• Knicks guard Jason Kidd credits Kenyon Martin for "saving our season," writes Jared Zwerling of ESPN New York. It is difficult to imagine where New York would have been without Martin's contributions, especially as the team has dealt with plenty of injuries in their frontcourt. 
• Eric Koreen of the National Post outlines the top ten legacies that are on the line during the NBA playoffs. 
• Jon Humbert of KOMO tweets that the Longshore Union filed an appeal over the land use challenge for the Seattle arena. Last month, a report from The Seattle Times (via the Associated press) said that the Longshoremen have been in staunch opposition of an arena being built near the Seattle waterfront, due to the congestion of the area that would be caused by athletic events. 
• Mike James proved to be a viable pickup for the Mavericks this season, averaging 8.1 PPG and 4.2 APG while helping the team finish 15-8 over their final 23 games. Although James said recently that he'd like to play two more seasons with the Mavs, Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas discusses why the Amityville product doesn't figure to be in the team's long-term plans.
• Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace is expected to travel to Rome next week to scout Gigi Datome, according to Sportando.net (hat tip to Il Corriere dello Sport).  
• Following up on a hypothetical trade proposed by Grantland's Bill Simmons, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com examines the possibility of the Bulls trying to trade for Kevin Love, exploring whether a package of Carlos Boozer, Jimmy Butler, the rights to Nikola Mirotic, and Charlotte's first-round pick would be more than Chicago would be willing to give up.
• Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld looks at the evolution of Paul George into an All-Star and a leader in the Pacers locker room. 

The playoffs are under way, and the Knicks have drawn first blood, going up 1-0 in their series against the Celtics. That's not the only playoff game in the Big Apple today, as the Nets take on the Bulls tonight in Brooklyn for Game 1 of their series. We rounded up news on New York's pair of NBA teams this morning, and we'll broaden the focus to the Eastern Conference as a whole here:

• Nets GM Billy King said he never considered signing Kenyon Martin, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Martin, who waited all summer and the majority of the season before the Knicks picked him up in February, had nine rebounds in 28 minutes to help New York open the playoffs with a win, and Bondy counts King's decision to pass up that kind of production as a mistake.  
• The Magic have intriguing young pieces in Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris and Maurice Harkless, but they lack a sure-fire All-Star, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel concludes as he examines the state of the team's rebuilding effort.
• Still, Orlando's situation should be the envy of the Sixers, opines Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com. While owner Josh Harris asserts that there are "bunch of young assets on this team," Moore sees Jrue Holiday as the only one.
• The Sixers passed on Roy Hibbert, Paul George and Kenneth Faried in recent drafts, as Michael Kaskey-Blomain of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes, wondering what could have been if the team had made the right picks.
• With an eye toward what figures to be an active offseason for the Bobcats, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer assesses each of the players on the team's roster.

Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe delivers noteworthy news from around the Association in the latest installment of his weekly column, which blends a review of the top storylines from the past week with fresh news from league sources. We'll pass along the latter here:

• Washburn wonders if Kenyon Martin's resurgence with the Knicks late this season will help his free agent stock in the summer, though the veteran big man isn't looking for a change of scenery. "I would love to stay a Knick," Martin said. "I don’t want to go nowhere. I am proving to this organization what I can be and who I am as a person on and off the court, and I think they see that. I’m here now and I’m going to make the best of this opportunity."
• Keyon Dooling, whom the Grizzlies are reportedly considering, wanted to come out of retirement with the Celtics earlier this season, but he's barred from signing from Boston for a year after the team waived him in September, according to Washburn. I'm unaware of any such restriction under the collective bargaining agreement, but since the CBA isn't a public document, this could be a rule we're simply learning about for the first time. 
• Washburn expects several underclassmen who are on the fence about entering the draft to go ahead and do so, given the perceived weakness of this year's field. Of course, not everyone benefits from early entry. Washburn caught up with Hawks point guard Jeff Teague, who believes his brother, Bulls rookie Marquis Teague, should have stayed in college one more year.

