Sam Hinkie says he looks at Andrew Bynum like any other unrestricted free agent, from John Gonzalez of CSN Philly: “Hinkie was asked about Bynum and whether the trade is officially over as far as the organization is concerned. The question had an obvious undertone: Is the franchise finished with Bynum? Hinkie paused for a while before answering. For five long seconds, actually. “I don’t think there’s anything else to be said about the trade except the way people think about it in hindsight,” Hinkie said. “If your question is about Andrew in particular, which I suspect it is, which is fine, I suspect this makes me boring, I think of Andrew like the thousands of other young men walking around the world that are unrestricted free agents that have the potential to play NBA basketball. And he is one of those. And I am duty-bound to consider them, to look at them, all of them.”
Dirk Nowitzki says he is willing to take a paycut to help bring in another star, be in Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, from SportsDayDFW: “We’d love to get one of those two. We’d love to get a player in here who can create his own shot and be a superstar-type player… I’ll definitely be a little involved. But I’ll be in the draft ‘war room’ for the first time … order some pizza and talk some basketball. I got one year left on this deal and then I’m coming off the books. So if that helps for us to be better I’m going to take a paycut. That’s part of the pitch. Cuban and Donnie have got to be part of the pitch. I think Dallas and the fans here, the sellout streak, the city to live in is gorgeous and has gotta be in the top five in the league. Hopefully, some of those guys will decide to come, and if not, we’ve gotta have a plan B. If none of those top free agents come, we gotta make some moves with sign and trades or something. We want to get back to the playoffs and be a factor.”
Eric Gordon’s ankle was in pain for much of the second half of the season, from John Reid of Times Picayune (via Kurt Helin of Probasketballtalk): “My ankle bothered me everyday, even on days when I wasn’t active,” Gordon said in an email response after he was contacted on Tuesday. “I had a minor procedure done, because I have been dealing with bone spurs since the all-star break. I wanted to get the surgery done now so I can go into training camp at 100 percent healthy and be in top shape.”… “The main thing is getting back at 100 percent during training camp, that’s what I strive for and what I look forward to,” Gordon said.”
Erik Spoelstra defended the play of Dwyane Wade, from Shandel Richardson of Sun Sentinel: “”He’s helping us win right now,” Spoelstra said Tuesday. “OK. One of these days boxscores will have your plus-minus impact and maybe eventually people will start to look at a boxscore differently and eventually a new generation of fans, the media, staff will see that’s the most important one and he’s having that impact.”… “I understand the interest level in it, but what you dislike about team sports is people lose sight of the main thing being the main thing,” Spoelstra said. “Dwyane’s proven himself as a warrior, he’s helping us win and at the end of the day we’re up 3-1 with a chance to close out. We knew going into this series that it wasn’t going to be about averages and that was one thing we had to have a discussion about before the series.”
Chris Bosh said adjusting to a limited role has been difficult, from Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida: “Everybody says they want to win,’’ said Bosh, in his third year with the Heat after being a 20-10 guy in Toronto. “But it’s always about what you’re willing to sacrifice to win. My situation is totally different. I rarely get play calls and before I was getting about 20 touches a game just off play calls (with Toronto). And that’s just something that I had to get used to. Just trying to match a different role in a different situation, it’s been extremely difficult for me. But I’ve kind of embraced that challenge and it continues to be a challenge. It’s never been easy. I try to rise to the top no matter what I do.’’
Masai Ujiri was very upset about Andre Iguodala’s omission from the All-Defensive Team, from Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: ““It’s mind-boggling to me,” Ujiri said in a statement to The Denver Post. “I mean, when the US Olympic team enlists a defensive stopper, there is no question who they choose – Andre Iguodala. Yet, for some reason he can’t be considered one of the top-10 defensive players in the NBA? It’s just shocking that he continues to be overlooked as a world-class defender in our league. I honestly thought he should be in the conversation for defensive player of the year, let alone first or even second team all-defense.”
