With the NBA Draft over, evaluations of the decisions were made from general managers, owners, players, writers and even fans. See our exclusive sights and sounds of the Draft here, and check who said what, along with today’s biggest news below:
Mo Williams has cleared the path to complete the Lamar Odom deal, and he was never in the way, reported by Ramona Shelburne: “Los Angeles Clippers guard Mo Williams has officially picked up his option for next season, clearing the way for a three-way trade that will send Lamar Odom to the Clippers and Williams to Utah, Williams’ agent Mark Bartelstein told ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Ramona Shelburne “There was no blocking going on,” Bartelstein said. “When you make a decision like this, you want to study it very closely. “But the more we looked at it, the more excited we were about going back to Utah. Mo’s very happy to be going back there.” Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks and Lamar Odom, sources told ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, have agreed to extend buyout deadline in Odom’s contract one day until Saturday, leaving one more day to finalize the proposed three-way trade.”
Howard Beck explained that settlement was reached in Bird-right case on twitter: “Under settlement between NBA and union, players claimed on waivers will continue to keep early-Bird rights as if they had been traded. But… From now on, full Bird rights will only be retained if player is claimed on waivers through amnesty procedure. Lin and Novak will be “early-Bird” free agents, as arbitrator had ruled. Billups and Hickson get full bird rights.”
Joe Lacob, the owner of the Golden State Warriors, explains why he is high on Harrison Barnes, from Tim Kawakami: “Sometimes you get some things out of a workout, sometimes you don’t. The dude’s an athlete. The dude can… he can jump. He’s got a big vertical, he’s a great shooter. More than anything, what I really loved, he’s an unbelievable high-character kid. Our character, our maturity, our culture, obviously that matters a lot here. We got the three best guys you could possibly get in this draft. And he’s unbelievable. 4.2 GPA I’ve heard in high school. He is unbelievably well-spoken.”
The Thunder are ecstatic about landing Perry Jones and Sam Presti appears confident about his new player’s knee situation, from Darnell Mayberry: “Presti expressed a great deal of confidence in Jones’ knee. He said the team has done a lot of research and “felt very comfortable making this selection at 28.” “We looked at all the information that we had available, and we wouldn’t have selected him unless we felt comfortable with all the information,” Presti said. Presti declined to say whether PJ3 will require surgery on his knee. But he reiterated that the organization felt comfortable with the alleged issue.”
- Brooklyn Nets fans got excited in the draft for Ilkan Karaman, a player they’ve never heard of, with the 57th overall pick. Deadspin has the video.
- The Knicks fans, on the other hand, were not so happy with their 48th pick, Kostas Papanikolaou.
- David Stern was booed during every draft-pick announcement last night.
After drafting Andre Drummond, Joe Dumars admitted that the organization didn’t do enough research on Darko Milicic before drafting him, from Brendan Savage: “I could give a dissertation on that,” Dumars said shortly after selecting Drummond. “After I drafted Darko, from that point on, the amount of background we do on every single player that you see us draft is ridiculous. We do as much or more background than any other team in the NBA because of that. “The background on (Milicic) was about 20 percent of what we do now. I look back on it now and realize you didn’t know half of the stuff you needed to know.”
How many minutes should Bucks rookies John Henson and Doron Lamb play next season? Not a lot, according to Mitchell Maurer: “John Henson – 10 mpg: He’s a rookie, but one of the highest-rated on Milwaukee’s pre-draft rankings. His replication of Larry’s game with better offensive skills (especially his hands) will syphon minutes away from Sanders at the beginning, with more coming from other sources depending on Henson’s impact. Henson would be perfect for time in the D-League if he can’t have a different impact on the floor than Sanders, which some of us expect.”
- John Wall believes the Wizards got exactly who they wanted in Bradley Beal. Kurt Helin has the video.
- Check out some proposed nicknames for all the draftees, from Trey Kerby.
- Andy Katz had an interesting report for ESPN, saying Jared Sullinger had “bulging dicks”.
The Timberwolves wanted the No. 2 pick from the Bobcats in order to acquire Pau Gasol, who they still covet: “The Timberwolves are expected to continue their pursuit of Gasol in hopes of putting him with fellow Spaniard Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love on a revamped roster aimed at returning the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2004. The Wolves’ interest in Gasol has long been rumored, with the highly skilled big man considered an ideal fit for coach Rick Adelman’s corner offense, and the kind of playoff-tested veteran needed on one of the youngest rosters in the NBA. He’s close friends with Rubio, the Wolves’ superb young point guard who is recovering from a torn ACL and hopes to be ready early next season.
