Minnesota Sports Forum

Remember when the Wolves lost "5" #1 draft picks... and paid a $3.5M fine... and lost the services of its GM... and the player... for tampering with Joe Smith?

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The Lakers were fined a whopping $500k for being guilty of player tampering.

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It seems to be actively encouraged for most teams at this point...

Taylor signed a contract and stashed it. Taylor's paper trail made it impossible not to have the book thrown at us. The Wolves deserved their punishment just for unprecedented levels of stupidity. Lakers probably should have gotten more, but nothing will ever beat asinine move Taylor and McHale did with the Joe Smith debacle.

More fun about the difference between the two...

The Wolves were fined $3.5M... which was about 10% of the salary cap and about 2% of the team's market value.

The Lakers were fined $500k... which is about .05% of the salary cap and less than .002% of the team's market value.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:More fun about the difference between the two...

The Wolves were fined $3.5M... which was about 10% of the salary cap and about 2% of the team's market value.

The Lakers were fined $500k... which is about .05% of the salary cap and less than .002% of the team's market value.

The punishment of the Wolves was ridiculous even if they got caught. A big difference though. The Wolves signed Joe Smith and what they signed obviously helped them get him. The Lakers contacted PG's people. He was traded to OKC and isn't with the Lakers. Now if he ends up with the Lakers months from now maybe the league or another team will ask the league revisit this. 500k they got funded isn't nothing...but it basically is although I am surprised that they were found guilty. Both Magic and Pelinka were mentioned. That's not a good look for them starting out running the franchise...if it matters.

I don't see the Lakers' violation rising to the level of what the Wolves did in the Joe Smith debocle. But it should have been more than a $500,000 find. That's not even a slap on the write. More like a soft caress. The penalty should have included either a 2-year ban on the Lakers signing Paul George (in other words, they couldn't sign him next summer) or the loss of one future 1st round pick. That would have still been FAR less than the penalty assessed against the Wolves, but it would have at least been meaningful. The independent investigator found a violation and that required a meaningful penalty.

lipoli390 wrote:I don't see the Lakers' violation rising to the level of what the Wolves did in the Joe Smith debocle. But it should have been more than a $500,000 find. That's not even a slap on the write. More like a soft caress. The penalty should have included either a 2-year ban on the Lakers signing Paul George (in other words, they couldn't sign him next summer) or the loss of one future 1st round pick. That would have still been FAR less than the penalty assessed against the Wolves, but it would have at least been meaningful. The independent investigator found a violation and that required a meaningful penalty.

+1

"Tampering"?

They signed him to an illegal contract, then didn't pay Fleischman so he dropped a dime. It was illegal and stupid.

And remember, Smith insisted on a paper trail because Taylor was having an organ transplant surgery and didn't want the deal to die with him. At that point, you either have to be EXTREMELY careful in every other area or walk away.

And last but not least: MIN had ZERO cap flexibility because of KG's contract, a contract that caused the '98 lockout and would be significant even today, and it was signed over 20 or so years ago.

And on the flip side...

We traded Rubio BEFORE free agency started AND managed to secure Teague's services within minutes of free agency beginning.

I really thought we were going to hear about some sort of investigation into what went on there... But we didn't! :thumb: