Bulls go cheap

The Chicago Bulls let a minor traded player exception lapse into nothing Friday morning, not a big deal, the team instead wanted to celebrate re-signing Zach LaVine and the shirt Zach got from his time in the brass section of Reel Big Fish.

Chicago’s offseason is over. The team did as little as possible because 2022-23’s player payroll rubs up against the luxury tax, and Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t care enough about his franchise and the city it represents to pay the luxury tax. Despite all the tax he saves living in Arizona.

Coby White is due an extension, he will not get one. Some argue White hasn’t earned a large deal, others correctly point out that it doesn’t matter. Coby White was a lottery pick with a three-year 14-points per game NBA scoring average before he turned 22, keep him around at a fair rate, figure “fit” out later. Retain momentum and, dare I say, “assets.” For basketball trades to improve basketball teams.

But that won’t happen, because this is it. Bulls signed LaVine, offseason over, season tickets still for sale.

Should we expect better? Or are we overdue to accept what’s clear as Chet Coppock’s clarion call: Chicago’s Bulls are cheap, only Michael Jeffrey Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets are cheaper. At least the Hornets, with LaMelo Ball in place amongst the mess, have a potential championship-level draw in them.

Chicago’s potential is proven, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine are marvelous but only leading teams to 2022 or 2023 NBA championships on rosters with no holes.

The Bulls have holes, the Bulls need talent upgrades. Defense at center, an actual power forward. Patrick Williams looks like a right-now 20-point scorer but he not yet helpful defensively, a hard bet to singularly shore up all that went wrong last season with Chicago (13th in offense, 22nd in defense). You’re not supposed to pin it all on one guy, one 20-year old guy, anyway.

The Bulls are a few million under the luxury tax and as such Chicago will get Goran Dragic on a contract the NBA will pay for. Because 36-year old insurance at point guard always goes well, especially when you’re trying to ruin Coby White’s value.

Everyone is already sick of Andre Drummond. Not only did the Bulls put him in the only uniform I care about, the Bulls gave Andre Drummond the player option to return to Chicago in 2023-24, like, it won’t even fucking end soon.

The Bulls ownership group will then tell you Chicago’s roster will be great when it is healthy, and you know it won’t be healthy. Lonzo Ball has a knee that looks ready for retirement, the Bulls responded by delaying Goran Dragic’s retirement another year.

Chicago was not competitive during its lone playoff series after a regular season banking on its best player exceeding reasonable expectations. If Chicago is stashing flexibility for a big trade in February or big movement next July, congratulations, until then you’re relying on 33-year DeMar DeRozan twirling your team toward greatness.

Reinsdorf did just enough to secure two playoff games at home, Pacer shit, only creating a championship run if every variable falls in or out of place times infinity. The Bulls are basically playing for an American League Wild Card, as if the NBA playoffs are anybody’s game. Full stadium, big ratings, spend like the Marlins.

It wouldn’t matter even if the NBA playoffs were like MLB’s, Jerry Reinsdorf can’t put together a Wild Card baseball team, let alone an NBA champion. Remember, Jerry didn’t draft Michael Jordan, that dipshit Jon Kovler did.

WARRIORS

We’re already carrying Warrior water.

Bob Myers warned of an eventual salary limit, an undefined financial threshold where Joe Lacob would finally say no. That red light came on the first night of free agency. The Golden State Warriors let Gary Payton II walk. They offered him the taxpayer mid-level, which sits at $6.4 million. He received north of $8 million from Portland, plus an extra year on an incentivized deal.

Myers, the GM, has to explain. His words are stuck on record, forever.

Lacob, the owner, gets to disappear.

The difference in the tax penalty — somewhere around $15 million extra in the immediate, a whole lot more throughout a longer-term deal — caused Lacob and the Warriors to balk.

That’s fucking it?

That’s, like, 20 beers at an NBA arena.

It stung several in the organization, per sources. They’d found Payton and grown to not only love the person but also understand the value of his unique skill set. It translated to winning. For the first time, they’d failed to retain one of their own due to an unwillingness to meet a financial demand.

It’s a needless, manufactured challenge, hey look at our big front office. Replacing proven veteran production with what you hope will be veteran production, alongside the growth from two 20-year olds that you’ve only charted, not witnessed.

For $15 million. The average revenue of a single San Francisco parking spot has to be at least $22.5 million per year.

This is some Buss shit. This is early-aught Lakers, blaming basketball penalties. This is calling upon 36-year old Mitch Richmond and Slava Medvedenko to do the work of actual, championship, rotation players. And tell us that the tax hit from $6.4 million in payroll is fine, but the same calculations for $8 million in payroll = Beelzebub.

Donte DiVincenzo was available at the 2022 trade deadline. How would Warrior fans from February handle Golden State swapping Gary Payton II, Juan Tuscano-Anderson, Otto Porter and Nemanja Bjelica for Donte DiVincenzo?

Worse, DiVincenzo has a $4.8 million option for 2023-24. He could stain tablecloths on national TV throughout 2022-23 and end the Warrior title defense in the second round, it won’t matter, some team will pay Donte DiVincenzo in 2023-24, he will opt-out.

This is not a long-term cinch, this is giving up on homegrown talent. Forcing players to choose money over setting, simply because an unprecedented team (ask ‘em, they’ll tell ya) wants to act all precedented.

Toss the media some shit about Kevin Durant coming back in a trade that wouldn’t work under the cap and wait for TNT to schedule you every Thursday.

Retaining the players Golden State lost, all a year older, was no way to sustain greatness. That’s how champions fade, with the same old set. Pinning it all on the kids, however, is weak as hell; you can’t expect a recent five-star recruit to perform like a 28-year old desperate to stay in the big leagues.

Moody and Kuminga are great enough to save things, but Golden State didn’t have to do it this way.

JOE SMITH’S ENTRANCE INTO GOLDEN STATE

(In 1995, NBC used deep album tracks from Weezer’s year-old debut album as NBA background.

It is 2022 and that big hit Sweater Song would probably be too risqué for the NBA on ABC’s playlist.)

JOE SMITH’S EXIT FROM GOLDEN STATE

Smith was the acknowledged top pick throughout his final season at Maryland in 1994-95, but Golden State didn’t draft him tops overall as a savior. Rather, a missing piece, a 6-11 guy with all-around skills the Warriors could let loose for 38 minutes among the team’s veterans. Best of both worlds from 1995’s No. 1 pick.

Smith was supposed to be the big man these Warriors always lacked, the one Nellie never got, but veteran Chris Mullin was injured in 1995-96 and the Warriors dealt an out-of-shape Tim Hardaway to Miami midway through Smith’s rookie year. Rick Adelman’s Warriors heavily featured Latrell Sprewell in Joe’s second season and went nowhere, the 22-year old Smith had a big decision to consider ahead of his third campaign.

Joe’s draft class was the first to earn rookie scale contracts, the compromise from which was fully fledged unrestricted free agency after three seasons, major leverage. Teams could offer extensions after two seasons, and when Minnesota committed almost $122 million to Kevin Garnett (chosen four spots after Smith) before 1997-98, the planet shook a little more than usual. The whole of the NBA cleared cap space for the next offseason, when Smith and so many others were fully unrestricted.

Joe saw the Warriors swap Mullin for second-year center Erick Dampier just before KG’s extension and decided to decline whatever sub-Garnett offer the Warriors flashed in front of Smith, because Golden State was going nowhere, he’d tell you:

“This is a competitive league with top-notch players, so you just can’t throw a rookie out there and turn a whole organization or a whole team around. I think when I came here we had enough veterans -- Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, Latrell -- where I could just fit in and not be looked at as being a savior. It’s been unfortunate what has happened here over the last few years.”

The Nuggets, in the same boat with fellow 1995 draftee Antonio McDyess, traded McDyess to Phoenix before the start of 1997-98. Golden State was on the clock.

There is a chance that the Warriors, if they feel Smith will not re-sign, will trade him. Smith refused to sign a contract extension with the team last summer.

In any event, he grins widely when asked about the contract numbers some members of the class of 1995 already have received. He knows his big payday is close. “Wheeeww,” Smith says, his eyes rolling.

