Things heating up
Summer should bring big changes
With summer upon us, there's a lot of unfinished business in the NBA. Including these questions:
1. Where will Shaquille O'Neal be playing next season?
Shaq isn't backing down from his trade request, not after the Lakers wouldn't consult with him on Phil Jackson (he wanted Phil to stay). He hasn't felt this "disrepected'' since Orlando wouldn't take his suggestion and hire Chuck Daly, which helped lead to O'Neal's departure in 1996.
If the Mavs can get Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas in a deal, their intentions are to send him to L.A. with Dirk Nowitzki and others. That should be enough to get Shaq to Dallas, the only place he wants to go to, if L.A. decides to trade him. On the coaching front, Jerry Buss is gung-ho to hire Rudy Tomjanovich pronto, while GM Mitch Kupchak is trying to convince Buss to take his time and explore other candidates, including George Karl.
2. Where is Tracy McGrady headed?
He says he'll only re-sign with the Rockets next summer, so everybody has him penciled in there. What a surprise: Steve Francis is backing off his declarations that he won't play for the Magic, giving the Rockets the inside track. But Phoenix is still a serious player and has visions of McGrady joining Amare Stoudemire. Not bad. From this vantage point, the Suns have the better deal on the table, with Joe Johnson and Shawn Marion, vs. the Rockets' package of Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato.
3. What will Seattle do with Ray Allen?
Like T-Mac, Allen can opt out after this coming season. Allen is expected to ask for max money, but the Sonics don't think he's a max-money player. So he could be on the move, with Chicago one potential destination.
4. What will Chicago and Indiana do with their rosters?
Before the draft, John Paxson sounded like he wanted to do a total makeover. That still applies. He rejected several offers for the No. 3 pick in Thursday's draft, including one from the Pacers' Larry Bird, and wound up with the one player almost everybody wanted: Ben Gordon.
"If I could have got up to No. 3 and got Ben Gordon," Bird said, "this would have been a great draft for us."
Among the moves Paxson is considering, is dealing Jamal Crawford to Seattle in a sign-and-trade. The Sonics have been scouting the Seattle native for more than a year.
Meanwhile, unable to land Gordon, Bird still wants to find a new point guard. He's also trying to deal Al Harrington, who isnhappy as a bench player, and Ron Artest, whose play in the postseason didn't go over well with the team president or coach Rick Carlisle.
Weak market
And you thought the draft was weak? The list of free agents for this summer isn't exactly teeming with All-Stars.
Other than Kobe Bryant - the only marquee player available - Steve Nash, Kenyon Martin and a handful of others, it's a pretty bleak crop when you size up the 157 restricted and unrestricted free agents. That's too bad for teams such as Utah ($30 million- plus) and Atlanta ($20 million) that have more cap space than anyone else. The Suns ($16 million), Nuggets ($14 million) and Clippers ($13 million) plan on being active.
Here's a look at some of the players expected to get interest, with Thursday being the first day teams can negotiate with players, and July 14 being the first day they can sign players to new deals:
Mark Blount - Boston, Miami and Orlando are all willing to overpay for Celtics big man.
Kobe Bryant - Clippers and Suns want him, but who wouldn't? Can't see him leaving Lakers, especially if Shaq is dealt.
Erick Dampier - Walking away from $8 million so he must have a deal already lined up.
Marquis Daniels - Looking at 6-year $38 million deal, but buyer beware: Don Nelson's system makes a lot of players look very good.
Troy Hudson - Minnesota intends to re-sign a player it really missed in the playoffs. If not, Houston and Utah are top suitors.
Steve Nash - Turns 31 in February and already has a lot of tread off the tire playing in Mavs' up-tempo system.
Mehmet Okur - Suns all set to bring in Detroit forward, even if they have to overpay.
Labor pains
The Suns recently sold for $401 million, a record for an NBA franchise, attendance records were established across the league and TV ratings were back on the upswing. But NBA owners called for rollbacks in salaries during recent talks with the players.
That shouldn't make for a happy bunch when players meet tomorrow in Las Vegas at the NBA Players Association's annual summer meeting. While David Stern says that talks have been productive to get a new extension hammered out before the end of next season, when the current deal expires, the union is not that optimistic.
"If what they're saying to us about further cost containment is what's going to be in their proposal, then they shouldn't even bother making it," said union chief Billy Hunter. "They're the ones who say they want to get a deal done soon, so that we don't have to try to get this settled during the season. But they're the ones who are killing that idea entirely."
The union is open to only minor changes. As well it should be. The average salary is now almost $5 million. With owners saying they want all teams to enjoy a profit, even teams that are run poorly - including the one which calls the Garden home - could be headed for another lockout?
"This isn't the NHL," said one league official. "I still think we'll get it done." The two sides are expected to continue to meet throughout July.
Slam Dunks
Toronto is expected to tab Detroit assistant Mike Woodson as its head coach. Woodson, who was instrumental in helping Ben Wallace's offensive development this past season, is the second choice. The Raptors wanted Tom Izzo, but never came up with the necessary money to get him to leave Michigan State. Izzo is smart to pass up this job, just as he was wise to turn down Atlanta a few years back.
The Nuggets are expected to fire Jeff Bzdelik this week. At least that's the word that filtered into NBA headquarters late this past week. Bzdelik's successor likely will be Mike Brown, the Pacers' associate head coach and a former Denver scout. George Karl, a business partner with Denver owner Stan Kroenke, also has been linked to the job. The new coach has some work to do. Several players say there are some major divisions in the locker room, between young (Carmelo Anthony) and young (Nene Hilario), and young (Anthony) and old (Andre Miller and Marcus Camby).
