HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – The 2013 trade deadline will be remembered more for the lack of movement than for any deal that was made. We had a handful of transactions in the final hours before the deadline, but the best player dealt this week was a guy who has started a grand total of 52 games over seven seasons.
That would be J.J. Redick, who is heading to Milwaukee in a six-player trade. The Bucks are also getting Gustavo Ayon and Ish Smith from Orlando. The Magic will receive Beno Udrih, Doron Lamb and Tobias Harris in return.
Redick is a role player, but one who should help the Bucks, who have struggled on both ends of the floor as they’ve lost eight of their last 10 games, dropping below .500 for the first time since early December. Now in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, they’re just three games in the loss column ahead of ninth-place Philadelphia.
The Bucks were reportedly the leaders in the race for Josh Smith, who is surprisingly staying in Atlanta … for the next few months or so. The Hawks apparently did not have a deal they liked, and will have to hope for a sign-and-trade deal in July if they want something in return for Smith. Our own Sekou Smith says that the Hawks will have “no chance” to re-sign Smith.
Atlanta did make a minor move, sending Anthony Morrow to Dallas for Dahntay Jones.
As much as the lack of a Josh Smith move was a surprise, so was the fact that the Utah Jazz stood pat. With Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter waiting in the wings, the Jazz have both Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap on expiring deals. We don’t know if the Jazz had an opportunity to upgrade their backcourt this week, but maybe, like the Hawks, they’d prefer to let one (or both) of those guys walk in the summer.
The Boston Celtics made a minor deal, but held on to both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for the stretch run. They’ll be adding Jordan Crawford to their backcourt, sending Jason Collins and the contract of Leandro Barbosa to Washington in exchange for the volume scorer who has been out of the Wizards’ rotation for the last couple of weeks.
Other moves:
The Heat sent Dexter Pittman and a second-round pick to Memphis.
The Bobcats traded Hakim Warrick to the Magic for Josh McRoberts.
In order to get under the luxury tax line, the Warriors are sending Jeremy Tyler to Atlanta and Charles Jenkins to Philadelphia.
The Raptors traded Hamed Haddadi and a second-round pick to the Suns for Sebastian Telfair.
The Thunder sent Eric Maynor to Portland.
The Knicks sent Ronnie Brewer to OKC for a pick.
In addition to Smith, Richard Hamilton (Bulls), Andrea Bargnani (Raptors), Kris Humphries (Nets), Ben Gordon (Bobcats), DeJuan Blair (Spurs) and Evan Turner (Sixers) aren’t going anywhere. The Denver Nuggets didn’t get a shooter, the Brooklyn Nets didn’t get any of their targets (Smith, Millsap, etc.), and the Los Angeles Clippers will try to get past the Spurs and Thunder with what they have.
The new collective bargaining agreement certainly had a role in the inactivity. The new, steeper luxury takes goes into effect next season, so contracts that don’t expire this season are a heavy burden to bear. Two years from now, the repeater tax goes into effect, so there’s plenty of incentive for teams to get under the tax line this year as well.
And now that the deadline has passed, we can get on with the remainder of the season, knowing that the landscape hasn’t changed one bit.
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: The NBA got back to regular-season work after All-Star weekend in Houston and there were plenty of choice matchups to pick from. Bucks vs. Nets was a nice way to get things rolling, especially given Joe Johnson‘s display of clutch-itude in both the fourth quarter and OT. There was a great East vs. West matchup in the Mile High City as the Nuggets took on the Celtics, with Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson powering Denver to the win. But we’ll go with a good matchup between two teams scrambling to solidify their playoff footing: the Warriors visiting the Jazz. Multi-faceted forward Gordon Hawyard was back in the action after a 10-game absence due to a shoulder injury while Utah’s big men combo of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson shook off the trade rumors surrounding them to lead the Jazz to a win and move them into a tie with the Warriors for No. 6 in the West.
Celtics expected to make some kind of deal — Celtics boss Danny Ainge has steadfastly denied that he’s looking to tinker with Boston’s makeup or trade franchise stalwarts like Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo or Paul Pierce. But rival GMs are saying just the opposite (in what may be a smokescreen act) and think the Celtics are priming themselves for a deal of some kind. Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald has more:
As Danny Ainge downplayed the possibility the Celtics will be involved in a transaction before tomorrow’s NBA trade deadline, general managers and personnel people around the league are saying quite the opposite.
They’ll be stunned if the Celts don’t make a deal of some sort.
“They’re too active,” said one. “They’ve been putting a lot of different things out there, and you’d have to think at least one of them is going to come through.”
If the Celtics do pull off a trade, it’s likely something beyond what’s already in the public domain, and many of those talks were dead on arrival.
For example, the Celts did have a brief discussion with the Lakers, but word is Mitch Kupchak said flatly they are not going to deal Dwight Howard, stating that he is part of their future. It’s possible that outlook could change, but with Rajon Rondo rehabbing from ACL surgery, the Celts wouldn’t have enough to get in on such talks.
The Clippers remain a good target, with Eric Bledsoe an intriguing talent.
“An awesome athlete, but not really a pure point guard,” said one personnel guy. “He could be a Russell Westbrook type if he keeps developing.”
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The Hawks’ Josh Smith talk seems a bit of a mystery from the Celtics’ standpoint. To begin with, it would be hard to put together the right package to get him. And it’s even more doubtful they would be willing to part with the kind of things Atlanta is looking for.
Start with the fact Smith almost certainly won’t be signing a three-year extension right after a trade when he can wait until summer and get a longer deal as a free agent. So there’s no guarantee a team trading for him has him beyond the next few months. Then there are the questions of just how much Smith is worth relative to what he can contribute.
“If you could get him to just do the things he does really well and stick to that, I think he’d be one of the best players in this league,” said one ranking team official. “But you get the whole package with Josh. You can probably absorb most of that on a really good team, but is he the kind of guy you’re going to go to in your halfcourt offense in the fourth quarter of a Game 7? For the kind of money you’re going to be paying him, you have to think about that.”
Jennings ‘untouchable’ for now — Just six days ago, Bucks guard Brandon Jennings reportedly had expressed frustration with the front office and had “irreconcilable differences” with team brass. But Jennings quickly reversed field on that story and, although he didn’t commit to a long-term future with the Bucks, seemingly patched things up. Maybe that has led to the news reported by ESPN.com’s Marc Stein that Jennings has become ‘untouchable’. More details here:
The Milwaukee Bucks continue to discuss Josh Smith trade scenarios with the Atlanta Hawks in advance of Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.
But those discussions, sources say, also serve as a strong indication of the rising likelihood that Brandon Jennings will not be moved this week.
ESPN.com reported Tuesday that Monta Ellis is the primary player Atlanta is targeting in its discussion with Milwaukee. Sources say that the Hawks, furthermore, want Milwaukee to add at least one expiring contract to the equation with Ellis and possibly take on some salary.
ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard, meanwhile, reported Wednesday morning on “SportsCenter” that Smith would be interested in playing with both Jennings and Ellis if he wound up in Milwaukee, leading the Bucks to try Wednesday to make the deal without surrendering Ellis.
Yet amid all of those talks, sources say, Jennings has moved alongside Larry Sanders and John Henson on the Bucks’ list of near-untouchables.
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The Dallas Mavericks were at the forefront of the list of teams hoping that the Bucks would make Jennings available this week, but Milwaukee appears intent on taking its chances in the offseason, knowing that Jennings will be a restricted free agent and thus unable to leave town unless the Bucks decline to match an offer sheet he receives.
Millsap, Jefferson shrug off trade chatter — As our own Fran Blinebury pointed out yesterday in this space, Jazz GM Dennis Lindsay could end up being active on trade deadline day … especially considering Utah’s bevy of big men. Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson are the names most teams would want to acquire and that duo is used to hearing their names bandied about in trade talks over the years. While no solid suitor has emerged (we’ve seen talk of Jefferson-to-San Antonio here and there), the Jazz’s veteran big man duo isn’t letting the talk affect their game. Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News has more:
When asked about trade rumors after returning from the All-Star break, Jazz players and coach Tyrone Corbin all shrugged off any talk about the subject.
“I’ve been in this league a long time. This is my ninth year and Paul’s seventh. We’re used to this,’’ said Jefferson.
“You don’t react. You just let it go,’’ added Millsap. “You can’t do anything about it because you don’t really know for sure. If it don’t come from (the Jazz’s) mouths it’s probably not true.’’
Millsap’s name has come up in trade rumors for years, and the Jazz forward says he’s used to it by now, saying he takes it as a compliment that he’s a wanted player. One of the latest rumors has him going to the L.A. Clippers for point guard Eric Bledsoe and others.That trade would potentially affect Mo Williams, the team’s current starting point guard, who has been sitting out with an injured thumb for more than a month.
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Corbin was blunt in talking about trade speculation.
“It’s rumors and we don’t deal with rumors,’’ he said. “We are who we are and everybody here is part of our family. We’ll continue progressing in the way that we have and we expect everybody to respond accordingly.’’
Jefferson has been traded twice in his career, but he knows if the Jazz are involved, it’s unlikely anyone will know about it in advance.
“The one thing about the Utah Jazz is they’re a very professional team,’’ he said. “When a trade comes nobody’s going to know until it actually happens. They’ve been consistent with that. They’re just rumors.’’
