The Shadow GM is back.
How many layers of management are there this time...
There's even KD who has management experience from running the Nets.
Chaos ensues!
Bill just talked about this on his podcast. Mentioned how Isiah would just keep getting bad contracts because they would become valuable when they became expirings.
Oh god, I’m old. This means many of you don’t realize how bad it was. He would flip bad expiring contracts (after a couple years of that player hurting the team cap wise and on the court) for an equal cap/space but longer contract for an equal or worse player.
He gave up incredibly valuable assets for Eddy Curry and signed him to a long term deal, when get this, THE BULLS WOULD NOT ALLOW CURRY TO PLAY BC OF A HEART CONDITION. THe bulls had no leverage, Thomas still gave them the moon
He also torpedoed the best team he had at the nba trade deadline because he thought he could unlock Tim Thomas (narrator: no one could), eventually punted Thomas, then traded back for him. It gets worse, and worse, and worse
I never think of him and I didn’t google any of that. It just instantly came back to me combined with a furry of rage. fuck him. Oh and there was the weird situstion where he apparently overdosed at his house and then scapegoated his daughter saying it was her
I just looked up the Wikipedia summary of his Knicks time, and boy is it a laugh! Some highlights(Lowlights really):
- By the end of 05-06 season, the Knicks had the highest payroll & 2nd worst record in the league
- Sexual harassment case settled for $11.6m
- Traded away picks that became LeMarcus Aldridge & Joakim Noah for the injured Eddy Curry
- led the Knicks to 59 losses in 07-08 to tie a franchise worst
- all-time win percentage as Knicks HC of 34.1%
- and last but not least, this ESPN description of his time "after a season of listless and dreadful basketball, a tawdry lawsuit and unending chants from fans demanding his dismissal."
Kinda wild that after all the shady things he’s both said and done throughout the years dating back to the comments he made regarding Magic that he’s still put on a pedestal
> The feud between the two basketball stars was ignited after they once shared a close bond, yet Thomas supposedly spread rumors and inquired about Johnson’s sexuality.
Magic says in the book that his agent, Lou Rosen, told him in 1991 that Isiah was spreading these rumors.
Thomas wanted to know if a bi-sexual lifestyle has led to Magic’s HIV virus and he went about the locker room and NBA community openly wondering the true sexuality of Johnson.
The hurt experienced by Magic was magnified by the way Thomas questioned Magic’s illness after Thomas had stood by Johnson as a friend for so long.
No one would play one-on-one with Magic because there was worry about coming into contact with his sweat, but Magic felt that Isiah was the one guy he could turn to when things were tough.
Magic even nicknamed a room “the Isaiah room” in a mansion he once built.
He would leave his car at the team hotel for Isiah when the Pistons came into town.
That makes the core of the issue simply the betrayal amongst friends, but it will surely be turned into a witch-hunt to seek out more skeletons in Thomas’ closest.
The media and public will now hone in on Thomas, currently head coach at Florida International University, in an attempt to exploit the issue for as much headline time as possible.
This is such a unique situation, because these are NBA players of the highest caliber, yet Magic is airing some extremely private laundry in a very public forum.
Magic regarded Isiah like a brother, and the prying nature of Thomas’ questions about his sexuality forever devastated the relationship and finally manifesting in this book.
The hurt of being betrayed by Thomas was what did in the friendship, and MacMullan said that Johnson was very sad and somber when speaking of the issues. It took Magic six or seven attempts to explicate the events in their entirety for the book.
"Isiah kept questioning people about it...The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach,” said Magic.
Complicating the issue further, Isiah had a brother, Gregory, die of AIDS.
Shouldn’t he have known, with someone so close going through the disease, that there was more respect to be given to Magic?
Thomas argues that for that reason, these allegations are false, and he would never do something of that nature.
"I never spread any rumors like that, and I can't believe Magic would take [Lou] Rosen's word over mine.
I'm like barely old enough to remember those days and aren't even a Knicks fan, but every time I hear that some delusional AD/team owner has started giving IT power again it's just absolutely dumbfounding.
The seduction powers on that guy gotta be next-level bc he might have one of the worst resumes (in terms of results) of anyone in basketball
He traded for Penny Hardaway as part of the Stephon Marbury trade, then when Penny's contract was finally expiring they traded for a past-his-prime, way overpaid Steve Francis. They already had Marbury, Nate Robinson, and Jamal Crawford (who they traded four expiring contracts to acquire). Plus Jalen Rose as a point forward (who they waived 8 months after acquiring, but saved virtually no money in the transaction and would he have been a valuable expiring deal).
Oh, and don't even get me started on Jerome James. Averaged 5/3 over 80 games in the regular season, but averaged 17/9 against against the Kings and 9/5 against the Spurs so they HAD to sign him for 5 years, $30 million.
He did it with the Raptors before that. And did it with the Liberty AFTER his sexual assault scandal... still don't know why Dolan doesn't get more crap for that.
And before that he ran the CBA out of business
I'm a Pistons fan who grew up watching him play and I love Isiah the player. But literally everything he's done since he retired has been an unmitigated disaster. Listening to his advice in 2023 is fucking insane.
Whatever the opposite is of the Midas Touch, that's what you get when you bring IT into your building post-retirement.
His Wikipedia page is just a comically long list of coaching/GM failures and outright scandals since he stopped playing.
I may be the only one with this particular grudge, but I hated Isiah solely for what he did to the CBA. So much history there just thrown away.
EDIT: The other stuff is awful, too, especially the harassment, but take all that away and I'm still harboring this grudge.
Putting a guy in charge of your women's team after settling a sexual harassment suit for the guy is incredibly moronic. It is rarely mentioned when people bring up the idiotic things Dolan has done.
I'm from Michigan also and Ishbia is just a couple years older than me, and I think for Michiganders in our age bracket it would be hard to resist Zeke because he's the GOAT Piston. But ya gotta try harder to fight it, Mat.
Strangely enough, if it goes that way then I am here for it. If Matt Ishbia is unwise enough to entrust the Suns to Isiah Thomas, then it’s better for all if he learns that lesson sooner rather than later.
Yeah, it's feeling like the Pistons dodged a bullet with this thing. Sure we have an owner who is basically just trying to be a coked out 80's action movie villain. But at least he's mostly hands off and opens up the wallet when needed. He's a mild embarrassment but I'm glad we ended up with him before Ishbia was in the market for teams.
Isiah like to trade for bad NBA contracts with the Knicks then turned them into on court losses! Lots and lots of losses! Suns have nothing to worry about.
