Before the 76ers promoted Tony DiLeo to general manager last month, we heard a report that the Sixers had made a run at Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri. However, Nuggets president Josh Kroenke said on Monday that Philadelphia's interest in Ujiri didn't get the Sixers far. According to Kroenke, the Nuggets didn't allow the Sixers to even talk to their GM, as Adrian Dater of the Denver Post writes.
"You hire good people for a reason, and sometimes other people take notice of that," Kroenke said. "But we never gave permission to Philly to talk to Masai."
Here are a few more Tuesday updates out of the Atlantic Division:
- 76ers backcourt mainstays Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner both had praise for Maalik Wayns, who grew up a Sixer fan and is excited to be in Philadelphia. Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News has the details.
- Even though the offseason didn't play out exactly how the Celtics anticipated, team president Danny Ainge feels like "the things that we lost we were able to replace in a big way" (link via CSNNE.com).
- James White tells Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside that he doesn't expect to play in the D-League if he fails to earn a roster spot with the Knicks.
- According to Nets GM Billy King, the Magic were "determined to send [Dwight Howard] west" when Brooklyn was trying to land D12. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes that King has done well to build a contender in the East without acquiring Howard.
- Nets forward Kris Humphries has hired Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media as his agent, according to Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick.