Sten's stance is baffling considering that they deiscussed a deal with KG and Joradan earlier at the trade deadline. It's not like the KG part of the deal was added for the Doc part of the deal.
That's an excellent point. One gets the impression that once Stern makes up his mind about something, any facts that effectively counter his decision won't even be considered, even though what you said probably counters his assertion better than anything else I've seen. From a logical perspective, that'd be checkmate... not that Stern cares.
Here is my issue with the deal. So we can't circumvent the salary cap but splitting a deal in two. Okay. But we also can't technically trade a coach, so we can't make it into one deal.
So what the hell?!?
It just looks like there is no way around this, since it is pretty much a catch 22.
I don't think whether you can trade a coach is an issue here. We are not proposing to trade Doc, we are proposing to let him out of his current contract in exchange for compensation. That has happened before (Riley to Miami, for example).
What is the issue is whether the KG trade is ONLY happening because of the Doc transaction. Suppose, for example, that KG will only waive his no-trade clause if Doc is the Clips' coach.
Then, technically, Doc's movement to the Clips becomes "part of" the KG deal - one won't happen without the other.
And, coaches cannot be part of trades involving players. That's what violates the CBA.
What needs to happen is for Stern to believe that the transactions could, or would, happen independent of each other. He has stated already his skepticism on that point.
I think that's the essence of it, but others can correct me if I'm wrong.