With 22 NBA teams in action on Friday night, let's round up all of the odds and ends from around the league here:

• Sam Amico of Fox Sports points out, via Twitter, that Sixers coach Doug Collins has never coached longer than three years in his coaching career, which includes stops in Detroit, Chicago and Washington.  This is relevant, of course, because Collins in currently in his third year in Philly and the wreckage of the Andrew Bynum disaster has many wondering if he will return next season.  
• Flip Saunders is drawing interest from the University of Minnesota as well as the Timberwolves, tweets NBC's Ric Bucher.  The return to the Gophers, Saunders' alma mater, would be as the team's head coach while the Wolves are interested in securing their former coach to replace current general manager David Kahn.  While Bucher says that current Wolves owner Glen Taylor is tight with Saunders, he thinks that Saunders would rather coach, even in college, than enter an NBA front office.  
• The addition of Kenyon Martin has been the last of a series of successful moves by Knicks general manager Glen Grunwald, over the past few years, that have resulted in the team closing in on its first division title in 19 years, writes Moke Hamilton of Sheridan Hoops.  
• Brandon Jennings, a restricted free agent come summer, should hope to ink a new deal more commensurate with his potential than his performance, writes Sean Deveney of Sporting News.  Jennings, who was recently benched, has had his moments over his four-year career and seemed to be nearing a breakout last year when he averaged 19.1 points.  
• The Los Angeles D-Fenders have acquired former UCLA Bruin Reeves Nelson, tweets Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times.  Nelson hooked on with the Lakers and Houston in the preseason, but was waived by both teams prior to the season. 

A pair of Atlantic teams heading in opposite directions met last night in Boston, with the Knicks extending their winning streak to five games, while the Celtics lost their fifth straight. If the season ended today, the two clubs would square off in the first round of the postseason, though hopefully by the time the playoffs roll around, injured bigs like Tyson Chandler and Kevin Garnett will have returned to the court. As we look forward to seeing whether Boston's and New York's current streaks will come to an end later tonight, let's round up a few Wednesday morning notes out of the Atlantic....

• Before last night's game, Kenyon Martin told Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com that he and the Celtics were close to reaching an agreement earlier this season. "Doc [Rivers] wanted me and the players wanted me, but in the 11th hour ... they didn't pull the trigger," Martin said. "And I'm not talking a few days ago or even a few weeks ago. This was a couple of months ago."
• Yesterday, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando passed along word that Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was in Italy to scout a handful of players, including forward Gigi Datome. Today, Carchia shares a few comments Colangelo made to Italy's Il Corriere Dello Sport about Datome.
• Pablo Prigioni has recently been inserted into the Knicks' starting lineup and the move has paid dividends so far, as Fred Kerber of the New York Post writes. Prigioni suggested earlier this month that he wasn't sure what his future holds beyond this season, but if he continues his solid play, he should receive NBA interest this summer.

A few random bits of info from around the league this Tuesday evening. 

• LeBron James tried to convince Taj Gibson to join the Heat last year, according to a report by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley. 
• After the Knicks handed the Celtics their worst home loss since 2010, New York's center Kenyon Martin had words for Boston, a team that supposedly could've signed him but opted not to, tweets the New York Times' Howard Beck. 
• SheridanHoops.com writer Moke Hamilton ranks the top free agents this summer. 
• Hoopsworld.com takes a look at the league's worst teams, and tries to figure out which organization has the brightest future. Anthony Davis and the Hornets are highlighted as one of the prime candidates. 

Ian Begley of ESPN New York tweets that Kenyon Martin plans to play next year and "would love" to re-sign with the Knicks. In ten games with New York, the former number one draft pick has been averaging 7.7 PPG, 5.1 RPG. 1.1 steals per game, and nearly one block in 22.7 minutes per night. 

It had been a rough year for Martin, who started the season looking for a contract worth the mini-mid level exception but found no takers. Even after he conceded to playing for a minimum contract, the 35-year-old forward struggled to find an offer before New York managed to clear a roster spot to sign him earlier this month. Now Martin's production could not have come at a better time, as the team has been dealing with injuries to Amare Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace, and Kurt Thomas. 

