Luis Scola Sohu Blog: someone is going to get traded

So Luis posted this article today on his blog, what do you guys think?

http://luis-scola.blog.sohu.com/143700033.html

someone is going to get traded

Well, half the NBA season is over. Here in the USA, that fact doesn't mean much, but in lots of sports leagues around the world it is a big deal. In fact, in the Spanish soccer league, they call the midpoint of the season the "winter championship" and the winter champion is the one who's ahead in the point totals at the halfway point. True that shouldn't mean much, but people put importance into it anyway.

Also, in the Spanish ACB of basketball, the midway point of the season is when the King's Cup is played, which is the top 8 teams at that point in the season. The teams are seeded based on the standings and given an advantage based on their success to that point. That's how they created one of the most intense and enjoyable competitions in the basketball world in Spain. The King’s Cup is a very big deal in Spain; possibly as big a deal as the actual league championship.

Getting back to the NBA though, the midpoint of the season brings us to the NBA All-Star game, which is a big deal for those who are selected to compete in All-Star weekend, whether they are starters or reserves or rookies or sophomores or whatever. It's pretty easy to understand how those who are involved in All-Star weekend are excited about the festivities. However, the midpoint of the season isn't important as much for the All-Star game or anything else as it is because it's the trade deadline in the NBA.

The trade deadline is February 18. All of the teams have to keep themselves prepared for the potential to reinforce their teams and they have to stay on top of the rumor mill and the salary cap ramifications and all of the other factors related to keep themselves ready for a possible trade, but they also have to be careful not to appear too anxious to make a trade if in fact they are. Because of this delicate balance of timing, it seems like all of the teams that make a trade go crazy on the day of the trade deadline and even in the final hours of that same day before much happens. After the deadline, the NBA management settles down a bit for the next few months.
It's worth clarifying for the readers who aren't that aware of this process that the NBA does not just permit the freewheeling trading, signing and cutting of players without having to adhere to a pile of rules as big as 4 phone books stacked one on top of the other. It’s impossible to completely understand these rules. Even though the league doesn’t permit signing of players during this period, it does permit trades between teams under the rules mentioned before, some of which are pretty simple and worth looking at more closely. For example, in order to trade a player like Tracy McGrady, who is the highest paid player in the NBA, one of the important factors is that the player or players traded for him make more or less the same amount, because all of the teams are so close to the salary cap that any large difference in salary is going to negatively affect the cap number for one of the teams. In other words, if Tracy goes to team “X”, Houston in exchange should receive players with approximately the same salary, more or less. If there are more players involved, same deal.

As far as dealing with a potential upcoming trade in regard to the player’s personal feelings and how rumors affect his family and team chemistry and such, everyone handles it differently. Some are very relaxed about it and some could care less altogether and others don’t ever stop looking at articles and rumors. I go through all stages of these emotions at least once a day. The most difficult thing is talking to people about this topic who are not well versed on the NBA, especially Europeans or South Americans. In our “futbol” (soccer) mentality, it would never occur to us to trade a Riquelme or a Palermo to a team who may stick that trade in your face in a month or two down the road. Due to that, we often hear “if you’re playing great, you’re untouchable in a trade”.

However, in the NBA it isn’t necessarily that way. Playing well is just one of several factors considered in the trading game. You could be playing well and assume that this would protect you from being traded, but not necessarily. The other team always wants something good and to get something good you have to give something good. To get rid of players you don’t want you have to take players the other team doesn’t want also. It’s not easy and it’s the life we have in this league.

Trades are going to happen. Thus, any moment the phone could ring and I could be told that the New York Knicks just traded for me and I have a flight out early in the morning (if this actually happens, I’ve officially jinxed myself). The teams pay for flights and moving expenses. You simply have everything packed up and they ship it to your next home city.

All players approach the trade scenario differently. Some really want to be traded because either things aren’t going well or they don’t like the city or they think the next team will be a better situation for them or whatever…. Others however are much more skeptical about being traded. Maybe they’ve already earned the respect of their team and have their spot on the roster pretty well established and they don’t want to lose what the have. Others may completely love their situation and simply not want to go anywhere. Apart from the player issues with trades, 80% of the time there’s a family that has to be considered also, who are waiting in the background to see what may happen to them, possibly having to change schools, cars, mortgages, selling or renting the house, etc…. everything that moving represents.

In my case, I see myself a little bit in the middle of the emotional extremes. I try not to worry too much about what I cannot control. I just try to work hard and not react too much to the rumor mill. It’s unavoidable though that you think about it because it’s in the locker room, on the plane, on the internet, etc… When we practice, we always arrive with a teammate to practice. Chuck Hayes and I always come to practice early and look around at the roster as it arrives and check out who hasn’t shown up yet. The other day I said, “Hey Chuck, Cook isn’t here!” To that Chuck said “Oh, Cook got a phone call!” (Insinuating that he got traded), but we’re just playing around, because Brian Cook enters 3 minutes later with a sleepy look on his face. That’s how we add some humor to the stress of the impending trade deadline.

We all know that Houston has always been an active trading team and something could happen. This year it’s going to happen. With Tracy’s situation, the team not finding its rhythm, someone is going to get traded. We don’t know who it will be, but the jokes seem to be getting better. One of the worst jokes is when the trainer comes around and tells you in front of everybody that Rick Adelman wants to see you. You immediately get demoralized thinking that there is nothing else he would want but to trade you. Then, when you’re halfway to the door you hear your 12 teammates laughing their butts off and you walk back pretty ticked off as they are laughing at you and you’re trying to get your pulse rate down from 1000 beats per minute…

We talk about this topic a lot. We even got into a conversation the other day about whether they can trade coaches or not. Everyone was silent, but then we realized we didn’t really know the answer. Nobody knew the answer and then our trainer, Keith Jones, said “yes, they can be traded” and since Keith has the most experience of anyone in the league, that ended the discussion. It would be interesting to check on that however….

In the next blog we will know who got traded and we will confirm whether coaches can be traded or not. I will be writing these things and others from my little house in Houston or from another location in the USA.