Colangelo downplaying Bargnani deal — Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo already pulled off one significant remodel of his team this season by sending Ed Davis to Memphis and Jose Calderon to Detroit as part of the three-team trade that put Rudy Gay in Raptors red. The next name expected to be on the trade block is former No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani, but Colangelo may be cooling on the prospect of trading the outside-shooting big man. Sam Amick of USA Today caught up with Colangelo and talked with him about Bargnani, Colangelo’s future in Toronto and more:
Colangelo, who came to Toronto from Phoenix in 2006 and has been attempting a massive rebuilding effort ever since Chris Bosh left for Miami in the summer of 2010, is in the final year of his contract. In an interview with USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday, Colangelo said he has no discussions with ownership about his updated status and remains hopeful that he’ll be around past this summer. The Raptors – who are 5-2 since Gay came on board and 21-32 overall after their horrific 4-19 start – play at Washington Tuesday and have a reunion game with the Grizzlies in Toronto on Wednesday night.
While Colangelo could make more moves before the Thursday trade deadline to help his team and improve his case even more, he downplayed the once-widely-held notion that center Andrea Bargnani would be traded before then. He called that situation “fluid” and said “there just may not have been enough runway prior to the deadline to get something” because Bargnani recently came back from injury.
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On Bargnani, how he’s fitting in better now with Gay and the likelihood that he could be traded…
“We began this year with Bargnani as our No. 1 scoring option. He’s now No. 3 because Rudy has arrived and DeMar (DeRozan) has emerged. Now Bargnani is No. 3. There’s talk about possibly moving him – and again we’ve talked about it, not for talent reasons but because maybe sometimes a change of scenery is the best thing for somebody. But sometimes a change of scenery can happen just by redecorating the room.
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“All of a sudden the outlook and the presence of a guy like Andrea is entirely different now. He’s not relied on as a No. 1 guy. He has never been paid like a No. 1 option, but people wanted to criticize that he couldn’t handle that role. I’ve always felt like he’s been slotted in salary-wise as a No. 2 or No. 3. Maybe he’s kind of fitting in nicely now.
“If a trade doesn’t occur before the deadline, or even this summer, maybe it’s because we figured out that with the evolution of the team he is the right guy to be a part of this team. He’s been through the hard part. This may be the easiest part ahead of him.
On his future in Toronto …
“There’s been no discussion (about his future since the trade). I certainly haven’t brought it up. I think that we’re, right now, transitioning with an ownership change of our own.
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“I’ve proven that, despite all the things that have been happening with the rebuilding of this team simultaneous to the uncertainty with my contract, I always made the right long-term strategic decision with respect to the transactions that were being made or draft picks that were being made. Case in point was drafting (Jonas) Valanciunas (fifth overall in 2011) knowing that he was not going to be here for a year, and that when he did arrive that he’d be 20 and would still be considered a project. But you have to carry out your job with integrity and do the right thing for the organization. That’s what I’ve been hired to do and that’s what I’m doing. Whether or not that pays off for me long-term, with an extension or just even my option year being picked up (for the 2013-14 season), time will tell. But you can’t lose sight of what the job is.” (more…)
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: What a weekend in Houston — Kenneth Faried showing the nation at large his “Manimal” routine … Kyrie Irvingshowed he’s got an impressive stroke from 3-point range … Terrence Ross dethroned Jeremy Evansfor the Sprite Slam Dunk title … they’re all among the more notable events of the weekend that was in Texas. If you somehow missed last night’s marquee event, the All-Star Game, well, that’s your mistake. Overall a solid game quarter-by-quarter and the West took care of business down the stretch thanks to the exploits of game MVP Chris Paul and it’s near-MVP, Kevin Durant. There’s still time to relive the good times from H-town with all of our All-Star coverage, but if you just want to catch up on the game, well … here you go:
Your daily dose of Dwight drama– Be it as All-Star participants (like Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant are) or as other members of the team, the Lakers got away from L.A. for a few days during the NBA’s All-Star break. But just because Kobe and Dwight weren’t in Lakerland doesn’t mean the constant Dwight will-he-stay/will-he-go? drama was quieted. In the past few days in Houston, we had reports of a Howard-for-Rajon Rondo swap and we had Howard himself piping up on all the latest rumors. And then we have Kobe speaking up after the All-Star Game itself on Sunday, shedding a little more light on his thoughts on what should happen with L.A.’s star big man. Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times has more:
Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard were here, so of course there was going to be drama.
Howard said Friday that Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak had told him he would remain with the team through Thursday’s trade deadline.
On Sunday, Bryant said “it doesn’t matter” what his team does with the six-time All-Star.
“I don’t know what they are going to do,” Bryant said Sunday at Toyota Center after helping the West defeat the East, 143-138, in the All-Star game. “But at this point … , it doesn’t matter. what matters to us is what we do on Wednesday [against the Boston Celtics] and go from there.
“That’s the most important thing. That’s my message to the team is that you can’t worry about the future, you can’t worry about the past, you just have to focus on the present and we really have to maximize every single game.”
No minutes restrictions for Bogut — The Warriors got off to an impressive start to the season, racking up a 22-10 record through Jan. 2. But since then, they’ve gone an unimpresive 8-12 and have fallen from a sure home-court seed in the playoffs to No. 6 in the West. Center Andrew Bogut returned to the Warriors’ lineup on Jan. 2 and has been in and out of the mix as he works his way back from his ankle woes. He took some shots at Golden State’s defense of late and hasn’t been able to do much to shore up the interior thanks to a minutes restriction that had him playing about 19 minutes a game when he DID play. Ric Bucher, via Sulia.com, says Bogut is looking ready to bear more of a role and more minutes, though:
Hard as it is for me to believe after watching him last Tuesday against the Houston Rockets, Andrew Bogut says that he expects to play without restriction following the All-Star break, including playing in back-to-back games. We won’t have to wait long to find out if that plan holds — Warriors play at Utah on Tuesday and at home against the Suns on Wednesday.
LeBron glad to see Irving as face of Cavs — We need not detail all of LeBron James‘ rise and fall as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, as those of you visiting these parts know well enough about what he did — both good and bad — as a Clevelander. Since he moved on from the Cavs to the Heat in the summer of 2010, Cleveland has been looking for someone to take over the mantle of the franchise that was left in James’ departure. Enter All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, who is the reigning Rookie of the Year winner and the newly crowned Three-Point Contest champion, too. Although Cleveland is 16-37 and seemingly on its way to another lottery season, there is hope there and even the former King of Akron can see it:
The business of basketball is booming these days, and the one-man brands of players like Irving are built in times like these. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ point guard thrilled the masses in the Rising Stars game on Friday, won the three-point contest on Saturday and was ready to enjoy his newfound elite status in his first All-Star game on Sunday with 15 points on six of 11 shooting. All the while, the counterintuitive notion that the Miami Heat’s LeBron James could return to Cleveland as a free agent in the summer of 2014 continued to grow, in large part, because Irving’s talent is tantalizing enough to make the Akron, Ohio, native seriously consider going home again.
“He’s unbelievable,” James said about Irving’s coronation as the new king of Cleveland. “He’ll be (among) the top two, top three best point guards in the league. He’s headed there already.
“He’s doing some great things right now. They should be excited about having him in Cleveland.”
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Irving came to Houston from Cleveland on Thursday, and the welcome challenge of keeping up with a jam-packed schedule began. The first of 27 items on his four-day itinerary was what’s known in NBA circles as ‘The Circuit,’ a string of media appearances and in-house interviews inside the Hilton hotel that comes in rapid-fire form. And per the NBA-issued paperwork that became his All-Star weekend bible of sorts, this called for a collared shirt.
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The Cavaliers jersey came off and the infamous gray T-shirt went back on, and Irving made his way to the ‘Circuit’ that would occupy his next two hours. There was an NBA TV set, an ESPN radio room, an NBA Cares room and a photo studio where shots of players in their off-floor attire were tweeted to the masses and made available to the media. It was inside the Grantland room, however, where Irving struggled to keep up with the dizzying array of names, faces and microphones.
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For all the intriguing parts of Irving’s story, whether it’s his love of music (he still sings and played the horn baritone as a child) or the pursuits that go beyond basketball (he takes classes at Duke in the offseason and made a promise to his father to finish his education), the question of whether he would lure James back to Cleveland was the only one that seemed to matter over the weekend.”Right now, I’m just living in the present,” he said during the ESPN radio spot. “All the what-ifs, and what could happen, you know obviously people are going to be — I’ll probably get that question all weekend. But right now it’s just about me and my team getting better.”
The mere fact that Irving is such a significant part of the James story line is as good an indication as any of his rising profile, not to mention the drastic change it represents from the start of his career. When he was drafted first overall by Cleveland, the only James-related question was whether Irving could handle the incredible shadow he had left behind.
“It’s funny how the roles have changed a little bit,” Irving told USA TODAY Sports. “I was replacing him, and now there’s all these rumors that he can come back. But it’s about brushing off that question and just being in the present — just being in the present and trying to develop this core group for the Cavaliers. My eventual goal is to win a championship. And before I retire I just want to win a championship. That’s it. It’s a learning process game to game.”
