The Hornets have been in contact with the NBA as they explore options to dispute the Lakers’ failed physical assessment of Mark Williams, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
The Lakers rescinded the trade with Charlotte based on their medical assessment of Williams.
The Hornets agreed to part with Williams in exchange for rookie wing Dalton Knecht, forward Cam Reddish, the Lakers’ unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round pick swap.
Although both teams announced the trade on Thursday, it remained conditional on Williams and Knecht reporting to their new teams and passing physicals. Since the trade deadline had passed, there was no avenue to amend the deal.
Los Angeles had looked at Williams as an ideal pick-and-roll partner for Luka Doncic, who reportedly urged the front office to find an upgrade at the center spot.
Meanwhile, the Hornets were in the awkward position of welcoming back Williams, which they did in a statement, while losing all the assets and players in the agreed-upon trade. Knecht and Reddish were also put in awkward spot of returning to a team that had just dealt them away.
The Lakers’ decision to nix the deal could also damage the future trade value of Williams, which would be another motivation for Charlotte to dispute those findings. Williams has only appeared in 85 games during his first 2 1/2 seasons in the league due to a variety of ailments.
Counterfeit goods from Africa…Danny Ferry does not approve.
Here are the CHA’s options to dispute the LAL’s medical decision: None.
They can accuse the LAL organization of acting in bad faith, but they’d have to admit, in the process, that they acted that way as well. Get each other in trouble. But, either way, the players will remain rostered where they are rostered. They’ll all have to deal with it.
They could ask the league office to have him see a league hired independent doctor and have him look at the supposed red flags and determine if they are real problems.
You actually read that stipulation in the hr nba handbook?
I mean all this stuff is based in arbitration rulings or just rulings straight from the league. If the league is going to make a ruling they will obviously look into it themselves. If CHO couldnt challenge it this wouldnt be news.
An independent doctor wouldn’t solve anything though. Different teams flag different things based on what their different medical personnel say. Same thing happens in all sports. First example that comes to mind is Carlos Correa from a few offseasons ago…both the Mets and Giants flagged his medicals for a foot/ankle issue while the Twins had no issue with it (or at least less of an issue with it than the other two teams).
I don’t even think this has anything to do with the Lakers having buyers remorse, because arguably the optics of reneging on the trade is worse than just overpaying. Someone on the Lakers medical staff saw Williams’ physical and strongly advised against completing the deal.
CHO can claim he doesnt have any red flags outside the ones already known, and then somebody has to weigh in who isnt employed by either team involved in the trade for obvious conflicts of interest. If both teams say the other is wrong the league cant just trust one they have to verify as best they can what is going on and who is wrong.
People working for the Mavs were trying to get them to reneg on the deal after it was verbally agreed too for Luka because Nico is really really dumb.
Yes, Drs look at 2 potential issues as a chronic problem that could keep on occurring… In Joel’s , Zion’s situation, conditioning is an issue because they can’t handle additional weight, stress on their bodies, 2nd condition for Joel is knee+… Zion has, lower leg issues due to weight , conditioning, very top heavy, body cant’t handle all that stress… Williams only played 40% to 5o% of the eligible games since coming into the league… that was a big trade package for a potentially chronically injured player…Lakers should sign a buyout candidate center,/ big, get through the season, and address in the off season….
I don’t believe that’s the case. Not in the NBA or other sport re: trade physicals. There is no objective standard for whether the player’s phyiscal condition is good or bad, it’s inherently subjective. So, the league gives teams have the absolute right to terminate the deal if they don’t like the results of a physical, and they needn’t even identify precisely what in the report was a problem.
It’s really the only way the system can work, unless you want trades upeheld during a 4-6 month arbitration process where it comes down to a battle of medical professionals, and also evidence of reasonable expectations (which wouldn’t be the same for a 35 year old player vs a 25 year old player).
It does create a soft spot in the process, and teams are expected to act in good faith. But the consequences of not doing so won’t affect the deal being rescinded. Maybe the LAL get fined. As I implied though, I think both teams acted outside the process, so maybe both should shush.
Mark Williams has been healthy lately, where did the Hornets act in bad faith? Lakers saw they gave up way too much for Williams and are trying to get out of the deal now
Its like if you do imaging and find a small tear that wasnt disclosed so is enough to nix the trade
Buddy what on earth makes you think the Lakers felt they gave up too much in the original deal? They made the deal?? Am I missing something?
It was reported that Pelinka did this deal while keeping most of his people in the dark similar to the Luka deal where almost nobody working for DAL besides Nico knew anything until it was publicly announced. It may be the Lakers sports performance/medical team were like dude we do not want this guy based on what we already know you made a bad deal. He could then say “be super thorough in the physical and tell me anything that appears off in the slightest way”.
So now doctors are subjective? The league should allow the teams to try and come to a resolution.
A team employed dr/trainer could be asked to find a problem in a physical if their boss wants a trade nixed.
Even more awkward. We traded you and we don’t want you back, only if forced.
The Lakers wanted a center… and it’s not like reneging on the deal benefited them. It’s not like they planned to tank his value and trade less for him in the off-season. Whatever came up, instead of amending the draft comp, which they may have been able to do, not sure, but still they had an option to accept the results of the physical and they chose not to do so.
It was a late completed deal with no press because Pelinka negotiated it without informing most of his own staff or team so he might second guess it if his people weigh in.
Also no you cannot amend the trade after the deadline has passed. If the league punishes CHO because they find that they knew about an injury and didnt disclose it they will just lose a pick or get fined but it wont go to LAL.
Honestly, this smells like BS. Mark Williams does have an injury HISTORY but he was pretty healthy lately so I dont see why his current medical examination would come back negative.
The Lakers realised they gave way too much for him and simply wanted to back away from the deal. Hopefully the nba doesnt let this slide, otherwise maybe the Mavs can still pull the same with Luka? Lol
Because it doesn’t need to be an existing ailment to get flagged. Just throwing out a hypothetical but they could’ve seen an issue with say his foot and think its a strong chance to become a recurring injury problem.
The same thing has happened in other sports. The most recent example I can think of is Carlos Correa in baseball. Two separate teams flagged his medicals because of an ankle injury he suffered from 8 years prior. And a third team either didn’t care about the issue or it didn’t worry them enough to prevent them from signing him.
Tyson Chandler was red flagged nixing a deal in 09, but he never had any problems. Sometimes guys have small tears or old ligament damage that doesnt effect them but shows up on imaging.
Both sides wanted the Deal and it Was reviewed as another steal for the Lakers, who hurt their chances to go deep in the playoffs.
There is no room for any conspiracy.
Caris Levert was found to have a tumor during a physical with the Pacers. Bronny seemed as healthy as a horse and suffered a cardiac arrest during a workout due to a congenital heart defect. These are just two extreme examples, but there are many issues that can go unnoticed until you take a closer look.
Enough with the conspiracy crap that the Lakers changed their mind. The Lakers are desperate and all in right now. Rescinding this trade did not help them this year and they are in win now mode.
The Lakers had a practice and realised Hayes was good enough for now as he’s more likely to play…
For information only: link to nytimes.com