Even Bryant Reeves got $65 million.

“They have definitely set the market. I’ve said this before, I’m just like a little kid on Christmas. I just want to prove to people that I was worthy of being the first pick.

“I don’t want to make this a money thing, not at all,” Smith said. “I just want to go out and play basketball and try to get as many wins as possible. I don’t want to go out and say ‘I need to score 30 points to get $100 million.’ I don’t want to get into that frame of mind.”

That unselfishness impresses the Warriors’ organization. And they are doing everything they can to impress Smith, who did not sign an extension over the summer because he first wanted to see the team’s commitment to winning.

The Warriors hired a new front office in the same summer, who hired coach P.J. Carlesimo.

“We can’t do anything right now and we’ll just have to see where time takes us,” said Golden State general manager Garry St. Jean. “But we want to keep him here -- you don’t want people like that to go. Obviously, I’m going to keep hugging him.”

Yeah people love it when their new bosses hug them instead of paying them more money.

Said Smith, of his chances of coming back: “Just because I didn’t sign here didn’t mean I didn’t want to be here. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens over the summer.”

Before summer could hit, 1997-98 had to happen.

The Warriors started 1-14, Sprewell choked Carlesimo, Smith was inconsistent in his attempts to approximate what Garnett and Rasheed Wallace ($80 million extension with Portland) were doing with their playoff-bound teams.

Golden State fans, now online, noticed:

Most of the criticisms on the Smith Web sites are unprintable.

Worse than AOL posts, fans booed Smith:

“I don’t know. I wouldn't say I want to be traded,” Smith said in the locker room. “But a player in my situation would be looking for a better situation. I’m not saying that I'm demanding to be traded, definitely not. But I have to be hopeful that a better situation comes along.

“I’ve been thinking about it all season, basically -- do I want to be here or do I want to be traded?” he continued. “But I have yet to come up with an answer. I’ve been telling you guys all year, I like it out here, I love the area, I love playing out here, but I just want to win. Whatever it takes to do that, whether it's here or somewhere else, I don't know.”

Midway through the season, a month before the trade deadline, St. Jean gave away the plan.

Last night, speaking from Oakland, St. Jean quoted his former boss, Don Nelson: “Do your work early. Why wait until February 15 and then say, ‘It’s time’?” We’re trying to be proactive. But there may be other teams that say, ‘We want to do something but not quite yet.’

“Timing, and the feeling that the other team wants to do something, is very important.”

lol

The Warriors would prefer to get back no less than a first-round pick for Smith.

lol

In addition, players who, like Smith, are in the last year of their contracts will be welcome, as the Warriors continue to pare down their salary-cap number for next season to allow them to pursue prominent free agents.

lol

Among the names that have been tossed around are Hawks forward Alan Henderson, Celtics point guard Chauncey Billups and rookie forward Ron Mercer, forward Cedric Ceballos and guard Steve Nash of the Suns, and 76ers forward Clarence Weatherspoon.

They got one of those guys!

St. Jean would not comment on specific offers, saying only, “I’m liking the conversation we’re hearing.”

Garry St. Jean always liked it when people talked words at him.

Meanwhile, his team was terrible.

At the 1998 trade deadline, Garry St. Jean dealt Joe Smith and Brian Shaw to Philadelphia for Jim Jackson and the coveted Clarence Weatherspoon. All four players were on expiring contracts.

“I thought it was the best trade for us,” Warrior Coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “We got two quality players. I think they help us in areas where we needed help.”

Nobody else thought so. And blamed St. Jean for waiting to deal.

As one Eastern Conference general manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “They could have gotten much more for him three weeks ago, but that’s what happens when you hold on to a player you don’t want.”

Probably shouldn’t congratulate yourself in the press for doing “your work early” before the work completes.

The Sixers were surprised at the opportunity to woo Smith:

“We had a chance to get a guy who was the No. 1 pick in the draft,” Sixers coach Larry Brown said. “I don’t see any downside.”

You’ll figure it out.

