Daily Basketball
NBA and NCAA blogging on an occasionally daily basis
Archive for June, 2006
June 24, 2006 at 6:48 pm · Filed under NBA
The Seattle Sonics gave Chris Wilcox the qualifying offer needed to give the team a chance to retain the forward who they acquired earlier this year in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. The team will still have to decide whether he’s worth the money, since several teams (the Memphis Grizzlies especially) may offer Wilcox a contract up to almost $10 million a year.
Want to be an NBA agent? Well, with $1500 (a year), it could happen. Sean Deveney of Sporting News wrote this article about NBA agents which describes the ‘guidelines’ (whether you’re serious or not) and goes behind-the-scenes showing some of the unique experiences.
The Houston Rockets are trying to trade up for Brandon Roy. The Rockets are talking with the Minnesota Timberwolves about swapping their first-round picks. The Rockets would also throw in Luther Head.
Today’s Larry Brown news has the coach and his agent trying to get Brown the remaining $40 million from the Knicks, though Brown was fired from the job. It’s not as though Brown wouldn’t be able to quickly find another job…
Rajon Rondo’s draft stock has be going up quickly. Many teams, including the New Jersey Nets, are considering Rondo to be a late first-round pick. The Nets are looking for a young point guard to start learning the game from Jason Kidd. Not a bad mentor…
June 23, 2006 at 8:20 am · Filed under NBA
Larry Brown had forty million reasons to try and work out the situation with the New York Knicks, but after the team ‘let him go’, it appears the Knicks won’t pay any of the $40 million he had remaining on his contract.
According to the Racine Journal Times, “the Bulls and Suns are giving serious thought to a trade in which Suns forward Shawn Marion would be jettisoned to the Bulls for power forward Tyson Chandler and the Bulls’ top draft pick“. At first that didn’t sound like a while lot for an almost complete player in Marion until I realized the Bulls’ top pick is the #2 from the
Knicks, and could be used on the big man needed to play beside Amare Stoudemire.
One draft promise coming from the Cleveland Cavaliers is that they’ll draft Daniel Gibson with the first-round pick. The Cavs haven’t been holding workouts for weeks and didn’t attend the draft camps. Teams have requested to workout Gibson, but he has declined. The Cavaliers are also trying to move up, and are willing to trade Drew Gooden or Eric Snow to do it.
The Suns seem to have several options to move up into the middle of the second round. Philadelphia is trying to trade down, and the deal between the two teams sounds like it would be the Sixers’ #13 for the #21 and #27. The Sixers would like to get Leandro Barbosa in place of the #21 pick, to fill their hole at point guard.
Now that the NBA Finals are over, both teams are trying to keep their teams intact. The Miami Heat will look to keep James Posey, and veterans Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton both need to make their plans after winning their first championship. On the Mavericks‘ side, both Jason Terry and Keith Van Horn have expiring contracts. The team will definitely try to resign Terry, and possibly Van Horn at the right price.
Carmelo Anthony wants to make sure the Denver Nuggets improve significantly this offseason. He doesn’t necessarily want them to trade Kenyon Martin, the player most commonly rumored to be traded from the team. “Hopefully they work it out, but everybody’s got to do what they’ve got to do….I would love to play with him.”
June 22, 2006 at 2:55 pm · Filed under NBA
Larry Brown was finally fired from the New York Knicks organization, as predicted who knows how many months ago. Isiah Thomas will take over as the head coach of the team. Thomas is also the team president and general manager.
Now that Michael Jordan has a role with the Charlotte Bobcats, there’s some discussion that Brown and coaching legend Dean Smith may join the team as advisors to some degree. Brown would likely work in the front office if he doesn’t get a coaching position, while Smith would work mostly as a consultant.
Strangely, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tyrus Thomas and Brandon Roy have all cancelled their workouts with the Bobcats. It appears that the Bobcats will have to choose between Rudy Gay and Adam Morrison.
The Toronto Raptors hired Maurizio Gherardini as an assistant GM and vice-president. It’s no coincidence that Gherardini was the GM of Benetton Treviso, who owns the right to potential #1 draftee Andrea Bargnani.
There was another small trade, this one between the San Antonio Spurs and the Raptors. The Spurs acquired Matt Bonner, Eric Williams and a 2009 second round draft pick from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Rasho Nesterovic.
