Posts Tagged ‘Sam Amick’

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Cousins-To-Boston Fun To Ponder, Anyway

January 7, 2013  ·  12:21PM

The idea of in some sense rewarding DeMarcus Cousins for the havoc he has wreaked yet again on the Sacramento Kings grates on some of us here at the HTB Hideout. When you’re the best player on your team’s roster, you’re supposed to fix things, not escape them.

But the flip side of any rumored Cousins-to-Boston trade coin is that the Celtics would be the ones getting rewarded. Proud, aging stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, along with respected coach Doc Rivers, would get a XXXL-sized transfusion in wring a bit more postseason success from the era begun nearly six years ago.

The third side of that coin, though, would ask: Would a trade from 13-21 Sacramento to 16-17 Boston qualify anymore as a reward?

OK, so that’s a little snarky. But seven years of lottery finishes (and four coaching changes) has left the Kings a core of young talent. Marcus Thornton, Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson, Isaiah Thomas, James Johnson and Cousins all are 26 or younger. Chuck Hayes (29) and Aaron Brooks (27 till next week) still are helpful pieces. Rookie forward Thomas Robinson, the fifth pick in the Draft in June, has had a bumpy start but perked up both in performance and in awareness on the road this weekend in Toronto and Brooklyn.

Cousins, of course, remains the key. He has averaged 20.8 points, 13.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.8 steals over the last six games, driving Sacramento’s 4-2 mark. He has exasperated team members, staffers and fans alike with his unprofessionalism, which earned him a team suspension right before Christmas. Yet there is no denying Cousins’ skills and potential – that’s what keeps the apologists alive and the trade market in overdrive.

It’s hard to know what to believe at the moment. Sam Amick, USA Today‘s rock-solid NBA guy who is based in Sacramento, continues to report that the Kings are not moving Cousins.

But NESN.com, like a lot of Boston fans, wondered if the Celtics’ decision to waive Kris Joseph and Jarvis Varnado might suggest – open roster spots! – that some multi-player maneuver was in the works. That speculation had life breathed into it by NBAonNBCBoston.com, via a Twitter item based on an anonymous source to that site’s Patrick Gilroy:

(Notice that the replies to that “tweet” ranged from @JFunkyD_JD’s “We need to do something to shake up the mix” and @RiGronkulous87′s ”I’ll believe it when I see it” to @seanoblizalo’s “I just threw up.”)

Meanwhile, Boston sports reporter Mike Petraglia of WEEI was offering up an idea that would have the Celtics headed in an entirely different direction: Trading Garnett, the oldest guy on the roster, in a move for now but especially later.

The Celtics have precious few trading chips to do what they really need to do, and that is move forward.

The Celtics are not going to even sniff the NBA finals as currently constituted. I wrote in this space last week that the Celtics should get Garnett some help. But after what I watched last week on the West Coast and Wednesday against Memphis in person, I’m convinced another big man won’t make up the talent deficit the Celtics face. Even worse, if the Celtics decide to improve the roster, it will come at the expense of at least Bradley, if not draft picks.

That’s exactly what [Celtics basketball boss Danny] Ainge should not do. … This is about rebuilding a roster with the type of younger and more athletic talent it takes to compete year in and year out.

Obviously, the Cousins and Garnett schools of thought could only co-exist in a trade of three or more teams. Even if Garnett were to waive his no-trade clause, he wouldn’t do so to relocate to Sacramento. The Kings, likewise, would have little use, while still on training wheels, for the pricey 36-year-old.

Cousins as the centerpiece of roster renewal in Boston? Garnett landing with a team with real championship potential? Sure, it’s all fun to ponder. All long shots, too.

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Posted in HT News / Comments (31) /

Surprise! League Execs/Insiders Favor Heat, Thunder And Lakers This Season

August 30, 2012  ·  7:05AM


HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – In what has to be the most dependable vote we’ll see this election season, a smattering of anonymous NBA executives and coaches have chosen the Miami Heat as favorites to walk away with the Larry O’Brien trophy at end of the 2012-13 season.

According to the unofficial poll conducted by our main man Sam Amick of SI.com, it’s a three-team race this season between the Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder (with those second two often in flip-flopped order, depending on the ballot). But in the view of the 20 league insiders, it’s strictly a three-team race:

The final tally, with three of the voters submitting only first-place votes: The defending champions in Miami received 16 first-place votes, one second-place vote and two third-place votes; their Finals foe, Oklahoma City, garnered two first-place votes, six second-place votes and nine third-place votes; and the Lakers, who have added Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, got two first-place votes, 10 second-place votes and six third-place votes. The Lakers may not be seen as the favorites to win it all, but the idea that they’re the top threat to the Heat is not only a topic of much discussion in the media but also clearly a very real sentiment in NBA circles.

For good measure, my top three — with all of us playing in this pretend world where everyone is fully healthy — would be the Heat, Lakers and Thunder. Reality, of course, may be something altogether different.

