Sorry this is late..........Bus Busy.........
Clippers pondering passing on Odom
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Updated: August 20
9:23 AM ET
Clippers owner Donald Sterling found his wallet this summer when he (finally) agreed to pay Elton Brand and Corey Maggette a combined $124 million over the next six years.
Did he find a coherent basketball strategy too?
After privately claiming for the past week that the Clips intend to match the Heat's six-year, $65 million offer to Lamar Odom, a source inside the Clippers, for the first time this summer, started dropping hints that the team is considering letting Odom walk.
Before you begin your "the Clippers are cheap" diatribe, hear him out.
"Why use up all of our cap room on Lamar when we could do better next summer?" the Clips' front office source told Insider. "There are a lot of attractive free agents out there next summer and I think we're beginning to prove to folks that we'll spend whatever it takes for the right guys. Elton and Corey were the right guys."
Lamar Odom has been open about his desire to leave Los Angeles.
Maybe. Reputations aren't broken that easy and NBA free agents are likely to remain wary of the Clips. However, there are signs of life in L.A. In addition to Brand and Maggette, the Clips also made a substantial offer to free agent Gilbert Arenas this summer.
If the Clips stand pat the rest of the season, they'll be looking at around $12-13 million in cap room next summer. The Jazz and Nuggets are the only other teams slated to have significant cap room at the moment.
Adding someone else's free agent won't be the only thing on the Clips mind. The team will have to decide whether to re-sign restricted free agents Quentin Richardson and Keyon Dooling, but the possibility is there, if L.A. decides to pass on those two, to land a top tier-free agent.
"We love Lamar, but it's going to be difficult to justify spending that kind of money on him," he said. "As talented as he is, his play and his attitude don't warrant that type of money. It's a pretty big leap to go from Mr. Sterling paying top dollar for a few free agents to Mr. Sterling overpaying for one. I'm not sure we're that far along."
The Clippers are also upset over Odom's recent statements claiming he no longer wants anything to do with the Clips. For years, Odom was Sterling's and the Clips' biggest cheerleader, imploring the owner to re-sign his core players. But after a disastrous season and protracted negotiations this summer, Odom became the team's biggest critic and begged for the team not to match.
So should Odom start looking for a house in Miami? Not so fast Heat fans. The Clippers source stressed that some in the organization still feel strongly that the team should re-sign Odom and see what happens this year. If things don't work out, the team could always make a trade with the Heat next summer given Pat Riley's passion for Odom.
Don't expect anything to be definitively announced before the team's Aug. 26th deadline.
Even if they do let Odom go, Clippers fans shouldn't get their hopes up too high. The Clips could just be talking about next year in an effort to justify letting Odom go. Talking and doing, as we've seen time and time again in L.A., are two very different things.
Around the League
Well we finally know who to point the finger at in Golden State. Warriors "special assistant" Chris Mullin was gushing about the Warriors trade on Tuesday.
"We've added two guards [Nick Van Exel and Speedy Claxton] who were playing in June," Mullin told the San Jose Mercury News. "We've got Mike [Dunleavy] and Jason [Richardson] in places where they can emerge and we can evaluate them. We've fixed some long-term things. . . . Beautiful, you know?"
Beautiful?!? Maybe it was a mistake to have Mullin learning at the feet of Garry St. Jean the past year.
Mullin's role in the trade has sent a strong signal to many GMs around the league that he, not St. Jean, is the man with the power in Golden State now.
According to several NBA sources, St. Jean was working on an alternative trade at the same time Mullin was trying to work out something with Dallas. Owner Chris Cohan bought into Mullin's vision (or was it the other way around?) and St. Jean was left trying to explain to several other upset GMs why he had to pull the plug on talks with them.
Mullin wouldn't go so far as to claim that he was taking over, but he dropped plenty of hints.
"Every day I'm around," Mullin said, "every meeting, I learn something and I think, 'Man, if I'm doing something and I didn't know that, that wouldn't have been too good.' There's a lot of things as a player that do transcend and help you, but not everything. I've got to make sure I've got them down. In one year . . . I don't know. I'm in a really good position to do that."
What's next for Mullin? There's still talk that the Warriors may move Erick Dampier, along with either Avery Johnson or Bob Sura.
If the Warriors really made a "beautiful" deal, why were Don Nelson and Mark Cuban grinning like a Cheshire cat on Tuesday?
"We're a nightmare to match up with now," president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. "We're better in so many ways. Low-post scoring. Defense. Rebounding. And we've gotten taller and younger without disrupting our core."
After much debate about who was the key to the deal, Nelson admitted that the team wouldn't have done the deal without Jiri Welsch, the 6-foot-7 combo guard the Mavs tried to trade for on draft night last year.
"We wouldn't have done this deal without Jiri," Donnie said. "With him and Antawn and the potential of Danny to be a steal, this is a trade we couldn't not do."
