota got cap space, a star big man, and two part-time starters / rotations players.  That's a good haul.

No doubt, Golden State could have made a good package around Biedrins and/or Ellis; that package looked better at the time than it does now, of course.  As for Dallas, they couldn't have given Minnesota the young big man they needed.

Now listen, if anyone has a problem with the Garnett trade with the T-wolves, why don't we just rescind it, say after 2009-2010 season?   

[Fafnir]

  I'm sure there were quotes from Cuban right after the deal about how he could have outbid Boston for KG but didn't because what he had left after making such a deal wouldn't have been good enough to contend.

Which meant that McHale was asking for Dirk as part of a package for KG. Otherwise what could he mean?

I still love the way the KG trade worked. Take the worst team in the NBA. Trade all of your players except for your 1st, 3rd, and 4th best players for two HoFs. Instant contender!

  It could mean that he was trading Howard, Harris, Terry and Stackhouse and/or Dampier so he'd still have KG and Dirk and not enough other players to win with or any decent tradeable assets left.

I'm not sure why McHale would take back Dampier's awful contract along with Stackhouse's deal. Sure he'd be getting a good combo guard, a good point guard, and a good small forward. But he'd have no cap room anytime soon and no big man. It was always clear to me that McHale wanted cap relief and a big. Maybe if the Mavericks had included Howard/Harris/Terry and some expiring contracts, I'm not sure what options they had during that particular moment.

They could have signed-and-traded Keith Van Horn as an expiring contract to make salaries work, much like they did in the Kidd deal.  They wouldn't have had to insist on the Twolves taking Dampier.

That's right I forgot about the Van Horn being used as an expiring contract. Plus they had Devean George and other smaller deals.

[Fafnir]

Dallas didn't offer Dirk. At the time Cuban wouldn't trade Dirk for anyone, not KG and not Kobe.

The package was based around Harris+Howard ... if my memory serves me, I recall grumblings in the media about Dallas even being reluctant to include both players in the deal.

If they had of made the trade -- I think Dirk+KG would have played alongside one another very successfully but the lack of talent on the perimeter would have doomed any chances of advancing far in the postseason.

Probably, but a lot would depend on what else they could add after such a roster changing trade.

Cracks me up that the media would grumble about giving up Harris/Howard for KG. I understand that it isn't a great fit to trade for KG but come on....

[Schupac]

It's hard to say, after watching how Big Al has developed, that another team could have made a better offer.  Minnesota got cap space, a star big man, and two part-time starters / rotations players.  That's a good haul.

No doubt, Golden State could have made a good package around Biedrins and/or Ellis; that package looked better at the time than it does now, of course.  As for Dallas, they couldn't have given Minnesota the young big man they needed.

Agreed.  The only way Cuban's argument holds water is if someone can come up with a plausible trade where Minny got more, and I have yet to see one.

Vaguely related, I am only now getting over my own sour grapes on the Gasol to LA trade and admitting it wasn't the worst trade in the universe's history.

[Roy Hobbs]

Vaguely related, I am only now getting over my own sour grapes on the Gasol to LA trade and admitting it wasn't the worst trade in the universe's history.

Yeah.  Still not a good trade, but Marc Gasol has ended up a lot better than just about anybody other than Chris Wallace was predicting.