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Odds & Ends: Gasol, D-League, Knicks, Nash

December 15th, 2012 at 10:08pm CST by Michael Pina

There has been much talk that the Lakers should trade Pau Gasol. Ben Bolch from the Los Angeles Times gives five possible trade scenarios that could end up pleasing both parties. .

 

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Eastern Notes: Johnson, Lee, Drummond, Bobcats

December 15th, 2012 at 10:04pm CST by Michael Pina

After hitting a game-winning shot against Detroit, Joe Johnson is beginning to find his rhythm in Brooklyn, according to Newsday's Roderick Boone. 

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Poll: Who’s Most Likely To Get Traded?

December 15th, 2012 at 8:04pm CST by Michael Pina

With the trade deadline not so far away, here are a few big names that could finish the season in different jerseys. Who do you think is most likely to get traded?

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Northwest Notes: Martin, Karl, Freeland

December 15th, 2012 at 5:58pm CST by Michael Pina

Thunder guard Kevin Martin is enjoying a "perfect opportunity" in Oklahoma City, after getting traded from Houston in the offseason, writes The Sacramento Bees' Jason Jones.

  • On the recent news that the Grizzlies have hired ESPN.com's John Hollinger to join their front office, Nuggets head coach George Karl believes within a few years every team will have a statistician on board, writes the Denver Post's Adrian Dater. 
  • Responding to words from Joel Freeland's agent,  in response to his supposed disappointment about being assigned to the Trail Blazers D-League affiliate Idaho Stampede, CSNNW.com's Chris Haynes spoke with Portland general manager Neil Olshey, who believes Freeland and Victor Claver were actually excited to get a playing opportunity. 
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Central Notes: Varejao, Derrick Williams, Belinelli

December 15th, 2012 at 4:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

All five Central Division squads are in action tonight, and three of them face stiff tests. The Bulls take on the Nets, the Bucks play host to the red-hot Clippers, and the Cavs visit the Knicks, who are unbeaten at Madison Square Garden. There's plenty of action off the court as well, and here's the latest on Central squads.

  • While she acknowledges she's in the minority, Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer doesn't think the Cavs will trade Anderson Varejao, arguing that he's the team's best player and that it might take several years to develop a young replacement who could equal his production.
  • In the same Q&A with readers, Schmitt Boyer says she also doesn't think the Cavs will go after Timberwolves forward Derrick Williams.
  • Bulls offseason signee Marco Belinelli said he had perhaps the toughest training camp of his life as he struggled to adjust to a new system and a new team, but now he's averaging 19.0 points per game over his last five contests after stepping into the starting lineup for the injured Richard Hamilton. HoopsWorld's Joel Brigham has more.
  • In that piece, Brigham also looks at several who could be in line for their first All-Star appearance this season, and Central Division players are well represented. Varejao and Kyrie Irving of the Cavs, Joakim Noah of the Bulls and Brandon Jennings of the Bucks are on the list.
  • Pistons GM Joe Dumars has been high on Andre Drummond ever since a pre-draft meeting in which Drummond gave Dumars direct answers to questions about his energy and willingness to play hard, two areas of doubt that had caused other GMs to pass on him. Keith Langlois of Pistons.com has the details.
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Atlantic Rumors: Lin, Toney, Bargnani, Turner

December 15th, 2012 at 4:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

Linsanity will be back in New York this week, if only for a few hours on Monday when the Rockets pay their lone visit of the season to the Knicks. Jeremy Lin knows the game will be special, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes. "It will be wild," said Lin, whose Rockets also travel to Toronto for a matinee Sunday versus the Raptors, who have a large Asian fan base. "It will be fun. I don’t really know what will happen exactly. We’re going to go out there as a team. It’s not about me or any individual. I’m going to go out there and try to play as hard as I can, have some fun. Whatever the crowds are like, I’m sure there will be a lot of energy."

Here are a couple more blasts from the Knicks' past and other notes from around the Atlantic.

  • Lin isn't the only former Knicks point guard on the Rockets this year, and Toney Douglas, who came to Houston from New York as part of the Marcus Camby sign-and-trade this summer, will return to Madison Square Garden on a roll, Feigen notes. 
  • Andrea Bargnani angrily denied the comments he was reported to have made to an Italian journalist, particulary his supposed assertion that the Raptors are the worst team in the league, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun notes (Sulia link). Bargnani told Raptors beat writers today that what he said in reference to the team's play was, "Nobody is satisfied. Not me, not DeMar, not coach, nobody."
  • The Italian reporter, Davide Chinellato of Gazzetta.it, is standing by his story, and says he has a recording of what Bargnani said (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando's Emiliano Carchia). 
  • Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com posits that Evan Turner has become the best player from the 2010 draft. While that's probably open to debate, Lynam points to Turner's three-point shooting, which has jumped from 22.4% last year to 47.5% this season, and his ability to step in at point guard, as he did last night for the injured Jrue Holiday.
  • In a Q&A with Joe Brescia of The New York Times, Patrick Ewing reiterated his desire to become an NBA head coach and said his son, Patrick Ewing Jr., has his eyes set on a return to the NBA as he plays in Germany for Telekom Baskets Bonn. The younger Ewing got a cup of coffee in the Association with the Hornets in 2010/11. 
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Lawrence On Horford, Dwight, Thibodeau, Paul

December 15th, 2012 at 2:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News examines the fast starts of the Knicks, Warriors, and Hawks, but believes the script could have been drastically different for Atlanta this season. Here's a roundup of a few rumors he's sharing.