Nelson also confirmed that the Mavs want to sign a veteran free-agent point guard. Among the guys they're looking at? Travis Best, Kenny Anderson and Rod Strickland. Of the three, Best is considered to be the Mavs' primary target. The Mavericks could use their $4.9 million salary-cap exception or their $1.5 million exception to get it done.
There's also still a possibility that the team will trade Chris Mills. Mills was the only one of the four Warriors traded to the Mavs who did not show up for Tuesday's press conference.
The Bulls are expected to sign veteran swing man Kendall Gill today. Gill, 35, played for the T-Wolves last season and averaged 8.7 ppg in 25.2 minutes. In a related move, the Chicago Sun Times is reporting that the Bulls will waive center Dalibor Bagaric. Bagaric, 23, was the Bulls' 24th pick of the first round in 2000, but the 7-1, 290-pound Bagaric never got much playing time. His contract was guaranteed for $1.4 million this season.
----------------------------------------
Peep Show
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Tuesday, August 19
Updated: August 19
8:46 AM ET
Hill
Orlando Magic: Like it or not, Orlando swingman Grant Hill will attempt to play this season. But for the record, the Orlando franchise doesn't like it. "He could be . . . I have no idea, to be honest." said head coach Doc Rivers in the Orlando Sentinel. "He's working his butt off. I think Grant, in Grant's mind . . . I think he's thinking, 'I'm not finished this season.' " The team would like Hill to sit out the entire season in order to rehab his chronically injured ankle and then try to make a return the following season, going so far as to apply for a medical exception earlier this offseason. However, Hill has said time and again that he will return despite numerous setbacks. "This is the first year since we've had Grant that the beginning of the season hasn't started with him being healthy. This year we're going into the season not expecting Grant to play and we're moving on," Rivers said. "We're not pinning our hopes on him."
New Jersey Nets: Senator Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey doesn't like the way "Brooklyn Nets" sounds so he, along with a few friends in the right places, is doing his best to keep them in New Jersey even if it means buying the team, himself. "Corzine is not buying into this team because he thinks he's going to make money," an executive involved in the possible deal told the New York Times. "It's to save the teams from leaving New Jersey and maybe to generate political support." Developer Bruce Ratner is leading the opposition, hoping to buy the team from current owner Lewis Katz and move the team to Brooklyn.
Seattle SuperSonics: The Seattle Times is reporting that Joseph Forte has entered into a court-mandated settlement with the man he allegedly punched in the face during a pick up basketball game on the Tar Heel campus. Details are unknown, but the paper states that this is only the beginning for the troubled player who now must face charges in Maryland concerning drug and gun possession.
Clippers pondering passing on Odom
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Updated: August 20
9:23 AM ET
Clippers owner Donald Sterling found his wallet this summer when he (finally) agreed to pay Elton Brand and Corey Maggette a combined $124 million over the next six years.
Did he find a coherent basketball strategy too?
After privately claiming for the past week that the Clips intend to match the Heat's six-year, $65 million offer to Lamar Odom, a source inside the Clippers, for the first time this summer, started dropping hints that the team is considering letting Odom walk.
Before you begin your "the Clippers are cheap" diatribe, hear him out.
"Why use up all of our cap room on Lamar when we could do better next summer?" the Clips' front office source told Insider. "There are a lot of attractive free agents out there next summer and I think we're beginning to prove to folks that we'll spend whatever it takes for the right guys. Elton and Corey were the right guys."
Lamar Odom has been open about his desire to leave Los Angeles.
Maybe. Reputations aren't broken that easy and NBA free agents are likely to remain wary of the Clips. However, there are signs of life in L.A. In addition to Brand and Maggette, the Clips also made a substantial offer to free agent Gilbert Arenas this summer.
If the Clips stand pat the rest of the season, they'll be looking at around $12-13 million in cap room next summer. The Jazz and Nuggets are the only other teams slated to have significant cap room at the moment.
Adding someone else's free agent won't be the only thing on the Clips mind. The team will have to decide whether to re-sign restricted free agents Quentin Richardson and Keyon Dooling, but the possibility is there, if L.A. decides to pass on those two, to land a top tier-free agent.
"We love Lamar, but it's going to be difficult to justify spending that kind of money on him," he said. "As talented as he is, his play and his attitude don't warrant that type of money. It's a pretty big leap to go from Mr. Sterling paying top dollar for a few free agents to Mr. Sterling overpaying for one. I'm not sure we're that far along."
The Clippers are also upset over Odom's recent statements claiming he no longer wants anything to do with the Clips. For years, Odom was Sterling's and the Clips' biggest cheerleader, imploring the owner to re-sign his core players. But after a disastrous season and protracted negotiations this summer, Odom became the team's biggest critic and begged for the team not to match.
So should Odom start looking for a house in Miami? Not so fast Heat fans. The Clippers source stressed that some in the organization still feel strongly that the team should re-sign Odom and see what happens this year. If things don't work out, the team could always make a trade with the Heat next summer given Pat Riley's passion for Odom.
Don't expect anything to be definitively announced before the team's Aug. 26th deadline.