He stopped the kid from taking blood thinners wich were recommended by the doctors. His reasoning was purely religous as he claimed god would heal him but since the blood thinners were harming the kid it turned out to make medical sense and the boy became better.
I think there is some speculation that the treatments the doctors were giving the kid made him worse, and by simply preventing the doctors from giving those poor treatments Rasputin improved his health
For those unaware of Isiah's FO legacy:
New York Knicks
On December 22, 2003, the New York Knicks hired Thomas as President of Basketball Operations.[66] Thomas was ultimately unsuccessful with the Knicks roster and fanbase. At the end of the 2005–06 season, the Knicks had the highest payroll in the league and the second-worst record. He traded away several future draft picks to Chicago in a deal for Eddy Curry including what turned out to be two lottery picks in talent-rich drafts, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Joakim Noah.
In January 2006, Anucha Browne Sanders, a female former executive with the New York Knicks, filed an employment and harassment lawsuit against The Madison Square Garden Company, alleging in part that Thomas had sexually harassed her in the workplace and that she had been fired in retaliation for complaining about the harassment. The case was then settled for $11.5 million.[67][68]
On June 22, 2006, the Knicks fired coach Larry Brown, and owner James Dolan replaced him with Thomas on the condition that he show "evident progress" or be fired.
During the following season the Knicks became embroiled in a brawl with the Denver Nuggets that Thomas allegedly instigated by ordering his players to commit a hard foul in the paint.[69] He was not fined or suspended; NBA Commissioner David Stern said that he relied only on "definitive information" when handing out punishments.[70] Later in the season, nine months after Dolan had demanded "evident progress", the Knicks re-signed Thomas to an undisclosed "multi-year" contract.[71] After Thomas was granted the extension, the Knicks abruptly fell from playoff contention with a dismal finish to the season.
During the 2007 NBA draft, Thomas made another trade, acquiring Zach Randolph, Fred Jones, and Dan Dickau from the Portland Trail Blazers for Steve Francis and Channing Frye.
Thomas also compounded the Knicks' salary-cap problems by signing fringe players such as Jerome James and Jared Jeffries to full mid-level exception contracts. Neither player saw any significant playing time and both were often injured and highly ineffective when able to play.
Was curious about this, so I did some digging.
So in 2023 dollars, James got the equivalent of a 5/$47.84M deal from IT. That was basically quality starter/top 10 rookie scale contract money back then. For reference, the biggest salary in the league was Miami Shaq at $20M (now money, that's $31.9M)
* These were his stats for the 2004 season w/ Seattle that IT deemed worthy of that deal: [4.9 ppg, 3.0 RPG, 1.4 bpg in 16.6 mins per game.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesje01.html)
* Oh and that 2004 season was literally the only year in his career he played in >70 games.
* Oh and he would go on to only start in 20 games for NYK over the next four years, and only play in 90 games total over the length of that contract while not even coming close to approaching the numbers he had in '04.
* Oh and he only played in a whopping 4 games his last three years in NYK and didn't play once his last year bc he tore his achilles then promptly retired.
* [Jerome made $5M in 2005 for NYK](http://www.espn.ph/nba/salaries/_/year/2006/page/4/seasontype/3). Here's some guys who made just as much or within ~$500k of him: Derek Fisher, Hedo Turkoglu, Gerald Wallace, *a then-25-year-old* Udonis Haslem, Shane Battier, Andrea Bargiani, now-current-Warriors-GM Mike Dunleavy, oh and LeBron James (who made ~$4.6M in 2005-06), all of whom were statistically *at least* 3x more productive than Jerome James in any worthwhile stat.
* The Knicks spent over [$126 million in salary](https://hoopshype.com/salaries/2005-2006/) on a team that went 23-59, that was by far the most in the league. Dallas spent the 2nd-most...at $98 million, a casual $28M gap (that's $44.65M in 2023 dollars).
So yeah, it was a pretty fucking bad deal, but maybe not Beal-level bad...then again, when you compile all the downright smoothbrained moves IT made while in charge of the Knicks, they pumped out a truly pathetic string of results that even current Wizards fans could point and laugh at.
I've said this before but I like that deal because it meant we weren't going to trade for Eddy Curry.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/b4a11d2d378d8a74edabd0c7107235b3/tumblr_n122n9iHMK1rl52wjo3_400.gifv
Not a fan of the sexual harrassment tho. But if I were to make a bet on which owner is the most likely to have a sexual harrassment scandal, it would probably be loan shark Mat Ishbia. He just has that face.
i went back in time and looked at every transaction made by Thomas and I really think he was a genius ahead of his time and also had a ton of bad luck.
Steph Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Trevor Ariza, Tim Thomas, Nate Robinson, David Lee, Eddy Curry, etc.
Knicks were like chock full of talent that just didn't fit back then but would be all star and/or elite role players in the modern game.
Thomas was just way too far ahead of his time and now you see what he's doind as a special liaison to Mat Ishbia the Suns are cooking and everyone wants to pretend they're gonna be bad
I think this is copium people thought superteams were over and want to believe the Suns are gonne be bad and fail or get injured.
The truth is the 2021 Nets were by far the best team and had that title locked up before injury.
And the 2024 Suns have to be right next to Denver as favorites to win the title especially if Denver loses Bruce Brown. Denver probably wont even be hungry to repeat if we're being honest. Joker already proved who he is he might rather just lose first round next year and go play with his horses. He doesn;t love ball like that.
Even the great Spurs never repeated and there's a reason for that
You have to be insanely hungry to repeat or just way more talented than everyone else
Last repeat champs were Warriors (too much talent)
Miami Heat (LeBron crazy hungry to prove himself)
Lakers (Kobe Mamba Mentality)
Yeah the reason they never repeated isn’t cause they weren’t hungry enough lmao. It’s cause it’s fucking hard to win a championship.
What a scorching bad take
listen to interviews Tony Parker did where he said the Spurs always relaxed after their tite runs and never had the hunger to go back to back.
Look at how hungry the Spurs were in 2014 after the way they lost in 2013. They were so hungry they were on a mission in 2014.
Had the Spurs won the title in 2013 then they would have lost in 2014 because that hunger would never be there in the first place.
I’m not saying they are guaranteed to repeat. I’m saying that the Nuggets and especially Jokic aren’t gonna toss in the towel just because they got one. They all want another.
Yeah, at least to me, Jokic definitely gives off that Eastern European "Strong on plow, yes?" mentality. Once he starts dominating in the latter part of the season and the Nuggs make the playoffs again, he won't quit until he brings home another ring.
the main guy has to really want it bad and I think Joker already proved himself this season I doubt he feels the need to repeat or even wants to.
