Quote:
Originally Posted by LonghornDub
I wouldn't just say it's not completely fair, I'd say it's completely unfair to expect them to do anything more than make repeated efforts to offer everything we have except the one guy who we're keeping.
There's reading the market, and then there's reading minds. When the Hornets tell you "no" over and over and over and you've offered everything you've got, it'd be unreasonable to sit around and insist to yourself that they still might change their mind anytime soon. It's especially unreasonable when you have an asset whose trade value only lasts for so much longer.
You hope (maybe even expect) they change their mind awhile down the road, but it'd be unreasonable under these circumstances to prepare for the contingency that a week or two later they do a complete 180.
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I could add two more things that speak for the front office (if I remember the the chronology of events correctly):
- first the Hornets GM Bower was fired in part because he wouldn't stop entertaining the idea of getting Paul his wish and trade him away (btw, without him being as obviously disgruntled as he is now, NO then would have had much more leverage in trade talks than now)
- then TC was almost included in a three-team trade and shipped to Toronto, so when the Mavs jumped in at this point to acquire him and dump Carroll and Najera in the process (maybe the last chance to do so), vague pledges to finish the deal at some point later in the offseason wouldn't have been enough for Charlotte to walk away from that trade
With the secondary goal on mind of dumping some bad contracts to increase their willingness to acquire new ones in a future trade, and seemingly no way of getting a (Super-)Star player this offseason, the MBT had no longer control over the timing of such a deal, or at least not enough incentive to keep control over it.