Someone tap Calvin Booth on the shoulder and let him know he’s holding his cards out over the table.
After the way the Nuggets general manager and the rest of the organization handled the Bones Hyland situation the past two weeks, the Grading the Week staff isn’t sure he’s aware.
Bones Hyland trade — D+
While we would never be confused with poker legend Doyle Brunson, this much we do know: It’s rarely a good idea to tip your hand before all the money is on the table.
That’s a lesson Booth learned the hard way in his first NBA trade deadline as the franchise’s top decision-maker when his team had to settle for a pair of second-round draft picks in exchange for a rising star and fan favorite.
Second-round picks may be the new cryptocurrency of the Association, but it’s safe to say the second-year guard would’ve fetched more than that had the Nuggets not signaled to the rest of the league that he’s on his way out of town.
Don’t believe us? Well, Jae Crowder brought back five second-rounders from the Milwaukee Bucks, and he hasn’t appeared in one game all season. (He’s also getting paid nearly five times more than Hyland, and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, while Bones still has at least two years left on his rookie deal.)
Actions speak louder than words. So despite all the positive things said on Hyland’s behalf by teammates leading up to the trade deadline, it was head coach Michael Malone’s stubborn refusal to play him once over his last four games with the team that spoke volumes.
It’s one thing to sit a guy for a night. Hyland deserved as much after he walked off the bench in the middle of a home game last month.
But to not give him a single minute in a game at Minnesota in which four Nuggets starters were inactive? That’s just going overboard. It’s also telling the rest of the league that your team has reached a point of no return with one of its young stars.
Not exactly the best strategy when you’re trying to improve a win-now roster for a potential NBA Finals run.
Outbursts aside, Hyland has at least one real NBA skill — he can shoot from just about anywhere on the court. Those guys have value, especially when they’re locked into low-cost contracts.
But because the Nuggets spent a considerable amount of time tanking that value, they didn’t recoup nearly as much of it as they should have.
George Kliavkoff — F
How is a conference full of top-tier academic institutions so bad at hiring commissioners?
The Pac-12’s latest leader, George Kliavkoff, has thus far proven to be no better at selling the conference as his widely panned predecessor, Larry Scott.
How bad have things gotten since USC and UCLA decided to do a deal with the Big Ten devil? Kliavkoff is now reportedly targeting San Diego State and SMU as potential expansion candidates in an attempt to prop up the conference’s value as it negotiates its next TV deal.
Sigh.
The Grading the Week staff may be less than enthused at the prospect of CU joining a bloated Big 12, but ol’ George isn’t doing a lot to make the Buffs’ current home look more enticing.
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