10:52pm: Roy met with the Timberwolves on Friday, Wojnarowski reports. The meeting took place in Seattle and included Wolves owner Glen Taylor, GM David Kahn and coach Rick Adelman along with Roy and his agent, Greg Lawrence. Roy is expected to meet with the other teams on his list over the next several days, a source tells Wojnarowski.

9:43pm: Roy is meeting with the Mavs tonight, according to Jamal Crawford, who said the meeting kept Roy from competing in a charity game today, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. 

6:09pm: Brandon Roy has narrowed his free agent finalists to the Bulls, Mavericks, Pacers, Timberwolves, and Warriors, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.  Roy and his agent, Greg Lawrence of Wasserman Media Group, will hold meetings with those teams over the next several days.

The guard expects to meet with those clubs in his hometown of Seattle.  Some teams pursuing Roy privately say they’re willing to offer a contract for longer than one season, league sources said.

Reportedly, a number of clubs are willing to commit their full mid-level exception to the 27-year-old.  Because Roy is still receiving paychecks from Portland, including $16.46MM next year, he may not automatically gravitate to the most lucrative offer.

The Nets, who are reportedly in discussions with the Hawks about trading for Joe Johnson, are considering making a significant offer to unrestricted free agent O.J. Mayo, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The Nets were also "deep in discussions" today about a trade for power forward Luis Scola before talks with the Rockets broke down, Wojnarowski also reports via Twitter. 

John Hollinger of ESPN.com believes the talk of deals for Scola and Johnson is merely a Plan B for the Nets in case they don't re-sign Deron Williams (Twitter links). But Williams appears to be leaning toward a return to the Nets, and Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram believes Dwight Howard's latest trade request is further indication that Williams will remain a Net (Twitter link). 

The Grizzlies decided not to tender a qualifying offer to Mayo this week, declining their right to match offers from other teams and making Mayo an unrestricted free agent. The Celtics, Pacers, Timberwolves and Clippers are among the suitors for Mayo, according to HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy.

The Rockets are actively shopping Scola, ESPN's Marc Stein reported. Scola was a part of the failed three-team deal that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers before the 2011/12 season. Houston reportedly tried to move Scola at the trade deadline as well.

The Mavericks have decided to guarantee Vince Carter's contract for next season, committing to pay his $3.09MM salary, reports Jeff Caplan of ESPNDallas.com. The Mavs could have cut ties to Carter, who signed a three-year deal in December, since only $2MM was guaranteed for each of the next two seasons. 

The decision on Carter was due by today. The move will have only a small effect on Dallas' salary cap space this summer as the Mavs try to land Deron Williams, the No. 1 free agent on the market.

9:14pm: Williams has denied that he and Kidd have decided to play for the same team, ESPN's Chris Broussard reports. Williams told Broussard he's leaning toward either the Mavs or Nets, but wouldn't say which one (Twitter links).  Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld reported earlier this week that Williams is leaning toward the Nets.

2:06pm: Throughout the year, Jason Kidd has repeatedly voiced his desire to back up Deron Williams next season, and it sounds like he'll make good on that statement. According to Ric Bucher of ESPN, Kidd will sign with whichever team Williams does. Since D-Will has narrowed his choices to the Nets and Mavericks, Kidd figures to end up one of those two squads as well.

Although we'd previously heard that Williams wasn't planning to meet with or visit any teams, Bucher reports that the point guard will meet with both Dallas and Brooklyn on Monday. At this point, the Nets look like the favorites to land Williams and, by extension, Kidd. A report Thursday night indicated that the 28-year-old was leaning toward the Nets, and Bucher hears from one source with business ties to Kidd and Williams that the pair has decided on the Nets. However, other sources tell Bucher that Williams has yet to make up his mind.

If Williams and Kidd are a package deal, it makes sense that their destination would be Brooklyn rather than Dallas, as ESPN.com's John Hollinger tweets. The Nets head into the offseason with a ton of cap space, while the Mavs will likely need to amnesty Brendan Haywood to even make Williams a max offer.

Clippers director of player personnel Gary Sacks is gaining support from others within the organization to take over the GM job vacated earlier this month by Neil Olshey, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Sacks has teamed with Clippers president Andy Roeser and coach Vinny Del Negro to run L.A.'s front office since Olshey left.

Sacks is one of a handful of candidates under consideration by Roeser, who's handling the GM search. Only former Nuggets GM and current television sideline reporter Kiki Vandeweghe has received an interview so far, Shelburne says, but Roeser has had "preliminary conversations" with Jim Paxson, Larry Harris, Jeff Weltman and Tony DiLeo. Roeser has also had preliminary conversations with Cavs assistant GM David Griffin, but he withdrew his name from consideration on Monday, Shelburne notes.

