Another in-depth look at the Pacers and Heat comes from Ken Berger at CBS Sports, and focuses on the financial side of things. It’s totally worth a click-through for the full article, but here’s a representative excerpt: ” “We take nothing away from their Big Three and what they have going,” Paul George said of the Heat on Wednesday night. “But we’ll take a Big Five any day.” Miami’s Big Three model, cut from the cloth of the Celtics’ Hall of Fame trio that came together and won a championship in 2007-08, is going to be put to a serious test in the next 12-18 months. The 2011 collective bargaining agreement will bear down with its punitive attempts to level the playing field. But the stark differences in how the Heat, Knicks and Pacers were built shows it isn’t so much the dollar signs, but how the players attached to those dollar signs are assembled. The Heat were second in the league this season with an $83.2 million payroll, and the Knicks were fourth at $78.5 million. Unsurprisingly given their small-market environs, the Pacers were 14th at $66.7 million. But if you look more closely at the salary structures, they’re more similar than you think. All three follow the Big Three model of investing the lion’s share of payroll in their top three players. For the Heat, obviously, it’s James, Wade and Bosh. For the Knicks, it’s Stoudemire, Anthony and Chandler. For the Pacers, it’s Roy Hibbert, Danny Granger and David West.”- Paul George on Wade's elbow: "For what he did to Lance, it's well deserved whatever the punishment is."
@dailythunderRoyce Young - Lance Stephenson says the forearm by Wade was surprising and took him off guard but wouldn't say it was dirty.
@JoeGoodmanJrJoseph Goodman - The Grizzlies may not make the Finals this year, but people are noticing them now. One of them is ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne, who wrote a lengthy piece on Tony Allen: “All heart. Grit. Grind. The words have become all sorts of things to all sorts of people connected to Allen and the Grizzlies. Words to live by, or at least try to. It’s all Allen is thinking about now. His impending free agency feels a million years away. “I don’t even understand the business side,” Allen said. “When July hits, somebody is going to have to sit me down and explain it. All I know is I’m a Grizzly and I believe I’m going to be a Grizzly when it’s over with. I bleed blue. I think they going to keep me. But if they don’t, I understand. I don’t even think about it now. I just play. I love being in Memphis. I love the city. Hopefully I stay here. It feels like home.” “
Bob Finnan of the News-Herald in northern Ohio looks at the Cavaliers’ options with the #1 pick. Here’s what he said about Nerlens Noel: “One would not believe the feedback I’m getting from many fans, who think the Cavs would be crazy to take him. I can understand the apprehension with Noel’s torn ACL. For a team that wants to be in the playoffs next year, would it take a player that would miss at least the first two months of the season? Players are coming back stronger than ever after tearing their ACL. Yes, I’m aware of the Derrick Rose situation, but Noel wants to play in the NBA as soon as he can. He’s an explosive athlete. If they don’t take him, the Cavs might regret it in a couple years. Is he an offensive threat right now? No. But he’ll get better. He can impact the game greatly on the defensive end. There aren’t many players like that on the Cavs’ roster. At Kentucky, the sports information department listed him at 6-10, 228. That’s his natural weight. He’s lost weight since the surgery. He’ll gain the weight back. He’s not going to be 250 any time soon, but he’ll be able to hold his own in the paint. And that’s where he does his damage, as a shot-blocker. He was USA Today’s high school player of the year as a senior in 2012.”- Jeff Hornacek has been a virtual head coach in waiting for a while now, and all that remained to be seen was where. Now we know: Phoenix. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes: “One of the Phoenix Suns’ popular former players – Jeff Hornacek – has been offered the franchise’s head coaching job, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. The Suns and Hornacek will work the weekend to finalize contract parameters on an agreement, sources said. Hornacek is eager to be the Suns’ next head coach. The Suns and Hornacek have already started work on assembling an assistant coaching staff. … For the Suns, Hornacek would fit the profile of a coach who could grow with the franchise’s plan to rebuild through young players and the draft. Phoenix has six first-round picks available over the next three years, and player development will be a top priority.”
- Lawyers finalizing language in Jeff Hornacek's Phoenix deal, which includes 3 years guaranteed and a team option for a 4th, sources tell Y!
@WojYahooNBAAdrian Wojnarowski
Mark Cuban is making plans again, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com: “Mark Cuban’s goal is to make the Dallas Mavericks a championship team again within a two-year window. After Dallas missed the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, the owner vowed the Mavs would have a “quick rebuild.” The pending pitch to free agents this summer — including Chris Paul and Dwight Howard — is that the franchise can take a significant step forward next season and then have the salary-cap space available again in 2014 to make more major upgrades. “We want to be a championship team. We’ve never said we have to be a championship team this year,” Cuban said Saturday on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM during his first interview since the Mavs’ season ended. “We want to be a better team, a top-seed team. If we get the top free agent, that doesn’t leave us a whole lot of flexibility to add a lot of players, but we have a good nucleus around them. We know we’ll have a good team, but we won’t know if we have a great team. If you look at this like a two-year plan, then we think we’re on a track to have a great team by the end of next year.” “
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