What's new

Could the Jazz Milk Washington if The Ace Saga Sours?

What part about it not being all about money do you not understand? Agents should do whatever they can to get a player where he wants to be. It doesn’t matter if that cost $1M, $5M, or $15M. Where a player wants to be is where he wants to be. And every single year agents do this.

It’s up to the player to decide what is worth it. Obviously Ace did not think dropping was going to give him a bigger rookie deal. He wanted to be there anyways. Players and agents can be wrong about what’s best for them. But I’m speaking to the actual effort placing a player where they want to be.

I think people are upset that UTA wasn’t considered a good location. Ok, that’s a separate conversation from the actual act of getting a player to a specific spot. If he and his camp had determined that UTA was his best location and he did the same thing to get here we wouldn’t be calling it grooming. We’re only freaking out about it because we were not the team that was wanted.

There's a dramatic difference between it not being "all about the money" (not my argument) and it being so not about the money at all that a $13M paycut is worth forcing yourself to a franchise like the Pelicans.

I'm just trying to figure out in what universe that's looking out for a client's best interests. Certainly not this one.
 
There's a dramatic difference between it not being "all about the money" (not my argument) and it being so not about the money at all that a $13M paycut is worth forcing yourself to a franchise like the Pelicans.

I'm just trying to figure out in what universe that's looking out for a client's best interests. Certainly not this one.
Just gotta give this story a couple weeks… **** that don’t make sense will.
 
 
You have no idea why I have “this energy”. But keep on defending this guy that is just doing right by his client or whatever you think… it won’t age well.

No I'm serious, I don’t think we would care if an agent forced their player to Utah. We would clap our hands and celebrate. He didn’t want Utah and I still don’t care. I care as much as the FO does, which is none at all.

The stupid part was identifying Washington as the best situation—I think Philly would’ve been better. But the defensible action is trying to get your player to their preferred destination, whatever that is. Players want to be in certain places, and it’s the agent’s job to get them there. That’s what I mean by “doing right by his client.” Once you’ve identified a preferred situation (right or wrong), you should do everything you can to make it happen.

Cooper’s unique position as a fake agent allowed him to do more, and he certainly did that. You can keep talking past me, but this is my stance. Getting a player to a destination is the job of an agent.
 
There's a dramatic difference between it not being "all about the money" (not my argument) and it being so not about the money at all that a $13M paycut is worth forcing yourself to a franchise like the Pelicans.

I'm just trying to figure out in what universe that's looking out for a client's best interests. Certainly not this one.

It’s simple. The universe where a player prefers to go to WAS. That is this universe.

You’re talking past me. I am not defending the decision to prefer WAS, I am defending the act of steering an agent towards a preferable destination. Those are two different things.
 
It’s simple. The universe where a player prefers to go to WAS. That is this universe.

You’re talking past me. I am not defending the decision to prefer WAS, I am defending the act of steering an agent towards a preferable destination. Those are two different things.
Maybe he's just good at acting, but Ace seemed pretty happy and excited when he got drafted, and during his interviews after. It's hard for me to reconcile that same person with somebody who'd ask his agent to tank his stock and cost him $13M to get him to Washington or New Orleans, but what do I know.
 
Maybe he's just good at acting, but Ace seemed pretty happy and excited when he got drafted, and during his interviews after. It's hard for me to reconcile that same person with somebody who'd ask his agent to tank his stock and cost him $13M to get him to Washington or New Orleans, but what do I know.

You’re talking past me once again. You keep mentioning the money. First of all, you realize that’s less money for his agent. But more importantly, it’s irrelevant to what I’m saying. Can I stress that one more time? The money is irrelevant if the preferred destination is still the preferred destination.

When I say he is doing right by his client, I do not mean his choice of destination was correct. You could say doing right by your client means picking the right destination. Totally fair, but not what I’ve been talking about. Weighing the value of money, geography, and everything else related to a destination is a deeply personal decision and I don’t care to make a comment on it except that from the basketball side I’d prefer PHI. If you noticed, I have not once said that the decision to WAS/NOP/BKN was correct.

What I mean by “doing right by his client” is doing everything possible to go to the preferred destination regardless of why it is preferred. If you cannot distinguish those two things, there is no point in continuing this discussion. None of comments have been talking about why WAS is actually better than UTA, but my comments have been centered around the act of steering a player to a certain destination. And I’ll stand by that. I think that is the duty of an agent and it happens year after year.
 
Back
Top