One truism of trade deadline season is that teams eventually have to show their cards. Sometimes they don’t do it until ten minutes before the deadline, but at some point everyone must.
Saturday’s trade between Portland and Sacramento is a good example. Typically, any team in the luxury tax will typically tell the other 29 teams that ownership is fine with paying tax and they have no urgency to get out of it. With some teams it’s obvious they’re bluffing from the word go; with deep-pocketed ownership in Portland, it was at least semi-plausible that they weren’t. Regardless, that’s what any front office worth its salt will tell people – you never want to look desperate.
Kings-Trail Blazers trade
Kings: Jason Jones | Blazers: Jason Quick | NBA: Zach Harper
Reading the tea leaves, however, this pathway always seemed likely with their season circling the drain at 18-25 and the team sporting the league’s highest payroll at $11.4M…
