Here is the latest news:
The Dwight Howard situation remains fluid, complicated and strange. Same with the Chris Paul fiasco.
Gibert Arenas has been waived under the amnesty provision, and the same is about to happen with Chauncey Billups.
Amid reports that Howard and his representatives met with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and general manager Billy King last night in Miami, SI.com is reporting that Orlando is considering filing tampering charges against the Nets, and there were conflicting reports over whether Howard had fired his agent, Dan Fegan.
From SI.com’s Sam Amick: “With indications growing that Howard would ask for a trade to the Nets this week, sources said the Magic were told that their franchise centerpiece met with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov in Miami on Thursday. A source close to the situation said early Friday that Orlando was also considering filing tampering charges against Houston, but that a Rockets claim will not be pursued due to lack of information. The Rockets, according to a source, were informed that there wouldn’t be tampering charges brought against them and were told that they weren’t considered.
New Jersey, meanwhile, was prepared to offer Nene a four-year contract worth $60-65 million.
From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “Nene has been engaged in negotiations with Denver and Indiana for several days, but the Nets had been waiting to assess the market. Once free-agent center Tyson Chandler found a deal with the New York Knicks, the Nets decided to become more aggressive in their pursuit of Nene. … Howard had a meeting scheduled with Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins mid-week, but canceled it at the last minute, a league source told Yahoo! Sports. Orlando was trying to smooth over a bizarre phone incident involving retired CEO Bob Vander Weide, who was reportedly trying to gauge where Howard stood on his future intentions with the Magic. Howard had privately told people for several weeks that his two preferred destinations were the Los Angeles Lakers and Nets, sources said. “He’s been waffling back and forth, even this week,” one source said. If found to have had the meeting with Howard, the Nets could face stiff fines, a loss of draft picks and perhaps even lose the right to sign him as a free agent next summer or trade for him.
ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported via Twitter that NBA teams gave been told the following:
Window to amnesty players is Dec. 9 (today) thru Dec. 16. Trade deadline is March 15. … One more note for when games actually start: From Dec. 25-Feb. 6, NBA teams allowed to dress/play 13 guys per game, one more than usual 12.
As commissioner David Stern issued a statement on why he vetoed the trade, David Aldridge of NBA.com says the Hornets would like to reopen the three-way trade talks involving Paul:
“A source directly involved in those talks said Friday morning that the Hornets were not planning to appeal the nixing of the deal, as ESPN reported Friday. Rather, the Hornets will try to see if sweetening the current deal in some way would make it more acceptable to the league, which currently owns the Hornets while it seeks a permanent owner who will keep the team in New Orleans. The Hornets also have several other possible deals on the table for Paul, and could go forward with one of those if teams involved in those deals make enhancements to their offers, the source said. New Orleans’ management, the source said, is determined to make a deal for Paul, who reportedly was not going to show up for the first day of the Hornets’ camp. Like Orlando, the Hornets will not allow Paul to play out the final year of his deal, become a free agent next summer and leave with the team getting nothing in return.
Joe Freeman of the Oregonian reports Brandon Roy is retiring:
“The seemingly never-ending saga surrounding Trail Blazers star Brandon Roy and his balky knees has reached a stunning conclusion. Two sources with knowledge of Roy’s decision told The Oregonian Friday morning that Roy plans to retire because of degenerative knees, confirming a story first reported by ESPN. Roy made this decision, one of the sources said, after meeting with doctors on Thursday. After evaluating Roy’s knees, which have been operated on six times and no longer have any cartilage, the doctor flatly told Roy he should no longer play. “You can’t do this,” the doctor told Roy, according to one of the sources. “You might end up not walking.”
John Canzano of the Oregonian reported on Twitter that Minnesota was prepared to acquire Roy through waivers.
Tyson Chandler has confirmed he is going to the New York Knicks. From Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas:
“The most difficult thing is having to make those phone calls to Dirk and Kidd and Jet and all the guys that I played with,” Chandler said Friday on ESPN 103.3’s Ben and Skin Show after confirming that he’d agreed to terms with the New York Knicks. “When I say this, I say it from the heart: I truly love those guys and I will forever, because we stood side by side and accomplished the ultimate. You can’t do that and not have a respect for each other. We did that, and nobody can take that away from us.” However, (Mark) Cuban is determined to maintain the financial flexibility he firmly believes is necessary to improve the Mavs in the future under the new labor agreement. As a result, the Mavs topped out at a two-year offer for Chandler, who opted to explore several situations that offered more security before settling on the Knicks. “I could just tell with the mindset that it wasn’t going to work,” said Chandler, who stressed that he has no animosity toward the Mavericks. “I had to come to grips with that and I had to be OK with that. I wouldn’t want to put a financial strain on the organization and not allow them to make any moves for the future, because obviously I want to play on a winning team and a team that has a chance to compete. If it just didn’t make sense for myself and the Mavs, then it just didn’t make sense. Sometimes it happens like that.”
Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports says Glen Davis is getting a four-year, $26 million deal with the Orlando Magic, apparently as part of a sign-and-trade for Brandon Bass.
From Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: According to two league sources, the Cs are in discussions with Orlando to send Big Baby, in a sign-and-trade deal, to Orlando for power forward Brandon Bass – a player Magic management had been very high on at one stage. Bass is due $4 million each of the next two years, including a player option for the 2012-13 season. Davis’ asking price may have been too steep for the Celtics, who hold his Bird rights and could pay the power forward anything they want under salary cap guidelines. But with Davis asking for at least $5 million – the full mid-level for teams under the luxury tax threshold – the Celtics turned to a trading partner in Orlando. As of 12:30 today talks were still in progress. “I don’t know yet, man,” Davis said when reached where he is working out in Bradenton, Fla. “But I want to get this resolved soon so I can just get into camp – somewhere.”
Spears is also reporting on Twitter that Rockets free agent Chuck Hayes will sign a 4-year, $21.3 million dealwith the Sacramento Kings, mirroring the full mid-level exception.
Vince Carter was waived by the Phoenix Suns, but not under the amnesty provision. Carter had a $4 million buyout.
It was no surprise that Arenas was the first player to be amnestied.
From Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: Arenas will receive about $62 million over the next seasons. The Magic will pay all of that unless a team makes a bid on him in a modified waiver-wire process. Using the amnesty clause means that Arenas’ remaining salary will come of off the team’s salary-cap and luxury-tax totals immediately. Arenas, a close friend of General Manager Otis Smith‘s, was a major disappointment. Although he showed some flashes of the old form that made him a dangerous scorer, Arenas’ left leg caused him significant problems and took away from his jumping ability and his quickness. Arenas also complained how Coach Stan Van Gundywas using him and embarrassed the franchise when he went onto Twitter and made jokes that some people found offensive.
Billups’ agent said his client will retire rather than go to an undesirable destination if he is claimed on secondary waivers.
Ian O’Connor of ESPNNewYork reports: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Chauncey retired rather than play for a team he wouldn’t want to play for,” said Andy Miller, agent for the 35-year-old point guard. “He doesn’t need the money, his kids are getting to an age where he wants to be an active participant, and he doesn’t need the frustration and instability he’s constantly dealing with. So he may choose not to play.” Miller said his client raised the possibility of retirement after news broke that the Knicks were close to an agreement with Chandler, and that the 14-year veteran playmaker would need to be sacrificed to make the deal possible. Billups didn’t want to leave Denver last February when he was shipped to New York in the Carmelo Anthony trade. “Chauncey’s pissed off, but he’s not pissed at the Knicks,” Miller said. “He understands it’s a business and they have to do what they have to do. But he’s in a very frustrated state of mind because this has happened to him twice now. The way the league is structured, if you’re a hot name and teams have interest in you, you have the ability to manufacture mass hysteria, and guys like Chauncey who put in years of high-level leadership, production, and service get lost.”
Meanwhile, Ric Bucher of ESPN says the Knicks are trying to trade Ronny Turiaf and $3 million to clear more cap room. If the Knicks threw all that cash into a trade, they would not be able to include money in any more deals for a year. The new labor agreement puts a $3 million annual limit on the amount of cash teams can trade.
Wheeling and dealing, it is the system where business is made to attract superstars to play in big market cities for ticket prices, marketing, star power, and bringing fans hope to win a championship. That today, is the sole reason why the NBA went into a lockout in the first place to prevent superstar players from pairing with each other. Yesterday the NBA Board of Governor’s where the owners meet to discuss issues in the NBA, voted to ratify the CBA thus ending the second-longest lockout in NBA history. Later we witness New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul wanting a trade to play for the Los Angeles Lakers for a three team trade was voided by who, the “owner” of the Hornets, NBA Commissioner David Stern. The Hornets have no owner and by rule, the Commissioner takes the ownership of the franchise until a buyer is available to take the Hornets. Therefore the system is still the same, superstars wanting to pair with others to take down the giant Miami Heat with Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade by preventing them from winning a single championship. The NBA players hurried in taking a deal to save money for Christmas Day games. The benefit of the doubt is the Lakers were planning all along to make a deal to save cap space by bringing in Chris Paul and letting go Paul Gasol, and Lamar Odom to bring in another superstar in Dwight Howard. We are still seeing the same business of basketball in the past in which was witness with Boston, New York, and Miami. Los Angeles is the next city in waiting to get another to take the challenge. Good luck fans it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
I totally called the re-opening of the CP3 negotiations. The other owners can’t stop him from getting traded so that he can get a better deal than as a FA, but they can make sure the Lakers don’t get a ton of salary cap relief in the trade. If these guys can’t figure out how to bring in some team that wants to unload a really bad contract on the Lakers to make the deal go through, then they need to leave their jobs because this is the easiest trade to fix for any trade that has ever needed fixing. If the Lakers aren’t willing to make a fair deal where they acquire CP3 without salary relief, that is on them.
The Dwight situation is far more serious than the Paul fiasco.
If Prokhorov told his GM to disregard tampering rules and they flew down to Florida to meet with Dwight……
That probably is a million dollar fine and the stripping of one or two first round picks.
You always wonder how Prokhorov gained control of the Russian equivalent of Exxon somehow. Stern has his hands full with this guy and how he handles this one.
The Dwight Howard situation is nuts. Why the heck would the Nets risk a tampering investigation when back channels would suffice? They were already an obvious destination…