“This is a trade we’ve been talking about for a long time,” said Billy King, the Sixers’ vice president for basketball administration. “In the summer, when we tried to acquire Joe, what they were asking was a lot higher.”

Even Billy King thought it was a laugh.

“Billy told me that the Warriors went for the prettiest girls in the prom for months, then settled for us,” joked Brown.

I like this because it not only shits on the Warriors, but also Jim Jackson and Clarence Weatherspoon.

“I said that if we stayed long enough, they’ve eventually got to ask us to dance,” added King.

The Sixers ended up playing Joe Smith at small forward, hopelessly:

The Warriors blamed Sprewell.

In the end, Golden State general manager Garry St. Jean said he and assistant GM Gary Fitzsimmons did what they felt was best for the Warriors, both in terms of the salary cap and the future success of the team.

“Gary and I both knew this was a difficult situation coming in here, obviously, with the Sprewell situation,” St. Jean said.

At this point Garry and Gary couldn’t even get their dogs to follow them.

Fitzsimmons and St. Jean were hired before 1997-98, ahead of the Sprewell incident, putting Latrell and P.J. on billboards and buses throughout the Bay Area, selling Warrior tickets behind Sprewell’s 25 a game, GM St. Jean appearing in TV ads symbolically stomping the “St.” stuck in the middle of his name.

Sprewell was maligned but also fifth in the NBA in scoring while on the NBA’s 17th-largest contract, with two seasons left on it. “The Sprewell situation” was, “ooh, glad he’s here!”

If anything, Sprewell’s choketacular absence amplified Smith’s trade value, giving Joe all the shots he needed to fill box scores. St. Jean waited until the last minute, losing every bit of the equity earned from the top pick in the superstar-laden 1995 draft.

“I like Joe Smith enormously. Brian, I thought, did a very good job this year,” Carlesimo said.

Brian Shaw later won three titles with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“But you're not going to get something back unless you give it up. Time will tell, but it’s something I know helps us right now, and I think it will help us long-term as well.”

Jackson and Weatherspoon worked two months for Golden State before leaving in free agency to join playoff teams.

Sprewell was reinstated for the 1999 season, Golden State panicked and dealt Latrell to New York for John Starks, Terry Cummings and the remaining FIVE YEARS and $23.1 million due on 29-year old Chris Mills’ Rick Pitino-penned contract.

Starks had two years and $8 million left. Cummings’ contract expired soon so of course St. Jean re-signed 38-year old Terry Cummings to a multi-year deal.

The 1999 lockout season was not long. Telling Sprewell to stay at home from late January until early May would have cost the Warriors’ a week’s embarrassment prior to camp, tops, before his contract left the books. A trade saved face, and the Warriors spent nearly a third of the salary cap in 1999-00 on three players the Knicks didn’t want. And used the Smith savings to give Jason Caffey a fantastic seven-year, $35 million deal.

This circle of hell won 21 of 50 games in 1999. Sprewell charmed New York and pushed the Knicks into the Finals.

Golden State earned the rights to eventual 19-year vet Jason Terry in the lottery but St. Jean traded the pick for 33-year old Mookie Blaylock and cited “internal improvement” as the impetus behind an upcoming playoff run. Instead, Golden State won 17 games, this time in 82 attempts.

And the New Kid was already over it.

“It’s only my second year and I’m fed up with it,” forward Antawn Jamison said. “It’s getting to the point where I can’t deal with (the losing) anymore.”

A STRONG SAMPLE OF NINETIES SPORTSWRITING

Regarding Golden State.

The departures of Hardaway and Mullin are just the start of it. A virtual playoff team has defected, including the likes of Mario Elie, Chris Gatling, Tom Gugliotta, Tyrone Hill, Mitch Richmond, Rony Seikaly and John Starks.

Tom Gugliotta, but no mention of Chris Webber.

Mario Elie! But no Chris Webber.

Tyrone Hill. Alas, no Chris Webber.

Chris Gatling. Chris Gatling!

I FEEL LIKE CRYING

Sometimes I find old songs and enjoy them.

Up next: Minnesota and Utah and the biggest trade of the summer, Dennis Johnson tries on pinstripes.

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