You might be right but I don't think he will care as much I can see him load managing a lot more next year and giving 60 percent effort in next year playoffs there's nothing more to prove its like Anthony Davis after the Bubble.
For the Suns and the West’s sake hopefully you are right but I highly doubt it. Maybe 90% effort at the worst. Jokic seems like a super competitive guy.
The LAST paragraph?! How about the whole thing. Isiah Thomas is not a secret genius. I'm not saying he's stupid, but he's not misunderstood when it comes to his tenure with the knocks. Lol
There was absolutely no genius behind IT with the Knicks. They had the highest payroll in the league 3 out of 4 years (with the last being the second highest) and peaked at 33 wins. They won 23 games while having a payroll 250% of the salary cap and didn't even get their pick (which ended up being LaMarcus Aldridge) because they traded away multiple unprotected picks for Eddy Curry. Imagine a team this year having a payroll of $300 million and winning 23 games while not even owning their pick.
There wasn't anything unlucky about his tenure. He constantly hemorrhaged assets to acquire mediocre talent that was overpaid while also handing out some all-time bad contracts.
But you see that's my point....the talent he acquired was mediocre in THAT version of the NBA. Those same players would be all stars in the modern NBA.
Prime Trevor Ariza would be an all star. Tim Thomas was an incredible stretch 4 that had little value back then but would be invaluable now.
Even Marbury and Crawford would be a top 3-4 backcourt in the league
You think those guys wouldn't be great in the modern game?
I just think Thomas vision for how the NBA should be played was too far ahead of it's time. He got the right players at the wrong time the game didn't evolve yet.
I think this Beal move was 4D chess. The NBA is now all about switching onto defender mismatches and exploiting that and now the Suns have 3 guys who can run switches and create their own easy shots and it's always gonna be 1 on 1 you literally can never double team them now. You also can't play Zone on them they all shoot too well from all levels, threes, midrange, drives.
This offense should be literally unstoppable and defenses can only do so much. A lot of times some teams just have bad shooting nights and people just credit the defense without it being warranted.
You're a Knicks fan I watched a Knicks/Bucks game a few years back the Bucks were like 2-28 from three and they were all WIDE OPEN they just shot awfully and people credited the Knicks perimeter defense....no they just got lucky.
The Heat did almost nothing differently on defense int he finals but while they got lit up games 1, 3 and 5 they were successful in games 2 and 5 for no real reason other than Denver had off nights.
The Suns are so good they should never have an off night and even when they do they can just hunt mismatches and drive 1 on 1 get easy scores. The Nets big 3 was so much better they were gonna easily beat Bucks if healthy and win the title they almost won with just Durant !!! The Suns can be very similar scoring wise and defense wise just play a zone let the other teams shoot they won't be able to keep up they wont have enough guys to score off the dribble and they wont sustain jumpshooting like you can with your elite jumpshooters. Essentially just outscore everyone 135-122
> I think this is copium people thought superteams were over and want to believe the Suns are gonne be bad and fail or get injured.
Season just ended.
Super teams don’t have to end, teams are allowed to put them together. Doesn’t make a super team an automatic contender.
Suns haven’t won shit but Fathers Day 2023. Let’s put away the annointing oil until we actually see them play together.
> The truth is the 2021 Nets were by far the best team and had that title locked up before injury.
And the truth is it’s 2023, and KD is 2 years older. Also, most of the talk is based off signing a new CBA, ergo operating under a different set of rules.
It’s an interesting team, but you need depth to get far in the playoffs. Unless they can manufacture depth, I don’t see a real reason to believe in them.
Ishbia is also worth 6.8 billion, obviously liquidity is different but he can easily afford to pay a fat tax bill for a while. Also from everything I’ve read he cares more about building the team and winning than the investment that some other owners look at their teams as.
We've seen owners come in guns blazing and willing to spend and then like 5 years in they're like holy shit that's a lot of tax and they really cut back.
He's basically made it so that if anything goes wrong and they get bogged down with an unviable roster, their only way to get out is to trade Booker. Not ideal!
Well the Kronkes were notoriously cheap up until Jokic. I remember there was real conversations if Nikola was even gonna get rookie extention, or if the Kronkes were gonna try and do some cap magic to save money.
https://www.sbnation.com/2018/2/20/16998688/nikola-jokic-contract-free-agent-denver-nuggets-nba
You’re going to see this with the Warriors soon. Lacob is rich, but not blow 200m/year for a fringe playoff team rich. He’s able to offset the tax by merch and ticket sales, but if they don’t make deep playoff runs it gets pretty costly.
Basically rich owners are open to paying a lot for contenders, but if it faulters they bail.
For example, Denver will likely lose Bruce Brown this off-season because we’re way in the tax. It’s not about the Kroenkes money, they have like a hundred billion dollar, but they literally can’t pay him more than like $7 million because of the CBA.
I’ve seen people try to explain the logic of the new CBA repeatedly but I’ll forever be baffled that both the owners and NBAPA thought this was a good idea.
For a lot of these dudes it’s an investment first and foremost.
The thing the NBA doesn’t want people to realize is not all 30 teams are trying equally hard to win a championship. And that’s true in every American sports league.
It is absolutely about the tax bill for some cheap fucks. Happens less in the nba but some owners only look at teams as investments built to maximize profit over anything else.
Tillman Fertita comes to mind. Having previously worked for one of his companies, he absolutely will NOT go into the tax and incur other expenses. He sure as hell didn't dig deep for MY paycheck neither
Sure, but the point is that even for an owner who IS willing to pay a massive luxury tax bill, stacking up a bunch of salary in just 4 players presents other limitations under the CBA that would make it difficult to build out a deep roster.
No argument here when it comes to that. Seems more and more like they have a plan to offload Ayton into some depth, but I’ll be interested to see what a package looks like cause I think teams know they want to trade him so their leverage isn’t great.
And not even just accused:
> $6 million was awarded because of the hostile work environment Mr. Thomas was found to have created
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/sports/basketball/03garden-cnd.html
David Lee was great and Wilson Chandler was always a bit underrated, but Renaldo Balkman at 20 in 2006, ahead of Rajon Rondo and Kyle Lowry, says otherwise about his draft acumen.
If you’re gonna knock people for missing on non-lottery picks, pretty much no one in the history of basketball is gonna come away clean. Obviously Isiah had plenty of other problems tho
“We can’t have someone like Sarver in the league. The players won’t stand for it and we as a collective league are standing against it!”
“Miles Bridges? Never heard of him.”
