Earl Barron and the New York Knicks have mutual interest in each other, according to Jared Zwerling of ESPN New York: “The Knicks and free-agent center Earl Barron, who joined the team late last season, have strong mutual interest, according to a source close to the player. “He wants to be back in New York. There has been a lot of interest, and that’s with them and with them to us,” the source said. “I think it’s just going to be one of those wait situations, where I think the signing of Jeremy Tyler didn’t really knock [Barron] out of it, but it slowed the process up for him for sure.” “But Earl wants to be a Knick. He’s waiting for the Knicks to pull the trigger. He thinks that the Knicks will have a chance to win a championship, and he wants to be a part of it.” “I think Mike Woodson likes him a lot because of the professionalism he showed this year,” the source said. “He went from a vacation — a weekend trip with his family — to flying into D.C., drove to the airport and flew to New York and got in at midnight. He worked out for the coaches at 6 o’clock that morning, took the physical after that and then played 36 minutes that same night, and he had almost 20 boards. Earl kept his body right.”
Speaking of the Knicks, Mike Woodson has only guaranteed three players into the starting lineup for the upcoming season, from Zwerling: “We’ve got to find two other bodies that fit that starting lineup, and who that’s going to be, at this point. I don’t know,” said Woodson, who interacted with a group of children during the Garden of Dreams Foundation’s fifth annual Dream Week, offering advice and giving them a behind-the-scenes tour of the practice center… “We don’t know; we’ve got to see,” the coach said. “You’ve got to go in and earn a spot; that’s how I look at it.” “Iman has improved tremendously as a player,” Woodson said. “He still has a long way to go being such a young player, but his jump shot has definitely improved from the time he stepped foot in this league. I’ve got to think that’s going to continue to get better.”… “See, you guys look at 4 and 3 and 2,” Woodson said. “I don’t look at it like that. Melo’s a player, man. I can play Melo at 2, and he’ll be just fine. Then what would you guys be saying? No really, I don’t know where I’m going to play him yet. I mean, I’m going to play him; I do know that.” – Relax with the “Melo at 2”, Mr. Woodson.
The Los Angeles Lakers have officially signed Elias Harris, from Eric Pincus of LA Times: “The Lakers have officially announced the signing of Gonzaga forward Elias Harris. Although the Lakers agreed to terms with Harris in July, the paperwork wasn’t finalized until Wednesday. Harris played in five games for the Lakers’ summer league squad in Las Vegas, averaging 10.2 points on 44.7% shooting. Harris will make $490,180 in the first year of his deal, although only an undisclosed amount is guaranteed. His second year is at $816,482 and that is believed to be non-guaranteed. The Lakers are also expected to sign rookie forward Ryan Kelly, taken with the 48th pick in the 2013NBA draft. With Harris and Kelly, the team will hit the league minimum of 13 players under contract. Forward Marcus Landry is also considering an invitation from the team. Additionally, rookie Detroit forward Nick Minnerath recently tweeted that he’ll attend Lakers’ training camp. Reports have also linked the Lakers’ interest in Shawne Williams and Gary Forbes.”
Here’s a tragic story about Ryan Anderson’s girlfriend, from Today.com: “Former “Bachelor” contestant Gia Allemand died Wednesday of an apparent suicide, her family said in a statement. She was 29 years old. The model’s boyfriend, Ryan Anderson, who plays for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, found Allemand in her New Orleans home Monday night and called 911. She was rushed to University Hospital in critical condition and placed on life support. “Due to a critical loss of brain and organ function, life support was withdrawn (Wednesday),” the family’s statement read. “Ms. Allemand passed away peacefully with her mother, boyfriend and other life-long friends by her side. “Loved ones and fans will remember Gia Allemand as a caring woman who loved her family and was well-known for her compassion towards animals and mission to rescue homeless pets,” the statement continued. Allemand participated in the 14th season of ABC’s dating show, which featured pilot Jake Pavelka. He took to Twitter to express his sorrow when he heard the news of her death.”
Al Harrington is officially with the Washington Wizards, from Matt Bonesteel of The Washington Post: “The Washington Wizards announced Wednesday that they have signed free agent forward Al Harrington. Terms of the deal were not announced, but it’s expected to be for one year and $1.4 million, the veterans’ minimum. “Al’s all-around game and reputation as a leader make him a solid fit with our team,” Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said in a statement. “He will give us additional depth and experience in the frontcourt, the ability to stretch defenses and another proven veteran in the locker room.” Point guard John Wall and Coach Randy Wittman have long sought a power forward who can stretch the floor from the perimeter, and that Harrington fits the bill. He has averaged 13.7 points and shot 35.2 percent from beyond three-point range over his career. Harrington, 33, has played 15 NBA seasons with Indiana, Atlanta, Golden State, New York, Denver and Orlando. He appeared in just 10 games for the Magic last season as he recovered from a staph infection following surgery on his right knee for a torn meniscus.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports has a story on how Dwight Howard almost became a Houston Rocket back in 2012: “We were sort of the ugly guy chasing the pretty girl for awhile,” Morey told Feinstein. “We [had tried] to trade for him twice. In fact, once we were allowed to talk to Dwight when free agency started off, he told us how – and we didn’t know this for sure – but how Orlando basically told him he was going to get traded to us if he didn’t re-up with them a couple years back when he resigned. He was almost a Rocket a couple times. Obviously in this business, you’ve got to be well-prepared, and you have to have some good fortune.” League sources confirmed that the Magic and Rockets did, in fact, tentatively agree to a trade in March 2012 that both sides were prepared to follow through on had Howard forced the Magic’s hand and kept his right to opt out after the season and become a free agent. It would’ve involved at least some of the young assets that were so attractive to Howard this summer when he chose the Rockets as a free agent. (Magic officials, according to sources, later told Rockets officials that they preferred Houston’s deal to Brooklyn’s.) Thus, while Howard gave up some money in the short term to leave LA, he wound up on a roster that didn’t have to be decimated to acquire him.”
