Every other day, it seems that someone writes another "how to fix the NBA" column. Everyone has all of these wonderful ideas about how to fix a game that isn't broken to begin with.
I hate those columns. I love the NBA just the way it is. Please don't take today's column and lump it in with the hundreds of "how to fix the NBA" columns circulating around the Internet.
That being said, there is something in the NBA that does need to be fixed. The practice of trading players who are immediately cut by their new team and almost as quickly re-signed by the team that just traded them is unacceptable. It happens every year.
And if I come off as picking on the Cleveland Cavilers in this column, then so be it. They deserve it.
The reason that I'm going to come off as a Cavs hater is because, as most of you already know, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is going to re-sign with the team on March 22nd, the first day he is eligible to.
Under the current NBA rules, a player that is traded to a new team and then waived must wait at least 30 days before he can re-sign with the team that traded him in the first place. Every season there are examples of players getting traded, waived, and re-signing with their original team.
It needs to stop.
It's a "rich get richer" system that rewards the top teams in the league by allowing them to give up almost nothing to improve their team at the trade deadline.
In the trade that brought two-time all-star and career 20 points per game scorer Antawn Jamison to Cleveland, the Cavs gave up their 2010 first round pick, the rights to the incomparable Emir Preldzic, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
That alone amounts to a steal for the Cavs. Throw in the fact that everyone in the world knew that the Wizards were going to waive Z and that he was going to end up right back in Cleveland, and you have one of the most one-sided trades in recent NBA history.
Something needs to be done. There needs to be a rule in place that prevents this from happening.
I'm not bitter that the Cavs got better. I'm not upset at Z for wanting to go back and play for a title for a team that he's been with his entire career. I'm not mad at the Wizards for waiving Z, a player that they have no use for, and allowing him a chance to play for a contender.
I'm mad at the NBA for allowing that team to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The essence of a "trade" is that both teams are giving something up, and both teams are getting something. In this case, the Cavs didn't give up anything. They didn't pay a price at all to get Jamison.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas is a great teammate, a glue guy, and a fan favorite. Those things are all important to a team that wants to win a title. If there was a chance that the Cavs weren't going to re-sign Z in 30 days, maybe this deal doesn't go through. He's that important to this team.
But when you know all along that one of the pieces that you're "giving up" in the trade is going to come right back to you a month later, it makes it a lot easier to pull the trigger on the trade.
Sure, the Cavs will say that there was no collusion going on, and that there was no handshake agreement with the Wizards that they would waive Ilgauskas, but come on. Everyone with any common sense knows that the Wizards have no use for a player like Ilgauskas, and there was a 0% chance that he'd ever suit up for Washington.
Even if the Cavs and Wizards never discussed a potential buyout of Z's contract (which I don't believe for a second), Danny Ferry knew it was coming. The NBA knew it was coming. The other 28 teams in the league knew it was coming.
And yet the league is still going to allow Ilgauskas to re-sign with the Cavs on March 22nd.
A lot of different people have weighed in on this topic and offered up a lot of different opinions, but the school of thought that seems to prevail most when discussing this is that Ilgauskas should not be allowed to return to the Cavs.
The counter-argument to that is, "What if Cleveland is the only team interested in signing Z? You can't prevent someone from working by telling him he can't play for the only team interested in him."
That's a valid point, so here's what I propose. Scrap the 30-day waiting period entirely. If a player gets waived by his new team after a trade, he can sign with any team he so chooses the second he gets waived — with a catch.
If a player opts to re-sign with the team that just traded him, that team cannot put said player on their playoff roster. That would make these "wink, wink" deals a whole lot more interesting. Now teams would actually have to give something up if they wanted to get better at the deadline.
I know I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, and I'm not trying to sell it as my revolutionary idea to prevent one-sided trades. I'm just saying that of all the alternatives out there, preventing a player from being on the active playoff roster is the best way to prevent these types of deals from happening.
How fun would it be to see if any team had the balls to sign a guy for the rest of the season knowing that they can't use him when it matters most? And all this talk of loyalty? We'd see how loyal a guy like Z really is if a rule like this were in place. Is there any chance a player would sign with a team knowing that he couldn't play in the playoffs?
I'd say no way, but it'd be fun to find out.
Unfortunately, we don't get to find out. Instead, we have a 35-year-old center not only getting ready to re-sign with the team that just traded him, but getting a month off right before the stretch run allowing him to be fresh for the playoffs.
It's a big win for the Cavs and a huge setback for the NBA.
I don't blame the Cavs or the Wizards or Big Z for what is about to happen. No one broke any rules.
I blame the NBA for not having a rule in place to begin with. That is something that the NBA needs to address, and one of the few things that truly does need to be "fixed" in what is otherwise the greatest game in the world.
March 2, 2010
Esteban:
Agree, but can’t change the rule for Z this year, for how many championship teams over the last 20 years have utilized the rule and put a ring in the books. Off season, sure, do it, this year with Z, leave it alone. Plus, now that Shaq is out, isn’t the point a non-issue?
The Cavs are back to last year except with Jamison coming over from The Wizards. The Cavs have everything possible for Lebron, spent money, got better players every year, they just need a COACH, not another player. Brown get’s a free pass and Lebron has to learn to grow from the St. Mary St. Vincent 1 on 5 offense. Brown let’s Lebron run the team for 5 years now, and he is only starting to mature and learn you have to use your team. Let a guard bring the ball down court, and with these studs, let them run fast. Non Eastern Championship (that was accomplished with Larry Hughes playing the point out of position 4 years ago), Brown needs the axe. Hoping for Cleveland versus Denver, not LA.