• Eric Prisbell of USA Today reports that NBA draft hopeful Ben McLemore's AAU coach received cash and other benefits in order to help influence the former Kansas Jayhawk to leave college after one season and declare for the draft. 
• Hoopsworld's Steve Kyler tweets that Al Horford is a player that the Hawks would like to keep rather than trade as the team handles a roster that could be in heavy flux. 
• Kyler also says that the front runners to sign Josh Smith this summer will be the teams that miss out on Dwight Howard (Twitter link). 
• Magic CEO Alex Martins doesn't foresee a long rebuilding period in Orlando and is confident that the team can return to title contention in the near future (John Denton of Magic.com). 
• Hawks GM Danny Ferry feels that the 2012-13 season was a very significant year in terms of taking the initial steps toward becoming a contender and likes the flexibility that his team has moving forward (ESPN via the Associated Press). 
• Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group looks back on the 10 most important moves the Warriors made to build the team that starts the second round Sunday against the Spurs.
• According to a report from Sportando, Leones de Ponce of Baloncesto Superior Nacional in Puerto Rico have released Garret Siler and replaced him with Mike Harris. 

Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors contributed to this post. 

Sam Amico's latest notes column for FOX Sports Ohio is chock-full of interesting NBA tidbits, including one rumor suggesting that Michael Jordan is considering offering Phil Jackson a piece of the Bobcats and total control over the team's basketball operations. Amico pumps the brakes on the story a little, writing that a rival GM cautions it's merely a rumor being whispered around the league for now, rather than anything concrete. Still, it certainly makes for an interesting talking point. Here are a few more highlights from Amico's piece:

• If Jackson were to be hired in a front-office role, many people around the NBA believe he'd hire Pacers assistant Brian Shaw as his team's head coach.
• One opposing GM on the Bobcats' coaching opening, which Amico notes has some appeal: "That’s not a dire situation by any stretch. People are railing Michael Jordan, but that team has the youth and assets to make a quick turnaround. A lot of teams oversell that idea. The Bobcats don’t sell it all. But (Jordan) actually has them set up nicely. It’s just about making the right moves from here."
• Expect the Suns to make a serious run at a top free agent, according to Amico, who names Josh Smith and Al Jefferson as potential Phoenix targets.
• The Cavaliers are open to trade talks involving anyone but Kyrie Irving, says Amico, echoing what we heard from ESPN.com's Chris Broussard earlier today. Amico clarifies that the Cavs aren't necessarily actively shopping anyone, but that GM Chris Grant will field calls, since he's more confident in building the team via trade than via free agency.

Marc Stein's final ESPN.com Weekend Dime of the season doubles as his awards ballot, and he has LeBron James winning MVP, of course. More intriguing are his selections in some of the tighter races: George Karl for Coach of the Year, Kevin Martin for Sixth Man of the Year, Tim Duncan for Defensive Player of the Year and Jrue Holiday for Most Improved Player. Stein also has plenty of news from around the league, as we round up: 

• Before the season, the Hawks offered Josh Smith a three-year extension for the maximum amount, which would have been about $45MM, but Smith made it clear he wanted to hit free agency. That's no surprise, since an extension would have meant a smaller annual salary than he can sign for as a free agent, per collective bargaining agreement rules. The Hawks, wary of letting Smith walk, aggressively pursued trades, according to Stein, but wound up keeping him when an offer from the Bucks wasn't to their liking.
• Bucks GM John Hammond is publicly heaping praise on coach Jim Boylan, but Stein hears Boylan has little to no shot of retaining the job, based on the team's late-season slump.
• Doug Collins may join the Sixers front office or simply become an adviser to the team if he decides to step away from coaching.
• Justin Holiday's deal with the Sixers includes a team option for next season, and it appears the deal is partially guaranteed for $50K, becoming fully guaranteed if he's not waived by August 15th.
• The Nets also have a team option on Kris Joseph's deal for 2013/14.
• A source insists to Stein that the Jazz will retain Tyrone Corbin for the final year of his contract next season, regardless of whether the team makes the playoffs.
• Jermaine O'Neal, 34, is leaning strongly toward playing again next season. He signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Suns last summer. 

As the end of the 2012/13 season draws near, Josh Smith could be in his last few weeks as a member of the Hawks. Of course, it seemed we were just seconds away from hearing he'd been traded on deadline day, when Smith remained in Atlanta. Hawks GM Danny Ferry spoke to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com about the circumstances leading up to the deadline.

"I think our situation was unique in terms of still being competitive but also having cap space and flexibility going forward," the GM said. "We looked at all of our options at the end of June up until the trade deadline. Josh and I have had a positive and honest relationship from Day 1. He's been professional this season despite a lot of change and obviously a lot of distractions. I've enjoyed working with him."