- Justin Holiday has been waived by the Philadelphia 76ers, according to Keith Pompey of The Inquirer: “The 76ers waived Justin Holiday on Tuesday, a league source has confirmed. The 6-foot-6 guard was called up last season from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League on April 1. He averaged 4.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while appearing in nine games. He came to Philadelphia in part because of his brother, Jrue Holiday, then the Sixers all-star point guard. Justin Holiday’s future with the team became doubtful once Jrue Holiday was traded to New Orleans during the June 27 NBA draft.”
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With all the talk about Al Harrington being close to a deal with The Wiz, it terms out to be a 1 year minimum. Reminds we of the Oden to Heat talks.
Jared Zwerling has about a 10% success rate – that is for every 10 players who Knicks reportedly have interest in or vica verca (or mutual), at most 1 signs with team. Knicks already have 14 players on Roster and that usually is how teams like to start season.
Knicks front office like to think they are “special” as part of their publicity.
Regarding Howard to Houston at trade deadline in 2012, Fred Kerber of the NY Post wrote as fact, about 15 months ago (wasn’t picked up by any major sports network) that ORL threatened to trade Howard to the Lakers if he didn’t waive his Early Termination Option. Kerber didn’t mention Houston, but its quite possible Dwight received a threat to be traded to Houston (we always knew the teams had some trade talks). However, truth is that Howard’s agent expected his client to be traded to Nets, when he got Howard to issue a statement during that infamous day, hours before Howard changed his mind. After the season Howard made reference to promises that ORL didn’t keep, and he still wanted to be traded to Nets.
The fallacy with Berger’s story is that the Lakers and even more so Houston, would have wanted some sort of guarantee that Howard would re-sign with them. Otherwise it just would have been a 3 month rental and not worth giving up assets similar to what Nets were offering (including their 1st round pick that ended up becoming Damian Lilliard). Nets were prepared to sign Howard as a free agent that summer (without forfeiting Lopez), so they had the leverage to force the trade to B’klyn, had Howard resisted ORL’s last minute efforts. Brooklyn had always been Howard’s desired destination, but ORL, according to GM Billy King, didn’t want to have to trade him to an EC team.
As far as Jim not having issues with Phil as well as putting the onus on his dad in the coaching decision, yeah, I’m calling BS on that. Jim Buss is going to run what his father built right into the ground (like he did with the KIngs) if he doesn’t start putting the franchise first instead of his own ego.
Truth is that the Lakers team is on its way to becoming irrelevant in NBA. LeBron isn’t going to join Kobe in LA, and Melo soon will be an aging former Star (he never was a superstar because of his lack of Defense and Team play).
Howard made the smart decision, that even Phil Jackson endorsed, by going to Houston where he will get training from 2 Greats (his coach and Olijawon).
Please. Low spot? Probably or yes. Irrelevant? Never. Lakers have been ducking a bullet for the last couple of years, restarting fresh was an inevitability that’s needed. We had to do the same after Magic and co. retired and we did the same after Shaq left. Now it’s almost that time with Kobe. But we’ll get it together. There’s no reason to think they won’t.
As far as Dwight making the smart decision, that’s open to debate. He certainly has come up with a bunch of justifications to show that it was a good idea (despite the Lakers and ROckets being virtually the same situation save that one kissed his ass and the other didn’t) but it’s all exactly that–justifications, to cover up that his choice to go to Houston had almost next to nothing to do with basketball.
Let’s just wait and see who’ll be truly irrelevant in the next couple of years. Kinda late in the game to be trying ot teach an old dog new tricks and if Howard hasn’t been a good post player by now, he’s likely not going to, even with Mchale and Olijawon working with him. Name me a player Howard’s age that suddenly did a role reversal, got better to the level that people are going to expect from him/rely on him for championships.
To be fair to Jim Buss (and this is definetly not my thing to defend Jim Buss as he’s nowhere near the smarts of his sister and father), this time he’s actually speaking the truth. Howard was, by and large, passing through. Saying he wasn’t really a Laker isn’t literally “he wasn’t” because he put on his uniform and went out and played. But as far as where his heart was throughout the season, he wasn’t really feeling it and it showed.
So saying he wasn’t really a Laker is pretty truthful (especially if reports from varying parties are to be believed, that mid-way through the season it became apparent that Howard wanted out).
Make no mistake, Laker management really wanted him (running the pick and roll with Howard and Nash was a goal with D’Antoni and something the Lakers forsaw running with Howard since he was so good at it in Orlando). Is it the Lakers fault or Howard’s that he completely bucked the system that was basically built to use him at his offensive best (since his post moves are…limited to say the least)?