June 21, 2006 at 7:57 am · Filed under NBA
The Miami Heat won their fourth game in a row, sealing the team’s first ever NBA championship. For Shaquille O’Neal this was his fourth time winning the trophy, and veteran Pat Riley added his first in almost twenty years, and Gary Payton got his first championship, but all of the attention was on Dwyane Wade.
Wade was named the Finals MVP after a series where he averaged 34.7 points per game, which of course is right up there with some of the great NBA players of all-time. There was no question he would win the award after the team was down in the series 0-2 to the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat is just the third team to win the championship after losing the first two games.
Mark Cuban was fined $250,000 for several acts after Game 5, though he gave the Heat a round of applause after his team left lost the game. Cuban’s antics during the game and posts on his blog have made him the most exciting person in the Finals not named Dwyane Wade.
Philadelphia is trying to move up in next week’s NBA draft. The team has the #13 overall pick, and the news that the team is trying to move into the top five or six picks once again brings up the idea of the team moving Allen Iverson. Recent reports said that a Sixers chairman ordered that Iverson be traded, though that was later denied.
It’s beginning to look like if the Toronto Raptors wil pick Andrea Bargnani wherever they end up. The deal mentioned yesterday with the Charlotte Bobcats would also include Brevin Knight going with the #3 for Alvin Williams and the first pick overall.
June 20, 2006 at 10:46 am · Filed under NBA
According to the Arizona Republic, Amare Stoudemire may have a short stint on the Phoenix Suns summer-league team in Las Vegas before he heads to the USA Basketball camp. Stoudemire’s knee seems to have healed just fine, and Stoudemire is working on building more strength.
The Utah Jazz’s Kevin O’Connor neither confirmed or denied that Carlos Boozer is being discussed for a potential trade to the Memphis Grizzlies. “I’ve got no comment,” said O’Connor. According to league officials, Boozer was one of the names that commonly came up when the teams met to watch the predraft camp in Orlando.
Some news that’s been skipped over is whether Miami Heat’s super backup center Alonzo Mourning will return to the team next year, or retire from the NBA. Mourning has said he wants to focus on the championship now, and that is decision will be made during the offseason.
Draft news for the day: The Chicago Bulls may draft Saer Sene with their second first-round draft pick (#16).The Phoenix Suns were impressed during their workout with Shannon Brown, and also are trying to trade up to get Sene.
Meanwhile, teams are trying to trade up to be able to draft Adam Morrison. With five or six big names at the top of the draft, several teams are trying move up or around in the top of the lottery.
June 19, 2006 at 8:16 pm · Filed under NBA
Before I get into Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the deadline has passed for players to withdraw from the NBA Draft. Several did so, but the biggest names were Aaron Gray and Richard Roby. Both were expecting to be taken in the mid-to-late first round. Tiago Splitter also pulled out again.
Tyrus Thomas appears to have a promise in the top three picks of the draft, after he canceled his workout with the Portland Trailblazers. The Chicago Bulls seem to be the team to make the promise, but Chicago may take LaMarcus Aldridge instead if the Toronto Raptors take another player or make a trade with their first overall pick.
RealGM and DraftExpress have reported during a podcast that the Charlotte Bobcats are williing to take Alvin Williams and his contract from the Raptors if they can also trade their third pick for the first. Williams’ career has been plagued with injury, so by dumping him to the Bobcats, Toronto will be able to better handle Chris Bosh’s upcoming contract extension.
Rashad McCants will be out for 4-to-6 months after having microfracture surgery on his right knee. This is the same surgery that kept Amare Stoudemire out for most of the last season.
The Dallas Mavericks lost a heartbreaker to the Miami Heat, 101-100. Dwyane Wade had another spectacular performance, including hitting two free throws with just seconds left. But after Wade stepped up to the line, all of the attention was on Josh Howard and coach Avery Johnson.
After Wade made his first free throw, Johnson signaled to Howard that he wanted an immediate timeout after the second shot. Howard called the timeout immediately, which took away the team’s chance of getting the ball closer to the ball after calling a timeout with the ball. Still, it would have taken a fantastic shot with 1.9 seconds left from the Mavs, who played the game without Jerry Stackhouse.
Dirk Nowitzki was fined $5,000 for kicking the ball into the stands during the game.
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