LeBron James spoke to Oprah Winfrey and finally responded to Dan Gilbert’s comments after he left Cleveland, from Chris Tomasson: “It was hurtful because I know how much I put into that organization, and every night I’m out on the floor I tried to give it my all and I tried to bring a championship to that city every single night,” said James, who didn’t win a title with the Cavaliers from 2003-10, losing 4-0 to San Antonio in 2007 in their only Finals appearance. “But, at the same time, I understood that everyone has their opinion. Everybody has a right to say what they want to say and there’s nothing I can do about that.”
- Ian O’Connor explains why Jeremy Lin is the Knicks’ best hope, not Steve Nash: “New Yorkers are known to make a necessary sacrifice or three, but Nash doesn’t sound eager to make one in order to join the Knicks. And that’s just fine, by the way, since Lin should be getting the ball every night for 35 to 40 minutes. He’s bigger, more athletic and 15 years younger than Nash, which is why nobody at the Garden should be breaking a sweat trying to make this deal happen.”
The Celtics have been and are still interested in acquiring O.J. Mayo, from Sherrod Blakely: “A league source said the C’s continue to be enamored with the 6-foot-5 shooting guard, and are considering making another run at him. The source said no deal is imminent, but it appears the Celtics are willing to offer up Brandon Bass via a sign and trade. Bass, who opted out of his contract to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, would have to agree to such a deal.”
- The Grizzlies issued qualifying offers to Darrell Arthur and Marreese Speights, but not O.J. Mayo and Lester Hudson: “Memphis did not extend qualifying offers to guards O.J. Mayo and Lester Hudson. Both players will become unrestricted free agents and likely leave without the Griz receiving compensation. By making Arthur and Speights restricted free agents, the Griz will have the right to match any offer each player might receive from another team. Speights’ qualifying offer is $3.8 million while Arthur’s is $3 million. The Griz are roughly $7.7 million from the luxury-tax threshold, which is the main reason for their decision on Mayo.”
- Jordan Farmar plans to out of his contract, according to Howard Beck: “Even with Taylor, the Nets will have just six players on the roster for next season. That total will soon drop to five. Jordan Farmar intends to opt out of his contract by Saturday night, according to a close associate.”
Dirk Nowitzki had his say on Deron Williams’ situation, from Jeff Caplan: “”Both organizations are great and have great owners that have money and the resources to really build something,” Nowitzki said. “(Mavs owner Mark) Cuban has shown it here, so, yeah, it’s tough. I don’t really think we need to recruit him or anything. He knows what he’s got here: There’s a great owner, great organization, great fans. It’s just a matter of does he want to come home and be close to home, or does he rather want to make the move to New York and get probably more endorsement deals and stuff like that? I think if that’s on his mind, it’s definitely better in New York.”
- Erin Andrews of ESPN will leave the network and may switch over to FOX, from Deadspin.
Skip Bayless apparently got racial this morning during “First Take”: “Skip Bayless purportedly said he was “totally against taking American-born white players in the first round of the draft.” First Take went through the trouble of tweeting this to make sure it entered the Internet marketplace. Ratings probably spiked, which seems to be the only area of big, wildly important concern.”
Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls have a ways to go on contract extension, according to K.C. Johnson: “Free agency opens Sunday. And while Tom Thibodeau’s contract extension talks have been ongoing for awhile, significant work remains, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. While one source warned the lack of a deal is typical for this stage of negotiations, it’s impossible not to see parallels with the Scott Skiles’ situation from June 2005.”
Scott Brooks and the Thunder are also very much fart apart from an agreement, from David Aldridge: “Brooks believes that his performance in developing the Thunder’s rotation the last three years warrants a deal that would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the league. A source with knowledge of the negotiations said that the Thunder’s current offer would not get Brooks into the top 10 of the league’s top-paid coaches, based on this past season’s coaching salaries. Brooks made $2.1 million this past season, well below what the league’s best-paid coaches made; by comparison, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, whose Heat team defeated Brooks and the Thunder in the Finals, made more than $3 million this past season.”
Chris Bosh made a surprising decision to miss the Olympics, according to Tomasson: “Two days earlier, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said he was informed Miami Heat big man Chris Bosh was in for the Olympics. But Colangelo said Bosh called him Friday to drop out due to his lingering abdominal injury. Colangelo said he was told Wednesday by a Nike representative that Bosh, a finalist for the team and considered by most a lock to make it, was committed to the Games in London.”
Suns interested in Ray Allen, Lakers not interested in Brandon Roy