Keyon Dooling Signs With Memphis

So, Dooling signs a contract with the Celtics over the summer. He "retires" without ever even lacing his sneakers up in pre-season. He gets a buy-out from the Celtics but some his contract still sticks to the Celtics' salary cap and puts them that much closer to the hard cap (which made it harder for us to sign players). Now, he's playing again.

Could someone please tell me again why Dooling is so highly thought of? He looks like a manipulative sonuvabitch to me. Dooling was a VP of the Players Union. So was that other scumbag (sorry Rosalie) Derek Fisher, the President of the Players Union, who pretty much pulled the exact same stunt on Mark Cuban.



KEYON DOOLING SIGNS WITH MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES FOR PLAYOFF RUN 04.01.13 at 12:50 pm ET
By Mike Petraglia | 0 Comments




Keyon Dooling is heading back to action in the NBA. He is coming out of retirement but not with the Celtics.

The 32-year-old veteran guard has agreed to terms with the Memphis Grizzlies to help them in their playoff push in the Western Conference. Entering Monday, the Grizzlies are 49-24 and in a tight three-way race with Denver and the Clippers for third place in the highly competitive Western Conference.

Dooling made the announcement Monday on his Twitter page: “I am so honored to announce that I AM BACK! I am heading to officially sign w/ @MemGrizz and am looking forward to being back on the court!”

Dooling had been serving as a player development coordinator for the Celtics before accepting the offer to play with the Grizzlies on Monday. Dooling will be playing for his seventh NBA team since entering the NBA with the Clippers at the age of 20 in 2000. Dooling has averaged 7.0 points and 2.2 assists in 721 career games. He averaged 4.0 points and 1.1 assists in 46 games for the Celtics during the 66-game schedule in the 2011-12 season.

On Dec. 9, 2011, Dooling and a 2012 second-round pick were traded to Celtics in exchange for the draft rights to Albert Miralles. Then at the end of last season, Dooling re-signed with the Celtics.

But after being waived by the Celtics on Sept. 20, he decided to retire from the Celtics and accept a front office/coaching position with the team. Dooling thanked GM Danny Ainge and head coach Doc Rivers on Monday after announcing his return.


Dooling is also a former Vice President for the NBA Players Association.

Dooling will join former Celtics guard Tony Allen, who also welcomed him back to the NBA via his Twitter page.


bob


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This is curious. Maybe his only purpose was to counsel Rondo, and since Rondo's out, he serves no purpose anymore and they're glad to see him go. Maybe he was on a trial basis as an adjunct auxiliary assistant coach and he didn't cut the mustard. Or maybe he just did a Fisher-Dallas thing and they think he's a jerk.

I've generally liked Derek Fisher and respected him as a clutch performer in past years and a locker room leader, but I think he actually did Dallas a favor by not re-signing with them and Cuban made it a much bigger deal than it really was by complaining about it. I don't think Dooling going to Memphis is a big loss for the Celtics, either.

Interesting that Dooling is a former VP of the players association. Is there something in the water at players association meetings?

Outside.

The point isnt whether Dallas or Boston are better off without Fisher (or Dooling), the point is they both used shady, BS excuses to opt out of a team where they signed - only to have a change of heart when it suited them.

mrkleen09 wrote:Outside.

The point isnt whether Dallas or Boston are better off without Fisher (or Dooling), the point is they both used shady, BS excuses to opt out of a team where they signed - only to have a change of heart when it suited them.

MrKleen,

My point, in posting this, was to highlight the shady practices used by members of the Player Union's senior management, as you have stated. I find this odious, to be honest, especially since it so closely mirrors the same tactics and explanation (I want to spend more time with my family) that was used by his fellow Union manager.

Another point, on top of that one, is whether or not we are weakened by this (we are not) and whether a potential, albeit unlikely, playoff opponent is better because of this. If Memphis is stronger, then maybe they could put a few more dings into the WC teams before they meet us.


bob


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MrKleen,

I agree with your point about Fisher. I don't understand why he wouldn't give the Mavs the opportunity to sign him if they wanted, and it was a classless move in my opinion based on what I know.

I don't know enough about Dooling's move to say if it's equivalent because, for all I know, it was mutually agreed upon with the Celtics. In particular, the blurb that Bob quoted said that Dooling thanked the Celtics, and unless there's some sort of grumbling from the team that this was an underhanded move, I don't have any basis to believe it's equivalent to the Fisher situation (yet). If you guys are aware of something else that supports this being an underhanded move by Dooling, please let me know.

