Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self had some interesting things to share this weekend regarding Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Andrew Wiggins. A former Jayhawk, Wiggins has been at the center of a potential trade between the Cavaliers and the Timberwolves for Kevin Love. There have been reports that the two teams currently have a deal in place , but Wiggins can not be traded right now due to NBA rules that prevent him from being moved the first 30 days after signing his contract. Self
In an interview in April 2013, Kevin Durant told Sports Illustrated he was tired of finishing second. Durant was the second player taken in the 2007 draft. He lost in the NBA Finals in 2012. He finished second in MVP voting four times. This past season, Durant took a huge step forward when he won his first MVP award, finally emerging from the shadow cast by LeBron James. But if he doesn’t win an NBA championship in the next two years with
Four players – three of them future Hall of Famers – took pay cuts of a staggering eight figures this offseason. Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Paul Pierce all took salary slashes of more than $10 million to extend their careers with contending teams. They head the list of the top 10 individual pay cuts this summer. Our list uses exact salary figures from last season. In some cases, this season’s figures are averages of multi-year deals received by players. For example,
Is the white American player making a comeback this summer? All of the recent offseason buzz is centered around Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star forward Kevin Love and which team can put together the most appealing trade package to acquire him. Meanwhile, two of the top three salary bumps also went to white American players – Chandler Parsons and Gordon Hayward. As restricted free agents, both got max salary offer sheets and cashed in. So while white men can’t jump, they certainly can jump in
It is very easy to overlook the Washington Wizards. They are in contention for the title about as often as the Earth is under threat of alien invasion, they haven’t had an outsized personality in the locker room since Gilbert Arenas was telling Javaris Crittendon to “Pick One,” and they will undoubtedly be kept off national television next season because they just aren’t sexy. But you know what? They could very well contend for the best record in the Eastern Conference. Many
Yes, there are still free agents out there and teams still have slots to fill. But most of the big names are gone, and most of the contenders are done reloading, retooling or rebuilding for the 2014-15 season. With that in mind, here is another edition of the Three-Man Weave, looking specifically at the balance of power in the Eastern Conference and how it has shifted. 1. Which team is the favorite in the Eastern Conference? [Read more…]
The Houston Rockets will decline to match the three year, $46 million offer sheet that Chandler Parsons signed with the Dallas Mavericks earlier this week. Parsons, a terrific young forward in the NBA, was strangely made a restricted free agent a year early by the Rockets with the hopes to bring him back on a reasonable long-term contract. That backfired thanks to Mark Cuban and the Mavericks, who have successfully added the wing talent they have been looking for over the past few
The Washington Wizards have wasted no time in bolstering up their depth charts after losing Trevor Ariza in free agency to the Houston Rockets. The Wizards have engaged in talks with veteran small forward Paul Pierce to replace the gap left by Ariza. The news was broken earlier this evening by ESPN’s Marc Stein via Twitter. [Read more…]