Smith also opened up to Shelburne, and said he's open to re-signing with the Hawks. Still, he's looking forward to exploring unrestricted free agency for the first time. We'll round up the highlights of Smith's conversation with Shelburne here:

On why he answered affirmatively when asked if he deserves a max contract:

"The question was asked to me, 'Do I feel like I'm a max player?' And I gave him an honest answer. I said, 'Yes I do.' And the reason why I say this, is because if you don't know your worth, who will? I can't set my standards low. If you set them low, that's how people are going to view you. Like when you sell a house, you don't sell the house for $2 million. You put the $5 million sticker on there … and then you work it out. You negotiate."

On what he's looking for in his next team:

"Winning. That's all I care about. I want to have an opportunity to have a legitimate shot at getting a ring. I've been successful in high school, AAU, I want to have a legitimate shot at winning a title."

On his experience in restricted free agency in 2008, when he signed an offer sheet with the Grizzlies that the Hawks matched:

"I went to Philadelphia and sat down with the Clippers for dinner because I was already out here in Los Angeles (where he now lives during the offseason) for an adidas photo shoot. So this is going to be exciting for me to travel to different cities, and sit down and talk to executives and GMs."

On friend and fellow free agent Dwight Howard: 

"Is Dwight serious about (Atlanta)? That's the question. Everybody would probably want to have him on the team. But Dwight is global now. That's in his mindset. He's addicted to it now. He's addicted to being global and international. That was the whole reason he wanted to leave Orlando is he wanted to have that big market."

On whether Howard would sign with the Hawks, who may make a push for him:

"I'm not going to say it's farfetched, but it is going to be kind of difficult to be able to persuade him."

Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times touches on several juicy topics from around the league in his latest piece. We'll hit the highlights here:

• Former Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley has been in a coma for more than a month, and prospects for his recovery from a February stroke are "extremely bleak," Woelfel reports. Heisley was nearing a deal to join the Bucks ownership group with the intention of becoming the primary owner in a few years, but current primary owner Herb Kohl backed out of the deal, according to Woelfel, who adds that Kohl is still open to finding a partner.
• We heard before the deadline that the Hawks wanted a "quality young center" in return for Josh Smith, but the Bucks deemed Larry Sanders and power forwards Ersan Ilyasova and John Henson off-limits as the teams engaged in talks.
• Woelfel heard from Smith, who adds the Hornets to the lengthy list of teams that were after him at the deadline.
• The Bucks would have made additional trades if they had acquired Smith, and they had interest in Eric Maynor, who wound up going from the Thunder to the Blazers.
• Woelfel spoke to Kyle Korver, who indicates the Hawks are in the driver's seat when he hits free agency this summer. "I’m definitely hoping to stay here (with Atlanta)," Korver said. "It’s been a great experience. And we have an awesome coach (Larry Drew) to play for."
• Some NBA scouts believe Georgia shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could wind up being drafted at the back end of the lottery this year. He's listed as No. 38 on the DraftExpress top-100 prospects list, and No. 20 in ESPN's rankings. 

Among the items in Sam Amico's leaguewide roundup for Fox Sports Ohio today, he passes along that "word is" the Hawks will make re-signing Josh Smith and Kyle Korver their top priorities in the summer. If they prove to be out of Atlanta's price range, the team is likely to try to sign-and-trade one or both of those players.

Smith made headlines earlier this season when he said he felt he was deserving of a maximum-salary contract, but more recently clarified that his statements were in response to a question and not meant as a pronouncement ahead of this summer's negotiations. Nonetheless, it seems likely he'll go after a max deal, which would be worth nearly $100MM from the Hawks and a little more than $74MM if he signed with another team. Since Amico's report indicates there's a limit on how much they'll spend to retain Smith, it doesn't look like they're willing to give him the full max. They might be open to structing the deal so that Smith gets more than the $74MM he could get from another club, however, retaining their financial advantage over the rest of the league, but that's just my speculation.

Korver isn't nearly the player Smith is, but he leads the league with a 45.9% three-point percentage, and figures to have no shortage of suitors this summer. The Nuggets are already reportedly targeting Korver, who's expressed a willingness to consider a return to the Jazz and Bulls, two of his former teams. When Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors examined Korver's free agent stock earlier this month, he wrote that an offer somewhere in the neighborhood of the full mid-level exception, which includes a first-year salary of $5.15MM, might get a deal done. 

The Hawks will have plenty of room under the cap to sign Smith, Korver and others this summer, when they'll have little more than $18.5MM in commitments. It appears GM Danny Ferry and company plan to be judicious with that room and aren't dead-set on re-signing any of their players if they're putting a limit on how high they'll go for the two men they count as their top priorities. That they would consider a sign-and-trade for both Smith and Korver could suggest that they don't want to rely completely on building next season's roster with free agents from other teams.

