02/19 Morning Minute: Where Can I Sign?
Written By: Scott | Category: Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Minutes | Comments: 7
Well, it looks like Jason Kidd is heading to Dallas after all. All it took was a different set of veterans – two veterans that have neither a no-trade clause nor a big mouth. In fact, all it took was a vet that wasn’t even playing at the time.
If you ask me, Keith Van Horn is the biggest winner in this whole situation. Dude went from sitting on his recliner to making $4 million just overnight. I love that they used the word “consented.” He consented to making millions of dollars for a half of a season. Now he gets court-side seats to every Nets game for the rest of the season. Perhaps even a Sean Williams autograph. Does he even have to attend practice full-time?
Shortly before [Rod] Thorn climbed aboard his flight from Atlanta, Van Horn signed off — or so he was told — on what was believed to be a laundry list of league requirements – when he must report, how long he must stay with the team, and perhaps how often he must participate in practices.
Which leads me to the fact that I had no idea you could trade players that you didn’t even have on the active roster during trade talks. If I was a washed-up ex-player that had nothing to do, I would be calling every GM in the NBA to lobby myself as an “asset.” And when said GM would come back with, “but you don’t make enough money to matter,” all I would say is, “That’s not a problem. We’ll just increase my salary until it works!”
Other veterans that the Mavs should look into just for the heck of it are Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn. It would be very nostalgic, if you ask me. Sure, bring along Terry Davis and Tony Dumas if you’d like!
Speaking of nostalgic ex-NBAers… Former Phoenix Suns forward Cedric Ceballos was arrested yesterday due a little driving while on a suspended licence. Not very far off from his 16th anniversary as the Slam Dunk contest winner (get out your blindfolds!), was released on bail not long after. To me, Ceballos was one of the biggest snubs ever after being omitted from the NBA Jam T.E. roster. Wayman Tisdale? Are you serious?
A pretty decent piece in today’s PD regarding Asdrubal Cabrera. Of course, he was considered to be a savior last season when the Josh Barfield experiment fell flat, but he’ll need to do that for a full season to keep it up. It is pretty timely after one of the fan write-in questions a few days ago was harping on moving Cabrera to short and getting rid of Jhonny Peralta. Getting ahead of ourselves a bit? I mean, his name doesn’t even register in Firefox yet…
And finally, Erik Cassano rings in with his thoughts on C.C. Sabathia and the possible trade. Pretty good read for your morning coffee.
Enjoy the holiday-shortened week, folks.
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Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 1700 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
You stole my thunder, Scott….I was going to write a post saying the Cavs should see if Shawn Kemp wants a new overpriced 1 year contract so they could then trade him as an expiring contract. Or Brad Daugherty. Or hell, lets give Austin Carr a contract. Being able to trade Van Horn like this feels fraudulent.
I agree. If it can’t be done in the trade machine, it shouldnt be allowed in the NBA!!
The Mavs owned the rights to Van Horn because he retired with years left on his deal I believe. The contract he signed was an increase to his salary, so that the figures would work out.
“rights to” is apparently the key here. i guess the fact that he wasn’t active AND got a pay increase is what I’m baffled about. Realistically, we could increase a players pay just to make them fit in a deal…even if that player isn’t even a “player.” I never thought that was possible…
How long does a player have to be on your roster before you can trade him? 30 days? If its something like that, it still begs the question of why a team like the Cavaliers can’t just sign some scrub to a ridiculous one year contract 30 days or whatever before the deadline just to make him a tradeable asset?
Answer: Because they already have several scrubs signed to rediculous long-term deals
Well, you could always cut Ira Newble, take the cap hit, sign a player for $10 million this year, pay the luxury tax hit, and then voila! You’ve got yourself a huge expiring contract you can trade. It would cost Gilbert a ton of money to do, but then again, the Cavaliers not winning will end up costing Gilbert a ton of money eventually, too. Bear in mind, this is all tongue-in-cheek…..it’s just that I don’t see how its fair that a team can sign a retired player and then trade them as an expiring contract. I hope Eric Snow really does retire this year, because then next year they can do the same with him.