I'm totally on board for considering Fisher's maneuver with Dallas this season classless. But that doesn't mean it's not worth pointing out that Fisher actually did Dallas a favor because he's lost all remnants of effectiveness as a player. He recently missed something like 18 shots in a row. Isn't it okay to point out that Fisher sucks and Cuban should be grateful?

I expect that I have a more nuanced opinion of Fisher than most people here. He's been an egregious flopper (or, more accurately, a flailer -- he flails his arms when going around screens, for example). I can't stand flopping, I detest it in all its forms, and he gets no pass from me on it. But he was a marginal talent who worked his butt off to carve out a decent NBA career, he shone in clutch moments, especially in the playoffs, and he has been by all accounts an excellent teammate and leader. I also think he did a better than decent job as union president and did the right thing by challenging Billy Hunter and calling him out on his corruption, which eventually led to Hunter being dismissed.

I have no idea why Fisher did what he did regarding Dallas. What I do know is that when a similar situation occurred when Fisher was with Utah, Fisher was above reproach that time. His then one-year-old daughter had a rare and quite serious form of cancer of the eye, and he asked for his release from Utah after the 2006-07 season so that he could join a team in a major city that had the specialists necessary to treat his daughter. Utah was generous enough to grant his release, even though that meant him going to the rival Lakers. When he played in Utah the next season and then when the Jazz and Lakers met in the postseason, the Utah fans were absolutely horrible to Fisher -- they chanted "cancer, cancer, cancer" when he shot free throws -- but he went about his business without complaint. It was about the most despicable thing I've ever seen a crowd do.

So ream Fisher for what he did this season; from what I can tell, he deserves it. But like I said, I have more nuanced overall opinion of him. In particular, I don't put the Utah situation in the same boat as the Dallas one, as too many people tended to do when Fisher signed with OKC this season.

What Derek Fisher did this year was completely wrong.
This raises questions about why he asked Utah and Houston to release him.
Even if Derek did have a change of heart this season or his family encouraged him to get back out on the court, the morally right thing to do would be to reach out to Mark Cuban. Derek made it seem like his playing days were over when Mark agreed to release him.

We don't know yet why Dooling decided to come back with Memphis.
I wonder if it could be to play for that hip, new GM, John Hollinger?

I read somewhere where Doc said we couldn't sign Dooling. He said if they could he would have been in uniform. I don't remember the reasons.

Fisher showed he will do anything to get on a winner. He has done it before as well. I think I started a thread on this when he first signed with OKC that had some details about it. The Utah situation I also read there were more than capable doctors in Salt Lake City to hand all the childs needs as well.

tardust wrote:Fisher showed he will do anything to get on a winner. He has done it before as well. I think I started a thread on this when he first signed with OKC that had some details about it. The Utah situation I also read there were more than capable doctors in Salt Lake City to hand all the childs needs as well.

As this article puts it, Fisher "said his desire to leave Utah does not mean that medical care here is weak. Rather, Fisher said he and his wife need a place that has the 'right combination' of specialists."

His daughter had a rare form of retinablastoma (only 350 cases diagnosed each year in North America, according to a doctor quoted in the article), and they chose a potentially riskier course of action by trying to save her eye. There may have been doctors who could treat it in Salt Lake City, but the best care for rare situations like that are likely to be in major metropolitan areas, which Salt Lake City is not.

Utah and Dallas were two completely different situations. He handled Dallas poorly, but I don't fault him at all for Utah.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2924068

Hi,
I don't know much about all those machinations. My concern is if KD's salary comes off the books after signing with Grizz? Gyso? Anyone?
Thanks,
AK

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
I don't know much about all those machinations. My concern is if KD's salary comes off the books after signing with Grizz? Gyso? Anyone?
Thanks,
AK

I tried to find something yesterday in Larry Coon's sal-cap FAQ's that spoke specifically to this and I struck out. I remember reading something (quite a while back) that said that the team salary at the end of the regular season determines the final numbers that affect the Celtics going forward. If Dooling's salary is off the books, that may help the Celtics to be under the luxury tax amount (LTA). If the Celtics are under the LTA, they don't get hit with the repeater rates, which are much higher than the non-repeater rates, when going over the LTA in the future.

There is really no good site (IMO) that has the real numbers for all the player's salaries in order to tally up the salaries and be 100% sure that the Celtics are under the LTA. The Celtics have to be under the LTA + 4mil (aka the Apron) due to Jason Terry's contract, but I believe the LTA determines repeater rates, not the Apron.

So, perhaps having Dooling's salary off the Celtics' books is a good thing for future years, I just cannot say for sure.

gyso