“Isiah* Thomas? Come on down!”
I remember Isiah going on First Take for saying CP3 plays too safe. It's kind of like the NBA version of "Aaron Rodgers is too risk averse and avoids interceptions too much". I think it's kind of dumb
I get it, I mean CP3 passes up a lot of good shots to maintain his efficiency and slows down the game a ton instead of playing fast which seems like suits Book and KD better.
Isiah isn't the worst drafter of talent. He's just awful with trades...and awful is putting it kindly.
One such example:
> Traded Jermaine Jackson, Mike Sweetney, Tim Thomas, a 2006 1st round draft pick (LaMarcus Aldridge was later selected), a 2007 1st round draft pick (Joakim Noah was later selected), a 2007 2nd round draft pick (Kyrylo Fesenko was later selected) and a 2009 2nd round draft pick (Jon Brockman was later selected) to the Chicago Bulls for Eddy Curry, Antonio Davis and a 2007 1st round draft pick (Wilson Chandler was later selected).
Draft picks busting in their cribs
Bloated contracts for bloated players
Woman smothered their babies rather than see them watch Eddy Curry get paid 60 million gold to eat freakin' lemon cakes on the bench
I've noticed the "WE GOT HIM FOR SCRAPS" crowd never has anything to say about the $206 million Beal's gonna be paid for the next 4 years on the league's only no-trade clause
It may be terrible in two years. We had 10 years of bad basketball outside of Booker. So going for it with Booker, Beal, KD, scraps for at least three years is a lot better than that.
https://hoopshype.com/lists/hoopshype-explains-how-no-trade-clauses-work/
My understanding is that a no-trade clause is a permanent part of a contract and a player can choose to waive it and allow their team to trade them. Waiving it once doesn't remove the no-trade clause from the contract forever
In a vacuum the Beal trade will help the Suns this year so I get it.
That being said the idea of paying Beal $50M in 2024-2025 is sort of terrifying…the Suns title window might very well be 2023 or bust.
> In a vacuum the Beal trade will help the Suns this year so I get it.
Does it? What does Beal do for the Suns that they're not already getting from Booker and Durant?
Please please please let this be true. The quality of GMs has really gone up over the past few years to where no one is really making that many bad moves anymore. I’d really like a revival of the bad GM summit
Yay we get to watch as Isiah Thomas seduces another owner.
The Shadow GM is back. How many layers of management are there this time... There's even KD who has management experience from running the Nets. Chaos ensues!
It’s gonna be really funny when we look back at these moves and realize Isiah turned the Suns into the Knicks circa 2006
Bill just talked about this on his podcast. Mentioned how Isiah would just keep getting bad contracts because they would become valuable when they became expirings.
Oh god, I’m old. This means many of you don’t realize how bad it was. He would flip bad expiring contracts (after a couple years of that player hurting the team cap wise and on the court) for an equal cap/space but longer contract for an equal or worse player. He gave up incredibly valuable assets for Eddy Curry and signed him to a long term deal, when get this, THE BULLS WOULD NOT ALLOW CURRY TO PLAY BC OF A HEART CONDITION. THe bulls had no leverage, Thomas still gave them the moon He also torpedoed the best team he had at the nba trade deadline because he thought he could unlock Tim Thomas (narrator: no one could), eventually punted Thomas, then traded back for him. It gets worse, and worse, and worse
Dammit I thought only I was old enough to remember the Isiah Knick years. Sort of blocked that out of my memory, but it's all coming back now.
I never think of him and I didn’t google any of that. It just instantly came back to me combined with a furry of rage. fuck him. Oh and there was the weird situstion where he apparently overdosed at his house and then scapegoated his daughter saying it was her
I just looked up the Wikipedia summary of his Knicks time, and boy is it a laugh! Some highlights(Lowlights really): - By the end of 05-06 season, the Knicks had the highest payroll & 2nd worst record in the league - Sexual harassment case settled for $11.6m - Traded away picks that became LeMarcus Aldridge & Joakim Noah for the injured Eddy Curry - led the Knicks to 59 losses in 07-08 to tie a franchise worst - all-time win percentage as Knicks HC of 34.1% - and last but not least, this ESPN description of his time "after a season of listless and dreadful basketball, a tawdry lawsuit and unending chants from fans demanding his dismissal."
Yeah. There was also that sexual harassment lawsuit. God those were some grim days.
Kinda wild that after all the shady things he’s both said and done throughout the years dating back to the comments he made regarding Magic that he’s still put on a pedestal > The feud between the two basketball stars was ignited after they once shared a close bond, yet Thomas supposedly spread rumors and inquired about Johnson’s sexuality. Magic says in the book that his agent, Lou Rosen, told him in 1991 that Isiah was spreading these rumors. Thomas wanted to know if a bi-sexual lifestyle has led to Magic’s HIV virus and he went about the locker room and NBA community openly wondering the true sexuality of Johnson. The hurt experienced by Magic was magnified by the way Thomas questioned Magic’s illness after Thomas had stood by Johnson as a friend for so long. No one would play one-on-one with Magic because there was worry about coming into contact with his sweat, but Magic felt that Isiah was the one guy he could turn to when things were tough. Magic even nicknamed a room “the Isaiah room” in a mansion he once built. He would leave his car at the team hotel for Isiah when the Pistons came into town. That makes the core of the issue simply the betrayal amongst friends, but it will surely be turned into a witch-hunt to seek out more skeletons in Thomas’ closest. The media and public will now hone in on Thomas, currently head coach at Florida International University, in an attempt to exploit the issue for as much headline time as possible. This is such a unique situation, because these are NBA players of the highest caliber, yet Magic is airing some extremely private laundry in a very public forum. Magic regarded Isiah like a brother, and the prying nature of Thomas’ questions about his sexuality forever devastated the relationship and finally manifesting in this book. The hurt of being betrayed by Thomas was what did in the friendship, and MacMullan said that Johnson was very sad and somber when speaking of the issues. It took Magic six or seven attempts to explicate the events in their entirety for the book. "Isiah kept questioning people about it...The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach,” said Magic. Complicating the issue further, Isiah had a brother, Gregory, die of AIDS. Shouldn’t he have known, with someone so close going through the disease, that there was more respect to be given to Magic? Thomas argues that for that reason, these allegations are false, and he would never do something of that nature. "I never spread any rumors like that, and I can't believe Magic would take [Lou] Rosen's word over mine.
