Sports 4 Dorks

Listen, I know how
it goes: you sign a contract, you should honor the contract, and work to the
best of your ability for the employer that signs the checks.

But we’re all
grown-ups here (stop laughing), and sometimes we even act like grownups, so
let’s stop wasting our time with idealized notions of how certain adults
(especially those who are paid to play a child’s game) should approach their
work day.

Sam Cassell is stuck on a Los Angeles Clipper team that, despite his
best efforts, is 10-21 and last in the NBA in offensive efficiency. The team is
going nowhere, Sam won’t be re-signing with the Clippers next summer, and it’s
doubtful that he’ll a big contributor (at age 39) to any team next season. This
is a man who needs to lend his talents to a winner, pronto.

And Sam’s not
happy. Or, at least, he’s not having fun. He’s not pointing fingers or shifting
blame, but he is being candid about how little pleasure he’s taking out of the
2007-08 season thus far. From
the Los Angeles Times:

"Me personally,
I can’t play basketball with a frown on my face. I’ve got to be jittery and
chattery. That makes me play better."

Asked if he was
ready to issue a trade demand, Cassell
told the Times’ Jonathan Abrams that "it ain’t to that point
right now …," so, yeah: let’s get it to that point. Let’s get this guy on a
better team, by hook or by crook.

A buyout is always an option, Sam could be off the Clippers
tomorrow if he offered to give back the money due to be owed to him this
season, or (we’re guessing) at least give back enough that couldn’t be made up
for by the veteran’s exception he would be signed to on a different team. But
the Clippers have options, and if they work hard enough, they could find a
suitor for Sam while retaining his expiring earnings, and possibly bringing in
a future draft pick to work with. With so little available to help this team
right now, they need to hop to it.  

I’m not going to
pass off any tripe along the lines of, "a deal made to aid Cassell in the last
productive season of his career will go a long way toward changing the
perception of the Los Angeles Clippers around the league," because it won’t.

It
changed a long time ago. They re-sign their free agents, and the free-agents
they passed on years before weren’t all that hot to begin with. They matched
Elton Brand and Corey Maggette’s contract offers back in 2003. They use their
mid-level exception. They spend money. The only perceptions that are due to be
altered by the easing of Sam into Boston or Phoenix at this point
would belong to those who weren’t paying attention to begin with.

Let’s get back to
Cassell. The point man can still play, he’s offering about a 17 PER right
now in 24 minutes per game, he needs help defensively (but this has been the
case for a decade now), and he’s equally adept in transition and in the
half-court. The guy can still contribute, and even if he’s not available for
every game, he’s better than Marcus Banks, an injured Troy Hudson, or Tony
Allen at
point guard.  

So Cassell needs to
make a subtle, un-leaked, trade demand. He needs to get his agent working on
deals to Orlando
(when Maurice Evans can be traded in two weeks, with Pat Garrity’s expiring
contract as well), the Suns, the Warriors, or the Celtics. The last three teams
on the list don’t have the expiring contracts needed to match the 6.1-million
Cassell is making this season, so they’ll have to get creative: and likely
involve the Seattle SuperSonics (boasting a new GM, Sam Presti, who is awfully
creative) and their
trade exceptions.

It’s quite do-able,
and it should be done. Sam had, at the very least, the most charismatic part in
the best season the Los Angeles Clippers have ever enjoyed, and while you’d
like to keep him on board, you should also try to do what’s right. Sam Cassell
is a man who should be having fun.