It's not clear whether Sacks, who's been a part of the Clippers organization for 17 years, would be hired as a long-term solution in the GM position or as someone who would have to prove himself, similar to Olshey, who worked on a month-to-month basis.

On this date in 1969, Bill Russell announced his retirement from the Celtics after a remarkable 13-year career that included eleven NBA Championships.  In 1980, Russell was named the “Greatest Player in the History of the NBA” by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America.  In 2009, the league announced that the NBA Finals MVP trophy would be named after the legendary big man.

If you have a great blog piece that you think we should feature in Hoops Links, then send it to me at  HoopsLinks@gmail.com.  Here's this week's look around the blogosphere..

• Secret Rival breaks down the extension and trade candidates in the class of '09.
• Nets Are Scorching held a discussion on the Nets' 2012 draft.
• The True Fan's Sports Blog shares their biggest winners and losers on draft night.
• Stepien Rules is excited for the arrival of Dion Waiters in Cleveland.
• NBA 24 7 365 ranks their top ten LeBron James moments.
• RealGM believes that Marquis Teague will work out in the long term for the Bulls.
• Bright Side Of The Sun asks where Steve Nash will end up.
• Bullets Forever has high hopes for Bradley Beal.
• Bucksketball reaches to the Samuel Dalembert trade.
• Red94 weighs in on Houston's trade with Minnesota.
• Wages Of Wins turns in their grades on the 2012 draft.
• Basketball Prospectus looks at Charlotte's gamble.
• A Wolf Among Wolves is frustrated with Michael Beasley.
• Project Spurs writes that most of the Southwest Division had an aggressive draft.
• Blazer's Edge gives us a look at how Portland fared on Thursday night.
• The Starting Five hopes that Deron Williams has a surprise team in mind.
• Red's Army believes that Kevin Garnett must come back after the C's picks on Thursday.
• The Basketball Post previews the Lakers' summer.
• Hardwood Paroxysm reflects on the career of Anthony Parker.
• BallinEurope looks ahead to the Olympic qualifying tournament.

If you have a suggestion for this feature, Zach can be reached here.

The Warriors are intrigued by the prospects of signing Lakers big man Jordan Hill, according to Marcus Thompson of the Contra Costa Times.  The 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward/center is an unrestricted free agent.

Hill, 24, had a solid late-season finish after coming to the Lakers in a deadline deal from Houston.  The Arizona product showed some toughness in the postseason as he averaged 4.8 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 18.1 minutes per contest.  The Warriors will have legitimate competition for him, however, as there is mutual interest between the Lakers and Hill in a return.

Here's our running list of qualifying offers extended to players this evening.  If a qualifying offer is not tendered to a player eligible for restricted free agency, he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

Players who are tendered qualifying offers have the option to accept the one-year contract and hit unrestricted free agency a year from now, but the primary purpose of the offers are to ensure that the player's team can match any offers for him this summer.  Here are today's qualifying offers, with the latest added to the top of the page....

• The Cavs‬ have made a qualifying offer to center Semih Erden, according to Mary Schmitt Boyer and Jodie Valade. of The Plain Dealer (via Twitter).  The offer is just over $1MM for the Turkish big man.

The Timberwolves announced that they will not be making qualifying offers to Michael Beasley and Anthony Randolph, making them unrestricted free agents.  Both moves were widely anticipated.

The qualifying offer for Beasley, the second-overall pick in the 2008 draft, would have been for $8.17MM.  Randolph, who averaged 7.4 PPG and 3.6 RPG last season, could have been given a qualifying offer for a shade over $4MM.

SATURDAY, 6:17pm: The Hornets announced that they have bought out Lewis.

TUESDAY, 11:02pm: Rashard Lewis will be bought out by the Hornets and is set to become an unrestricted free agent, tweets Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld. Lewis is under contract for over $22MM in 2012/13, but only about $13.7MM is guaranteed, so New Orleans will shave nearly $9MM off of its cap figure for next year.

Lewis, who will turn 33 this summer, was traded to the Hornets by the Wizards last week, at which time ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported that New Orleans intended to release him. The veteran shooter is extremely unlikely to be claimed, so once he clears waivers, he'll be free to sign with any team besides Washington.

In 28 games for the Wizards in 2011/12, Lewis averaged just 7.8 PPG on 38.5% shooting, both his lowest rates since his rookie season in 1998/99.