Winter-weather All-Star weekend? — Not since the 2005 All-Star Game in Denver has the NBA put its midseason showcase in a cold-weather climate, but that might change come 2016. According to Doug Smith of the Toronto Star, the Raptors and Maple Leaf Sports are getting the pieces in place to push for the All-Star Game to be held in Toronto. If Toronto gets its wish, the game would be held in the furthest northern city in North America since Minnesota hosted All-Star weekend back in 1994. Here’s more on the proposed bid:
The process of staging the NBA’s all-star weekend is elaborate and time-consuming and it’s impossible for things to happen without a huge amount of lead time.
Three years in the case of Toronto.
According to several sources, Maple Leaf Sports and the Raptors have already begun the process of submitting an official bid to host the 2016 all-star game to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the franchise and to bring one of the league’s most popular events to an international venue for the first time ever.
People with knowledge of the hospitality industry in Toronto say league officials have already been in the city making inquiries about hotel availability and convention space.
League sources said there have been no other expressions of interest yet in the 2016 event; the 2014 weekend is scheduled for New Orleans and NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said here Saturday night that either Brooklyn or New York are odds-on favourites to host the 2015 game.
“There are two (2015) applications in, one from Brooklyn and one from the Garden,” said commissioner David Stern.
The league accepts bids for all-star games from cities interested in hosting them that include specifics on hotel and convention space and arena modifications needed to stage the event. The league does not solicit bids from specific cities.
“We don’t consider anything in a vacuum,” said Stern. “We announce that bids are open for future all-star games.”
The Raptors have never bid for the game, often because of a lack of space for the massive NBA Jam Session that’s part of the weekend; that won’t be an issue for 2016, sources said.
For the departing Stern, the event here will be the last he’ll preside over since he is scheduled to retire weeks before the 2014 game.
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Silver, who assumes the commissioner’s duties next February, said the selection process isn’t likely to change and while it might be intriguing to take the extravaganza to neutral cities, perhaps in Europe, that might not be workable.
“We’ve discussed playing internationally. . . . I’m not sure if it will work logistically, but it’s something we’ll continue to study,” he said. “We’ve looked at other neutral cities. We’ve looked at refreshing All-Star Saturday Night and other innovative events for the weekend, and I think we’ll continue to do that, the same way we have under David’s leadership.”
ICYMI of the night: Seeing as how Michael Jordan‘s 50th birthday interview on NBA TV (8 ET) is merely hours away, it is only fitting to pick this Jordan-esque reverse layup by Russell Westbrook:
HANG TIME SOUTHWEST –Terrence Ross is thrilled to be one of six competitors and the lone rookie entrant in Saturday’s Sprite Slam Dunk contest in Houston as part of All-Star Saturday. And as the Toronto Raptors guard defies gravity, he’ll be uplifted by a number of young fans he probably never knew he had.
That’s because the 22-year-old guard out of Washington plans to dunk something far bigger than basketballs — he wants to help dunk cancer and help the children battling the despicable disease every day.
Before the Raptors play host to the Denver Nuggets tonight, Ross will announce his involvement in launching a three-part fundraising campaign in partnership with “Dunk Cancer” and its month-long initiative, ”Dunk Cancer Month,” during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
Ross has committed to help raise money to benefit the Children’s Cancer Association and his high school back home, Jefferson High, in Portland, Ore.
“Ever since I was in about the third grade, my mom has run an out-of-home day care service,” Ross said. “So there were always kids around. One of the kids that she took care of had cancer. We were close to the family and were always around each other so it hit home for us. That’s the main reason I’ve chosen to support “Dunk Cancer” and “Dunk Cancer Month.”
Ross kicks off the first leg of the campaign on Thursday as he’ll host a 72-hour, Twitter-based online fundraiser from his @T_DotFlight31 twitter handle. Using the #dunkcancer hash tag, he will encourage Twitter users to support “Dunk Cancer Month” by purchasing “Dunk Cancer” merchandise (T-shirts, hoodies etc.) at dunkcancer.com.
During Saturday night’s slam dunk contest, Ross will donate $2,000 to “Dunk Cancer” for every round he advances in the three-round slam-dunk competition.
He’ll go up against defending dunk champ Jeremy Evans of Utah, plus Denver’s powerful Kenneth Faried — who leads all contestants with 85 dunks on the season (seventh-most in the league) — the Los Angeles’ Clippers’ high-flyer Eric Bledsoe, the Knicks’ 30-year-old James “Flight” White and Indiana’s Gerald Green, who blew out a lit candle in a cupcake perched on the back of the rim in the 2008 dunk contest.
So what does the 6-foot-6, 195-pound Ross, the youngest of the contestants, have planned?
“I’ve been planning my dunks for about a week now, testing them with teammates to see which will get really good scores,” said Ross, who noted that Raptors newcomer Rudy Gay has provided some pointers. “I’m definitely going to do something new, nothing I’ve done during the season.”
So a few surprises then?
“Possibly,” said Ross, who is averaging 6.6 ppg and 2.1 rpg in 17.3 mpg. “I think I have a fairly good chance of winning. Plus, I need to advance to build up my contribution.”
After the All-Star break, Ross, the eighth overall pick last June, will turn his attention to his old high school in Portland. As the Raptors are playing the Washington Wizards next Tuesday, Jefferson High will be taking on Benson High. Ross will donate $500 for each dunk a Jefferson player slams home, up to $2,000. The money will go to support the school’s athletic program.
“I’m just doing my part to try to help kids that are in need,” Ross said. “Partnering with ‘Dunk Cancer,’ to benefit the Children’s Cancer Association and my high school back home, allows me to lend my name to a good cause.”
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
After that, we had just two games on the schedule and both of ‘em were blowouts. That makes our job a little tougher around here, but we’ll go with the Bulls-Nuggets game because the highlights in this one were, in a word, Manimal-tastic. Kenneth Faried said he wanted to make a statement on national TV and did he ever, going for 21 points, 12 rebounds and two steals while throwing down a boatload of memorable dunks as Denver won its eighth straight game.
Bulls, Raptors could swap point guards, too — Word broke last night of the Raptors and Bulls opening up discussions on a deal that would send Chicago’s Carlos Boozer to Toronto for oft-maligned Raptors big man Andrea Bargnani. ESPN.com’s Marc Stein broke the story and says several factors are key in any move, including whether or not the Raptors could afford Boozer’s salary as well as that of newly acquired swingman Rudy Gay. Toronto, like most teams in the new NBA economy, is weary of paying the luxury tax and that could scare it from the trade.
The Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson reports that two other players, the Bulls’ Nate Robinson and the Raptors’ John Lucas III, could be involved in a swap, too:
The Bulls and Raptors engaged in trade talks centered on Carlos Boozer and Andrea Bargnani over a week ago, according to two league sources.
ESPN.com’s Marc Stein first reported the talks, which a source told the Tribune were initiated by the Bulls and initially dismissed because of the Raptors’ desire to land the Lakers’ Pau Gasol. Though talks are not currently active, a source said the Raptors know the trade is available and could expand to include Nate Robinson and John Lucas III. Another source suggested it’s unlikely the Raptors would take on Boozer’s contract, which has $9.1 million more than Bargnani’s over the next two seasons.
The Raptors recently added Rudy Gay’s long-term contract via trade.
Boozer makes $5 million more than Bargnani this season. Coach Tom Thibodeau long has been an advocate of Lucas III, who is playing sparingly for the Raptors.
Despite the talks, there are no plans to use the amnesty provision on Boozer this summer. Boozer is having a strong season, but shedding his salary could improve the Bulls’ long-term financial picture.
Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski takes the long view on this Bryant-Howard partnership in L.A. and dissects in a way that only he can. From news about Lakers (and former Knicks) coach Mike D’Antoni shooting down a trade for Howard to delving into why Bryand and Howard likely won’t ever get on the same page, Wojnarowski has a cutting review of what’s gone wrong so far in L.A.:
Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard had always been a reluctant partnership, two stars long suspecting what turned out to be the indisputable truth: They were destined to be terrible teammates.
When Bryant and Howard hung up on a pre-trade deadline call a year ago, the suspicions of a toxic mix were confirmed with a most uncomfortable conversation. They had different visions on the way Howard would fit into the Lakers, which promised to compound the gulf between them as people. They were going to win with the Lakers and tolerate each other; or lose and develop a deep disdain.
On his way out of the Garden, out of a humiliating 116-95 loss to the Boston Celtics, Bryant returned a clichéd question – “Are Dwight and you on the same page?” – without a clichéd response.
With a bemused face and a shrug, Bryant told Yahoo! Sports: “What page is there to be on? Defend. Rebound…”
He shrugged again.
“I mean, what else is on the page?”
Nevertheless, Bryant reached out to Howard early on Thursday to diffuse the drama, he told Yahoo! Sports. He fired off a text to message to insist that a part of his interview with the great Boston sportswriter, Jackie MacMullan, had been misconstrued in the public eye. Bryant swore he wasn’t calling out Howard about sitting three straight games with a shoulder injury, that he wasn’t questioning his toughness.
“Listen, I really think people ran in the wrong direction with those quotes,” Bryant told Y! Sports. “And I think that put Dwight on the defense, put him a little on edge. But that wasn’t the intention, nor the purpose.
“I didn’t say anything earth-shattering. I didn’t say anything I haven’t been saying all year.
“Honestly, I didn’t take a run at him.”
