Let’s start with the obvious: Josh Smith is not going to be claimed on waivers. It’s true that Smith, 29, won’t be able to sign anywhere until 5 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, when the league office will announce if Smith was claimed in the waiver process. But the only reason Detroit cut Smith, even with over $35 million in guaranteed money still owed, was because they couldn’t find a taker to trade for him at that contract. In other words, no
There has been much speculation over the past week about who may eventually take over as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings after the team shockingly fired Mike Malone. The Kings had been a surprise team in the West, starting out the season with a 5-1 record behind the play of DeMarcus Cousins. By Nov 26, they were a respectable 9-6, but went onto lose seven of the next nine games after losing Cousins for an extended period of time due to
Indiana owner Herb Simon would approve of the team re-acquiring former Pacers guard Lance Stephenson in a trade, The Indianapolis Star reports. [Read more…]
Anybody who signed an NBA contract prior to Sept. 16 is now eligible to be traded. And the “Most Likely” list begins and ends with Lance Stephenson … sort of. In the NBA, you never really know when someone will have a hair trigger and pull off a deal that becomes addition by subtraction (yes, we are talking about you, Stan Van Gundy/Josh Smith). But the primary guy who fits under that subcategory is Stephenson, the prized offseason acquisition of the Charlotte
We have our first trade speculation frenzy of the 2014-15 NBA season courtesy of Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who is using his bully pulpit at the Worldwide Leader to throw a little something against the wall, saying the Brooklyn Nets have made it known around the league that Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez are available via trades. But as Stein reports, nothing is imminent. And we should further remind you that players who signed contracts over the summer are
Leave it to Jeff Van Gundy to use the holiday season as another outlet for his vastly underrated sense of humor. During Wednesday’s ESPN telecast of New York-Dallas, the analyst said he was thankful that there were not two Eastern Conferences. But as Thanksgiving quickly morphed into the Christmas shopping season, perhaps Van Gundy could ask Santa Claus for another Western Conference. Because that would allow us to throw out the Eastern Conference with all the torn wrapping paper, ugly sweaters and
If Derrick Rose wants to sit out games because he doesn’t feel 100 percent healthy, that’s fine. If Rose wants to go to the coaching staff, training staff and management of the Chicago Bulls and develop some sort of maintenance program which allows him to sit out games from time to time, that’s fine, too. In fact, given what the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat have done with their aging stars over the last several seasons – and the success that
DeMarcus Cousins has not picked up a single technical foul yet, which means he is on pace to accomplish his self-proclaimed goal of getting whistled for a maximum of five “T”s all season. His team is the surprise of the Western Conference, with all due respect to the conference-leading Grizzlies, Rockets and Warriors, and he is in the top 10 in scoring (23.0 ppg, 9th) and rebounding (11.1, 8th) following a summer in which he went through a much-needed maturation process