Odds & Ends: Tanking, Dwight, Bennett, Ledo

It’s been a pretty busy afternoon around the NBA, as we heard the Celtics might be trying to move Rajon Rondo, and we saw the Nets hook up with the Bulls and Pelicans to dump some salary via trade, Let’s round up some miscellaneous notes from Saturday:

  • Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders examines the two deals from earlier today, and opines the moves make sense for all three teams that were involved.
  • While team executives might be interested in intentionally losing games to help raise draft position, players and coaches never are, at least according to former NBA coach Tom NissalkeBrad Rock of the Deseret News passed along this quote from Nissalke: “I think organizations tank. I don’t think players do. Players know that they’re being auditioned every time they play. If they’re on a bad team, they know they’re not going to be back the next year. There will be some draft picks, some trades made, so the players are always auditioning — and coaches are too.
  • Rockets center Dwight Howard is happy to have trade chatter behind him. “For me I think it (the trade deadline) was different from a lot of players,” Howard told Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders.A lot of attention was on me and what teams were going to do that day. It’s tough. You have everybody asking what’s going to happen, what you’re going to do, all that stuff. I had a big headache and I was just happy when it was over with.
  • It’s been a disappointing start to Anthony Bennett‘s career, but his former UNLV coach Dave Rice says it’s too early for the Cavaliers to give up on last summer’s number one overall pick. The latest piece by Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer passes along Rice’s view on Bennett’s game and how he thinks the forward will develop.
  • Mavericks team press release announced that Ricky Ledo was assigned to the Texas Legends this morning. Ledo has only seen 33 minutes on the floor for Dallas this season so the move will give him the opportunity to see some action on the hardwood. It’ll be his second such assignment this season.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

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