  • The Hawks offered up Al Horford as part of a strong push to acquire Dwight Howard in August, according to Lawrence, who notes the Hawks will have enough cap flexibility to pursue the Atlanta native when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the offseason. 
  • Tom Thibodeau and Bulls management are waging a "cold war" over the coach's heavy minutes for his starters this season, Lawrence hears. Thibodeau offered his side of the argument to reporters yesterday, as Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago documented. 
  • Chris Paul, a free agent next summer, had been privately griping about Blake Griffin's play, but has ceased doing so amid an eight-game winning streak for the Clippers, Lawrence writes.
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Players Who Can’t Be Traded Until January 15th

December 15th, 2012 at 2:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

Today is the day that most general managers in the NBA have been waiting for. December 15th is when most free agents signed over the summer become eligible to be traded, enabling teams dissatisfied with their offseasons to start making adjustments. This applies to players who re-signed with their teams, as well as restricted free agents who inked offer sheets with another team but had the offer sheets matched by their original team. 

A few of the players signed this offseason have to wait a little bit longer. Anyone who signed after September 15th still isn't allowed to be traded, since it hasn't yet been three months after they signed. That includes training camp invitees who made their teams, like Rasheed Wallace and DeQuan Jones, and early season pickups, such as Josh Howard and Shaun Livingston. Players signed after November 21st this season can't be traded at all, since their three-month waiting period expires after the February 21st trade deadline.

There's another group that will become available to be traded January 15th. If a team that's over the cap re-signs a player using Bird rights or Early Bird rights and gives him a raise of better than 20%, and the player had been making more than the minimum salary, the team can't trade that player until January 15th or three months after the signing, whichever is later.

With an assist from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links) and the ESPN.com Trade Machine, here's a list of players who will become eligible to be traded January 15th:

Here's a list of training camp invitees and early season signees who'll be eligible to be traded later on this season, along with the earliest date they can be included in trades.

A few notes:

  • Spears lists Lavoy Allen and Steve Novak as being ineligible to be traded until January 15th, but I think those guys are eligible to be traded as of today, because they made the minimum salary last season.
  • Chauncey Billups isn't on Spears' list, but he's included on the ESPN Trade Machine list, and I think ESPN is right, unless there's a rule I don't know about regarding players who were amnestied, as Billups was before the 2011/12 season. 
  • Earlier, I thought Ryan Anderson wouldn't be eligible to be traded until January 15th, since the Magic, who technically signed him as part of the sign-and-trade that sent him to the Hornets, were over the cap. However, Grantland's Zach Lowe confirmed that he's eligible as of today, because the Hornets were under the cap when the deal went down. 

Larry Coon's NBA Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

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Western Notes: Lakers, Freeland, Blazers, Love

December 15th, 2012 at 11:57am CST by Zachary Links

Notes out of the Western Conference..

  • Lakers fans are clearly frustrated with how the season has gone so far, but they should be grateful that they have Dwight Howard in the lineup rather than the sidelined Andrew Bynum, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com.  The Lakers will take on the Bynum-less Sixers on Sunday evening.
  • Joel Freeland‘s camp told HoopsHype (via Twitter) that they are unhappy with his assignment to the D-League by the Blazers.  Agent Rafa Calvo pointed out that Freeland has been one of the top big men in EuroLeague for three years and doesn’t need the extra time to adjust to the NBA.  Despite that, Calvo says he and his client are trying to stay positive about the situation.
  • Paul Ladewski of Sheridan Hoops wonders if the T’Wolves have a strong trading partner in the Bulls if they wind up moving Kevin Love.  The Timberwolves might have an interest in power forward Nikola Mirotic who is widely considered to be the best player in Europe right now.
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Southeast Notes: Magic, Redick, Heat, Harkless

December 15th, 2012 at 10:56am CST by Zachary Links

All five teams in the Southeast will be in action tonight and among tonight's games is a intradivisional grudge match between the Heat and the Wizards.  As you recall, the lowly Wizards topped the Heat 105-101 on December 4th despite 26 points, 11 assists and 13 rebounds from LeBron James.  Here's a look at the Southeast as we wait to see if tonight could bring us another upset..

  • Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd) looks at five good players on struggling teams who deserve chances to prove themselves with winning clubs.  J.J. Redick of the Magic and Nene Hilario of the Wizards both made the list.  Haberstroh suggests that the Magic should give Redick more playing time in order to audition him and sees the Grizzlies as a strong fit for him.
  • While some have worried that the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement will lead to the breakup of the Heat in 2014, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel doesn't see it that way.  Winderman argues that the complexion of the NBA will change over the next couple of years and teams will rely even more heavily on minimum-salaried players.  The Heat could theoretically get by with the big three plus an entire supporting cast of vets making the minimum.
  • The Magic made it clear that they are committed to the future when they made the decision to keep rookie small forward Maurice Harkless in the starting lineup, writes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel.  Hedo Turkoglu, 34, could reclaim the spot when he returns from injury, but Schmitz would rather see Orlando stick with the rookie.
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