- Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail: "Chris Bosh heads to the Heat with no regrets. The former Toronto Raptors star was interviewed on The Fan 590 Tuesday afternoon and came off as a man with a clear conscience; casting his use of Twitter as his primary form of communication during the free-agent process as merely him having fun and saying that while he’ll miss Toronto, his in-season home of seven years, he wasn’t about to apologize for exploring his career options. 'If the people felt betrayed, I’m sorry for that,' Bosh said. “But it wasn’t anything serious. It’s just all fun. You guys know me. I like to have a good time and I like to keep things easygoing … I’m happy with the way I handled things,' Bosh said. 'I don’t think I got out of line at any point. I knew going into this situation, wherever I chose to go, people were going to think I was crazy.' Bosh got speculation about his intentions off to a furious start when he surveyed fans on Twitter about if he 'should stay or go.' Later he seemed at least disingenuous when on the morning he was about to announce his intention to sign with the Miami Heat that he couldn’t understand why he was getting so many messages and that he was about to dig into a breakfast of Belgian waffles. 'You know you’re not going to please everybody. You’re going to step on some toes,' he said. 'I didn’t want to offend anybody or make anybody upset. My intentions throughout that were just to broadcast what I was doing and just have fun with it.' "
- Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: "In J.J. Hickson's mind, LeBron James was a great player. 'Bron was a great player, but he didn't do it by himself,' Hickson said on Tuesday after the Cavaliers' 88-82 win over the D-League Select team at the NBA Summer League. 'He had four other players on the court with him.' Hickson, the Cavs' third-year forward, has extremely high hopes for his team this season. 'I'd rather be in that position rather than people thinking we're going to be good,' he said. 'At the end of the day, we have a good team, a playoff-contending team and we're going to get it done.' ... Hickson said he wasn't disappointed when James signed with the Heat. 'Players are traded or move on every year,' he said. 'I didn't pay much attention to it. It's unfortunate. But we have to move on.' "
- Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Have you watched the gravitational pull of greatness help the Heat the past few days? It didn't just lure season-ticket buyers overnight. It isn't just bringing a worldwide media buzz to the point
that exhibition games are being mentioned in Europe and Asia. It goes beyond how this team instantly became an easy team to love in South Florida and hate in any other NBA city. It's the players lining up outside the arena. The veteran players. The role players basketball analysts said would be hard to find. The thirtysomethings who want to rub against greatness just once in their careers. LeBron James called former Cleveland teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas and says how much the Heat wants him. So Ilgauskas spurned Cleveland to sign with the Heat on Tuesday for the league-minimum salary. Dwyane Wade and Heat president Pat Riley talked with free agent Udonis Haslem and helped persuade him to make roughly $15 million less over a five-year contract. Haslem signed Monday in what could be the biggest secondary move of this offseason. Mike Miller saw his good friend in James and college roommate in Haslem move to the Heat. He'll sign perhaps Wednesday. Or if Miller's signing isn't announced, perhaps Juwan Howard's contract will be. See, there's a backlog of announcements to be made. The Heat wants to give each player a day's headline. Everyone be patient. Stay in line. Wait your turn. None of these are great players. Each comes with legitimate questions. Each also can be accused of piggybacking on excellence in the hopes of gaining a ring. But can't they be praised for that more? Don't fans always ask players to value winning above all else? Don't media always ask players to fit egos into the bigger team?" - Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe: "To the Celtics’ Ray Allen, seeing the reaction to the Heat’s new Big Three was like déjà vu. 'That’s what happened here,’' Allen said, flashing back three summers when a flurry of trades brought him to Boston along with Kevin Garnett to form Boston’s Big Three with Paul Pierce. Those Celtics faced the same praise and the same criticism. They were crowned the favorites but also were called mercenaries. They went on to win the title in 2007-08, and Allen said he can see similarities between that team and the squad still forming in Miami, though one thing remains to be seen. 'The question is, are they ready to sacrifice?’ Allen asked. 'Make the ultimate sacrifice? It’s not about numbers. It’s not about accolades. When we did this in ’07, that’s what we all knew. That’s what we all said.’ Three years later the Celtics’ stars are still sacrificing. Allen, who last week agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal to stay in Boston and finalized the contract yesterday, took less money to remain a Celtic. Pierce, the captain and the face of the franchise the past 12 years, passed on a $21 million option for next season to sign a four-year, $61 million extension that saved the team money. Allen said leaving money on the table was easier to do after making the initial sacrifices when the three stars first came together."
