SH Blog: Completed and failed trades on Thursday, Big Baby bought out by Magic

• Kevin Durant will take legal action against a former accountant, according to The AP: “Thunder forward Kevin Durant is suing his former accountant for $600,000 over what the star NBA star says are mistakes on his taxes. Attorneys for Durant said in the lawsuit filed last month that California-based accountant Joel Lynn Elliott deducted so me personal expenses as business expenses on Durant’s taxes without proper documentation. Durant hired Elliott to do his taxes based on his then-agent’s advice, the lawsuit said, and Elliott prepared Durant’s personal taxes and taxes for his company, K. Durant Enterprises, from 2007 to 2011. In one instance, K. Durant Enterprises paid for travel for Durant and other employees totaling more than $1 million. Some of that travel, however, was for personal reasons, but it was deducted as a business expense, the lawsuit said.”

• JaVale McGee’s forgettable season came to an end on Thursday, from Howard Beck of Bleacher Report: “Nuggets’ JaVale McGee had season-ending surgery today to repair stress fracture in left tibia, team says.”

• Iman Shumpert avoided any serious damage in his injured knee, from Woj: “New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert has a mildly sprained MCL in his left knee and could miss two weeks, league sources told Yahoo Sports. An MRI on Thursday in New York revealed no tear in the knee, sources said. Shumpert suffered a torn ACL and lateral meniscus in the same knee in April 2012 and missed nine months before returning to the Knicks. Shumpert’s latest injury occured in the Knicks’ 98-91 victory against New Orleans on Wednesday night. The injury ends several months of trade talks centered on Shumpert, punctuated with discussions that gathered momentum over the past several days with the Clippers.”

• Failing to move Glen Davis before the trade deadline, the Orlando Magic have come to terms with the power forward on a buyout, from Woj and Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports: “The Orlando Magic have reached an agreement on a contract buyout with forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis, sources told Yahoo Sports. The Magic tried hard to move Davis before Thursday’s trade deadline but were unable to find a deal to unload him. The Los Angeles Clippers are the frontrunners to sign Davis, league sources said. Clippers GM and coach Doc Rivers coached Davis with the Boston Celtics and had discussions with Orlando in recent days about acquiring him. The Brooklyn Nets, who like the Clippers are searching for a backup big man, have signifcant interest in Davis too, league sources said. Magic officials want to start giving more playing time to their young corps of forwards, including Andrew Nicholson, and were concerned with how Davis would handle a diminished role.”

• Mark Deeks of SB Nation explains why the Golden State Warriors’ deal for Steve Blake was more complicated than it looked on the surface: “Golden State entered this week with two significant Traded Player Exceptions (TPEs), acquired in their offseason deal with the Utah Jazz. These are from the $9,835,920 remaining on the Richard Jefferson exception, and the $4 million exception for Brandon Rush. Conveniently — and certainly not coincidentally — Blake is earning exactly $4 million this season. It is immediately apparent how Golden State can acquire Blake: by incorporating his salary into the Rush TPE. However, absorbing Blake in this manner without sending out any salary in return would put the Warriors $1,711,221 over the luxury tax line. And as the Lakers will tell you, you don’t pay tax for Steve Blake. Therefore, as the two most redundant players on the roster, Brooks’s $1,210,080 and Bazemore’s $788,872 (which counts as $884,293 in luxury tax calculations to whichever team he is on) must be sent out to help the Warriors achieve this aim.”

• Marcus Thornton was presumably acquired by the Brooklyn Nets to help space the floor with his shooting ability, but he hasn’t done a very good job of making the three ball this season, from Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland: “He is still relatively young and, in the right situation, can knock down 3s at decent rates. But this season he’s struggled to do that. Last year, he shot 37 percent from behind the arc; this season, he’s down to 32 percent, which is below the league average. Thornton’s mediocre scoring performance this season makes it hard to remember the player who averaged 21.3 points per game with Sacramento just three seasons ago. Thornton’s shot chart does not look like that of an $8 million player, but the Nets are hoping his disappointing form is an anomaly, and that he can regain some of his bygone effectiveness, particularly from beyond the arc.”

• An NBA scout is floored by how good Anthony Davis has become in such a short period of time, from Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report: “I think Davis very well could be the next big thing because of his amazing skill set,” one NBA scout said. “He’s a phenomenal defensive player, but his offensive skills and growth in such a short period have been really impressive. I think he can be top five in the league in 2-3 years max. “I’m not sure how many NBA execs, coaches and scouts expected him to be this good this fast. He was clearly talented coming out of college, but I don’t think we saw the quick rise. Offensively, he can shoot, handle the ball, pass and take his man off the dribble. On the other end, he’s a fantastic rebounder, blocks and changes shots, and defends pick-and-rolls pretty well. He also has great feet, so that helps a lot.”

James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.