Archive for January, 2008
Protected: Various Stuff
Ed Stefanski Interview
Earlier this week I got the chance to interview Sixers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski for RealGM. As I’m sitting here after the fact, there are definitely some questions I wish I had asked. There were some I wanted to ask, but chickened out on (thoughts on Gilbert Arenas’s comments about Iguodala he made on his blog, and whether extracurricular stuff like that would effect his interest in a free agent, for example), stuff I wanted to ask and forgot (His views on restricted free agency, whether or not he feels it’s a fair compromise with regards to players/interested teams getting their interest stifled because they’re afraid of tying up their cap space for 2 weeks. Whether he felt the team could compete for a title with Andre Iguodala as his best offensive player. Whether Andre Iguodala’s apparent body language had an effect in the clubhouse. How important it is to have stability in the coaching staff, particularly with young players. etc).
Overall though, it was definite a positive experience, and I think there were some interesting tidbits. Particularly about the details of the Korver pick (which I didn’t see the protection explained in detail by any Philadelphia writer), his views on the drafting process, and whether or not he felt comfortable with the cap space he had. In fact, that was the one part of the interview that really surprised me.
I’d really like to thank Ed for taking the time to sit down with me. We were scheduled to have a 5-10 minute chat, but it ended up lasting well over 20 minutes. He was a pleasure to talk to.
The article about the interview can be found here:
sixers.realgm.com.
Some people just don’t get it
Sony releases DRM free music “downloads”.
So let’s see. I:
- Go to a brick and mortar store to buy a card with an “Access code”
- Take the access code home, and sign up for a service to download the songs
- Download the songs to my computer.
And for this privilege, I get:
- To pay the same amount of money for the album as I would for a CD
- Get limited to only 37 albums, rather than a full store
- Get the privilege of wasting more time downloading songs I could already be listening to had I bought the CD at he store I was already at.
- Get inferior quality to the CD I, once again, could have bought at the store I was already at.
?
Why would I not just buy the CD at the store, and rip it to my hard drive?
The only way this makes sense is if it’s an alternative to buying music online, so that people without credit cards can use the service too. But it’s not. Purchasing the card in the store is a requirement.
Can’t wait for Sony to claim in 6 months that it was a failure, and use it as “proof” that people won’t pay for DRM-free downloads.
No commentsKorver trade good start to rebuilding, but no guarantee
Let me start this off by saying that I liked Kyle Korver. He provided a valuable skillset that virtually all teams need, whether that team’s offense is based around a low post threat, dribble penetration, or a transition game. There isn’t one good team in the league that couldn’t use a Kyle Korver coming off their bench.
He got the most out of his abilities and always played hard. He also seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and a good teammate who enjoyed playing on this team, and for this city. While ultimately you look at a trade and base whether it was good or bad on how it affects the talent level of your club, it’s also impossible to take the human element out of it completely. It definitely felt odd watching Kyle playing for the Jazz, and you could see Kyle seemed a little shaken about it himself.
In a perfect world, Korver would have been a guy you would like to keep. Ideally Korver would be here when this team is back to competing, and at 26 years old, he has plenty of basketball left in him.
All that being said, this was a move that made sense. Kyle Korver was a nice role player, and somebody who could have been an asset in years to come. But you don’t let a role player get in the way of your rebuilding. Cap space is tantamount to rebuilding.
Sure, it would have been nice to have cleared cap space without moving Korver. Kyle Korver’s contract was not a mistake that had to be moved. He only had 2 years left, and less than the league average salary. But it was a contract that could be moved. That’s a very big distinction, and ultimately the reason he’s no longer a member of the team.
I would have preferred that Korver be packaged with another long term salary, such as Evans or Green, but finding a team willing to take back more salary may have been impossible.
Would the Sixers have preferred to move Reggie Evans to clear the cap space while keeping Korver? Probably. The problem is it takes two to tango, and that deal was likely never presented.
The pick received is not likely something you can count on, as it’s more than likely to be in the 20’s, and picks that late in the draft are very hit or miss. The success of the trade really comes down to whether or not the Sixers are able to make use of their cap room. At $10 million, their work certainly isn’t done.
Word has been coming out that Ed Stefanski is done shopping his players around, and that while he’s willing to talk, he’s not actively pursuing anything. That would be a very big mistake. Yes, it’s true the Sixers have more projected cap room than anyone in free agency next year. Getting more cap room than anyone else isn’t enough. The Sixers are competing against a free agents prior team more than anything.
If you look at potential free agents who have a player option, they’re not likely to exercise their option if nobody in free agency is going to be able to bid against their current team and drive up their value. Likewise, if they’re trying to pull restricted free agents away from their teams, the less money you have, the more likely it is their prior team will match an offer. The Sixers need to clear enough to offer free agents a max contract before they really become players in free agency. They’re not there yet, and failing to do so could limit their options in the summer.
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