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Part of the problem of Howard’s clowning act is that people don’t take him seriously in times of crisis. It’s easier to doubt his toughness, tenacity, when they’re watching him grab the microphone to do impressions on team charters or booming farts in the locker room. Bryant never wanted Howard’s disposition to rule the day in the Lakers’ locker room, never wanted his own culture of seriousness and duty to be undermined with the frivolity that comes with Howard.
This was Bryant’s concern before the trade this summer, and after it. Rest assured, there was a reason the Lakers were third behind the Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks on Howard’s preferred list of trade partners. First of all, there were doubts about the depth of talent to win a championship – and those turned out to be legitimate. What’s more, he knew the partnership with Bryant would be troublesome for him. And when Bryant and Steve Nash were enthusiastic about the arrival of Mike D’Antoni as coach, Howard badly wanted to play for Phil Jackson.
D’Antoni had no use for Howard with Team USA, nor the New York Knicks when his name was raised in possible trade discussions. D’Antoni made sure to tell everyone Howard had been medically cleared to play in each of the three games he missed recently, and he sounded minimally sympathetic toward Howard’s endurance of pain on Thursday night.
…
Gasol’s gone, Howard is searching and these Lakers simply aren’t constructed to resurrect themselves in the playoff chase. For the future, the Lakers’ play hasn’t changed, nor will it. They have to give Dwight Howard a chance to recuperate his back, his shoulder, and understand that he can eventually still be a franchise center.
And yet, as Bryant told MacMullan, “We don’t have time for [Howard's shoulder] to heal. We need some urgency.” Bryant has been around a long time to be too surprised his words were construed as a call to arms for Howard. Make no mistake: That interview practically promised Howard would be in the lineup on Thursday night, that he would push through the pain and redirect the narrative on himself.
Nevertheless, Howard still seemed bothered with Bryant, and, well, Bryant seemed unbothered with it. He shot Howard his text, let him know he wasn’t making a run at him. Whatever. From the start, this partnership promised to be an uneasy proposition, and it’s been something of a self-perpetuating prophecy. Kobe and Dwight always knew the deal here. With winning, perhaps they could tolerate each other. With losing, a deep disdain.
“We communicate,” Bryant told Y! Sports. “We do often.” This doesn’t mean they have a relationship, or trust, and that’s part of the reason Bryant is a minimalist when it comes to the sharing of the basketball season’s page. All along, they were destined to be terrible teammates. They knew it, but could do nothing to stop an inevitable consolidation of their talents. In the end, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard need each other, and that’s still the best chance for the salvation of these Los Angeles Lakers. Someday soon, they’ll need to go far deeper on that page together. Someday soon, the future of the franchise depends upon it.
K.G. doesn’t want to go anywhere; Ainge likely to oblige — The Kevin Garnett trade rumors have been bubbling up since early this week, with the Clippers being mentioned most as the destination for the current All-Star starter and future Hall of Famer. Garnett has been mostly quiet on the rumors, but had some comments after last night’s win over the Lakers where he didn’t mince words about his future. As well, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge says he doesn’t see himself dealing Garnett (or star Paul Pierce) and is for the most part happy with Boston’s roster. The Boston Globe’s Gary Dzen and ESPNBoston.com’s have the reports from both camps:
K.G. on staying put:
Kevin Garnett ended his postgame press conference Thursday night with an unprompted message to reporters that he’d like to stay in Boston.
“I just want to say that I love my situation here,” said Garnett. “I don’t know what all your sources are, or whoever’s making up this [expletive] articles about me getting traded to Denver and all these other places.
“But I bleed green, and I will continue to do that. And if it’s up to me I’m going to retire a Celtic.”
Garnett scored his 25,000th NBA point in the second quarter of Thursday night’s game. He said his daughter was in attendance (“Thank you for snow days”), a rare occasion, and he thanked every coach and teammate who had helped him along the way. While in a reflective mood, Garnett went back to a familiar metaphor — cooking — to explain why the Celtics might be playing better in the absence of Rajon Rondo.
“Rondo does so many different great things for this team,” said Garnett. “You can kind of get lackadaisical. It’s very similar to when you have someone cooking for you, and you’re expecting that every day. But as soon as you start to feed yourself, all of a sudden you start making these gourmet dishes. You start having more people to the house. And you never know you really possessed that. It’s kind of like that.”
Ainge on keeping the stars together:
Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said Thursday that despite rumors to the contrary, he doesn’t expect to trade Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
“Yeah, I think that’s by far the most likely thing. Sure,” he said when asked whether he was comfortable saying the two stars will remain in Boston.
“I’ll just repeat what I always tell you guys — the things that are out there are the things that aren’t true and the things that are happening are not being reported,” he said regarding trade rumors.
“I can’t give you much juice other than it’s this time every year. There’s a lot of conversation, and usually at this time of the year, the conversation isn’t as serious. As it gets closer to the deadline, it gets a little bit more serious. You get a little bit better offers. It’s still most people trying to make one-sided deals, as opposed to doing what’s best for both teams. Which is — a trade like a Rudy Gay trade is fairly unusual this time, this early before the deadline.”
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Ainge said he will be patient moving forward and that he doesn’t expect any wholesale changes to his roster this season.
“I want to see how our team plays over the next little while before the trade deadline, too,” he said. “But I don’t think we’ve had a true test of exactly what team we are yet. And I think that, because I’ve been doing this for 10 years now, but with this group of guys for the last couple of years, I don’t see that much changing. There aren’t a lot of teams that are trying to pursue players of KG and Paul’s age, and I just think that we value them more than other teams value them.
“There’s so many teams that are trying to get younger, so many teams that are trying to rebuild, so many teams are trying to get high draft picks already. I think that where we value them as players is just much greater than the rest of the league, which I think is common among players of their age.”
Why hasn’t Iguodala become ‘the man’ in Denver? — When he was dealt to Denver as part of the Dwight Howard-Andrew Bynum deal, most folks around the NBA thought the Nuggets finally acquired their long-sought after go-to scorer in Andre Iguodala. Yet Iguodala, a free-agent this summer, is the Nuggets’ No. 3 scorer (behind Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson) while still delivering the consistent defense and all-around play that helped him become an All-Star as a member of the Sixers.
Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post delves into whether or not the Nuggets — as successful as they’ve been of late — should seriously give Iguodala a max-level contract next season, especially if he can’t even be the team’s top player scoring-average wise:
So here’s the key question for Denver coming down the stretch: Can the Nuggets afford to build a contender around Iguodala, given the constraints of the NBA salary cap and this franchise’s aversion to paying the luxury tax on talent?
Iguodala is a clamp-down defender, a true professional and a compelling interview.
But the NBA is not a spelling bee. You don’t get paid $15 million for giving intelligent sound bites or getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
For $15 million, was it too much to expect for the 29-year-old Iguodala to lead the Nuggets in scoring, be an all-league defender and stamp his personality on the locker room?
His defense has met expectations. The rest of the shiny package? Empty.
After 50 games with the Nuggets since arriving in trade, Iguodala is in danger of finishing with career lows for field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage and rebounds per game. But the real head-scratcher is why an Olympic gold medal winner from the Dream Team hasn’t been more forceful in establishing high standards for these young, often- inconsistent Nuggets.
“It’s a little bit of an adjustment. It’s hard to change habits, especially when you’re the new guy coming into a new situation,” Iguodala said Thursday. “There are some things guys have been accustomed to doing their whole careers, and when you come in here, you can’t just jump on them right away and say, ‘Change it.’ It’s a process.”
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So was it too much to expect Iguodala to lead the Nuggets in scoring and shoot better than 60 percent from the foul line? Coach George Karl is never afraid to tell me I’m wrong, so I asked him.
“I’m not unhappy. That’s unrealistic. You thought he’d be our leading scorer? I never thought that,” Karl said. “He’s a good scorer for us, and we have other guys we plug in. The way we play, we don’t tilt the offense to one player until the end of the game. We just play basketball, go out, run and see who gets the touches.”
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You can unearth basketball metrics that argue Iguodala is among the NBA’s premier defensive players. But there are also advanced stats that suggest the nine-year pro is struggling worse than at any time since his rookie season, despite Karl’s transition-friendly offense that seems ready-made for Iguodala’s skill set.Iguodala is the highest-paid player on Denver’s roster.
But is he really more valuable to the Nuggets’ future than Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari or Kenneth Faried? Given salary cap constraints, would it be wise for Denver to make Iguodala among the league’s 15 top-paid players?
ICYMI of the night: The best thing about this highlight from JaVale McGee (other than it won’t land him on Shaqtin’ A Fool)? Ty Lawson seeing the whole time that McGee is camped out just outside the key, pointing in the air for the alley-oop and Lawson delivers it perfectly:
The setting: Minneapolis. The month: February. So you knew that Jack Frost would be in the air Friday night, nipping at toes, noses and other exposed flesh as the Los Angeles Lakers unbundled at the visitors’ end of Target Center for their game against the Timberwolves.
Jack’s buddy Sammy Sarcasm showed up for the event, too.
He was there when reporters approachedPau Gasol to ask about his starting gig in place of ailing Dwight Howard, who had flown back to L.A. for treatment on his right shoulder. Said Gasol: “Big news. Headlines. Exciting.”
Sammy was there as well in some comments by Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni to the media:
D’Antoni offered a way for Gasol to get over the disappointment of getting shuffled in and out of the Lakers’ starting lineup.
“Pay him $19 million. I think that should help,” D’Antoni said, smiling.