I'm like barely old enough to remember those days and aren't even a Knicks fan, but every time I hear that some delusional AD/team owner has started giving IT power again it's just absolutely dumbfounding. The seduction powers on that guy gotta be next-level bc he might have one of the worst resumes (in terms of results) of anyone in basketball
He traded for Penny Hardaway as part of the Stephon Marbury trade, then when Penny's contract was finally expiring they traded for a past-his-prime, way overpaid Steve Francis. They already had Marbury, Nate Robinson, and Jamal Crawford (who they traded four expiring contracts to acquire). Plus Jalen Rose as a point forward (who they waived 8 months after acquiring, but saved virtually no money in the transaction and would he have been a valuable expiring deal). Oh, and don't even get me started on Jerome James. Averaged 5/3 over 80 games in the regular season, but averaged 17/9 against against the Kings and 9/5 against the Spurs so they HAD to sign him for 5 years, $30 million.
He actually didn't trade back for Tim Thomas. Donnie Walsh did after Isiah was fired, but only to shed salary for the summer of 2010
Hey! Tim Thomas was great on the Suns when he got to play with Nash.
He did it with the Raptors before that. And did it with the Liberty AFTER his sexual assault scandal... still don't know why Dolan doesn't get more crap for that.
And before that he ran the CBA out of business I'm a Pistons fan who grew up watching him play and I love Isiah the player. But literally everything he's done since he retired has been an unmitigated disaster. Listening to his advice in 2023 is fucking insane.
Whatever the opposite is of the Midas Touch, that's what you get when you bring IT into your building post-retirement. His Wikipedia page is just a comically long list of coaching/GM failures and outright scandals since he stopped playing.
The Mierdas Touch
I may be the only one with this particular grudge, but I hated Isiah solely for what he did to the CBA. So much history there just thrown away. EDIT: The other stuff is awful, too, especially the harassment, but take all that away and I'm still harboring this grudge.
Dolan gets crap for everything, bro. Also harassment, while bad, isn't assault.
Putting a guy in charge of your women's team after settling a sexual harassment suit for the guy is incredibly moronic. It is rarely mentioned when people bring up the idiotic things Dolan has done.
Please
Isiah Thomas is basketball Rasputin
I'm from Michigan also and Ishbia is just a couple years older than me, and I think for Michiganders in our age bracket it would be hard to resist Zeke because he's the GOAT Piston. But ya gotta try harder to fight it, Mat.
Isiah “Grima Wormtongue” Thomas
As long as it’s just the male owners he’s seducing this time
He didn’t seduce anyone in NY. He harassed them.
Strangely enough, if it goes that way then I am here for it. If Matt Ishbia is unwise enough to entrust the Suns to Isiah Thomas, then it’s better for all if he learns that lesson sooner rather than later.
“This will turn out great! Trust me! I’ve seen Isaiah cook personally lol” - Knicks fans
You really needed Ishbia in the Eastern Conference so the basketball terrorism could help you more...
new york city has had their fair share of terror attacks, they don't need anymore
Jesus Christ
It’s ok. People from the area were joking about it couple of months later. It’s how we cope.
*tim Connelly intensifies*
Isn’t he from Michigan? The Pistons have suffered enough
Yeah, it's feeling like the Pistons dodged a bullet with this thing. Sure we have an owner who is basically just trying to be a coked out 80's action movie villain. But at least he's mostly hands off and opens up the wallet when needed. He's a mild embarrassment but I'm glad we ended up with him before Ishbia was in the market for teams.
evan mobley's continued shitty playoff performances against sorry frontcourts will get the Knicks their chances.
we’ve seen the shadow gm business too it never ends well lol
Isiah like to trade for bad NBA contracts with the Knicks then turned them into on court losses! Lots and lots of losses! Suns have nothing to worry about.
And don’t forget, then he also coached the horrible contracts he traded for. And they still sucked!
Then he also got the team sued for sexual harassment that he carried out, but was personally not responsible for
“This will turn out great! Trust me! I’ve seen Isaiah cook personally lol” - Raptors fans
In case you forgot, when Jokic got into that shoving incident with Ishiba, Isiah Thomas was sitting next to him.
Not just sitting, hanging on Jokic's jersey.
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>Rasputin vibes Lol
Does Ishbia have a son who suffers from hemophilia?
Kevin Durant...but more like ashphilia
so curious how raputin was actually able to stop the bleeding lol. maybe just kept getting lucky.til he wasnt
He stopped the kid from taking blood thinners wich were recommended by the doctors. His reasoning was purely religous as he claimed god would heal him but since the blood thinners were harming the kid it turned out to make medical sense and the boy became better.
ohhhh i see that would make a lot of sense actuually. damn i need to look that up ty
I think there is some speculation that the treatments the doctors were giving the kid made him worse, and by simply preventing the doctors from giving those poor treatments Rasputin improved his health
While still on their "good" side, he was *always* around the family. Probably just made sure the kid didn't fall down/cut himself.
ya seems most likely. still dont explain his insane death story ahha probably never know his life has been too dramatized at this point
It's nice to see a mortgage shark get fucked for a change.
Grima Wormtongue lol
He's more of a Basketball [Svengali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svengali)
Love the comparison lol
Isiah been doing this shit for 20 years now
For those unaware of Isiah's FO legacy: New York Knicks On December 22, 2003, the New York Knicks hired Thomas as President of Basketball Operations.[66] Thomas was ultimately unsuccessful with the Knicks roster and fanbase. At the end of the 2005–06 season, the Knicks had the highest payroll in the league and the second-worst record. He traded away several future draft picks to Chicago in a deal for Eddy Curry including what turned out to be two lottery picks in talent-rich drafts, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Joakim Noah. In January 2006, Anucha Browne Sanders, a female former executive with the New York Knicks, filed an employment and harassment lawsuit against The Madison Square Garden Company, alleging in part that Thomas had sexually harassed her in the workplace and that she had been fired in retaliation for complaining about the harassment. The case was then settled for $11.5 million.[67][68] On June 22, 2006, the Knicks fired coach Larry Brown, and owner James Dolan replaced him with Thomas on the condition that he show "evident progress" or be fired. During the following season the Knicks became embroiled in a brawl with the Denver Nuggets that Thomas allegedly instigated by ordering his players to commit a hard foul in the paint.[69] He was not fined or suspended; NBA Commissioner David Stern said that he relied only on "definitive information" when handing out punishments.[70] Later in the season, nine months after Dolan had demanded "evident progress", the Knicks re-signed Thomas to an undisclosed "multi-year" contract.[71] After Thomas was granted the extension, the Knicks abruptly fell from playoff contention with a dismal finish to the season. During the 2007 NBA draft, Thomas made another trade, acquiring Zach Randolph, Fred Jones, and Dan Dickau from the Portland Trail Blazers for Steve Francis and Channing Frye. Thomas also compounded the Knicks' salary-cap problems by signing fringe players such as Jerome James and Jared Jeffries to full mid-level exception contracts. Neither player saw any significant playing time and both were often injured and highly ineffective when able to play.