With an All-Star appearance and two championships on his resume, Andrew Bynum looked primed to stake his claim as the Eastern Conference's premier center after joining the 76ers last summer. Unfortunately, injury setbacks have kept Bynum from suiting up in a regular season game in Philadelphia, and a huge question mark looms over his future as he approaches free agency this summer. ESPN's Chris Broussard, who originally thought that the 76ers were the biggest beneficiaries of the Dwight Howard trade, spoke with six other NBA executives about how they would handle the 7-foot center's contract situation this summer (Insiders only). Although they each offer unique approaches, it's not much of a surprise that none would offer a max contract. Here's more out of the Atlantic Division: 

• Jared Zwerling and Ian Begley of ESPN New York discussed the latest on the Knicks, most notably about the health of Carmelo Anthony and Iman Shumpert. Begley also added that he thinks that the team will revisit adding another player before the playoffs start, being that it would be a big gamble to start the postseason with three players unavailable due to season-ending injuries. 
• Newsday's Barbara Baker says that Shumpert appears healthy today after a scare during last night's game against the Magic, when the second year guard said he felt a "pop" in the same knee that he suffered an ACL injury almost one year ago. 
• Tim Smith of the New York Daily News talks about Kenyon Martin's resurgence with the Knicks as the former number one pick fills in for the team's injured big men.
• Danny Ainge told Salk and Holley of 93.7 WEEI FM that Celtics swingman Jeff Green is starting to prove that he deserves to be on the court for "most minutes of the game" (Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com reports).  

Yesterday, Knicks coach Mike Woodson told reporters that the ailing Knicks expect to stand pat for now, but may reconsider their options if Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas aren't close to getting healthy when the playoffs approach. That decision has inspired plenty of discussion, which is the focus of today's round of Knicks-related links....

• At ESPNNewYork.com, Ian Begley asks whether the Knicks are making the right decision by standing pat. As Begley notes, it's not like the current free agent market features a bevy of future All-Stars.
• Thomas feels like there's only about a 50-50 chance he'll be able to return in time for the start of the postseason, as Marc Berman of the New York Post writes.
• Nate Taylor of the New York Times examines a few top options in the D-League that should be available if they Knicks decide to make a roster move.
• One of the Knicks' few healthy bigs, Kenyon Martin, had been seeking a mini mid-level contract for most of the season, says Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com. Other teams had interest in the former first overall pick, but not at his asking price. After eventually signing for the minimum with New York, Martin has now become a part of the team's starting lineup.

We passed along word of the Knicks' interest in Timofey Mozgov already today, and there's still more news out of the Atlantic Division. We've got it covered right here:

• Andray Blatche hinted earlier this week that he might be willing to re-sign the Nets this summer at a discount, and he followed up by clearly expressing his desire to return to Brooklyn in comments to Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. "Most definitely," Blatche said. "I love it here. We've got a great team here, a great staff. The fans are crazy. I mean, everything about this organization is great, so hopefully I can come back. I feel like this is my new home, now, really. I feel comfortable with everything that's going on." 
• Kenyon Martin thought he deserved another shot with the Clippers after he served the team off the bench last season, but Mike Woodson is glad to have him around on the shorthanded Knicks, observes Marc Berman of the New York Post. 
• Shavlik Randolph and D.J. White have no idea whether the Celtics will keep them for the rest of the season when their second 10-day contracts expire this week, but with their playing time limited, Randolph believes the team will judge them based mostly on what they did before arriving in Boston. Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe has the details.
• Randolph got a rare opportunity to contribute last night against the Bobcats, and his performance, which drew raves from coach Celtics coach Doc Rivers. That helped his case for remaining with the team for the rest of the season, opines Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com.
• John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News believes LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will remain in Miami after 2014, when they have the opportunity to become free agents. That will keep the Heat on top for years to come, Smallwood writes, arguing that there's no use in re-signing Andrew Bynum for the Sixers, who won't realistically challenge for a title with or without him.