Gasol is under contract for $19 million this season and $19.3 million next season.
Get all that witty repartee down on paper, throw another $100 million or so behind it in production costs and ad campaigns and the purple-and-gold might have a Hollywood rom-com blockbuster on its hands.
Instead, alas, it simply has more of the same: An unhappy Gasol, feeling underappreciated after helping L.A. win titles and reach Finals since his arrival in 2008. And a stressed D’Antoni, clearing the distractions of criticism and expectations by doing what he thinks is right with his rotation. Which doesn’t appear to have a primary place for Gasol’s particular, not-so-fleet-of-foot skill set.
The outcome in the Lakers’ long-ago hometown Friday – a victory over the Wolves that got uncomfortably tight for a stretch and 22 points, 12 boards and three blocks for Gasol – isn’t going to significantly change anything about the dynamic. When Howard is fit to return, he’ll start and Gasol won’t. Simple.
That figures to keep the veteran forward’s name in play right up through the Feb. 21 trade deadline. If he’s still around beyond that, either the Lakers received low-balled in offers for him (relative to their expectations) or they’re keeping Gasol around for Dwight insurance, should the All-Star center end up exiting as a free agent or as damaged goods for the balance of the season.
One possible destination for Gasol to keep an eye on? The team that just made the big Rudy Gay trade. Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelowasn’t shy the other day in his willingness to shop forward Andrea Bargnani:
And Colangelo speculated openly that Bargnani might be the next Raptor to move on.
“The situation with Andrea is a unique one, he’s a great talent and he’s done a lot for the organization but sometimes a change of address is not bad,” said the general manager. “I’m not saying he’s asked for a trade but he certainly would not fight or resist a situation if it was the right situation.”
A role in D’Antoni’s system could be the right situation. Even if it sends Sammy Sarcasm north of the border with the underloved Gasol.
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: Because there were only two games on the schedule — and one of ‘em was an absolute blowout — we gotta go with Mavericks-Warriors today. Andrew Bogut made his presence felt with a game-saving block on Brandan Wright, Harrison Barnes was swooping and scoring, Klay Thompson was draining shots and … it was the Warriors being the Warriors and doing all of this while star guard Steph Curry (ankle) sat out for a second straight game.
Much ado about ‘nothing’ in OKC — With 8 minutes, 57 seconds left in the third quarter, OKC’s rout of Memphis was definitely on. The Thunder had a 25-point lead — 65-40 — and Thunder All-Star guard Russell Westbrook went to work on the left block. He was called for a 5-second violation and, as the ball was changing hands to the Grizz, Westbrook engaged in an argument with guard Thabo Sefolosha. Sefolosha’s man had come to double team Westbrook, leaving Sefolosha open at the 3-point line. But Westbrook continued backing down his man despite the defense.
Westbrook and Sefolosha argued, then Westbrook punched the ball to the court, catching it with both hands before handing it to the official. Westbrook played roughly another minute before being pulled for Reggie Jackson. Westbrook then sat on the bench and had an animated discussion with assistant coach Maurice Cheeks before leaving the court in a huff and heading to the OKC locker room. He returned to the bench and played a bit more in the fourth quarter.
After the game, both coach Scott Brooks and Westbrook addressed the outburst, with Westbrook talking to TNT’s Craig Sager. Both men blew off the incident as ‘nothing’, as USA Today’s Adi Joseph and The Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel report:
From Joseph:
Russell Westbrook sometimes loses his temper.
Russell Westbrook never explains why he lost his temper.
The Oklahoma City Thunder point guard went off without any good explanation during Thursday’s 106-89 win against the Memphis Grizzlies. He had been called for a five-second violation while posting up Grizzlies guard Jerryd Bayless, and apparently he pinned the violation on teammate Thabo Sefolosha.
Now Sefolosha’s cut to the basket was ill-timed, but Westbrook got steaming mad in the moment. Coach Scott Brooks pulled him from the game, leaving him to stew even more.
“I decided to take Russell out because we needed to calm down,” Brooks said. “Russell went in the back. It was nothing. He just had to regroup. … It was nothing that has not happened before — not just with him, with all of our guys.”
Did we mention this happened while the Thunder had an 18-point lead?
Westbrook sat down next to assistant coach Maurice Cheeks and then left the floor entirely, heading to the locker room with a towel on his head.
…
After the game, Westbrook blew it off.
“Nothing, just a little miscommunication,” he said, via Daily Thunder’s Royce Young.
Little-known fact: Miscommunication is not a word, according to most dictionaries. Also, it’s not a valid excuse for that kind of tantrum.
But Westbrook takes a lot of heat for his play, as many critics think he shoots too often even as he has emerged as one of the best players in the NBA. He’s got a lot of steam to blow off, so sometimes it flies in undeserving directions.
“I’ll control it like a man,” Westbrook said. “Like I did.”
From Tramel:
Peter Pan was back in business Thursday night. You know. Russell Westbrook. The mischievous boy who can fly and who never grows up.
Westbrook barked at the genteel Thabo Sefolosha, took a shot so wild Scotty Brooks was forced to substitute, blew his stack while being counseled by Mo Cheeks, knocked over a chair and stormed off the court to the comfort of a Chesapeake Arena tunnel.
At the time, Westbrook was playing an excellent game and the Thunder led Memphis by 20 points.
The Thunder produced a 106-89 rout of the Grizzlies that was overshadowed by Peter Pan.
And maybe the basketball world will be better off if we accept what Westbrook is. Part hot hand, part hothead. Uncorrallable, not just by NBA opponents, but by Thunder brass.
“There’s no question he was frustrated with himself,” Brooks said. “Russell’s an emotional guy … not trying to downplay that. He has to be able to control his frustration. But that’s part of it.”
…
Kevin Durant defended Westbrook but also said the squad “talked it out” in the locker room and didn’t let it fester. That’s good.
“Russell is such an emotional player,” Durant said. “I knew he’d be back. That’s how he is. We want everybody to be themselves.”
That’s good. I like that. That’s the best advice the Thunder can receive.
Quit trying to change Russell Westbrook. Don’t even defend him. Just accept him for who he is. The boy who can fly and never grows up.
Report: Suns pursuing Hawks’ Smith — Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld.com reports that several teams are interested in trading for Hawks forward Josh Smith before the Feb. 21 deadline, with the Suns trying to work their way to the front of the list. After parting with Steve Nash over the summer in a sign-and-trade deal with the Lakers, the Suns have tried to rebuild themselves around Goran Dragic, Marcin Gortat, Michael Beasley and others, but are the second-worst team in the Western Conference at 16-30 and are looking to make a move to set up their future:
The Suns are pursuing Josh Smith, according to multiple league sources. Phoenix will try to acquire Smith before the deadline or, if that fails, through a sign-and-trade deal next offseason.
The Suns are very interested in Smith and have had exploratory talks with the Atlanta Hawks about the 27-year-old forward. Phoenix views Smith as a franchise player who can be one of the cornerstones of the team for years to come. The Suns have been searching for a face of the franchise since Steve Nash’s departure last summer, and Smith could be exactly that. If the Hawks decide it’s time to part ways with Smith, the Suns will be one of the teams on the phone.
Phoenix has attractive assets, particularly Marcin Gortat, who could play alongside Al Horford and give the Hawks one of the best frontcourts in the Eastern Conference. They also have Jared Dudley and Michael Beasley as well as the expiring contracts of Wes Johnson, Shannon Brown (whose 2013-14 salary is non-guaranteed), Sebastian Telfair and Jermaine O’Neal. Phoenix also has several first-round picks – their own pick and two additional first-round picks that they acquired in the Nash trade with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Johnson trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Luis Scola could also be involved in the trade, but only if the deal is a sign-and-trade since he can’t be traded until July 1 due to the fact that he was signed by the Suns after being amnestied by the Houston Rockets.
Smith and his agent, Wallace Prather, are expected to meet with the Hawks at some point this week to discuss the forward’s future in Atlanta. The two sides met after Smith’s one-game suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team,” but Smith’s camp didn’t demand a trade. It’s unclear if Smith and Prather will ask for a trade during this next meeting, although many people in NBA circles believe that Smith’s days in Atlanta could be numbered. In recent weeks, more teams have been calling the Hawks and inquiring about Smith, especially since his public comments about being “a max contract player.”
While the Suns will express interest in Smith, they aren’t the only team that will make a run at the star forward. The Houston Rockets, Charlotte Bobcats and Dallas Mavericks have also been mentioned as potential suitors for Smith.
A few hours after Kennedy posted his story, John Gambadoro, sports talk host for 620 KTAR in Phoenix, tweeted that the report was bogus:
The stories about the Suns being interested in Josh Smith are ridiculous, there is zero interest there -ZERO!— John Gambadoro (@Gambo620) February 01, 2013
You just have to love trade rumor season …
Ainge, Celts ‘open’ to offers — Celtics basketball boss Danny Ainge isn’t putting specific names out, but did tell WEEI’s Big Show on Thursday afternoon that he is willing to consider trades to improve Boston. The name that’s being bandied about as a possible piece that could net the kind of assets Boston wants is Paul Pierce, but Ainge sounded at best lukewarm on trading the franchise’s all-time leading scorer. Ainge isn’t looking for a point guard to replace the injured Rajon Rondo. Gary Dzen of Boston.com has more:
“We are open and listening, but we don’t feel pressure to do anything,” said Ainge. “Whether we win every game or whether we struggle, I think it all depends on what opportunities are presented. We want to make some change to help improve our team.”
