Inside the NBA

Shock Exchange  

Two dissatisfied teams made a surprising swap of All-Star guards

By Ian Thomsen

"What would it take to get Gary Payton?" asked Bucks G.M. Ernie Grunfeld on the eve of last Thursday's trade deadline.

"Ray Allen," answered Sonics G.M. Rick Sund, who doubted that Milwaukee would swap its 27-year-old star shooting guard for a free-agent-to-be point guard who's seven years older. But the next morning Sund and Grunfeld were back on the phone, and within five hours they'd put together a stunning midseason deal: Payton and 6'5" sixth man Desmond Mason for Allen, guards Kevin Ollie and Ronald Murray, and a conditional 2003 draft choice.

Payton scored 22 in his Bucks debut, a 93-90 win at Portland. Sam Forencich/Getty Images

The two leading men were available because each posed an intractable problem for his team. The Sonics were convinced Payton wouldn't accept a substantial cut in his $12.6 million salary this summer, while Bucks coach George Karl saw Allen as one-dimensional -- a scorer with little interest in sharing the ball or playing defense. Allen is a three-time All-Star and was among the first four players named to the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, but he has been limited by ankle sprains and tendinitis in his left knee for the last two seasons. "When my team pisses me off, it's because we don't play hard," said Karl in a discussion of Allen last Friday, implicitly accusing him of being at the root of that concern.

Karl took great pleasure in snatching a Hall of Famer from his former boss, Seattle president Wally Walker, who fired Karl as the Sonics' coach in 1998. Before the two teams met last Friday night at KeyArena (an ugly 88-58 Sonics win for which the traded players, awaiting medical clearance, did not suit up), Karl was greeted with a huge cheer, like a triumphant Huey Long returning to Louisiana. Disaffected fans held up signs that read trade wally and the glove is worth more than 3 bucks. "Gary is the greatest competitor I've ever coached," said Karl with a big smile. "About a month ago Jerry Sloan said there were only eight or nine men in basketball, and I think Gary is one of them."

It will be asking a lot of Payton and 33-year-old Sam Cassell to coexist in the Milwaukee backcourt; both prefer to set up on the left side and dominate the ball. Still, the Bucks will become an instant contender for the Finals if Payton is able to do what Karl could not: change them into a go-for-the-jugular team. If the trade fails to result in an extended playoff run this spring, will owner Herb Kohl -- who admits the team is for sale and knows each dollar he pays Payton could be doubled by the luxury tax -- shell out more than $7 million a year to re-sign him? (Payton is more likely to accept a pay cut from a team other than Seattle, where he believed his 12-plus years of service entitled him to a lucrative deal.)

The trade's value for the Sonics will take longer to assess, depending on whether they're able to replace the toughness they lost in Payton and Mason, their best defenders. They'll look to thin their ranks at center (they have five, including Elden Campbell, acquired from the Hornets for Kenny Anderson, a potential luxury-tax savings of $5 million) and use their lottery pick for one of the many point guards available in the June draft. Seattle would have had about $6 million in cap room after this season but now will have to use a mid-level exception to sign a free agent.

Though Allen's arrival will relegate team leader Brent Barry to the role of point guard or sixth man, he likes the trade. "Gary wasn't going to come back, and if we were going to try to sign a free agent, we weren't going to get anyone better than Ray Allen," says Barry. He also believes that young teammates such as Rashard Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic have a better chance of flourishing with Allen than with Payton. "[Allen] is a pat-on-the-back guy, [Payton] is a swift-kick-in-the-ass guy," Barry says. "When you have a player of Gary's stature, who's still playing well and is the focus of the offense, it's hard to develop other guys. This change is only going to accelerate the learning process for our younger players."

Issue date: March 3, 2003

For more Inside the NBA see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, February 26. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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