New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry isn't happy about the fact that NBA players are asking to be traded at a higher frequency. And furthermore, he believes contracts “don't really mean anything anymore.”
Today's NBA players have a lot more ways to communicate with one another. With the implementation of the internet, cell phones and social media, discussions between players can be held on a whim, and they're taking advantage of their newfound power like never before.
In a recent interview with ESPN's Jackie MacMullan, Gentry noted Paul George's recent trade request before delivering his point:
“You have Paul George, one of our premier players in the league, who was paid very well by the team, suddenly announce, ‘Hey, I want to be traded,'” Gentry says. “You have no recourse but to get the best deal you can.
“I hear players say, ‘Why is it different from a team trading us?' Because this isn't football, where they can say, ‘If you're not playing well, we're gonna cut you and you won't get paid.' We pay our players and it's guaranteed.”
Gentry feels the league is to the point that contracts “don't really mean anything anymore, so make them all two-year deals. It will save us a lot of headaches.”
The Pelicans coach offered a solution during his interview with MacMullen — one that would have players waiting until the offseason to make their trade requests public. This way, high-profile team disruptions could be avoided:
Gentry says there's a right way and a wrong way to request a trade. If a star agrees to work privately with the franchise, and agrees to wait until the offseason, he says, it avoids high-profile disruptions that hurt both the player and the team.
It's not clear what the NBA is going to do about this growing concern. Commissioner Adam Silver has been taking a close look at the proceedings for a while, but he can't ask players to abstain from using their phones or social media pages.
For now, this dilemma lives on.
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