Cleve
land Cavaliers forward LeBron James has missed the team’s past nine games, including their complete meltdown against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday evening that dropped them to 19-19 on the season. The final score was 103-84, but was surely over well before the final quarter.
James has been sidelined with lingering knee and back issues, and was supposed to miss about two weeks with the ailments. Before the Cavs played the Kings on Sunday however, he was spotted at shoot around doing more intense activity than the previous games he missed.
Here’s a tweet from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports regarding LeBron’s status:
LeBron James is taking part in a lengthy workout right know that is increasing in intensity. He didn’t do this before Warriors game Friday.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) January 12, 2015
Cavs head coach David Blatt also spoke on LeBron possibly playing as early as Tuesday in Phoenix, per Spears:
Cavs coach David Blatt also didn’t rule out the possibility of LeBron James playing against the Suns on Tuesday.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) January 12, 2015
Cleveland should hope for his early return after falling flat on their face without the King, now just 1-8 without him.
With the new pieces in place, maybe he’s all they need to right the ship. Even though they’re struggling without him, if he’s not ready, he should continue to sit. The Cavs can’t take another two or so weeks without him. The Milwaukee Bucks are creeping up behind them, and are set to take on the terrible New York Knicks in London on January 15th.
KEVIN LOVE TO WAIT FOR CAP RISE
Sunday was a busy day for Cleveland, as Jason Lloyd from the Akron Beacon Journal had a few things to say regarding the future of Kevin Love in a Cavs jersey.
With the Cavs rough start, there have been plenty of rumblings about the future of the new ‘Big Three’ and whether they’d mesh on the court or not. And, through the first 38 games, the answer still isn’t 100% clear.
A huge question mark there was the future of the recently acquired Love, and whether he’d stay committed to Cleveland for the long haul.
It was a question from a follower on Twitter, but it’s hard not to see the truth in the response, per Lloyd on Kevin Love’s contract:
Love is unlikely to sign long term this summer because of the salary cap. He is expected to opt out of his current contract at the end of the season for cap purposes, but he might only sign a one-year deal to line up for what is expected to be a significant cap spike in the summer of 2016.
Love has said all the right things about re-signing with the Cavs this summer and the Cavs continue to insist he’s here long term. Executives around the league, however, continue to believe Love could leave Cleveland at the end of the season. We’ll see. There is still a long way to go.
It shouldn’t be taken as news to anyone, but there you have it. It’s the right decision from a financial standpoint, just as we’ve seen from his teammate LeBron James, who only signed for two years in Cleveland with a player option after the first year.
Only time will tell what really happens, but it will definitely be something to watch moving forward.
OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE
The Atla
nta Hawks franchise was recently rumored to be up for sale. That, of course, is true, and on Sunday the pool of bidders got a little bigger. I’m talking 755-career-home-runs-as-a-professional-baseball-player bigger.
If you’re not a huge baseball fan, I’m talking about Hank Aaron, a current Atlantan.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com has more on his reason for joining in the bidding for the Hawks:
Former baseball home run king and Atlanta icon Hank Aaron has joined a group of current owners from the NBA, Major League Soccer and Italian soccer’s storied Serie A that is seeking to purchase the Atlanta Hawks, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that the group is spearheaded by Memphis Grizzlies minority owner and vice chairman Steve Kaplan, Indonesian billionaire sports and media magnates Erick Thohir and Handy Poernomo Soetedjo and former Grizzlies CEO Jason Levien, who is the current managing general partner of DC United in MLS.
[…]
Said Allen Tanenbaum, Aaron’s longtime business adviser, when reached Sunday night by ESPN.com: “This is a private process and he’d like the private process to play out.”
After a historic two-decade run of slugging in which he shattered Babe Ruth’s all-time record by hitting 755 home runs, Aaron has spent much of his post-playing career as a baseball executive as well overseeing a business portfolio that has featured numerous car dealerships and restaurants. Sources say Aaron’s devotion to Atlanta as a city and his longstanding fondness for the Hawks as a basketball fan led him to join this group of bidders.
JEFF GREEN TRADE OFFICIAL
It’s been a work in progress the past couple of days, but Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday that the trade between the Memphis Grizzlies, Boston Celtics and New Orleans Pelicans has been agreed upon, according to sources.
Of course, Jeff Green is the major piece in the trade here, as he’s being sent to the Grizzlies.
Here’s who and what the trade involves, including another move that could be made very soon after, per Woj:
The Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans have agreed on a three-team, five-player trade that sends Jeff Green to the Grizzlies, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The trade will send the Grizzlies’ Tayshaun Prince, New Orleans’ Austin Rivers and a future Memphis first-round pick – likely coming in 2019 – to the Celtics, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Memphis will send forward Quincy Pondexter and a 2015 second-round pick to the Pelicans and the Pelicans will move guard Russ Smith to the Grizzlies, sources said. The Grizzlies held Prince and Pondexter out of Sunday’s game against the Phoenix Suns.
The teams will have a trade call with the league on Monday to make the deal official, sources said.
Rivers is unlikely to play for the Celtics, sources said. Boston has discussed a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers to reunite Rivers and his father, Clippers president and coach Doc Rivers, league sources said.
Doc Rivers told reporters on Saturday he’d be open to coaching his son, and several members of the organization, including general manager Dave Wohl and assistant coaches Lawrence Frank and Mike Woodson, have encouraged Doc Rivers to forget the perception of nepotism and take on Austin Rivers, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
BYRON SCOTT EXPLAINS GIVING KOBE REST
Kobe Bryant is apparently still exhausted from earlier in the season when he was playing what seemed like almost 40 minutes per game. That was when they were desperately searching for their first win of the season, which didn’t happen until they beat the Charlotte Hornets nearly two weeks into the season.
It was Kobe’s second straight game that he’s missed due to rest, and the third in the last four games.
After asking the Mamba to carry almost the entire offensive load through the majority of the season, Byron Scott had to blame himself for the future Hall-of-Famer’s exhaustion.
Per Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk:
“I thought his workload was too much,” Scott said looking back at those first 27 games. “He had a (minutes) number, my number was higher but his number was right, you know, when I look back at it. We cut those numbers down and I think his efficiency has been so much better, in terms of how he’s been able to play.
“The beginning, us getting on the same page and me getting to know him, what he could take and what he could stand as a minutes standpoint on a night to night basis was something that I had to get used to. We both got a real good feel now and we just got to go from this point on. Overall, he’s proven he’s got a lot left in the tank.”
Scott said he got fooled by his eyes.
“I didn’t take into serious consideration him missing almost a whole year and now getting back and playing,” he said before his Lakers faced Portland. “I should have figured out that would take a little time. But watching his workouts and watching what great shape he was in I think I got a little too confident, expecting that he could handle those type of minutes. And like I said, I was wrong….
The Lakers are now 12-26 after their 106-94 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night. NBA fans are hoping the rest for Kobe will do him good, and he’ll be back on the court ready to go soon.