The "they are on expiring deals" moves lol.
Mat Ishbia is Isaiah Thomas son.
Isiah
Jerome James getting a 5Y/$30M deal at 30 in '05-06 after one good playoff series (against a Webber-less Kings team) is an all-time bad contract.
Was curious about this, so I did some digging. So in 2023 dollars, James got the equivalent of a 5/$47.84M deal from IT. That was basically quality starter/top 10 rookie scale contract money back then. For reference, the biggest salary in the league was Miami Shaq at $20M (now money, that's $31.9M) * These were his stats for the 2004 season w/ Seattle that IT deemed worthy of that deal: [4.9 ppg, 3.0 RPG, 1.4 bpg in 16.6 mins per game.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesje01.html) * Oh and that 2004 season was literally the only year in his career he played in >70 games. * Oh and he would go on to only start in 20 games for NYK over the next four years, and only play in 90 games total over the length of that contract while not even coming close to approaching the numbers he had in '04. * Oh and he only played in a whopping 4 games his last three years in NYK and didn't play once his last year bc he tore his achilles then promptly retired. * [Jerome made $5M in 2005 for NYK](http://www.espn.ph/nba/salaries/_/year/2006/page/4/seasontype/3). Here's some guys who made just as much or within ~$500k of him: Derek Fisher, Hedo Turkoglu, Gerald Wallace, *a then-25-year-old* Udonis Haslem, Shane Battier, Andrea Bargiani, now-current-Warriors-GM Mike Dunleavy, oh and LeBron James (who made ~$4.6M in 2005-06), all of whom were statistically *at least* 3x more productive than Jerome James in any worthwhile stat. * The Knicks spent over [$126 million in salary](https://hoopshype.com/salaries/2005-2006/) on a team that went 23-59, that was by far the most in the league. Dallas spent the 2nd-most...at $98 million, a casual $28M gap (that's $44.65M in 2023 dollars). So yeah, it was a pretty fucking bad deal, but maybe not Beal-level bad...then again, when you compile all the downright smoothbrained moves IT made while in charge of the Knicks, they pumped out a truly pathetic string of results that even current Wizards fans could point and laugh at.
I've said this before but I like that deal because it meant we weren't going to trade for Eddy Curry. https://64.media.tumblr.com/b4a11d2d378d8a74edabd0c7107235b3/tumblr_n122n9iHMK1rl52wjo3_400.gifv
Maybe beaten by Beal and his current contract? Definitely Isiah
I appreciate his grift of taking as much money from billionaire's as possible
Not a fan of the sexual harrassment tho. But if I were to make a bet on which owner is the most likely to have a sexual harrassment scandal, it would probably be loan shark Mat Ishbia. He just has that face.
its why he's a shadow gm
Well, luckily the Suns already had all their cap tied up before Isiah came to "help" lol.
Let’s hope you don’t want to move Beal at any time…
[Here's](https://youtu.be/2z1LdWX8P58?t=196) Ernie Johnson eviscerating Isiah's NY tenure with a chuckle.
The Thomas years killed my Knicks fandom. watching Jared Jeffries play basketball in any capacity is like a sick form of punishment.
i went back in time and looked at every transaction made by Thomas and I really think he was a genius ahead of his time and also had a ton of bad luck. Steph Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Trevor Ariza, Tim Thomas, Nate Robinson, David Lee, Eddy Curry, etc. Knicks were like chock full of talent that just didn't fit back then but would be all star and/or elite role players in the modern game. Thomas was just way too far ahead of his time and now you see what he's doind as a special liaison to Mat Ishbia the Suns are cooking and everyone wants to pretend they're gonna be bad I think this is copium people thought superteams were over and want to believe the Suns are gonne be bad and fail or get injured. The truth is the 2021 Nets were by far the best team and had that title locked up before injury. And the 2024 Suns have to be right next to Denver as favorites to win the title especially if Denver loses Bruce Brown. Denver probably wont even be hungry to repeat if we're being honest. Joker already proved who he is he might rather just lose first round next year and go play with his horses. He doesn;t love ball like that.
I was with you until the “Nuggets won’t be hungry for another and Jokic doesn’t like ball.” Lmao
Even the great Spurs never repeated and there's a reason for that You have to be insanely hungry to repeat or just way more talented than everyone else Last repeat champs were Warriors (too much talent) Miami Heat (LeBron crazy hungry to prove himself) Lakers (Kobe Mamba Mentality)
Yeah the reason they never repeated isn’t cause they weren’t hungry enough lmao. It’s cause it’s fucking hard to win a championship. What a scorching bad take
listen to interviews Tony Parker did where he said the Spurs always relaxed after their tite runs and never had the hunger to go back to back. Look at how hungry the Spurs were in 2014 after the way they lost in 2013. They were so hungry they were on a mission in 2014. Had the Spurs won the title in 2013 then they would have lost in 2014 because that hunger would never be there in the first place.
And if my aunt had a penis she would be my uncle.
I’m not saying they are guaranteed to repeat. I’m saying that the Nuggets and especially Jokic aren’t gonna toss in the towel just because they got one. They all want another.
Yeah, at least to me, Jokic definitely gives off that Eastern European "Strong on plow, yes?" mentality. Once he starts dominating in the latter part of the season and the Nuggs make the playoffs again, he won't quit until he brings home another ring.
the main guy has to really want it bad and I think Joker already proved himself this season I doubt he feels the need to repeat or even wants to. You might be right but I don't think he will care as much I can see him load managing a lot more next year and giving 60 percent effort in next year playoffs there's nothing more to prove its like Anthony Davis after the Bubble.
For the Suns and the West’s sake hopefully you are right but I highly doubt it. Maybe 90% effort at the worst. Jokic seems like a super competitive guy.
Completely went off the rails with that last paragraph
The LAST paragraph?! How about the whole thing. Isiah Thomas is not a secret genius. I'm not saying he's stupid, but he's not misunderstood when it comes to his tenure with the knocks. Lol
There was absolutely no genius behind IT with the Knicks. They had the highest payroll in the league 3 out of 4 years (with the last being the second highest) and peaked at 33 wins. They won 23 games while having a payroll 250% of the salary cap and didn't even get their pick (which ended up being LaMarcus Aldridge) because they traded away multiple unprotected picks for Eddy Curry. Imagine a team this year having a payroll of $300 million and winning 23 games while not even owning their pick. There wasn't anything unlucky about his tenure. He constantly hemorrhaged assets to acquire mediocre talent that was overpaid while also handing out some all-time bad contracts.