Tempting though it was to put the Lakers in the hypothetical top spot, there is a laundry list of factors to keep an eye on as their star-studded season unfolds: the health of Howard, who is still not doing on-court activity after having back surgery in April; the age and mileage of Nash (38 years old, 16 regular seasons and 118 playoff games played) and Bryant (34, 16 regular seasons and 220 playoff games); the question of chemistry and whether Bryant will defer enough to let Nash work his magic while keeping Howard happy enough in his new locale that he wants to re-sign as a free agent next summer; and the installation of Pete Carril‘s famed Princeton offense (former Wizards and Kings coach Eddie Jordan, a Carril protégé, is expected to be hired as an assistant and do the teaching under defensive-minded head coach Mike Brown).

We’re not sure how excited we are about our extra early preseason view of the title contenders coinciding with that of so many league insiders, since we’ve never been particularly fond of the herd mentality that has permeated the front offices of so much of the league.

Then again, what other threesome would you choose right now?

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Report: Anthony Davis Injures Ankle, Could Be Out Two Weeks … Olympics?

July 2, 2012  ·  2:01PM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – An ankle sprain suffered in a Sunday workout could cost Hornets rookie Anthony Davis the next two weeks and possibly a spot on the team that will represent the United State in London during the Olympics, according to multiple reports.

“I heard that Anthony Davis sprained his ankle yesterday but I don’t know how serious it is,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo told Sam Amick of SI.com. “It was in a workout. I’m not going to worry about that unless I’m advised at this point.”

“Just getting a report that his ankle is serious doesn’t mean anything to me until we get an official doctor’s report on what that means. Does it mean he can’t practice for a week? Does it mean he’s out for a month? You know what I’m saying. I don’t like to speculate.”

Asked if there would be any wiggle room at all regarding the inability to add names to the Team USA roster finalists, he said, “I don’t know for sure. I’m not 100 percent certain. So that will be another call.”

The No.1 overall pick in the Draft last week, Davis was added last month to the player pool for the U.S. Team, a group that has been ravaged by injury defections recently.

Heat stars Chris Bosh (abdominal injury) and Dwyane Wade (knee surgery) had to drop out last week, joining Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, LaMarcus Aldridge and Chauncey Billups on the list of injured players who will not be able to participate in training camp that begins this weekend in Las Vegas.

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Posted in HT News, London 2012 / Comments (73) /

Report: Blazers Offer Pacers’ All-Star Center Hibbert The Max?

July 1, 2012  ·  9:17AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The price tag for big men in the NBA, both the stars and the wanna be stars, is always high, just ask guys like the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan or the Mavericks’ Brendan Haywood.

The price for big men in free agency, however, can get a little wild. For proof, look no further than the reported $8 million the Houston Rockets are offering restricted free agent backup center Omer Asik of Chicago or the reported max deal the Portland Trail Blazers have offered All-Star center Roy Hibbert of Indiana.

The Pacers have not offered Hibbert a max deal, according to SI.com‘s Sam Amick, a move that all but forces Hibbert to sign the Blazers’ offer sheet.

Drafting 7-footer Meyers Leonard didn’t answer all of the Blazers’ big man needs. Adding Hibbert to their mix would, theoretically, give them an ideal frontcourt pairing with LaMarcus Aldridge.

But like the Bulls with Asik, the Pacers have the right to match any offer to Hibbert.

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Posted in Free Agency 2012 / Comments (44) /

PJax To Orlando Talks Back On?

June 6, 2012  ·  11:27AM

HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Maybe this Phil Jackson-to-the-Orlando Magic idea has legs after all.

A week after it was reported that Jackson had withdrawn himself from consideration to join the Magic in some front office capacity, Sam Amick of SI.com reports that the talks are still alive, but with a few new and interesting twists:

Former Charlotte coach Sam Vincent, who played for the Bulls during Jackson’s days as an assistant in Chicago and also played for the Magic, continues to captain the cause that would have Jackson work remotely (likely from Los Angeles, where his longtime girlfriend, Jeanie Buss, remains with the Lakers) most of the time. Vincent would operate in a front-office role in the plan, while the team would be coached by a protégé (or two) of Jackson’s.

According to the sources, the latest version of the proposal has Pacers assistant and ex-Lakers assistant Brian Shaw coaching the team and Hall of Famer and Bulls ambassador Scottie Pippen as the lead assistant. And as if Jackson’s potential price tag wasn’t daunting enough (he earned $12 million in his last year with the Lakers), one of the sources said he is asking for a slice of minority ownership in the franchise as well. The hope, of course, would be for Jackson to use his cachet to convince Dwight Howard to remain in Orlando for the long-term. Jackson’s agent, Todd Musburger, did not return a call for comment.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (10) /

Hang Time Podcast (Episode 81) With Sam Amick of SI.com

May 30, 2012  ·  4:13PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – With seasons on the line in the Eastern and Western conference finals, the draft lottery just hours away and coaching and front office searches going on around the league, things couldn’t be busier in the NBA.