The player who would seem to have the most value on the open market is Paul Pierce. He’s a veteran who can help a contending team win now, and only $4 million of his $15.3 million contract for next season is guaranteed. Ainge said he has not received any offers for Pierce, but he said that he would inform his veteran forward of any potential trade discussions.
“Nothing has been talked about with Paul,” said Ainge. “Nothing is close to being done. I too would like to see Paul retire as a Celtic.That would be great. We’re all attached to Paul. He’s been great for the city, the franchise, and he’s been a true pro. Having said that, if something came up I would talk to Paul. My job is to do what’s in the best interest of our team, regardless of my personal ties or my personal feelings with the players.”
Ainge was also adamant that he was not currently in the market to pick up another point guard to replace Rajon Rondo.
“Not right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of reasons why we’re not just jumping out and doing something.There really is nobody that you can find to replace Rondo, either through a trade or free agent acquisition, at this time of year. We like the guys — Barbosa’s been dying for a chance to play, and Jason Terry, and Avery Bradley at the point. I think all those guys are looking for an opportunity.”
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The Celtics have won their last two games with Rondo, and talk radio was filled Thursday with fans calling in suggesting that the team might be better without its All-Star point guard. Ainge quickly shot down notion.
“He single-handedly carries us every night, and I don’t know how people don’t see that,” said Ainge. “It’s silly. He’s a great, great player, and he’s proven that time and time again. The guy’s been MVP of probably four or five series over the last five years. He’s been the best player in a series against LeBron James. He’s been the best player in a series against Derrick Rose. He’s been the best player in three games in a Finals series. The guy has done too many good things. The question is, ‘Are the pieces right around him?’”
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Ainge sounded relatively happy with his current team. He did not sound like a GM looking to make drastic changes for this season.
“I think I’ve been pretty consistent on this team the last couple of years,”he said. “I said I like the individuals. Obviously I don’t like 20-23, which we were when Rondo got hurt. I didn’t like any part of that.
“But what I particularly said is I like what these guys are made of, especially our core guys. When it comes down to playoff basketball, I know what they’re made of, and I know that they have the gear to take it to another level.”
Pistons thinking of keeping Calderon? — Don’t think of Jose Calderon landing in Detroit as a rental situation for the Pistons. Our man Vince Ellis at the Detroit Free Press reports that the Pistons have always liked Calderon’s game and see him as a long-term helper in their rebuilding efforts, particularly in developing the skills of rookie big man Andre Drummond and second-year point guard Brandon Knight. Here’s more on why Calderon intrigues Detroit:
Calderon traveled to Detroit on Thursday and likely will take his physical this morning. It’s not clear when he will suit up for the Pistons — the process can be tricky since he is a Spaniard now playing in the U.S. instead of in Canada. He will talk to the media today after a team shoot-around.
“We’ve always had a high value on Jose,” coach Lawrence Frank said after the Pistons’ loss at Indy on Wednesday. “He’s a tremendous competitor. He’s a guy who has been top five in the league in assists for the past four or five years. It gives us flexibility moving forward.”
The financial ramifications of the deal for the Pistons are obvious — Calderon’s $10.5 million comes off the books after this season.
If they do nothing else through the Feb. 21 deadline, Charlie Villanueva picks up his $8.5-million option for next season, and they decide to keep Rodney Stuckey for the full $8.5 million for next season, the Pistons will be roughly $20 million-$23 million under the cap. If they decide to invoke the amnesty clause on Villanueva during a weeklong window in July and cut Stuckey (they would owe him $4 million) before the June 30 deadline, the total could move to roughly $30 million-$35 million.
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But don’t discount the Pistons trying to keep Calderon — at a reasonable price.
A Pistons source said the team is open to trying to re-sign Calderon over the summer, adding that the team thinks his playmaking skill would be a major boon to rookie center Andre Drummond.
Calderon was very good at setting up Toronto big men, playing a major role in helping former Piston Amir Johnson and young big Ed Davis, who was sent to the Grizzlies in the trade.
Nash losing a step in L.A.? — The Lakers did well with Kobe Bryant serving as the primary playmaker/assist man in L.A.’s offense for three games. That’s all well and good, but what about that future Hall of Fame point guard the Lakers signed in the offseason? Steve Nash has hardly had the ball at all, a change for someone used to directing an offense — particularly coach Mike D’Antoni‘s — for the entire game. The always-solid Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register delves deeper into why L.A. might be turning away from Nash (and toward Kobe) as the season wears on:
Bryant has more assists than any of the other four players left above him on the all-time scoring chart. He has been passing a lot more than you’ve noticed over the years.
So it’s not exactly brand-new, though he is now concentrating more on passing, for sure. It is increasing team energy while draining less of Bryant’s energy, it should be noted — but the Lakers’ loss in Phoenix on Wednesday night showed that trying to balance this approach with his natural inclination of shoot down the stretch is his newest toughest challenge.
Meanwhile, Steve Nash has some stuff to figure out, too.
As in, what has happened to him?
There is one viable excuse. Nash’s way is to take a break from basketball in the offseason. It’s why he was able to say on the first day of training camp: “I feel as good as I’ve ever felt.” But the tradeoff for that freshness is basketball rust, which has been exacerbated by Nash’s leg injury taking him off the court for 21/2 more months.
And with teammates unfamiliar with how, when and where to set picks for him to go where he wants, Nash has looked nothing like the old master and commander of the pick and roll.
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In both the opening night loss to Dallas (seven points, four assists) under Mike Brown and the most recent loss to Phoenix (11 points, two assists) under Mike D’Antoni, Nash was basically Derek Fisher out there.
Nash was slow, trying to keep up on defense and generally not doing that much.
Nash has gone from D’Antoni’s oft-declared unequivocal savior while mending the leg fracture — “Steve’ll fix that” … “Steve’ll get that to happen” … “Steve’ll make me look like an offensive genius again” (well, maybe just paraphrasing on the last one) — to the guy D’Antoni in recent days consistently references as “39 years old.”
That’s D’Antoni’s capsule explanation — even though Nash doesn’t turn 39 for another week — for why Bryant is running the offense now, not Nash. D’Antoni says Nash will still carry the load at times, but Bryant can help him this way, and blah-blah-blah.
C’mon. If Nash was still Nash, D’Antoni of all people would never take the keys away and hand them to Bryant.
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Nash has no distinct role and doesn’t have the sort of personality to demand one.
In the fourth quarter in Phoenix on his homecoming night, Nash had one assist (hardly a classic one considering it came on a Bryant 22-footer). He took one shot, a missed 21-footer with 5:21 to play. He was such a nonfactor that he didn’t even have any turnovers as the Lakers blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead.
“I think I can help,” Nash said afterward. “I definitely think that I can score and set up my teammates and especially in the fourth quarter take some pressure off Kobe. Those are things we’ve still go to work out and find that balance.”
Nash’s idea of saving his legs for the fourth to carve up a defense unaccustomed to defending him is a great one … except it’s pretty much impossible to envision Bryant standing off to the side at crunch time. That’s the time Bryant wants the ball more, not less.
So Nash’s search will go on. He has the sweetest attitude of anyone, but Nash must find something for himself. Whether it’s making five 3-pointers every night or seizing a pick-and-roll time with Gasol early each game to play his old way, the guy who has made so many role players look so good in his career needs to find a role of his own.
Bynum has a tune-up of sorts — Andrew Bynum went to New York to get Synvisc shots from his physician, Dr. David Altchek. Synvisc, a joint lubricant that can provide up to six months of knee pain relief per injection, is expected to help Bynum continue on his road to finally getting on the court for the Sixers this season. As he’s said all along, Bynum hopes to play before the All-Star break, but the Sixers are (of course) taking a cautious approach with him. PhillyBurbs.com’s Tom Moore provides details:
This is the third consecutive season in which Bynum has had two sets of Synvisc injections, with the second typically coming right before the all-star break. He got the first ones this season in late September.
A 76ers spokesman said Bynum, who is recovering from bone bruises in both knees, is expected to return to rehab and working out as soon as Sunday. Bynum has said he hopes to make his Sixers debut soon after the Feb. 14-19 all-star break, but there is still no official timetable.
The 7-foot, 300-pound Bynum has been running on the anti-gravity treadmill, as well as doing basketball shooting, low-post and agility drills for the past 10 days.
GM Tony DiLeo said earlier this week that Bynum could practice with the team as early as the first week of February, which begins Monday. It’s unclear if he’ll still be able to practice next week.
Coach Doug Collins cautioned against expecting too much too fast from Bynum, noting he hasn’t appeared in an NBA game in more than eight months.
“The one thing we have to understand is, he’s not all of a sudden just going to jump into a 5-on-5 scrimmage,” Collins said after Thursday’s team practice. “He’s done nothing laterally or impact-wise. For us to run him out there and he’s going to play 37 minutes would not be feasible because he would have a setback with that.
“Hopefully, he’ll be able to start playing a little 1-on-1 in the post and then build up with that.”
Collins also said the Sixers don’t plan to change their offense “if and when” Bynum can play.