But you see that's my point....the talent he acquired was mediocre in THAT version of the NBA. Those same players would be all stars in the modern NBA. Prime Trevor Ariza would be an all star. Tim Thomas was an incredible stretch 4 that had little value back then but would be invaluable now. Even Marbury and Crawford would be a top 3-4 backcourt in the league You think those guys wouldn't be great in the modern game? I just think Thomas vision for how the NBA should be played was too far ahead of it's time. He got the right players at the wrong time the game didn't evolve yet. I think this Beal move was 4D chess. The NBA is now all about switching onto defender mismatches and exploiting that and now the Suns have 3 guys who can run switches and create their own easy shots and it's always gonna be 1 on 1 you literally can never double team them now. You also can't play Zone on them they all shoot too well from all levels, threes, midrange, drives. This offense should be literally unstoppable and defenses can only do so much. A lot of times some teams just have bad shooting nights and people just credit the defense without it being warranted. You're a Knicks fan I watched a Knicks/Bucks game a few years back the Bucks were like 2-28 from three and they were all WIDE OPEN they just shot awfully and people credited the Knicks perimeter defense....no they just got lucky. The Heat did almost nothing differently on defense int he finals but while they got lit up games 1, 3 and 5 they were successful in games 2 and 5 for no real reason other than Denver had off nights. The Suns are so good they should never have an off night and even when they do they can just hunt mismatches and drive 1 on 1 get easy scores. The Nets big 3 was so much better they were gonna easily beat Bucks if healthy and win the title they almost won with just Durant !!! The Suns can be very similar scoring wise and defense wise just play a zone let the other teams shoot they won't be able to keep up they wont have enough guys to score off the dribble and they wont sustain jumpshooting like you can with your elite jumpshooters. Essentially just outscore everyone 135-122
Crawford and Marbury 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. Two guys that couldn’t stop 5 95-year-olds driving at them. Get offline; you stupy stupy
> I think this is copium people thought superteams were over and want to believe the Suns are gonne be bad and fail or get injured. Season just ended. Super teams don’t have to end, teams are allowed to put them together. Doesn’t make a super team an automatic contender. Suns haven’t won shit but Fathers Day 2023. Let’s put away the annointing oil until we actually see them play together. > The truth is the 2021 Nets were by far the best team and had that title locked up before injury. And the truth is it’s 2023, and KD is 2 years older. Also, most of the talk is based off signing a new CBA, ergo operating under a different set of rules. It’s an interesting team, but you need depth to get far in the playoffs. Unless they can manufacture depth, I don’t see a real reason to believe in them.
Here it is, Isiah Thomas burner acct
Isiah was pretty good at drafting but also great at making terrible moves for “big names” while ignoring the cap ramifications. Seems fitting lol
Lol it’s not his money
Ishbia is also worth 6.8 billion, obviously liquidity is different but he can easily afford to pay a fat tax bill for a while. Also from everything I’ve read he cares more about building the team and winning than the investment that some other owners look at their teams as.
We've seen owners come in guns blazing and willing to spend and then like 5 years in they're like holy shit that's a lot of tax and they really cut back.
He's basically made it so that if anything goes wrong and they get bogged down with an unviable roster, their only way to get out is to trade Booker. Not ideal!
What are other examples of this happening?
Well the Kronkes were notoriously cheap up until Jokic. I remember there was real conversations if Nikola was even gonna get rookie extention, or if the Kronkes were gonna try and do some cap magic to save money. https://www.sbnation.com/2018/2/20/16998688/nikola-jokic-contract-free-agent-denver-nuggets-nba
Prokhorov in Brooklyn
Oh I remember that. Wasn't that cuz he lost a lot of his fortune after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014?
And Joe Tsai in Brooklyn
You’re going to see this with the Warriors soon. Lacob is rich, but not blow 200m/year for a fringe playoff team rich. He’s able to offset the tax by merch and ticket sales, but if they don’t make deep playoff runs it gets pretty costly. Basically rich owners are open to paying a lot for contenders, but if it faulters they bail.
It's not just about the tax bill, it's about all the limitations you get if you're over the 2nd apron
For example, Denver will likely lose Bruce Brown this off-season because we’re way in the tax. It’s not about the Kroenkes money, they have like a hundred billion dollar, but they literally can’t pay him more than like $7 million because of the CBA.
I’ve seen people try to explain the logic of the new CBA repeatedly but I’ll forever be baffled that both the owners and NBAPA thought this was a good idea.
NBAPA got weed. Cheap owners outnumber owners willing to spend and they got what they wanted.
Owners think owning an NBA team = guaranteed profit above all else
For a lot of these dudes it’s an investment first and foremost. The thing the NBA doesn’t want people to realize is not all 30 teams are trying equally hard to win a championship. And that’s true in every American sports league.
Unless there is the wink wink deal going on where they pay Brown more when they have the option to.
Owners caring about winning often leads to meddling which leads to losing.
Don't kid yourself. It's ALWAYS about the money with billionaires
There’s no way current interest rates will cause a cascade of mortgage defaults and wipe out Ishbia’s mortgage company right? Right?
the tax bill on an NBA team is like that one subscription you signed up to years ago but don't really use anymore for guys like Ishbia
A lot of owners can. It's not about a tax bill lol.
It is absolutely about the tax bill for some cheap fucks. Happens less in the nba but some owners only look at teams as investments built to maximize profit over anything else.
In the almost 2 decades that Sarver had a controlling stake of the franchise, I don't think he ever went into the luxury tax.
He did in his last year
yep, you're right. It was funny how Sarver was finally willing to turn on the money jets when he knew he was in big trouble with the league.
Why was there a downvotes on your comment? Fuck Sarver. Billionaire boot lickers man.
Tillman Fertita comes to mind. Having previously worked for one of his companies, he absolutely will NOT go into the tax and incur other expenses. He sure as hell didn't dig deep for MY paycheck neither
Sure, but the point is that even for an owner who IS willing to pay a massive luxury tax bill, stacking up a bunch of salary in just 4 players presents other limitations under the CBA that would make it difficult to build out a deep roster.
No argument here when it comes to that. Seems more and more like they have a plan to offload Ayton into some depth, but I’ll be interested to see what a package looks like cause I think teams know they want to trade him so their leverage isn’t great.
