SH Blog: Cavs Make Play For Love; Nets Push For Garnett; Metta Won’t Opt-Out, Amnesty?

• Oklahoma City looks to enter this season on the aggressive end, and may try to package two first round picks and Kendrick Perkins to move up: “Elsewhere, a source said Oklahoma City was interested in packaging its two first-round picks (Nos. 12 and 29) and Kendrick Perkins for a top-five pick. But the Thunder have had no takers either. Meanwhile, Dallas is openly shopping its No. 13 pick, but is having a hard time finding a quality deal.  There are a still a number of moves that could occur before the draft, like Golden State trying to purchase a second-round pick. But as of Tuesday afternoon, there was a lot of talk, but not much action.”

• According to ESPN LA, Metta World Peace will not opt-out of his contract. Will this bring on the amnesty: “World Peace had until Tuesday to exercise the early-termination option on his contract, and the veteran forward had publicly discussed the possibility of doing so in order to secure a new multiyear deal. Instead, World Peace will receive the $7.7 million owed to him next season in the final season of the five-year deal signed with the Lakers in 2009. Now the Lakers will have to decide whether they want to have World Peace on the team for 2013-14, or choose to waive him by using a one-time amnesty provision. Should the Lakers choose to amnesty World Peace, they would still owe him his full salary; however, the contract would not count against L.A.’s salary-cap figure and the move could end up saving the Lakers close to $30 million in luxury taxes. Teams must inform the league of their plans to amnesty a player during a window from July 10-16, and the provision can be used only on a player who was signed before the new collective bargaining agreement was put in place in December 2011. Other than World Peace, the only amnesty options for the Lakers would be Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol or Steve Blake.”

• The Sacramento Kings have extended a qualifying offer to Tyreke Evans: “The Sacramento Kings today extended a qualifying offer to Tyreke Evans, making him a restricted free agent, according to Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro. Evans averaged 15.2 points (.478 FG%, .338 3pt%, .775 FT%), 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.38 steals, and 31.0 minutes per game in 65 contests with the Kings last season, of which he started 61. Selected by Sacramento as an undergraduate out of Memphis with the fourth overall pick of the 2009 NBA Draft, Evans was named the 2009-10 NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging a team-leading 20.1 ppg (.458 FG%, .255 3pt%, .748 FT%), 5.3 rpg, a team-best 5.8 apg, 1.51 spg, and 37.2 mpg in starting all 72 games in which he played. Evans is averaging 17.5 ppg (.449 FG%, .276 3pt%, .765 FT%), 4.8 rpg, 4.8 apg, 1.4 spg, and 34.9 mpg in 257 career games in four seasons with Sacramento.”

• The Atlanta Hawks may be one of the teams flying under the radar that will look to make a big splash on draft night: “The source says the team will not only look to move up in the upcoming draft, as reported by Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports, but that the Hawks may also be considering packaging their first-round draft picks in an alternate scenario in order to acquire an established veteran. The Hawks have just $18.6 million in guaranteed salaries on the books for next season, which puts the team in prime position to absorb salary in this scenario. Atlanta owns four picks in this year’s draft. Two of the selections are in the first-round (No. 17 and No. 18 overall) and the others (No. 47 and No. 50 overall) land in the second round. The Hawks have just three players with guaranteed deals for the 2014 campaign (Al Horford, Lou Williams and John Jenkins). According to sources, the team is also poised to make a run at this year’s marquee free agents once that period begins in July. This isn’t surprising given the team’s favorable position to the salary cap and the need to fill out the roster.”

Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.