Shaun Livingston remains undecided whether he’ll retire after the season, ESPN’s Nick Friedell tweets. The 33-year-old Warriors guard revealed last month that he was thinking of calling it quits, mainly due to knee soreness. He has an $8MM contract next season but only $2MM is guaranteed, which could lead the capped-out Warriors to release him. He’ll make a final decision once the season comes to an end, though Livingston said his balky knee is feeling better after an extended rest between series, Friedell adds.
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- The Clippers worked out Louisville sophomore forward Jordan Nwora on Monday, Jordan Schultz of ESPN tweets. He averaged 17.0 PPG and 7.6 RPG last season.
- The Lakers will work out 21-year-old French center Darel Poirier on Friday, according to a Sportando report. Poirier played in the G League this season with the Wizards’ affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, and averaged 9.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 1.1 BPG over 20.2 MPG. He then joined Italian club Reggio Emilia but did not play, according to Sportando. The 6’11” Poirier participated in the G League Elite Camp earlier this month.
- While the Celtics have their issues, the dysfunction enveloping the Lakers franchise makes Boston’s problems seem minimal, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe writes in his latest column.
Shocked the Boston globe says the Celtics have less dysfunction. The Celtics have hit their ceiling and actually made a bad long term commitment ( Hayward ). Lakers have more cap room and are a better suitor for stars. Who have the Celtics been rumored to sign exactly?
you actually buy into the trash you spew? gordon had a freak injury, look at his post season stats he was a different player. fully expect he bounces back next season at 100%. by then you’ll be here complaining about some else. haha
Really??? Hayward was just an above average player, never worth more than 15MM/year, now don’t think he will ever be there again, sorry dude, but it was such an overpay & that is when he was healthy still.
Oh a freak injury excuses his 31 million cap hit? Like someone just said he was not a max guy. Solid player but not top tier player solid. That cap hit is very relevant to the situation. Assuming he even comes back to what he was in Utah is a reach. Next season the medias love affair with the Celtics will be cooled down as they fail to live up to expectations once again. This team was penciled into the Finals this year and they cant even make the conference finals. Ainge has hoarded too many of his picks, overvalued the young guys and made cheap offers for George and Kawhi. Hayward is a massive step down from those players available. The Lakers haven’t done anyhting that bad because Indy and Spurs wouldn’t even trade with them haha.
Last time i checked you guys got spanked, celtics are done. To many assets miss managed….giannis and kawhi hopefully will have the east on lock for the next 5-7 years respectful.
Hayward was an all star before the injury. Every club in the NBA wanted him. The injury was devastating, and takes time to recover. He was a great pick up who will have a great season next year based on his late season progress.
I think the dysfunctional comment was in reference to the front office and organization as a whole. The lakers def take the cake when it comes to that.
Celtics have lots of draft picks, a better coach, and a GM who was a player…not an agent. Fakers haven’t been to the playoffs in six years. Other stars won’t go play with LBJ…don’t want the drama…don’t want to be his whipping boy.
Hayward will be fine. Smart and fundamentally sound. Next year he will be fully healed.
“Fakers” yeah no agenda there. Instead of pretending 1 month before free agency no one wants to play with Lebron just wait and see if its actually proven. There are many stars out there this summer and it only take 1 to make these ridiculous comments eat crow. Celtics have picks but do they have anything higher than the Lakers 4? Quality > Quantity. No one has any clue what that Memphis pick will be.
I personally never got the “Fakers” dig … I am however a big fan of the “Tragic” put down.
and I am hopeful the latest and will catch on Rob Destinka
This is a two player draft. Your comment about quality > quantity is misleading. Not much difference between pick 4 and pick 24.
4 and 24? There absolutely is a huge diffrence
Not in this years draft. There is a significant drop off in talent after Zion and Morant. Most likely with the 4th pick you end up with a talent such as Culver. While he is good, he is not a transcendent type of talent. So I think you’re fooling yourself if you think teams are going to be ringing the Lakers phone off the hook trying to deal talent for the 4th overall pick. That is why I said there isn’t much of a difference between pick 4 and 24 this year. Both could probably get you an average of 8 points a game. Since 2010 the #4 pick in the draft has been a relative wasteland outside of Aaron Gordon and Porzingis.
The Celtics have reached the point of diminishing returns on all those draft picks. Now they have too many of them. They want a ring, not the hot new rookie. They’ll be trading those picks, but in a market where their value is diminished due to the team’s success.
That certainly is a new one. A team can have “too many” draft picks. But they really misplayed their hand — should have turned some of them into present help to fill in holes.
Livingston “has an $8MM contract next season but only $2MM is guaranteed, which could lead the capped-out Warriors to release him.” So if he gets released, he gets $2MM, if he retires, he gets nothing. Call me shallow, but I’d wait to be released THEN retire with an extra $2MM.
It’s unlikely that the Warriors would try to deny him that money even if he retires before they make a decision on it.