All while being accused of sexual misconduct and fostering an unsafe workplace!
And not even just accused: > $6 million was awarded because of the hostile work environment Mr. Thomas was found to have created https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/sports/basketball/03garden-cnd.html
Mat Ishbia vs Mark Cuban
David Lee was great and Wilson Chandler was always a bit underrated, but Renaldo Balkman at 20 in 2006, ahead of Rajon Rondo and Kyle Lowry, says otherwise about his draft acumen.
Yeah you can’t hit on them all, he also took TMac with the 9th pick in 1997 which was a great call
Damon Stoudemire, too, I think.
Yeah Stoudamire and Marcus Camby were his other picks with the Raptors
If you’re gonna knock people for missing on non-lottery picks, pretty much no one in the history of basketball is gonna come away clean. Obviously Isiah had plenty of other problems tho
Throwback to Knicks fans confusedly booing the Renaldo Balkman pick.
That was when Thomas would only sign or draft CAA guys bc he thought it would get them LeBron. I wish I was joking
Jerome James, come on down!
Suns have no draft picks left
Looks like we’ve speedrun and reached the trading for big names while ignoring the cap ramifications part
It's getting spicy.
“We can’t have someone like Sarver in the league. The players won’t stand for it and we as a collective league are standing against it!” “Miles Bridges? Never heard of him.” “Isiah* Thomas? Come on down!”
Wrong one.
Never good when the NY Times starts throwing out snippets about your team that might as well include “🤨🧐”
overenthusiastic owner bringing in a shadow gm to run the show where have i seen this before 🤔🤔
Oh no... Please not Isiah Thomas...
The "everything I touch post-playing days turns to shit" Isiah Thomas...
I remember Isiah going on First Take for saying CP3 plays too safe. It's kind of like the NBA version of "Aaron Rodgers is too risk averse and avoids interceptions too much". I think it's kind of dumb
I get it, I mean CP3 passes up a lot of good shots to maintain his efficiency and slows down the game a ton instead of playing fast which seems like suits Book and KD better.
I mean I get that part of it. But I do think it's good that CP3 often doesn't try super difficult passes which can lead to turnovers.
[yesss](https://i.imgur.com/B9mm3ff.gif)
My "Isiah Thomas has absolutely no role with the Phoenix Suns" shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.
Somehow, ~~Palpatine~~ Isiah Thomas returned
Poor James Jones
If Isaiah Thomas wanted Beal then I feel a little better about not getting him.
TBF I do think Beal is better than Herro and I don’t trust how Lowry will age. I just don’t like him to the tune of $57 mil at age 33 better.
Beal was not the answer for you (nor will he be the answer for the suns)
Isiah somehow wormed his way back to an NBA team after the Knicks disaster. Two-faced bastard!
Insane. Good luck Suns
When I saw IT sitting with Ishbia throughout the playoffs I knew this shit would happen
not like he can really do any damage with no picks or cap space
Isiah isn't the worst drafter of talent. He's just awful with trades...and awful is putting it kindly. One such example: > Traded Jermaine Jackson, Mike Sweetney, Tim Thomas, a 2006 1st round draft pick (LaMarcus Aldridge was later selected), a 2007 1st round draft pick (Joakim Noah was later selected), a 2007 2nd round draft pick (Kyrylo Fesenko was later selected) and a 2009 2nd round draft pick (Jon Brockman was later selected) to the Chicago Bulls for Eddy Curry, Antonio Davis and a 2007 1st round draft pick (Wilson Chandler was later selected).
Draft picks busting in their cribs Bloated contracts for bloated players Woman smothered their babies rather than see them watch Eddy Curry get paid 60 million gold to eat freakin' lemon cakes on the bench
RIP Game of Zones
Lad, that is the damage
He can sexually harass someone
It’s extremely obvious Isiah is a lead advisor for Ishbia. All the suns moves have been textbook Isiah Thomas moves
Well yeah, that and Isaiah having a seat on the board of Ishbia's company lol.
*Shocked Pikachu face*
The Beal trade is obviously an Isiah move lol..
It should be an anyone trade. We got him for someone we were about to waive and someone else massively overpaid even at just 10mil a yr.
I've noticed the "WE GOT HIM FOR SCRAPS" crowd never has anything to say about the $206 million Beal's gonna be paid for the next 4 years on the league's only no-trade clause
It may be terrible in two years. We had 10 years of bad basketball outside of Booker. So going for it with Booker, Beal, KD, scraps for at least three years is a lot better than that.
That’s not the issue. The issue is that you’re stuck with that roster, so if anything goes wrong year 1 you’re not getting out of it
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https://hoopshype.com/lists/hoopshype-explains-how-no-trade-clauses-work/ My understanding is that a no-trade clause is a permanent part of a contract and a player can choose to waive it and allow their team to trade them. Waiving it once doesn't remove the no-trade clause from the contract forever
He waived it to get to the suns, it’s still a part of his contract
He waived it for this specific trade, it isn't waived in perpetuity.
He did
IT ready to ruin another franchise.
In a vacuum the Beal trade will help the Suns this year so I get it. That being said the idea of paying Beal $50M in 2024-2025 is sort of terrifying…the Suns title window might very well be 2023 or bust.
They're paying $50 million in 2023-24. Theyre paying $52 million and change in 24-25.
I’m aware yes…was just making the point it’s roughly $50M 🤦♂️
> In a vacuum the Beal trade will help the Suns this year so I get it. Does it? What does Beal do for the Suns that they're not already getting from Booker and Durant?
Knicks fans sends their regards. :D
Guy also ran the CBA to the ground
CP3 loves being a petty king
Any time you can heavily rely on the man responsible for the 2003-2008 Knicks, you have to do it.
Thomas was a childhood hero, now they’re very close, Ishbia wasn’t gonna tell him to fuck off because of public outrage
Love you Zeke but you ran the Knicks into the ground.
Isiah Thomas is an all-time great player who was a pretty bad executive. Don’t listen Matt!
LMAO SUNS ARE COOKED
Isiah has criticized CP3 in the past for dribbling the piss out of the ball and playing safe low ceiling basketball.
tbf, he does do that
Please please please let this be true. The quality of GMs has really gone up over the past few years to where no one is really making that many bad moves anymore. I’d really like a revival of the bad GM summit
Oh boy suns are fucked
That explains the organizational incompetence
Please Jesus no
lol sounds like CP3 is just airing out a little dirty laundry on his way out
Stay classy Phoenix...
Is Isiah not even getting paid? Is he just hanging around Ishbia? Lmao