I appeared Tuesday on WWL radio’s Sports Talk With Bobby Hebert and Deke Bellavia in New Orleans to discuss NBA free agency, and already the tenor of the market is taking shape. Lucrative deals for shooting guards Jodie Meeks, Avery Bradley and Ben Gordon have dominated headlines so far, and Gordon’s deal in particular has many free agents optimistic about their own market values, as Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweets. The Raptors were already worried they were being priced out of retaining restricted free agents Greivis Vasquez and Patrick Patterson before news of the Gordon deal hit, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). Here’s more from around the league.
- Executives from multiple teams have been offered O.J. Mayo of the Bucks, Tayshaun Prince of the Grizzlies, Jeremy Lin of the Rockets, and Austin Rivers of the Pelicans in trade scenarios, league sources tell tell Kennedy.
- The Pacers have reached out to Rodney Stuckey, tweets Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. He’s presumably a backup plan in case the team can’t reach a deal with Lance Stephenson.
- The Warriors could have signed Stuckey, who was willing to sign with the club for the mid-level exception, but they gave that money to Shaun Livingston instead, according to Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link).
- Spencer Hawes “likes everything about the Blazers” and is “very interested” in signing with them, a source tells The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman. Portland has made Hawes their top target among sharpshooting big men, but he’s still in no rush to come to deal, Freeman writes.
- Vince Carter is receiving a steady stream of pitches from the Heat and others, but the Mavs maintain strong interest in re-signing the swingman, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).
- The Magic claimed Willie Green off waivers Monday, and while they still had the chance to put him back on waivers before his non-guaranteed minimum salary became fully guaranteed, they didn’t do so before Tuesday’s deadline, so his money will stay on the books.
Zach Links contributed to this post.