Be sure to check out this week’s most improved player rankings at SheridanHoops: “Now that the Super Bowl is over and the NFL finally fades into the background of the American sports scene, many casual sports fans turn their attention to the NBA, as if the only sport that existed from Mondays to Saturdays in January was Herm Edwards and Ron Jaworski yelling hyperbolic nonsense at each other. Football’s bloated specter can be overbearing at times, especially with The Worldwide Leader making Daily Mail stories out of day-to-day NFL occurrences. But sometimes, it can provide a brilliant bastion from which basketball players can draw inspiration. Ahh, alliteration. Watching Seattle’s 43-8 beatdown of Denver on Sunday night, I couldn’t help but marvel at the way the Seahawks do things. The Seahawks get it. Pete Carroll gets it.”
While Evan Turner has been consistently featured in trade rumors, he claims he does not check them out: “On Monday, the Sporting News reported the Sixers are shopping Turner, but having trouble finding any serious offers for him. They mentioned the Suns and Thunder as two possible destinations for the fourth-year pro. “I never really worried about it,” Turner said, “If it’s something that needed to be discussed, (agent David Falk would) let me know. Other than that, just go with the flow and go about your business. Whatever happens, happens.” Turner is making $6.7 million this season. The Sixers hold an $8.7 million qualifying offer for next season. If they don’t pick it up, Turner would become an unrestricted free agent. “I bleed Sixers blue,” said Turner, perhaps somewhat facetiously. Sixers coach Brett Brown admitted “it’s been an incredible surprise to have our team intact this late in the year.””
Years after a serious knee injury, Shaun Livingston is finally playing to his potential: “Seven years after a devastating knee injury nearly derailed his career, Livingston is finally living up to the potential that made him the fourth overall pick out of high school in 2004. He was recruited to the Nets by Jason Kidd, signing a one-year deal last summer for the league minimum. It’s hard to imagine him signing for that little as a free agent this July, meaning retaining Livingston will be tough for a cap-strapped team like the Nets. “I put a lot of work in,” said Livingston, who is playing more minutes than at any time during his career. “It was kind of a blessing to have the injury at 21. Think about it. I’m 28. It’s considered your prime. So hopefully I’m feeling like I’m in prime.””
- The New Orleans Pelicans have signed Luke Babbit: “Babbit, who was originally drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round (16th overall) of the 2010 NBA Draft and traded to the Portland Trail Blazers on draft day, joins the Pelicans after playing part of the 2013-14 season for Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). Babbit appeared in 18 games for Novgorod and averaged 13.3 points and 3.7 rebounds. Entering his fourth NBA season, Babbitt has appeared in 126 games for Portland and holds career averages of 3.8 points and 2.1 rebounds. Babbitt will wear No. 8 and will be available for tomorrow night’s contest against Atlanta. The Pelicans roster now stands at 15.”
Bulls Center Joakim Noah has been fined 15K by the NBA: “”I’m really disappointed,” Noah said. “I shouldn’t have acted that way. I apologize. I’m sorry to all three referees out there. They’re out there trying to do their jobs, and I should never have said the things that I said.” Noah, who picked up his first technical less than three minutes earlier, earned the second after reacting to a foul call. “I hope they accept my apology, and I hope I can move on from this,” he said. Noah’s actions came in the midst of one of the Bulls’ worst performances of the season. As a team, they shot just 28.2 percent from the field, and the All-Star center conceded he was upset with how the game was going. “Yeah, I think I was just frustrated with the game,” he said. “You gotta give Sacramento a lot of credit. They played really well, they deserve to win and we’ve got to step it up, but I think I was just frustrated with the way the game was going. I was frustrated with the call, but it doesn’t give me the right to do what I did. I deserved to get ejected, and it was just a bad decision on my part.””
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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Lopez likely won’t be traded unless another team throws in a good 1st round pick with a pretty good Center. LA won’t do it, but they will regret that some day.
DWill won’t be traded when his value is low.
Zach Lowe is wrong about Blatche returning to Nets (besides being insurance for Lopez and can play PF too). Blatche can be offered 25 million over 4 years with the Early Bird Exception, with a player option included. That is 3 million more than the most that can be offered with the Full MLE for 4 years. Blatche isn’t going to a bad team for more money – he tried that. Good teams don’t have cap space to spend on someone unreliable on a new team, like Blatche. Phoenix can go after someone like MELO (would be good fit if Melo wants to win). Also Proky wouldn’t hesitate to spend money to be competitive for next 2 years. Hasn’t he proven that already?
Finally, yesterday Kirilenko already was quoted yesterday that he should be around (with Nets) next year too – has player option. Blatche is already is looking to be playing for the Philippines this summer. He’s apparently not thinking of shopping around. Wouldn’t Lowe think that Blatche wouldn’t be doing that unless he has an understanding that King will be bringing him back?
Finally, Zach is off base to suggest that current team (IF HEALTHY other than Brook) isn’t a Contender. It was always about Injuries. Kirilenko is the MVP of Nets and as he is healthy and DWill continues to regain his legs Nets will be the team that Miami and IND will not want to face.
IND (and OKC) will be the team to beat. After Miami finds that out, they may start breaking up team.