Changes just beginning in Toronto — Given the comments of Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo to our NBA TV crew on Wednesday night (see the interview here) and what he’s telling the media in Raptor-ville, there might be more moves on the horizon north of the border. Damien Cox of the Toronto Star opines that, given Toronto’s current roster makeup, there has to be more coming down the pike:
Then again, let’s all list together the great trades made by Colangelo as GM of the Raps.
You go first.
Maybe Colangelo took the broad hint delivered by the Bell/Rogers unholy ownership alliance and figured the walls were closing in on him if he didn’t make something happen soon.
But really, he knew that at the beginning of the season, no? And he did try to land Steve Nash last summer, going so far as to work the Landry Fields signing to make the entire process come together.
So getting Gay wasn’t a winter impulse. Colangelo’s been working on winning now for a while. It’s just that getting Gay cost a lot, more than just money. There are those who believe Ed Davis will prove to be the best player in this deal, and we’ll see about that. Trading a youngster just as he’s hitting his stride has been, of course, a Leaf trademark for decades.
But if Colangelo is right and Gay blossoms in Toronto, part of the reasoning will have been that for the Raps, getting this kind of player is only possible through trade. Free agents, notable ones, just aren’t going to sign in the Great White North, at least not with an also-ran.
Gay may become the front-court scoring threat who combines with DeMar DeRozan for a true one-two punch. But how does that fit around the youngster, Jonas Valanciunas, who’s a bit of a project still? Meanwhile, Colangelo seems committed to dealing Andrea Bargnani, and now it doesn’t make sense to do that for futures, does it?
Feels like there’s another shoe to drop here.
Clearly, the Raps now want to win, just as the Jays now want to win, as the Argos felt they had to try to win. The sensible path for the Leafs is to show some patience, but there’s been no indication from MLSE ownership that Nonis has permission to do it nice and slow.
…
A town that had Mats Sundin, Chris Bosh and Roy Halladay, then watched them all leave town, is getting some names back.
Just (trying) to win, baby.
ICYMI of the night: There are veteran tricks, and then there is what Vince Carter pulled on the unsuspecting Warriors last night …:
Jose Calderon has only known one city, Toronto, in his NBA career. That all changed last night with his inclusion in the three-team Rudy Gay trade that put the Raptors’ all-time leader in assists and free-throw percentage in Detroit now as part of the deal.
Understandably, Calderon was doing his best to hold it together as he addressed how he found out about the trade and what’s next for him:
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: Two great games last night (Clippers-Wolves and Lakers-Suns) that we’d like to nominate as a must-see this morning, but if we have to pick just one, we’re going with Clippers-Wolves. Great back-and-forth action all game, slick passing from Ricky Rubio here and there, Blake Griffindoing his thing, a little bit of chippiness between two West teams that haven’t liked each other much the last few seasons. Going in, this looked like an easy one for the contending Clips against the banged-up Wolves, but it turned into an overall solid game.
Dwight’s shoulder flares up again — Dwight Howard got his shot blocked by Phoenix’s Shannon Brown with 6:57 left in the game and that was the end of the night for the Lakers’ star big man. Check out the video, but Howard is clearly in pain and reaches for that bothersome right shoulder and the torn labrum that’s hobbled him at times all season. ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Dave McMenamin and the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding both chime in on what’s next for Howard, who says he won’t shut himself down for the season:
From McMenamin:
Howard checked out of the game and did not return as the Suns finished on a 19-8 run without him in there. Howard’s shoulder will be re-evaluated Thursday after the team flies to Minneapolis and his availability for Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves will be determined.
“It’s real sore,” Howard told reporters after icing his shoulder and applying kinesiology tape to the joint following the game. “Everything on (the right) side (of my body) is hurting pretty bad right now.”
Howard originally injured his shoulder during a Jan. 4 game against the Los Angeles Clippers and sat out three games to try to strengthen the muscles surrounding his shoulder. He re-aggravated it in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 106-93 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies last week and sat out the second half, but did not miss any subsequent games.
The All-Star center said Wednesday’s aggravation was the worst pain he’s had since the original injury occurred against the Clippers and he will have to consider resting again to help it heal.
“I’m going to try as much as I can but I don’t want to cause more damage to my shoulder,” said Howard, who finished with nine points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes against Phoenix. “I don’t want to (miss any games), but we’ll see.”
Dwight Howard flatly ruled out shutting himself down or turning to surgery for the labrum injury in his right shoulder, even though he said the pain from this aggravation was the greatest since he first got hurt.
“Just got to deal with it as much as I can,” he said late Wednesday night after the Lakers’ loss to Phoenix.
Howard said that the shoulder pain on previous occasions has abated the day after, which he hopes will be the case again. Accordingly, the Lakers are expecting him play Friday in Minnesota, and Kobe Bryant said the labrum issue is one that will go on all season but with which Howard can learn to deal.
“I’m going to try as much as I can, but I don’t want to cause more damage to my shoulder,” Howard said.
…
Howard’s injury is not the common tear in the labrum itself that has sent many athletes into surgery and months of recovery. Howard has explained his injury as a tear only in the sense of the labrum tearing away from the bone in his shoulder.
Howard said: “I won’t lose my spirit, and I’ve just got to continue to do whatever I can to get my shoulder strong.”
Raptors’ wild night in Georgia– First, the Raptors trade guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis in a multi-team team deal that sends Rudy Gay to Toronto. Then, the Raptors get in a nip-and-tuck game with the Hawks in Atlanta. And lastly, the Raptors have a shot to win in Atlanta, but a late-game scramble on the boards by DeMar DeRozan that ended with a no-call on a possible foul fires up coach Dwyane Casey. Oh, and the Raptors sound like they’re more or less ready to part with former No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani, too. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun has the details:
It has been obvious for some time that it is time for Bargnani to move on, for his sake and for the Raptors, and Colangelo indicated a move could happen soon, though it is not a certainty.
“Andrea is a player that has definitely garnered interest. Unfortunately when he gets hurt that takes him off the market,” Colangelo explained after breaking down the Gay trade to reporters.
“That’s not to say we’re going to trade Andrea … He’s a unique talent, but sometimes a change of address is not bad. I’m not saying he’s asked for a trade, but he would certainly not fight or resist a situation if it was the right situation.”
Bargnani has two years left on his contract, but is a tremendous offensive weapon, when in top form, a player opposing coaches gameplan around. He has many faults, and this corner has addressed them many times, but someone will come calling for him.
But likely only if he returns to the lineup soon, and well in advance of the February 21st deadline.
“Right now there’s no assurances we trade Andrea. Right now, the goal and the focus is to get him back healthy on the court and let him contribute to this team and we’ll see where things go,” Colangelo said.
Not long before Colangelo spoke, Casey let loose, after the officials declined to call a foul at the end of Toronto’s one-point loss when DeMar DeRozan clearly was mauled.
“I’m tired of losing games because of missed calls at the end of games. I know the league is going to come down on me, but I don’t care,” said a seething Casey, smoke practically billowing out of his ears.
“These guys have fought their hearts out, played their hearts out and at the end of the game, we get cracked, (league sends out an) apology, go back to Canada. I’ve been in this league 18 years and I’ve never seen so many missed calls at the end of the game to cost us the game. We’ve got great officials in this league, and too good to miss calls and short-change young men like this. It’s not right. I watched the replay three or four times, hoping that they (somehow made the right call) but they didn’t,” he said.
“This is fourth time this year that we’ve been in this situation … Clearly DeMar DeRozan was cracked on that last play. Make him go to the line and make two free throws.”
Pistons bid adeu to last title-team link — Tayshaun Prince will always be remembered in Pistons folklore for a play known as “The Block” — Prince rejecting Reggie Miller‘s breakaway layup in Game 2 of the 2004 Eastern Conference finals. The Pistons would win that series and the ’04 crown and Prince was an integral part of the Pistons’ lockdown defensive crew of the 2000s that featured Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton. Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press says parting with Prince in the Rudy Gay trade was what Detroit needed to do to official move on from that era:
There’s a graphic montage of the 2004 NBA champion Pistons in their practice facility, honoring all the contributions from that blue-collar, superstar-devoid anomaly. The image of Tayshaun Prince captures his lanky arm swooping up from behind an unsuspecting Reggie Miller, swiping away what should have been a game-clinching lay-up for Indiana in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis.
“The Block” shifted momentum in the Pistons’ favor.
It was fitting that Prince’s long career as a Piston ended Wednesday at the site of his signature moment.
The Pistons parted with Prince and Austin Daye in deal with Memphis and Toronto that landed them point guard Jose Calderon — and more important, his expiring $10.5-million contract.
Prince represents the last link of the “Goin’ to Work” Pistons era highlighted by the 2004 championship as well as six consecutive trips to the conference finals. It’s always a difficult decision parting with someone so deeply intertwined with an identity that paid many dividends.
But it was a move that was long overdue.
The Pistons finally have closed the chapter on that period.
In the Pistons’ locker room following their loss to the Pacers, Prince expressed his surprise over the trade but acknowledged that he was ready to take “the next step” in his career.
…
This was a good trade, but it also places an unwritten ultimatum on Pistons president Joe Dumars. If the Pistons aren’t a playoff team capable of advancing beyond the first round next season with all the possibilities now available to them, Dumars should be shown the door. After this summer, there are no longer any excuses.
