- The other news, as it ever shall be, centered on Dwight Howard. Here’s Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com with the latest on Dwight: “The Lakers have had several discussions with Howard’s representatives over the past few weeks and remain confident that they will ultimately keep him with the franchise, even as he’s made it clear he will entertain other suitors. Yet the Lakers also, according to sources, have not completely ruled out the idea of a sign-and-trade if they come to find next month that Howard is determined to leave. Sources say they are indeed leaning against sign-and-trade scenarios because they’d rather bank the resultant cap space from Howard’s departure for the summer of 2014. But sources say they’ve adopted a keep-all-options-open approach. So they’ll at least listen to just about anything.”
The team that has been most often linked to Howard is the Rockets. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle looks at what the ramifications could be if the Rockets do manage to sign Howard or another big-ticket free agent: “If the Rockets sign a top free agent, their payroll soon would move between the salary cap and the luxury tax, giving them mid-level exceptions, worth roughly $23 million over four years, beginning next summer. By going over the salary cap this season, they will be able to offer an exception worth $5.4 million over two years, enough that on a team with one of the top free agents they could attract the sort of solid backup wing they would need after trimming the roster to have sufficient cap room for their free-agent pursuit. The Rockets have told agents for Francisco Garcia, Carlos Delfino and Aaron Brooks that they will not pick up contract options this month. That exception and veteran’s minimums could be used to shift to a much more experienced roster if the Rockets land a top free agent, a plan they apparently will make a significant part of their presentation. The Rockets have paid the luxury tax just once in the 15 seasons with the system, but according to the individual with knowledge of the plan, they also will emphasize that they would be willing to pay the tax to keep a winning team together. They would like to avoid that in order to keep their mid-level exceptions, but part of their free-agent pitch will be to assure they would pay the tax if necessary if they want to keep players scheduled to be free agents in 2015, including Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons and Patrick Beverley.”- On the other coast, the Nets have been the team most commonly in the headlines of late, hiring Jason Kidd as their new coach fresh off his retirement from the Knicks. That could add some fuel to a rivalry that, as ESPNNewYork.com’s Jared Zwerling writes, might be more real than we thought: “Deron Williams and his Nets teammates were not very truthful with the media last season regarding their rivalry with the Knicks. It was a bigger deal than they made it out to be — and D-Will knows looking ahead to next season, it will only grow. “When the reporters are asking us, ‘Is it a big deal?’, I think we all kind of shrug it off,” he said during a Nike House of Hoops event in Brooklyn. “But you can tell, the energy from those four games this season were probably more intense than any other four games we played in. “Even when we won or when the Knicks won, the way they celebrated wasn’t how you would celebrate after a normal win. It definitely means much more. It’s not really a rivalry yet, but I think it’s forming, and as we get better and as the Knicks get better, I think it’ll be a rivalry for years to come.” “
On the subject of the Knicks, Amar’e Stoudemire should be spending another summer with Hakeem Olajuwon, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post: ““The desire and enthusiasm he brought was so amazing,’’ said Olajuwon, the Hall of Famer whose team beat the Knicks to win the 1994 title. “It was a good experience for me because he was so eager. With him, it was the excitement. He was so excited.” Knicks coach Mike Woodson, a former Houston teammate of Olajuwon’s, called Hakeem “The Dream’’ last June to see if he would tutor Stoudemire and teach him low-post fundamentals — which Stoudemire had yet to learn. “Mike wanted to go to Amar’e in the post to make it easier for Carmelo [Anthony] and to complement each other,” Olajuwon said. “Amar’e took it very seriously. I’m very impressed with Mike as coach. He tries to find all possible ways to maximize his talent.” Stoudemire, who has two years remaining on a five-year, $100 million contract, displayed flashes of excellence during his 29 games, and he averaged 14.2 points on 57.7-percent shooting, coming off the bench. Most of his points were scored on an array of spin moves in the post never that had been in his arsenal.”- Yesterday, Nuggets assistant GM Pete D’Alessandro became the new GM of the Sacramento Kings, and today, Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post touches on the great Denver exodus that began when GM Masai Ujiri left for Toronto: “Ujiri agreed in principle to a contract extension with the Nuggets, leaving only an out clause to be discussed, in case he wanted to leave for his beloved city of Toronto. “Had it been any other team to ask permission, from the Lakers to the Knicks, and they were throwing ridiculous money at him, I would have said no,” Kroenke said. “Did I put myself in a difficult situation by being his friend? Of course.” Although the direction of the Nuggets is in question, Kroenke believes his heart was in the right place. “Was I too soft with Masai? Part of me feels that way,” Kroenke said. “But part of the way I am as a person, whether it’s Masai Ujiri or whoever is in the front office, if somebody has a dream opportunity, I’m not going to hold them back.” “
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- Questions still abound over the #1 pick, and Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tries to sort them out: “The Cavs still have these players under serious consideration, in no real order: Alex Len, Anthony Bennett, Ben McLemore, Nerlens Noel and Otto Porter. Some people believe Victor Oladipo is in the group, but he’s a long shot. I do know the Cavs are intrigued by a 3-guard rotation of Dion Waiters, McLemore and Irving. They like Len’s size (7-1, 255 pounds), but his offense is raw and he’s coming off foot surgery. Bennett may be the most physically gifted scorer in the draft, but he’s 6-8, 240 pounds. He’s mostly a power forward who has major struggles on defense.”
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There is a rumor that Houston would offer Lakers Asik+Lin in a S&T for Howard, in order to have cap space for CP3. That would be a hard deal for Lakers to turn down, since Howard would go to Houston regardless. It would make Lakers better than Clippers again, if they lost CP3.
I expect Clippers to go ahead and sign Hollins in the next week. Boston has no leverage and Doc isn’t better than Hollins by 2 first round picks anyway.
Regarding Knicks/Nets Tyshon Chandler says Jason KIdd’s move to Nets is a big loss for Knicks, who have to now focus on replacing him. There is no replacing his locker room presence.