- Brad Rock of the Deseret News: "If you've followed the Jazz for long, you know this week's acquisition of Al Jefferson is important news. Not as interesting as 1987, when they acquired Darryl Dawkins in a trade with Cleveland, but still. That's not to imply Dawkins did much when he was here. By the time he arrived in Utah, 'Chocolate Thunder' had melted into a gooey, sweet memory. He played only four games before being traded to Detroit. Nevertheless, he was a big name. A big, over-the-hill name. But now the Jazz have gained a low-post scoring threat who averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds in three years with Minnesota. That's not the kind of player you order at the drive-through window. If he plays the way he did for the Timberwolves, Utahns will be aghast. They're simply not used to this. They're accustomed to slow, rigid centers, not spinning, wheeling, jumping athletes. They're used to Studebakers, not Audis."
- Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: "Asked if Al Jefferson had asked to be traded, David Kahn said, 'I think both sides independently came to the same conclusion. He recognized we were at least a couple more years away from becoming a winning team, and I completely understood where he was coming from. I'm very happy for Al. He's just been so professional throughout all of this.' Kahn said he considers Tuesday's trade affirmation that Kevin Love is part of the team's long-term future. 'I've told him I'm not trading him,' Kahn said. 'He's a young guy who's got the whole world in front of him.' Love said Tuesday's trade didn't surprise him in the least, not after last weekend's breakfast with Kahn. 'If I had my Twitter account still, maybe you guys would have known about this before now,' Love said by telephone from California. 'It'll be tough to see Al go. The first guys I had here were Kevin McHale and Al. Most of the time it was tough love coming from Al, but he always had my back. 'I realize it's a business and it's a good fit for Al. I'm happy for him. Anytime you're coached by Jerry Sloan and have Deron Williams as the point guard, you have a pretty good shot at making the playoffs.' "
- Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press: "Darko Milicic, Martell Webster, Michael Beasley, Luke Ridnour ... average, average, average, average. I'm already close to declaring the Timberwolves 'less crappy.' Little by little, the Timberwolves' grand plan has been revealed. Now we are fully able to grasp what is happening: David Kahn is on a mission to stockpile average players. That isn't a knock. After a 15-67 season fueled by a roster teeming with substandard players, 'average' looks pretty sensational."
- Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com: "The Mavs entered the offseason hoping for fireworks, optimistic that they’d be able to acquire a co-star for Dirk Nowitzki with one of the most attractive trade assets in the market. But the Erick Dampier chip turned out to be a dud. The Mavs were never serious contenders to land any of the free-agent superstars in a sign-and-trade deal. They tried to land Al Jefferson, only to have the Utah Jazz seize the opportunity in the late stages of talks with the Timberwolves. Less than 24 hours later, the Mavs settled for another overpaid center and a project. This deal makes financial sense for Mark Cuban. Tyson Chandler, the injury-prone big man on his way from Charlotte to Dallas, will make $12.6 million this season in the final year of his contract. Alexis Ajinca, who will join Ian Mahinmi as former first-round pick French project centers who sit on the pine, will make $1.47 in the final guaranteed season of his rookie deal."
- Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer: "If you remember what it is like to be a kid, you remember how much fun it is to trade things. For the current generation, it might be Silly Bandz. For the older generation, it might be baseball cards. Still, the appeal is universal. There's a certain feeling you get when you can get rid of something you're tired of and acquire something you are excited about. The Charlotte Bobcats are addicted to that feeling. There is a childlike enthusiasm about the way the Bobcats deal with their roster, as owner Michael Jordan, general manager Rod Higgins and head coach Larry Brown constantly make trades in search of a team that can actually win a playoff game. On Tuesday, they shipped Tyson Chandler to Dallas -- Chandler had been shipped in here less than a year ago. The Bobcats acquired Matt Carroll -- who they had traded away in 2009. This was trade No.11, in case you're counting, in the two-year-old Larry Brown Era. ... And this trade is not it for Charlotte. Far from it. It's little more than a bridge to the next deal. At least that's what I'm sure the Bobcats hope. They figure that they can turn Dampier's contract or possibly expendable forward Boris Diaw into a decent starting point guard. That's a necessity, because I believe Brown doesn't want D.J. Augustin to be his starter at point guard if he can possibly help it."
- Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun: "Amid all the bone-headed moves, every backward step and over-reaction, Michael Jordan has finally done something right. As great a player as His Airness was, Jordan has been a colossal failure as an executive, a shining example why athletic greatness doesn’t guarantee success in the boardroom. But his intervention to nix a deal that would have sent Jose Calderon to Charlotte was a stroke of genius, a move Jordan simply had to make because it made no sense. ... Calderon is not worth $9 million a season. At best, he’s a mid-level player who cashed in during a contract year for an organization that overpaid and over-reacted. Calderon is not a stiff, let’s make that perfectly clear. On a team that is mentally tough and defensively disciplined, this guy would revel in a system that has Calderon play off the ball, but he has the handles to run an offence in the half court."
- Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic: "Other red flags are flying on Planet Orange. Why did Steve Kerr leave so abruptly? Who will rebound the basketball? Who will sign on to be general manager when the team already is assembled and a former agent (Lon Babby) appears to be running the show for a meddlesome owner? We have been down this road before, and it's not pretty. Jeff Moorad was an agent who took over the Diamondbacks and promptly signed former client Shawn Green, along with other big mistakes. Wayne Gretzky hired his agent to run the Coyotes into the ground, which isn't surprising. Agents know contracts and loopholes, not talent. Fortunately, this feels a bit different. Babby is a former Washington, D.C., attorney who helped defend John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Reagan. He rose to athletic prominence by offering his clients hourly rates ($500) rather than a standard percentage (maximum 4 percent). Babby's non-traditional approach appealed to a small group of self-starters, and the first was Grant Hill in 1994. He is Yale-educated, well-respected, and as Hill's agent, Babby understands the culture in Phoenix. It's no coincidence that he represented both Turkoglu and Childress. It's also clear that for all the front-office chaos in recent years, Phoenix remains a popular destination point for NBA players."
- Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "The Spurs aren't done re-shaping their roster. By week's end, Richard Jefferson likely will be back at a salary tolerable to Spurs fans and chairman Peter Holt. Raja Bell may also be a Spur, at last. Gregg Popovich would have kept him on his roster in 2000 if only he hadn't given in to others on his staff who liked Derrick Dial more. Bell would be a huge defensive upgrade over Roger Mason Jr. and just as reliable a 3-point shooter. Others understand Bell's value, too, even at age 33. Would a defensive stopper who once clothes-lined Kobe Bryant turn down Bryant's promise to welcome him to a team that has won the last two NBA titles? More to the point: Can he forgive the Lakers for having spent all but $1.8 million of their mid-level salary cap exception on Steve Blake? The Spurs, remember, have $2.365 million left from the mid-level salary cap exception. Having already completed his major summer upgrade by adding the best big man from the European leagues, Gregg Popovich can go into the 2010-11 regular season knowing his plan to keep Tim Duncan fresh for the playoffs has a chance to be implemented, at long last."
- Jonathan Feigen of The New York Times: "In a wide-ranging interview with reporters at a Midtown hotel, Mikhail Prokhorov did not reveal any disappointment about his mild start amid hopeful anticipation. He spoke of the Nets’ long-term blueprint and spent much of the time delivering one-liners, while voicing support for the salary-cap structure of the N.B.A. even though it limits how much money he can spend. 'Be patient,' Prokhorov said when asked what message he would deliver to fans. 'Support our team. We will win for sure. And trust me, next season will be completely different: aggressive, young. Now we have really good ambition to beat Miami Heat.' With the way Miami stockpiled superstars, it may be an unobtainable goal in 2010-11. The Nets’ desire, Prokhorov said, is to reach the playoffs this season and to win a championship within the next five years. Prokhorov jokingly said he would be held responsible if the team did not reach the goal, and his punishment would be to marry. 'There is no difference,' he said. 'It’s just only in the way how we can reach the goal.' "
- Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "John Wall returned to finish with 18 points, 10 assists and 5 steals to lead the Wizards to a 2-0 record in the NBA Summer League. In his first two games, Wall is averaging a team-best 21 points and nine assists, which is pretty much what Leonsis expected to see when he placed the future of the franchise in the hands of the 19-year-old phenom. 'He's pretty much as advertised. Very quick with the ball. He can get to the basket. I like that. I also like the way you see him try to get his teammates involved. He'll reward guys who work hard,' Ted Leonsis said, while keeping the performance in perspective. 'It's just the summer league, wouldn't put too much stock into it. If he wasn't leading in scoring and assists, you'd be nervous. Right now, I think he has a fully developed game.' Leonsis welcomed Wall to Washington in elaborate fashion and placed a large banner on Sixth Street NW proclaiming Wall as the 'Game Changer.' Leonsis said the decision to promote Wall in such grand fashion wouldn't have a negative affect on the team's highest-paid player, Gilbert Arenas. 'I told Gil we were going to do that. I told him it was the right thing to do with John being the number one pick,' he said. 'But we're going to market the team. I think it's very, very important that while this is a league that's built on stars -- and we'll have our fair share of stars -- it's teams that win.' 'I think Gilbert gets it. I think Gilbert understands that having a John Wall here is really, really good for him and his career,' Leonsis said."
- Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The Hawks apparently think Brad Miller would be a good fit in L.D.’s offense. He had been a good outside shooter for years but slipped in that area last season. So too did his defense and rebounding for that matter. But Miller’s Synergy numbers in the post were pretty good at .87 points per possession on 204 possessions, suggesting he’s still tough around the basket. Actually, Miller is a pretty tough guy, period, and the Hawks probably could use some of that nastiness. Another Bartelstein client, Kwame Brown, also remains interested in the Hawks. Bartelstein said Brown has visits scheduled with a few teams but the Hawks aren’t among them. The Celtics liked Brown after working him out but apparently can’t offer him the kind of money he’s seeking after they gave their full mid-level to Jermaine O’Neal."
- Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: "As J.J. Redick waits to learn whether he'll play for the Orlando Magic or the Chicago Bulls next season, he might be surprised to find out that the final determination about his future could be made in Grand Rapids, Mich. If General Manager Otis Smith decides he wants to match the Bulls' three-year, $19 million offer sheet for Redick, Smith will have to receive final approval from Magic Owner Rich DeVos and President Bob Vander Weide. 'With pretty much every decision that we've made here as it relates to this basketball team, ownership is heavily involved. I think I've said all along that if we don't have the best owners in all of pro sports, I'd be hard-pressed to find one, because they've stepped to the plate every time I've asked them to step up to the plate,' Smith said. 'I'm sure this decision won't come easy, but I think they'll step up to the plate if we ask them to do it now.' "
- Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: "General counsel and assistant general manager Jason Levien – the attorney and former agent hired 18 months ago to assist in contract negotiations and expand the Kings' presence overseas -- resigned because Geoff Petrie felt his services were no longer needed. We know that last part's not exactly true. While success isn't exactly rocket science, it's certainly more demanding than simple math. Acquiring the right pieces. Making the shrewd deals. Maintaining salary cap flexibility. Placing the calls instead of merely answering the phones. ... He fully grasped that today's NBA requires input from personnel experts, business gurus, legal minds and aggressive negotiators with a fetish for shrewd deal-making and salary cap flexibility. The Kings lost an element of all this when Levien, 38, resigned last week. At a time the franchise is gaining momentum following two excellent drafts, the Kings gave ground, lost Levien's edge, his energy, his new-age approach, his legal skills. In essence, the Kings lost a checks-and-balances system and a person to help avert the sins of the previous five years: signing players to contracts well above their market value. Five seasons for Beno Udrih. An unnecessary extension for Francisco García. A ghastly multi-year offer that Bonzi Wells inexplicably rejected. Mid-level money for John Salmons and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. A two-year deal for Mikki Moore. Perhaps most importantly, Levien's departure strips the organization of a different voice and a fresh, extroverted outlook – elements Petrie himself cited when hiring the New York-based attorney."
- John Reid of The Times-Picayune: "The New Orleans Hornets team president Hugh Weber said on Tuesday that the franchise and General Manager Jeff Bower have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately. A search for his replacement is underway. Bower attended the Hornets' summer league shootaround practice on Tuesday morning, but he left without speaking to the media. 'We feel it is in the best interest for us and Jeff to part ways at this time.' Weber said. 'Our search for a new general manager is already underway. We will target basketball minds that are highly respected in the basketball circles and someone that will help in our pursuit of building a championship team.' "
TRUEHOOP CONTRIBUTORS
Henry AbbottTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
J.A. AdandeTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Kevin ArnovitzTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris BroussardTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chad FordTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Israel GutierrezTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
John HollingerTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Beckley MasonTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Marc SteinTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
HoopIdeaTrueHoop @HoopIdea |
You must be signed in to post a comment