This season’s written off — as it should be. Throw the young guys out there into the deep waters and see how they respond. Not making the playoffs guarantees that they can keep the conditional first-round draft pick Dumars offered Charlotte to entice it into taking Ben Gordon‘s toxic contract off his hands.
It made no sense keeping Prince around as a reminder of what once was. The memories always will be there, but it’s time to move forward. This trade actually provides hope that finally the Pistons can return to local relevance and attract more people to the Palace in another season. They’re finally turning the page, finally saying farewell to a period of great pride and performance.
Heat deal crushing blow to Nets’ confidence? — Since parting with coach Avery Johnson on Dec. 27, the Nets have gone 13-5 under coach P.J. Carlesimo and made up ground in the East playoff chase. Wednesday night’s matchup with the Heat — Miami’s only visit to Brooklyn this season — was supposed to be a showdown of East powerhouses. What happened instead was a Heat romp led by LeBron James and Co. that left some doubts in Brooklyn, writes Howard Beck of the New York Times:
For the better part of five weeks, the Nets evolved. They focused a bit harder, reached a bit higher, listened more intently and became a better version of themselves. But evolution is a squiggly path, not a straight line, and that path was obliterated Wednesday by a team that needs no growth or introspection.
The Miami Heat dealt the Nets a blow so forceful, so profoundly humiliating, it might have knocked them right back into the doldrums of December. The final score was 105-85, but the gap seemed twice as wide, and the psychic damage perhaps even deeper.
Most of the Nets’ players left the locker room before reporters arrived. Those that remained wore dull expressions, except for Gerald Wallace, who was simply seething.
“Typical Nets basketball,” Wallace said. “We don’t play together. Careless turnovers. We don’t execute offensively. And defensively, we don’t do anything. We don’t defend. We don’t guard the ball. We don’t help each other out. It’s the same story as it’s been all season.”
It hadn’t looked that way for most of January, with the Nets winning 11 of 14 games before this one, steadily climbing the Eastern Conference standings. Wallace said it was an illusion, a product of a soft schedule, and he may be right. The Nets have lost three of four games, all by double digits.
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, two fully evolved N.B.A. superstars, led the charge for Miami, putting together a highlight reel of flying dunks, all before a national television audience and with the Nets’ owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, watching from a luxury suite.
James put up 24 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Wade added 21 points. And the Heat hardly broke a sweat after putting the game away with a 36-14 third quarter.
“When the bubble burst, it burst completely,” said P. J. Carlesimo, the Nets’ coach.
…
The Heat have beaten the Nets by an average of 21 points over three games, but Wallace and Joe Johnson both insisted they were not that far behind Miami, or at least shouldn’t be.
“It has nothing to do with the talent,” Wallace said, adding, “It just has to do with teamwork.”
The tension started hours before tip-off, with Reggie Evans’ deriding the Heat’s championship in an interview with The Daily News, and James accusing the Nets of quitting on Coach Avery Johnson, who was fired in December.
“They are playing with more passion, more together — they are playing like they want to play for their coach,” James told reporters after the Heat’s shootaround.
By that time, Evans had already slighted the Heat, saying their title “doesn’t prove nothing.” He added, “That was a lockout season.”
Taunting the N.B.A.’s best team is always inadvisable. The Nets should be clear on that much now.
It’s never a goal for Gregg Popovich or his players, but now that Popovich has been officially installed as coach for the Western Conference All-Star team, the veteran of 16-plus seasons on the Spurs’ bench admits he looks forward to a weekend with some of basketball’s best players.
Popovich earned his spot because the Spurs are guaranteed a better record than the Clippers on Sunday, the deadline for determining the coaches for the Feb. 17 showcase at Houston’s Toyota Center.
While it is still possible for Oklahoma City to have a better winning percentage than the Spurs, Thunder coach Scott Brooks isn’t allowed, by league rule, from coaching because he led the West at the 2012 All-Star Game in Orlando.
“It will be just like it has been in the past: a heck of an opportunity to enjoy amazing talent,” Popovich said after his team’s 102-78 victory over the Bobcats. “That’s not just a B.S. or trite statement. It’s true. When you’re around those guys, you look around the room and you can’t believe you’re in the same room with them. It’s a huge honor just to be a part of it.”
Popovich also coached the West All-Stars in 2005 and 2011.
Gallinari, Nuggets keep rounding into form — Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari had a rough November and December, shooting a combined 40.2 percent and averaging 15.9 ppg. But January has been a different story as he’s shooting 46.9 percent (and 43.2 percent from 3-point range) and averaging 19.3 ppg as Denver has picked up steam. Last night’s win over the Rockets only kept he and the Nuggets humming, writes Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post:
The Italian Danilo Gallinari hit three key 3-pointers, two of them back-to-back, in Wednesday’s crazy fourth quarter, and the Nuggets did it again. Make it a dozen. The Nuggets won their 12th game of January in the final game of the month, and fifth straight overall, 118-110 against Houston, a team Denver also beat one week ago.
The Nuggets made it interesting, indeed. Just as in the previous game against Indiana, a big fourth-quarter lead dwindled. On Wednesday, Denver led by 13 points with 6:54 remaining, but the home team made the necessary stops and sent the fans home happy (with tacos, too!).
Gallo was gallant. The Nuggets forward, the team’s top player in this 12-3 month, scored a team-high 27 points, doing so on a respectable 10-for-17 shooting. He also unleashed two monster slams, one a one-handed hammer over Greg Smith, the other after dribbling the length of the floor.
And his two consecutive treys gave Denver a 94-86 lead during an push in the early stages of the final quarter.
And so, the Nuggets (29-18) have won those five consecutive games heading into two winnable games, first against New Orleans on Friday and then against Milwaukee on Tuesday.
ICYMI of the night: Anyone wondering if John Wall is completely healed from his knee injury should go ask Sixers big man Spencer Hawes:
ATLANTA – The aftermath of draft night and the night of a big trade in the NBA involve similar routines for the executives whose fingerprints are all over the selections and deals. Study your own handiwork hard enough and it becomes easier with each passing second to justify whatever was done in the name of the greater good.
That’s also why front office types are fond of this theory that you can’t just judge draft picks or trades on the spot. They both require a little extra time before being examined.
But that’s only in the insulated world of said front office types, the men whose jobs are on the line each and every time a draft pick busts or a prized acquisition doesn’t live up to the hype.
Raptors general manager Bryant Colangelo (in the video above and here) has coveted Gay since the 2006 Draft, when the Raptors selected Andrea Bargnani with the No. 1 overall pick, the same Bargnani they are also trying to deal before the Feb. 21 trade deadline.
Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace gushed about veteran forward TayshaunPrince and Austin Daye, acquired from Detroit, and promising young big man Ed Davis snagged from Toronto:
“We are excited to add three players who bring with them a tremendous amount of value to our team and have achieved incredible success on the pro, college and Olympic levels,” Wallace said in a statement. “In these players, we welcome NBA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Tayshaun Prince, as well as up-and-coming athletic forwards Ed Davis, who won an NCAA title at North Carolina, and Austin Daye.”
Pistons boss Joe Dumars was just as effusive in his praise of Jose Calderon, the veteran point guard with the expiring contract who relocates from Toronto to Detroit with his coveted expiring ($10.5 million this season) contract:
“We are pleased to welcome Jose Calderon, knowing that he fits our mold as a high character individual who is a great competitor,” Dumars said in his statement. “Jose is a great facilitator at the guard position and a player that we feel gives us tremendous flexibility on the court when added to the core of guards we have on the roster.”
And in that regard, all three of these teams can and will walk away claiming victory.
The Raptors got their man in Gay, 26, a dynamic wing player from a Western Conference contender whose contract (two years and $37 million after this season) forced the Grizzlies’ financial hand more than anything. Gay is hardly the only member of the top 20 salaries list who would not make your top 20 players in the league list, but he’s far from a bust. He just hasn’t reached All-Star status (yet?).
In the Eastern Conference, the road back to respectability is often just the right player or two or one big summer away. On the other hand, the Grizzlies were forced to weigh the long-term sustainability of a salary structure that doesn’t support coming up short of the Western Conference finals.
They reduced their payroll with this deal and also shed some $6 million in payroll after completing a multiple-player deal with the Cavaliers last week. Prince, 32, whose best days in the league predate Twitter, still pays immediate dividends with his experience and leadership. Davis provides a huge development chip for the future and Daye, the No. 15 pick in the 2009 Draft, serves as the wild card, depending on how he adjusts to his new city and new role.
But the question will linger well into early spring for the Grizzlies: did they move up a spot on the Western Conference food chain, stay the same or take a step back by breaking up their promising (but expensive) core four of Gay, All-Star power forward Zach Randolph, former All-NBA center Marc Gasol and point guard Mike Conley?
“The Thunder, Clippers and Spurs are loving this deal,” an Eastern Conference assistant general manager said late Wednesday night. “Rudy would have been someone they had to worry about if they saw Memphis in the playoffs. Tayshaun was a great piece in his prime. But he hasn’t been that guy for a few years now. The big winners in this deal are the Thunder, Clippers and Spurs.”
Perhaps it’s best to give the final word to a man whose statistical value has often paled in comparison to some of the other, tougher to quantify benefits he brings to his own particular situation …
Wow that was 1 crazy trade today. Are you serious Rudy Gay is right there under KD, Lebron, Kobe, and Melo. #badtrade— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) January 30, 2013