Even if they do let Odom go, Clippers fans shouldn't get their hopes up too high. The Clips could just be talking about next year in an effort to justify letting Odom go. Talking and doing, as we've seen time and time again in L.A., are two very different things.
Around the League
Well we finally know who to point the finger at in Golden State. Warriors "special assistant" Chris Mullin was gushing about the Warriors trade on Tuesday.
"We've added two guards [Nick Van Exel and Speedy Claxton] who were playing in June," Mullin told the San Jose Mercury News. "We've got Mike [Dunleavy] and Jason [Richardson] in places where they can emerge and we can evaluate them. We've fixed some long-term things. . . . Beautiful, you know?"
Beautiful?!? Maybe it was a mistake to have Mullin learning at the feet of Garry St. Jean the past year.
Mullin's role in the trade has sent a strong signal to many GMs around the league that he, not St. Jean, is the man with the power in Golden State now.
According to several NBA sources, St. Jean was working on an alternative trade at the same time Mullin was trying to work out something with Dallas. Owner Chris Cohan bought into Mullin's vision (or was it the other way around?) and St. Jean was left trying to explain to several other upset GMs why he had to pull the plug on talks with them.
Mullin wouldn't go so far as to claim that he was taking over, but he dropped plenty of hints.
"Every day I'm around," Mullin said, "every meeting, I learn something and I think, 'Man, if I'm doing something and I didn't know that, that wouldn't have been too good.' There's a lot of things as a player that do transcend and help you, but not everything. I've got to make sure I've got them down. In one year . . . I don't know. I'm in a really good position to do that."
What's next for Mullin? There's still talk that the Warriors may move Erick Dampier, along with either Avery Johnson or Bob Sura.
If the Warriors really made a "beautiful" deal, why were Don Nelson and Mark Cuban grinning like a Cheshire cat on Tuesday?
"We're a nightmare to match up with now," president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. "We're better in so many ways. Low-post scoring. Defense. Rebounding. And we've gotten taller and younger without disrupting our core."
After much debate about who was the key to the deal, Nelson admitted that the team wouldn't have done the deal without Jiri Welsch, the 6-foot-7 combo guard the Mavs tried to trade for on draft night last year.
"We wouldn't have done this deal without Jiri," Donnie said. "With him and Antawn and the potential of Danny to be a steal, this is a trade we couldn't not do."
Nelson also confirmed that the Mavs want to sign a veteran free-agent point guard. Among the guys they're looking at? Travis Best, Kenny Anderson and Rod Strickland. Of the three, Best is considered to be the Mavs' primary target. The Mavericks could use their $4.9 million salary-cap exception or their $1.5 million exception to get it done.
There's also still a possibility that the team will trade Chris Mills. Mills was the only one of the four Warriors traded to the Mavs who did not show up for Tuesday's press conference.
The Bulls are expected to sign veteran swing man Kendall Gill today. Gill, 35, played for the T-Wolves last season and averaged 8.7 ppg in 25.2 minutes. In a related move, the Chicago Sun Times is reporting that the Bulls will waive center Dalibor Bagaric. Bagaric, 23, was the Bulls' 24th pick of the first round in 2000, but the 7-1, 290-pound Bagaric never got much playing time. His contract was guaranteed for $1.4 million this season.
----------------------------------------
Peep Show
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Tuesday, August 19
Updated: August 19
8:46 AM ET
Hill
Orlando Magic: Like it or not, Orlando swingman Grant Hill will attempt to play this season. But for the record, the Orlando franchise doesn't like it. "He could be . . . I have no idea, to be honest." said head coach Doc Rivers in the Orlando Sentinel. "He's working his butt off. I think Grant, in Grant's mind . . . I think he's thinking, 'I'm not finished this season.' " The team would like Hill to sit out the entire season in order to rehab his chronically injured ankle and then try to make a return the following season, going so far as to apply for a medical exception earlier this offseason. However, Hill has said time and again that he will return despite numerous setbacks. "This is the first year since we've had Grant that the beginning of the season hasn't started with him being healthy. This year we're going into the season not expecting Grant to play and we're moving on," Rivers said. "We're not pinning our hopes on him."
New Jersey Nets: Senator Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey doesn't like the way "Brooklyn Nets" sounds so he, along with a few friends in the right places, is doing his best to keep them in New Jersey even if it means buying the team, himself. "Corzine is not buying into this team because he thinks he's going to make money," an executive involved in the possible deal told the New York Times. "It's to save the teams from leaving New Jersey and maybe to generate political support." Developer Bruce Ratner is leading the opposition, hoping to buy the team from current owner Lewis Katz and move the team to Brooklyn.
Seattle SuperSonics: The Seattle Times is reporting that Joseph Forte has entered into a court-mandated settlement with the man he allegedly punched in the face during a pick up basketball game on the Tar Heel campus. Details are unknown, but the paper states that this is only the beginning for the troubled player who now must face charges in Maryland concerning drug and gun possession.