Hawks forward Josh Smith surprised many around basketball earlier this year when he said that he believes he should be in line for a max contract this summer.  While the 27-year-old is undoubtedly in line for a lucrative deal, hoping for that amount of money seems overly optimistic.  Our own Luke Adams recently crunched the numbers on max contract scenarios for this summer's top free agents and showed that a max deal from the Hawks could pay him $99.7MM over five years and a topped-out deal from another club could be worth $74MM over four years, depending on how much max salaries increase this summer.  Smith is a welcome addition to any club, but will he get an annual average of about $20MM from the Hawks or $18.5MM from another team?

So far, the Hawks have maintained that they will not be giving the forward a max contract.  Then again, the fact that they held on to Smith at the trade deadline means that there is at least a little room for a change of heart.  The high-flying veteran has a better chance of getting a max deal elsewhere and while the chances of that may seem remote as well, there will be a number of teams with cap space to burn this summer.  And with all due respect, more than a few of these clubs might be desperate to make waves.  The Bucks, Pistons, Cavs, Bobcats, and Jazz are just some of the clubs that will have the breathing room necessary to make a major pickup.  Will an advantageous market be enough to net Smith the max deal that he seeks?

Josh Smith was perhaps the most talked-about target prior to the trade deadline, and though he remained with the Hawks, speculation about his future won't end anytime soon, since he'll be an unrestricted free agent this summer. If Dwight Howard and Chris Paul remain in Los Angeles, there could be no more sough-after commodity on the market than Atlanta's athletic power forward. He recently opened up about where he stands with his career seemingly in transition, and Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe and Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News shared some of his comments. We'll pass along the highlights here: 

On his inclusion in trade rumors at the deadline:

"It was total chaos, for two or three weeks. It’s good just to concentrate, knowing where I’m at, at least until the end of the season, and now we can focus on what we can do to make a playoff push and jockeying for position, knowing that it’s a real tight race. It’s good to be able to focus on basketball."

On his worth as a player:

"I’m respected in the NBA as far as the players are concerned. I know I’m a highly attractive player and all I can do is keep playing confident, hold my head high, and not really worry about what the naysayers and haters say."

On his assertion that he deserves a max contract:

"I didn’t just come up and make the statement that I was (a maximum player) — it was a question that I was asked. I gave an honest answer. It’s not added pressure. I’m not going around just stating that. It was definitely a question."

On his impending free agency:

"I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to look ahead. I focus on the present. As long as we do special things during the season or during the postseason, I don’t look into the future. I’ll think about (free agency) when it gets here."

On playing in Atlanta, a city with laid-back fans:

"It is a little difficult. Last year like I was telling everybody, we were ranked No. 1 worst sports town in the United States. It was just the whole city, baseball, football – but football always has a crazy fanbase – it is a little bit difficult. But hopefully we can turn it around sooner than later."

Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld took to Twitter tonight to offer thoughts on various questions about the NBA. Here are some of the highlights: 

• He thinks that Dwight Howard will remain with the Lakers beyond this summer. 
• The Lakers could possibly deal Pau Gasol in the offseason for smaller pieces, similar to what the Grizzlies did with Rudy Gay. 
• On the subject of Monta Ellis opting in, Kyler notes that there could be a lucrative market for him in free agency this summer too. 
• Doug Collins' coaching days in Philadelphia would seem to be numbered by now. 
• Gilbert Arenas or Tracy McGrady probably won't sign anywhere this season, for the same reasons why they haven't been able to get anything done since the beginning of the year. He also doubts that Allen Iverson will get another opportunity in the NBA. 
• It wouldn't be surprise if the Trail Blazers targeted Josh Smith, but re-tooling the bench appears to be the bigger need.
• Jerry Sloan would have to be in the right situation to consider returning, but it isn't likely that he'll find it.

With the trade deadline behind us, some teams are already looking toward this summer's free agent class. Here is a roundup of the latest buzz on that front:

• Acknowledging that Chris Paul and Dwight Howard aren't likely to leave their respective Los Angeles teams, Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld looks at a list of free agents who are more obtainable by other teams, including Atlanta's Josh Smith and Utah's Paul Millsap.
• Ben Golliver of SI.com runs down a list of free agents whose stock has risen or fallen this season. He points to Andrew Bynum as someone who has hurt his chances at a big payday, and Smith and David West as likely candidates for a big payday.
• Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer reports that Greg Oden, who is gearing up for a second attempt at an NBA career, recently attended a Cavaliers game and had positive impressions of the organization.
• Valade also profiles Rich Paul, a former member of LeBron James' marketing team who is finding success running his own sports agency.