- Still many involved for Atlanta's Josh Smith, including Bucks, Nets, Celtics, 76ers, Wizards, others, sources say. Strong belief he's moved.
@WojYahooNBAAdrian Wojnarowski - Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a good piece up on the Bucks’ trade deadline position. Here’s a bit about Brandon Jennings: “Bucks coach Jim Boylan addressed the Jennings situation after the Bucks’ victory over the 76ers. An ESPN report Wednesday quoted a source as saying Jennings and the Bucks had “irreconcilable differences.” ‘Brandon and I talk all the time,’ Boylan said. ‘I talk to a lot of people around the league, a lot of people around Brandon. I don’t get that feeling from him; I don’t get that feeling from his people. I saw that quote. It’s just a source, whoever it is. That doesn’t carry much weight with me. I just know my conversations with Brandon. He’s here; he’s a Milwaukee Buck. He’s going to do everything he can to help us win. And all that other stuff will take care of itself.’ Jennings played down any discontent Wednesday and said, ‘Just because I got a new agent, that doesn’t mean I’m trying to leave Milwaukee or I’m unhappy. That has nothing to do with it.’ “
Bill Ingram of USA Today says Kyrie Irving is using the All-Star Weekend as his own personal showcase: “The Cleveland Cavaliers point guard won the three-point shootout Saturday in Houston, one day after putting on a show in the rookie-sophomore game. Irving looks determined to show he belongs among the NBA’s brightest stars Sunday, when he plays in his first NBA All-Star Game. ‘This weekend was just basically about earning everybody’s respect and getting a chance for people to see me who don’t usually see me,’ Irving said. ‘We’re not nationally televised. This weekend is to show my face to the fans and get everybody in the league acclimated to my face.’ “- Big news for Houston fans: Daryl Morey isn’t going anywhere. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes: “With the Rockets’ retooling exceeding his expectations, owner Leslie Alexander said he will not let the contract of general manager Daryl Morey expire after next season. Though he typically has not worked on one contract until the previous deal is complete, Alexander said he intends to re-sign Morey. ‘His contract is up next year, I believe,’ Alexander said on Saturday. ‘We’ll re-up him. Daryl knows that I judge him all the time. I’ve told him. He’s not shy about it, either. He just knows that’s the way I operate. Why wouldn’t I? The general manager is the one person in your organization you can really judge. He can make good moves or bad moves. This year, I think he’s made three terrific moves.’ Alexander said the decision to trade for James Harden, along with the moves to acquire the pieces that set up that deal and the free-agent additions of Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik convinced him to keep Morey.”
Dave King at Bright Side of the Sun reports on a Jared Dudley podcast appearance, where he said he wanted to stay in Phoenix: “Dudley opined that, if he is traded, he would not want to go to another bad team. But even rather than go to a good team, he’d simply rather stay right where he is. ‘It’s easy to be in a good mood when you’re winning,’ he said. ‘When you’re losing, you need to stay in the gym, stay on guys. You never want to leave. I’ll be the first one to tell you that if I had to leave, I don’t want to go to a team that’s bad. Phoenix, city-wise, is one of the top 5 destinations to go to, so why not just stay here and just get better?’ Jared Dudley is a realist. He knows that, once Nash and Hill left after Amare a couple of years ago, the Suns were going to struggle for a while to develop a new identity and to develop new stars to carry the team going forward. He also knows he is not that new star. He won’t be making any All-Star games, or joining the Dunk Contest or anything like that. And there’s no “easy button” to get those new stars.”- Here’s Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press with an update on what the Pistons are looking to do at the deadline after trading away Tayshaun Prince for Jose Calderon in the three-team deal that sent Rudy Gay to Toronto: “So with that established, two sources said this past week that the Pistons likely are done with major moves until the summer. One source even said: ‘You have already had the main course. You aren’t getting seconds.’ The main course obviously was the Prince-Calderon deal. But the source added: ‘You might get dessert.’ However, there are two things to remember: First, with a payroll just over $68 million, the Pistons are well over the salary cap and close to the $70-million luxury-tax line. The Pistons aren’t in position to take on additional salary without giving up salary. Also, if the Pistons are inclined to trade a player for a draft pick, the team would be left with only 12 healthy bodies. (Andre Drummond is expected to miss a month with a back injury.) For the right deal, you could see general manager Joe Dumars rolling with a smaller roster, but it’s a legitimate concern in case injuries hit.” Sheridan remains of the opinion that the dessert deal will include Will Bynum.
- If you’re a gigantic stats nerd like me, you’ll probably love this AP piece on NBA.com: “STATS LLC’s SportVU tracking cameras, which record every on-court movement in three dimensions, aren’t here to simply tell us that the Heat have the league’s most lethal weapon. They’re here to tell us how that weapon takes over almost every time it takes the court. As the league takes a breather and prepares for its 62nd annual All-Star game this weekend, now is as good a time as any to take a look back. The Heat are not one of the 15 NBA teams that subscribe to the system, but with half the league on board, SportVU has tracked James for 10 games as of Feb. 14. It’s a small sample to go off – just 20 percent of Miami’s games – but James has scored 1.14 points every time he drives to the basket, tied for the most in the league. As a team, the Heat average 1.64 points when the reigning MVP takes the ball toward the hole – the fourth-best individual-to-team success rate in the NBA.”
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Dan Malone is a third-year journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.
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