Gary Neal of the Milwaukee Bucks has also drawn plenty of interest this week: “The Bucks, of course, have made it clear they’re open to wheeling and dealing virtually anyone on their roster with the exception of Brandon Knight, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Bucks veteran shooting guard Gary Neal has drawn interest from several teams and seems certain to be dealt. The Bucks are also dangling young power forward John Henson and could package him with a veteran player with a high salary like shooting guard O.J Mayo, who is in the first season of a fully-guaranteed three-year, $24 million deal. The Bucks may also decide to move starting power forward Ersan Ilyasova who, as The Journal Times reported last week, is seeking a trade.”
John Wall continues to grow in his first All-Star season: “With almost 400,000 votes, Wall fell behind only starters Kyrie Irving and Dwyane Wade in the Eastern Conference backcourt for Sunday’s game in New Orleans, and while the starters are determined by the fan vote, the league’s head coaches determine the reserves. “That let’s me know that the coaches think that I’ve been improving this year and I’m helping out my team as much as possible to be a better leader,” Wall said. Leadership is a quality that Wall always has possessed. He has been looked upon as a leader ever since his lone season at Kentucky under coach John Calipari. “Coach Cal just made me a better player,” Wall said. “I always led by example, but he taught me how to be more vocal and taught me to be aggressive.””
The Celtics have interest in acquiring Utah’s Gordon Hayward: “Despite Utah’s desperate need for a point guard, there’s little interest in Rajon Rondo primarily because they don’t anticipate he’ll re-sign with the club beyond his current contract which is up in the summer of 2015. Jeff Green is another option, but the Jazz aren’t all that interested in him, either. It would appear the one thing that might nudge Utah towards giving serious thought to dealing Hayward, would be if the Celtics were willing to part with at least one of their stockpiled first-round picks. But two league sources, both having had recent conversations with the Celtics, told CSNNE.com on Tuesday that Boston is “very reluctant” to part with any of their first-round picks in facilitating a deal. In fact, Boston appears focused on adding more picks or assets with any deal they strike between now and the trade deadline.”
The Houston Rockets are again exploring trades for Omer Asik: “The two teams engaged in serious discussions on an Asik deal in December, when the Rockets were trying to move the defensive-minded center so they could aggregate any players acquired for use in future deals. With that possibility long gone, Houston GM Daryl Morey has re-opened trade talks, and the Sixers have more payroll flexibility than any team in the league to make a deal work. The Sixers are $11 million under the salary cap, meaning they can absorb Asik’s $8.4 million salary without sending back any players. They also have to add $5.1 million to their payroll to meet the league’s salary floor of $52.8 million. According to executives who’ve engaged in conversations with Houston about Asik, Morey is still setting the price high for the Turkish 7-footer, who was lured away from the Bulls as a restricted free agent in 2012. The structure of the offer sheet Asik signed, which calls for him to be paid $15 million next season, has been problematic. Though his cap hit would be only $8.4 million in 2014-15, any team acquiring Asik before Thursday’s deadline would face an expenditure of $17 million for him to play a little more than 100 games — a tough sell for any owner under the restrictive CBA.”
- New Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin is fulfilling his promise: “With tears streaming down his face, he vowed to his family, “Someday I’m going to run the Suns and be better than Jerry Colangelo.” He was wrong, of course. Today, at 44, he’s running the Cavaliers as acting GM, in charge for the first time with the trading deadline looming on Thursday. He is not unprepared. Though his training may not actually have started at the age of 6, he did spend 17 years with Colangelo’s Suns, starting as an intern in the public relations department in 1993 and working his way up to senior vice president of basketball operations before joining the Cavs in 2010 as vice president of basketball operations under former GM Chris Grant. Colangelo laughed when Griffin told him the story about the distraught 6 year old and was not surprised to see his former intern finally getting a chance to run an NBA team.
“You never know what’s in someone’s future when you start off getting your foot in the door and getting your first job,” Colangelo said. “He was always very diligent, a very hard worker and he just wanted a chance or an opportunity. He was ambitious. He had his sights set on much higher things. I’m not sure he knew at the beginning what that might mean, but he wanted to advance. He wanted to move up the ladder.”
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
If the Lakers try to position themselves for Love in 2015, they will likely Stink in next season (won’t make Kobe happy).