Hassan Adams was released over the weekend by the New Jersey Nets in order to free up cap space to avoid the luxury tax (even though he was only scheduled to make a whopping $800,000 next year, where as Bernard Robinson and Antoine Wright will be making more). I have been a big fan of Hassan Adams for a long time. When he was in high school, he was extensively profiled by ESPN (along with Evan deadbeat Burns), and then went to play for Lute Olsen at Arizona. His most memorable game was in the Elite 8 against Daron Williams and Arizona in 2005. Although people mostly remember Arizona's implosion in the closing minutes, Hassan Adams almost single handily won them the game. He was then taken late in the second round by the Nets in the 2006 Draft (after graduating). Most importantly though, through extensive coverage of his life since he was 17, at absolutely no point was there any hint that Hassan Adams was anything but a happy, intelligent, good-natured human being that just loved the game of basketball.
So, he has been released by the New Jersey Nets. Now, if you were Sacramento, Indiana, Minnesota, Philadelphia, New York or Memphis, teams with over-the-hill players who are going nowhere next year and everybody knows it, is there any risk to picking up Hassan Adams? Of course not, but, unfortunately, as has been reiterated ad infinitum by Bill Simmons, NBA GM's are a bunch of morons. If I ran any one of those teams, I would blow up the team, replace them with talented but underrated young players that were good guys who worked hard, and we would be competitive every night. We would likely lose more than we won, but, we would always be fun to watch.
Take Sacramento for example. The Kings used to represent everything that was good about basketball. They have since fallen on hard times. Their roster consists of Kevin Martin (seems like a very good guy in addition to a pretty darn good team player), Mike Bibby (still has a few very good years in him, especially if his team ever made the playoffs), Ron Artest (never had anything good in him, but other GM's think he not only used to, but currently does, which is really all that matters), Brad Miller (who has nothing in him, and it seems as though everyone knows it), Kenny Thomas, the recently signed and already overpaid Mikki Moore, and, of course, the biggest natural loser not named Keith Van Horn or Drew Bledsoe, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Now, what if tomorrow they signed Hassan Adams. Then traded Mike Bibby to Cleveland in exchange for Shannon Brown and Anderson Varejau. Then they traded Ron Artest to the Rockets in exchange for Aaron Brooks and next years first round pick. That would leave the Kings with the following rotation:
PG: Aaron Brooks
SG: Shannon Brown
SF: Kevin Martin
PF: Anderson Varejau
C: Spencer Hawes
6: Hassan Adams
This team would likely go 20-62, with zero arrests, 100% effort all the time, and would make people proud to be Sacramento Kings fans. Other than Martin, at least one other player would break out and average 20 points for them (of course, it won't be Varejau because he can't score, and it won't be Hawes because, well, hes white). They would then wind up with multiple first round picks in next years draft and be drmatically under the cap to add a player here and there.
My point is that NBA GM's need to be realistic. For example, the Indiana Pacers are never going to win a title with Jermaine O'neal. He makes too much money, holds the ball in the low post for too long, and I cannot remember him every scoring a basket in his career. If your going to lose, its always better to lose with likable, hard-working young players that make about as much as the fans sitting courtside than it is with established overpaid players who are resented by everyone when the team is losing.
