Atlantic Notes: Wallace, Bass, Sixers, Celtics

Two decisions on relatively major player options have been reported in the last two days, and both of them come from the Atlantic Division. Yesterday, we heard that Gerald Wallace will decline his $9.5MM option with the Nets, and today we heard Brandon Bass will turn down his $4.25MM option with the Celtics. Let's round up the latest on Wallace, Bass, and a few other items out of the Atlantic….

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Brandon Bass To Decline Player Option

Brandon Bass will decline his player option 2012/13 and become an unrestricted free agent, agent Tony Dutt tells A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. However, Bass made the decision in hopes of signing a long-term deal to remain with the Celtics, according to Dutt.

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Offseason Outlook: Oklahoma City Thunder

Guaranteed Contracts

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Magic Notes: Nelson, Howard, GM/Coach Search

While their Southeast rivals, the Heat, prepare for Game 2 of the NBA Finals tonight, the Magic have a jam-packed offseason itinerary. The team still has to hire a GM, find a new coach, and decide on Dwight Howard's future, and another under-the-radar issue could arise tomorrow. Jameer Nelson has a June 15th deadline to decide whether to pick up his player option for next season, and if he turns it down, the Magic will have to determine if they want to try to re-sign him. Here's the latest out of Orlando….

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Mirza Teletovic Eyeing NBA

Bosnian forward Mirza Teletovic is expecting to make the jump to the NBA in the near future, according to his agent Misko Raznatovic. Emiliano Carchia of Sportando passes along and translates a report from Noticias de Alava in which Raznatovic says his client will play in the NBA next season, though his destination is yet to be decided.

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Woelfel On Bucks, Phil Jackson, Kwame Brown

It was easy to miss in the midst of our flurry of draft updates on Wednesday, but Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times weighed in yesterday to discuss the Bucks' options with the 12th overall pick. According to Woelfel, Milwaukee has zeroed in on a short list of prospects, mostly big men, for pick No. 12 — Meyers Leonard, Tyler Zeller, John Henson, Perry Jones III, and Terrence Ross are among the team's targets.

Woelfel also shared a few more tidbits from around the NBA in his column, so let's dive in….

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Draft Updates: Wednesday

With 15 days remaining until draft night, we'll round up today's notes on draft workouts, stock watches, and potential selections right here, with the latest up top:

Earlier updates:

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Odds & Ends: Jeffries, D12, Bird, Green, Turiaf

NBATV's "The Dream Team" documentary debuted tonight to mostly positive reviews from NBA writers, and hoops fans may want to savor the film and this year's summer Olympics as much as possible. Commissioner David Stern says there's a 50/50 chance that Olympic basketball will be restricted to players age 23 and younger after this year's games, writes Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com. Still, Sheridan believes discussion of such a rule will be tabled until after the 2016 games. 

There's plenty going on stateside as well, with a free agent expressing a desire to return to the Knicks and more news on Dwight Howard.

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Teams Holding International Player Draft Rights

Lately we've heard about the interest the Blazers have in signing former draft picks Joel Freeland and Victor Claver, the Rockets maneuvers concerning Donatas Motiejunas, and other news about international players signing in the NBA. Teams commonly draft international players with no intention of signing them immediately, "stashing" their rights away until they're ready to play in the NBA. Teams can retain draft rights to players for as much time as they want as long as they're playing professionally outside the NBA, so it's useful for teams that want to build assets for the future and avoid carrying a rookie (and his salary) on the bench.

We've put together a list of teams that hold the rights to international players who have been drafted since 2005.

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Blazers Rumors: Allen, Coaches, Freeland, Claver

Blazers owner Paul Allen was among the team executives in attendance for the second of two pre-draft workout sessions today, and got a chance to see Perry Jones III, John Henson and Jared Sullinger, among others, according to tweets from Joe Freeman of The Oregonian and Chris B. Haynes of CSNNW.com. Allen shot down rumors that he's looking to sell the team, as Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge writes, and CSNNW.com has more of the owner's comments to the media in two videos. Blazers beat writers have delivered plenty of news in the last hour, as we round up here. …

  • The team hasn't contacted the Warriors about permission to interview assistant coach Michael Malone or the Pacers about assistant Brian Shaw, leading Haynes to surmise that interim coach Kaleb Canales is the frontrunner to take over the job on a permanent basis. 
  • In the same piece, Haynes also cites an earlier report from fellow CSNNW.com writer Dwight Jaynes that the team hasn't spoken to Jerry Sloan about an interview, either. 
  • Haynes relays general manager Neil Olshey's comments on the slow search. "Free agent wise, Yeah, I think it affects it a little bit. But, like I said, we're going to have a process here," he said. "We're going to build this thing the right way … We'll find the right coach to coach the roster." 

Earlier updates:

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