SH Blog: Bynum market is slow; Aldridge wants to extend in Portland

At what point does public acknowledgement of mistakes stop being enough?

It drew a lot of attention when Paul George was fouled on the final shot in a huge Indiana-Miami game and it wasn’t called. The latest one, featuring Monta Ellis grabbing both of Austin Rivers’ arms, was far more egregious, and the NBA has admitted it was the wrong call.

But even after a blatant non-call on one of the league’s top rising stars, this one didn’t get called. When does that stop? It can’t be soon enough. That’s the kind of officiating that belongs in the WWE, not the NBA.

Sure, maybe free throws are anti-climactic. But blowing the last call is worse.

Now let’s get to the latest NBA news:

• ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reports that there isn’t a huge market for Andrew Bynum: “The 26-year-old became a free agent Thursday night after clearing waivers, but the latest rumblings on the league’s personnel grapevine suggest that more teams are backing away from the idea as opposed to gambling on the talented but undependable 7-footer. Sources told ESPN.com on Sunday that the Los Angeles Clippers, long presumed to be one of Bynum’s primary suitors, are leaning against the prospect of signing the enigmatic former Los Angeles Laker. ESPN.com reported Thursday that the Brooklyn Nets (after losing Brook Lopez) and Atlanta Hawks (after losing Al Horford) were likewise planning to pass on the idea despite their clear need at center, with sources subsequently adding that the Oklahoma City Thunder are not preparing a bid on Bynum in the wake of the recent trade that shed the contract of Ryan Gomes to take the Thunder nearly $2.3 million away from the luxury-tax threshold.”
• The guy Bynum was traded for might not last past this season, either. Here’s Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “Luol Deng is open to discussing a contract extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he also understands why the Cavs might want to put off those talks to first focus on trying to sign another All-Star small forward. LeBron James. “He’s a great player, why wouldn’t you look at him?” Deng told Yahoo Sports. “If he wants to come back home, that’s great for him and great for this organization. He’s a great player. Why not?” If Deng, 28, isn’t signed to a contract extension by June 30, he will become an unrestricted free agent next offseason for the first time in his career. He already likes what he sees in Cleveland and said several times – unsolicited – the Cavs have impressed him with how they treat their players, calling the franchise an “amazing organization.” The Cavaliers are interested in keeping Deng long-term, but also know there is plenty of time to evaluate him and begin extension talks, a league source said.”

• Noah: “The trade definitely hurt but we got to move on.”

  — Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) January 12, 2014

   

• Big news for Blazers fans. LaMarcus Aldridge wants to stay. Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune has the story: “For the first time, Aldridge is thinking he’d like to sit down with Olshey and negotiate a contract extension. “I would like to re-sign here,” he says. “If they want to talk about it, I would talk about it. They haven’t yet, but I’m looking forward to the chance to do that.” If Olshey is prepared to make that happen, he’s not revealing it to the media. “When the appropriate time comes, which is not now, that is a conversation that will happen between (owner) Paul Allen, myself, LaMarcus and his agent (Arn Tellum),” Olshey says. “It’s not a conversation that’s going to play out in the media in January.””
• Jimmer Fredette kind of seems like the NBA’s Tim Tebow. Certainly he draws more interest than most other backup point guards. Here’s a story on Fredette from Cowbell Kingdom’s James Ham: “The rumor mill heated up again earlier this week.  According to multiple reports, the Kings have offered both Marcus Thornton and Jimmer to the Denver Nuggets in separate deals for veteran point guard Andre Miller. Nothing is imminent, but Sacramento has been the most active team on the market, and most experts agree that it isn’t done reshaping its roster.  Both Fredette and Gay share the same agent, Octagon’s Jeff Austin.  With Gay’s pending decision on whether or not to opt out of his deal for next season, it might behoove the Kings to find a soft landing spot for the former BYU star, who makes his offseason home in Denver. Rumors are part of the NBA game.  Jimmer understands that he is not under contract for next season with the Kings and that there is a very good chance that he’ll either get traded at the deadline or sign somewhere else in the offseason.”

• #Twolves assignee Shabazz Muhammad said he came to D-League and “took care of business.” Flip took him aside, said he’s coming back tonight.

  — TwolvesNow (@twolvesnow) January 13, 2014

   

• Randy Wittman doesn’t seem to mind calling out the Wizards in the media. Here’s the story of his latest rant, via Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post: “Wittman did not want to focus on how the Wizards almost salvaged a victory. He wanted to focus on why they found themselves in the position to need a comeback, and on the greater issue of why they have lost four straight at Verizon Center. “Listen,” Wittman said. “If we come out like we do at home, nonchalant, take it for granted, no sense of urgency, shortcut everything – which is what we did the first two-and-a-half quarters – until we hold each other accountable of what’s going on on the floor and get it corrected, that starts with me. But it also starts in the locker room, having some leadership in there. We just played the game. We shortcut everything. When you do that, you get down 25. “Now, we got [ticked] off at me, at each other. If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. We came back for about 17 minutes there and played as hard and with heart than we did any other point in that. But you can’t 17 minutes of an NBA game against a good team. That’s what we did.” A reporter immediately followed up to Wittman’s rant with a question about Kevin Seraphin’s strong game. Wittman wasn’t having any of that. “He gave us a big lift,” Wittman said. “But the main point is, at home here, we just have no – I don’t know what the term [is]. Sense of urgency of coming home and protecting home. And we don’t. We just go out and play like it’s an AAU game. Kevin came in and gave us a big lift. There’s no question he played well. One of his better games. But we’ve got to figure those other things out. There’s no excuse for the way we’re playing.” When informed of Wittman’s AAU comment, Trevor Ariza was taken aback. “AAU ball?” he  said. “Dang, coach.” But he did not disagree.”

FOR PREVIOUS BLOGS, CLICK HERE

Dan Malone is in his fourth year as a journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent this summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.