Players rarely go through the formal retirement process that would void their contracts, and a team wouldn’t fight a longtime championship contributor over $2MM (ie. Duncan and Ginobili each earned their remaining salaries with the Spurs the year after they retired).
Hope Livingston hangs around for another year. A good portion of the Warriors fan base, bandwagon or not, doesn’t realize how important and versatile he is off the bench. Veteran presence who brings good scoring to an otherwise, somewhat mediocre bench platoon.
How can you tell who’s on the bandwagon? It’s been such a long ride.
He should go out on top. He has disappeared many times through out the season and playoffs. You can’t blame him his body is badly hurt. No reason for him to stay around. Take the $2 million and retire.
He definitely has lost a step, younger guards go right by him. His back to the basket jumper which was almost a guarantee to go in the last couple of years hasn’t looked the same. His presence on the floor and in the locker room I’m sure still is valuable but he is slowing down on the court.
Ainge is a monster as a GM. Just ask Philadelphia which he fleeced badly. I don’t know who’s calling shots for the Lakers but their situation is not operating at anywhere close to the level that Ainge’s is. Granted LA is a superior FA destination but query whether LBJ is the guy the FAs want to play with. Time will tell but the Clips offer LA without the LBJ and might be a better option to some. Meanwhile Boston’s club with or without Kyrie is lengths better than the faltering Lakers.
Oh yeah…really fleeced philly. Got the 14th pick in a weak draft. It’s actually a terrible trade in hindsight. You don’t trade the top pick in the draft for barely a lotto pick. Ainge got lucky that two PG needy teams were at the top
Luck and hindsight… how all GMs are critiqued. Nope
On the actual return…how all trades should be judged. Can’t really call the Philly trade a fleecing. Any GM would be ridiculed for trading #1 for 3 and 14 in the same draft let alone getting 14 two drafts later.
And any GM that gave up the #3 pick and a top 1 protected pick just to move up 2 spots got fleeced. See how that works? Good thing you’re not a pundit, because you’re not very good at analyzing things like this
No…please explain to me how that works. Your logic does not make any sense, so please explain. A future pick with protections doesn’t mean anything until you know what it is. What if it were golden state’s top 1 protected pick? At the time of the trade, you could argue Boston won. The season after, Boston won laughably. Now, the trade seems like a wash. That’s what I was attempting to point out, can’t really judge the trade until all the pieces are know. I didn’t mean to ruffle the feathers of the Danny Ainge fanclub
Exactly! The sizers didn’t trade the 14th pick. They traded a top 1 protected pick that belonged to a team that wasn’t projected to do much. Therefore using hindsight to judge the trade instead of what EVERYONE else used to judge the trade is an exercise in futility. GMs don’t make trades for/with picks in hindsight. Therefore “that’s how all trades should be judged” was an ignorant statement
It’s definitely not ignorant. But let’s say you’re right, it’s equally ignorant to judge a trade at the time it was made and never adjust your opinion. What if that draft pick becomes an all nba player or if they are out of the league in 2 years. You can go back and judge a trade. There is no expiration date. The PG trade was considered a fleecing when it happened, but now everyone says it’s a great deal for Indiana. Opinions can change over time. I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit that Ainge took a gamble on a future pick and it didn’t work out.
“Taking a gamble on a future pick and saying it didn’t work out” is not the same thing as what you implied in your initial post. You should have gone with that with your first post. He absolutely took a gamble. It absolutely didn’t work out as well as expected. However that’s not the same thing as Insinuating that he should be “ridiculed for trading a 1 for a 3 and a 14. “ please try and stay consistent
Can’t stay much more consistent. My first sentence: “oh yeah…really fleeced philly. Got the 14th pick in a weak draft.” My whole argument has been that you can’t call the trade a fleecing today. You need to follow the thread and not cherry pick to attempt to make a point. Try again
Also, I never insinuated he should be ridiculed. I said if that trade was made knowing the picks he WOULD have been ridiculed, hence the trade isn’t a fleecing. Groups of letters form words, when read from left to right they make sentences.
Right. “Would be ridiculed” for trading for the 14th pick. But Ainge didn’t trade for the 14th pick, therefore Ainge shouldn’t be ridiculed, because he did fleece Philly for a top 1 protected pick, and still got the same guy he would’ve selected first, while phill picked a guy that can’t shoot at isn’t even on the team anymore. It was a fleecing, no matter how bad you don’t want it to be
My favourite Ainge fact: until Vlad Jr this month, he was the youngest Blue Jay to hit a homerun.
Carry on.
Philly drafted Okafor and Fultz. Gave up Holliday. Could now lose Harris and Butler. Have to rebuild again. Danny Could get AD team with Irving. Celtics are in Better position than all the teams in the East. Mil could kid Middleton. Boston could implode to but they do have picks. Rozier can be matched and traded too.
Or philly resigns everyone and kawhi stays with Toronto and Milwaukee resigns everyone…then Boston is well positioned for 4th place. If everything goes right for your favorite team and everything goes wrong for their competition, it should put you in a better position than everyone else
Milwaukee could lose Middleton is what I meant to type.