Originally published on June 26, 2004
Summer should bring big changes
With summer upon us, there's a lot of unfinished business in the NBA. Including these questions:
1. Where will Shaquille O'Neal be playing next season?
Shaq isn't backing down from his trade request, not after the Lakers wouldn't consult with him on Phil Jackson (he wanted Phil to stay). He hasn't felt this "disrepected'' since Orlando wouldn't take his suggestion and hire Chuck Daly, which helped lead to O'Neal's departure in 1996.
If the Mavs can get Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas in a deal, their intentions are to send him to L.A. with Dirk Nowitzki and others. That should be enough to get Shaq to Dallas, the only place he wants to go to, if L.A. decides to trade him. On the coaching front, Jerry Buss is gung-ho to hire Rudy Tomjanovich pronto, while GM Mitch Kupchak is trying to convince Buss to take his time and explore other candidates, including George Karl.
2. Where is Tracy McGrady headed?
He says he'll only re-sign with the Rockets next summer, so everybody has him penciled in there. What a surprise: Steve Francis is backing off his declarations that he won't play for the Magic, giving the Rockets the inside track. But Phoenix is still a serious player and has visions of McGrady joining Amare Stoudemire. Not bad. From this vantage point, the Suns have the better deal on the table, with Joe Johnson and Shawn Marion, vs. the Rockets' package of Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato.
3. What will Seattle do with Ray Allen?
Like T-Mac, Allen can opt out after this coming season. Allen is expected to ask for max money, but the Sonics don't think he's a max-money player. So he could be on the move, with Chicago one potential destination.
4. What will Chicago and Indiana do with their rosters?
Before the draft, John Paxson sounded like he wanted to do a total makeover. That still applies. He rejected several offers for the No. 3 pick in Thursday's draft, including one from the Pacers' Larry Bird, and wound up with the one player almost everybody wanted: Ben Gordon.
"If I could have got up to No. 3 and got Ben Gordon," Bird said, "this would have been a great draft for us."
Among the moves Paxson is considering, is dealing Jamal Crawford to Seattle in a sign-and-trade. The Sonics have been scouting the Seattle native for more than a year.
Meanwhile, unable to land Gordon, Bird still wants to find a new point guard. He's also trying to deal Al Harrington, who isnhappy as a bench player, and Ron Artest, whose play in the postseason didn't go over well with the team president or coach Rick Carlisle.
Weak market
And you thought the draft was weak? The list of free agents for this summer isn't exactly teeming with All-Stars.
Other than Kobe Bryant - the only marquee player available - Steve Nash, Kenyon Martin and a handful of others, it's a pretty bleak crop when you size up the 157 restricted and unrestricted free agents. That's too bad for teams such as Utah ($30 million- plus) and Atlanta ($20 million) that have more cap space than anyone else. The Suns ($16 million), Nuggets ($14 million) and Clippers ($13 million) plan on being active.
Here's a look at some of the players expected to get interest, with Thursday being the first day teams can negotiate with players, and July 14 being the first day they can sign players to new deals:
Mark Blount - Boston, Miami and Orlando are all willing to overpay for Celtics big man.
Kobe Bryant - Clippers and Suns want him, but who wouldn't? Can't see him leaving Lakers, especially if Shaq is dealt.
Erick Dampier - Walking away from $8 million so he must have a deal already lined up.
Marquis Daniels - Looking at 6-year $38 million deal, but buyer beware: Don Nelson's system makes a lot of players look very good.
Troy Hudson - Minnesota intends to re-sign a player it really missed in the playoffs. If not, Houston and Utah are top suitors.
Steve Nash - Turns 31 in February and already has a lot of tread off the tire playing in Mavs' up-tempo system.
Mehmet Okur - Suns all set to bring in Detroit forward, even if they have to overpay.
Labor pains
The Suns recently sold for $401 million, a record for an NBA franchise, attendance records were established across the league and TV ratings were back on the upswing. But NBA owners called for rollbacks in salaries during recent talks with the players.
That shouldn't make for a happy bunch when players meet tomorrow in Las Vegas at the NBA Players Association's annual summer meeting. While David Stern says that talks have been productive to get a new extension hammered out before the end of next season, when the current deal expires, the union is not that optimistic.
"If what they're saying to us about further cost containment is what's going to be in their proposal, then they shouldn't even bother making it," said union chief Billy Hunter. "They're the ones who say they want to get a deal done soon, so that we don't have to try to get this settled during the season. But they're the ones who are killing that idea entirely."
The union is open to only minor changes. As well it should be. The average salary is now almost $5 million. With owners saying they want all teams to enjoy a profit, even teams that are run poorly - including the one which calls the Garden home - could be headed for another lockout?
"This isn't the NHL," said one league official. "I still think we'll get it done." The two sides are expected to continue to meet throughout July.
Slam Dunks
Toronto is expected to tab Detroit assistant Mike Woodson as its head coach. Woodson, who was instrumental in helping Ben Wallace's offensive development this past season, is the second choice. The Raptors wanted Tom Izzo, but never came up with the necessary money to get him to leave Michigan State. Izzo is smart to pass up this job, just as he was wise to turn down Atlanta a few years back.
The Nuggets are expected to fire Jeff Bzdelik this week. At least that's the word that filtered into NBA headquarters late this past week. Bzdelik's successor likely will be Mike Brown, the Pacers' associate head coach and a former Denver scout. George Karl, a business partner with Denver owner Stan Kroenke, also has been linked to the job. The new coach has some work to do. Several players say there are some major divisions in the locker room, between young (Carmelo Anthony) and young (Nene Hilario), and young (Anthony) and old (Andre Miller and Marcus Camby).
Originally published on June 26, 2004
