Bob Lobel: The Phony GMs of Sports Talk Radio

By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)

The last thing I want to do is offend anyone but, sometimes, it can't be helped.  

With that said, let me launch into the phenomenon of talk show calls offering trades to help the local club, no matter the sport. Why does this happen? Maybe they think one of the GMs might be listening, and the trade sounds so brilliant that the caller will be hired to come to work for said team that very day.

Plus, they'll be asked to ride in the next parade for the team that they, and they alone, fixed. 

NBA Trade Deadline Recap

The Pacers added Evan Turner, but will he be enough to put them into the Finals?

By Bennett Corcoran

After J.J. Redick was the prize last February, it appears this unfortunate trend continues; another year under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, another unbearably slow NBA trade deadline. Luckily, the last minute Evan Turner-Danny Granger swap has serious playoff implications, so it wasn’t a total flop. Let’s take a look at each trade and see which teams are stockpiling for a playoff run.

Four Things That Might Happen At The NBA Trade Deadline

NBA GM's will be by the phone Thursday, but will anyone big get moved?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

The NBA Trade Deadline is TODAY, Thursday, at 3 p.m. Here are a few things that might happen:

1. The Knicks trade Iman Shumpert and Ray Felton for Darren Collison and Reggie Bullock (or Matt Barnes)

This one seems probable, and fair for both sides. The money doesn't work out unless the Clippers agree to fit Shumpert's contract into the trade exception they got out of the Eric Bledsoe trade this summer, otherwise they'd have to throw in Willie Green.

The Expendable All-Stars

Expendable All-Star Luol Deng launches a jump shot. Sylvester Stallone not pictured. (flickr)

By Jeremy Conlin  @jeremy_conlin

Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams around the league seem to be tightening their belts. Even the best, most profitable teams in the league – Miami amnestied Mike Miller, the Lakers amnestied Metta World Peace, Oklahoma City let Kevin Martin walk in free agency, etc. It’s basically everyone but Brooklyn.

Teams are generally more afraid of the luxury tax than they ever have been before. For one, the tax is more punitive starting this upcoming season – what used to be a dollar-for-dollar tax is now a $1.50-per-dollar tax at a minimum, and can escalate to as high as $3.75-per-dollar, depending on how far above the tax a team is. More importantly, perhaps, is the “repeater” tax rate that will go into effect for the 2014-2015 season. If a team has paid the tax in each of the last three seasons, the minimum tax rate jumps from $1.50-per-dollar to $2.50-per-dollar and the maximum tax rate jumps from $3.75-per-dollar to $4.75 per-dollar.

In layman’s terms – a team $20 million over the tax line in 2013 would have paid a $20 million tax. A team $20 million over the tax line in 2014 would pay a tax of $45 million. In 2015, if they had paid the tax in each of the previous three seasons (and thus qualified for the “repeater” tax rate), they would pay a tax of (gulp) $65 million.