That’s why we tracked down one of the best newshounds in the business, good friend of the program Sam Amick of SI.com, to help us sort through all of the mess.

We talk Dwight Howard, Vinny Del Negro, Anthony Davis, the Trail Blazers’ general manager search, Thunder, Spurs, Heat, Celtics and a whole lot more in Episode 81 of the Hang Time Podcast.

We’re doing our best not to get ahead of ourselves where the playoffs are concerned, but that Spurs-Heat matchup in The Finals is closer to reality than ever with the Spurs up 2-0 on the Thunder in the Western Conference finals and the Heat hours away from the chance to do same against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.

Dive into that and more on Episode 81 of the Hang Time Podcast:

LISTEN HERE:


As always, we welcome your feedback. You can follow the entire crew, including the Hang Time Podcast, co-hosts Lang Whitaker of SLAM Magazine and Sekou Smith of NBA.com, as well as our superproducer Micah Hart of NBA.com’s All Ball Blog and the best engineer in the business, Jarrell “I Heart Peyton Manning” Wall.

– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.

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Trail Blazers Trade Chatter On Fire

March 5, 2012  ·  2:19PM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Both Jamal Crawford and Raymond Felton have been here before during their careers. So the roller coaster ride that is the NBA trade deadline rumor mill should be nothing new to the Portland Trail Blazers’ veteran guards.

With the March 15 trade deadline looming and the Trail Blazers stuck in neutral, losers of three in a row and currently on the outside looking at the Western Conference playoff picture, the speculation is that either one or both of them could be moved by the deadline.

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Posted in 2012 Trade Deadline / Comments (37) /

Arenas Ready For The Comeback?

February 21, 2012  ·  8:16AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – We asked a last week if it was time for the Los Angeles Lakers to consider signing Gilbert Arenas to help shore up their point guard deficiencies and the response was overwhelmingly (84 percent) in favor of the Lakers doing exactly that.

But other than the reports that Arenas was in Los Angeles for a workout that was attended by Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchack, among others, we had no idea what the full scope of a potential comeback attempt by Arenas entailed.

We have a much better idea now after reading this detailed interview with Arenas, courtesy of our main man Sam Amick of SI.com, who delves deep into the psyche of the man formerly known as Agent Zero.

Arenas goes places in the interview that he hasn’t publicly in the past, delving into his time in Washington and later Orlando, and also detailing some of the issues that led to his infamous beard and explores the factors that contributed to his fall from grace. He also talked plenty of basketball and whether or not he’s ready for a reunion with the NBA game.

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Is Jerry Sloan Itching To Return?

January 10, 2012  ·  12:41PM

HANG TIME, TEXAS – Some things are just natural. Painters paint, writers write, singers sing, coaches coach.

Jerry Sloan is a coach.

So how much longer will be it before the 69-year-old Hall of Famer and former fixture with the Jazz is back on an NBA sideline?

According to Sam Amick of SI.com, maybe sooner than you think.

“I think if the right situation came along, whatever that is,” he said before pausing to ponder. “I don’t know what the right situation is. We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.”

He’ll be waiting for the phone to ring again at his home in Utah, where he became the NBA’s third-most winningest coach of all time (1,221-803) before abruptly stepping down last February. After 23 seasons, the job became too taxing for the longest tenured coach in league history.

Back when he first walked away from the Jazz, Sloan wasn’t mentally and physically ready to jump right back in and set up camp on another sideline. But anyone who has ever spent time around him could hardly see Sloan permanently adopting the lifestyle of the gentleman farmer back on his spread in McLeansboro, Ill.
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Kings’ Cousins Demands Trade

January 1, 2012  ·  9:19PM


HANG TIME CALIFORNIA BUREAU – In a strange moment even by the standards of their relationship that has tested the limits of patience, the Kings announced Sunday that problem-child DeMarcus Cousins was suspended for that night’s game against the Hornets and that Cousins has “demanded” to be traded.

It is not known whether the second-year center was suspended without pay or told to stay away in the latest attempt to impose discipline on a prospect so lacking in structure. It is also not known for certain whether Cousins actually demanded, asked, hinted or used a Ouija board to ask for a trade – his agent, John Grieg, denied there was any such request, according to Sam Amick of SportsIllustrated.com, and said “Maybe Westphal is just feeling the heat early this season.”

Whatever the impetus of the latest breakdown, a lot of front offices around the league are knowingly nodding their heads. Cousins was the second-best talent in the 2010 draft, at worst, and maybe equal or ahead of No. 1 pick John Wall, but went fifth to Sacramento because of issues that ranged from attitude to inability to always play hard. Cousins had the talent to reach the All-Star game but the personality and approach to get some GM fired.

The Kings took the risk with the understanding a lot of patience would be required, then got exactly the rookie season and opening weeks to the second campaign that should have been expected: Cousins had some good moments that were countered by a level of immaturity that could make him one of the great underachievers.

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