Ramon Sessions Interested In Bobcats Reunion
Bucks guard Ramon Sessions says that he would love to be a member of the Bobcats again if they’d be interested in signing him this summer, tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Charlotte traded Sessions to Milwaukee at the trade deadline along with Jeff Adrien in a deal that brought them Gary Neal and Luke Ridnour.
Sessions, 28 next month, recently told Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders that he felt “blindsided” by the February deal. Meanwhile, he told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo back in 2012 that the reason he opted out of his contract with the Lakers and signed with Charlotte in the first place was so that he’d have some career stability. However, it sounds like there are no hard feelings between the veteran guard and the Bobcats.
Sessions is making $5MM in the final year of his contract and while Milwaukee isn’t playing for much at this stage of the season, the veteran has been playing well over the past few weeks. In 12 games for the Bucks, Sessions has been averaging 12.8 PPG, 3.4 APG, and 2.8 RPG in 25 minutes per contest. Between the two clubs, Sessions has averages of 10.9 PPG, 3.7 APG, and 2.3 RPG in 24 minutes per game (15.6 PER).
Week In Review: 3/10/14 – 3/16/14
Phil Jackson is on his way back to Madison Square Garden. The Hall of Fame coach isn’t interested in patrolling the sidelines any longer, but his newly-minted deal with the Knicks will allow him to oversee the team’s basketball operations. The hire of Jackson could impact the future of Carmelo Anthony, coach Mike Woodson, and much much more. The rest of the week that was..
- Woodson wants a sit-down with Jackson.
- Could the Rockets go after Carmelo?
- Kobe Bryant reportedly wants Mike D’Antoni out. Meanwhile, Bryant is officially done for the year.
- Marcin Gortat won’t sign an extension.
- Josh Smith wants to play with Rajon Rondo.
- Rodney Hood is expected to enter the draft.
- Noah Vonleh is leaning towards entering the June draft.
- The Heat picked up Justin Hamilton on a deal that contains guarantee dates for next season.
- The Heat released DeAndre Liggins.
- The Bucks signed the high-flying D.J. Stephens.
- The Nets inked Jason Collins for the rest of the year.
- Joe Ingles has interest from multiple clubs.
- The Kings gave Royce White another 10-day.
- The Bucks signed Chris Wright.
- The Wizards re-signed Drew Gooden for the rest of the year.
- The Spurs made a late push for Evan Turner.
- The Sixers signed Darius Johnson-Odom to a 10-day deal.
- The Sixers cut Lorenzo Brown.
- The D-League will expand and the Knicks will get their own team.
- The Cavs signed Shane Edwards and said goodbye to Arinze Onaku.
- Lamar Odom‘s comeback in Spain was cut short.
- The Thunder won’t re-sign Reggie Williams.
- The Sixers signed Jarvis Varnado to a multi-year deal.
- Manny Harris will play in Turkey.
- The Magic won’t keep Adonis Thomas.
Lakers Rumors: D’Antoni, Gasol, Jackson
The latest out of Los Angeles..
- The Lakers lost 131-102 to the Thunder last night, but bigger problems are looming for L.A., writes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. Kobe Bryant reportedly isn’t wild about coach Mike D’Antoni, but the Lakers are reluctant to part ways for a number of reasons. First, they think he’s a capable coach and they don’t want to be known as a franchise without coach stability. Perhaps more importantly, the club doesn’t want to pay him $4MM to not coach them after making a similar move with Mike Brown. In another interesting wrinkle, many of the club’s younger players enjoy playing in D’Antoni’s offense because their inflated scoring totals give them more value as they look ahead to their next contract.
- Pau Gasol supports Kobe’s open criticism of the Lakers, writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “I’m glad that he spoke his mind,” Gasol said. “He wants to win. He’s got two years under contract with the franchise. He wants to be in the best possible position to win. Whether you do that publicly or internally, that’s totally up to you. He spoke his mind and you have to respect him for that.” The big man reportedly isn’t a fan of D’Antoni’s either.
- On Wednesday, both Kobe and Magic Johnson made public pleas to Lakers management to hire Phil Jackson, but a Lakers source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News that team VP Jim Buss has little interest in bringing back the Hall of Fame coach.
Knicks Notes: Jackson, Woodson, Kerr
The Knicks hiring Phil Jackson to oversee their basketball operations is the next best thing to James Dolan selling the team, opines Ian O’Connor of ESPNNewYork.com. Jackson isn’t buying the Knicks, but he’ll effectively be renting them for the next five years, which is about as much as fans can ask for. Meanwhile, one league official feels that Dolan will be handicapping Jackson if he forces him to keep neophyte GM Steve Mills on the basketball side. Instead, the official says, Jackson should be allowed to hire Steve Kerr to fill that role. More out of MSG..
- The Knicks announced that they will have a major announcement at a Tuesday press conference, presumably to introduce Jackson.
- WIthin his story about Knicks coach Mike Woodson wanting a sit-down with Jackson, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes that Jackson’s contract technically hasn’t been signed yet. A press conference is expected to take place on Tuesday and could possibly include fellow Knicks legends Bill Bradley and Willis Reed.
- If the Knicks oust Woodson, he would be a top candidate at his alma mater of Indiana University, writes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Of course, that would mean current coach Tom Crean not returning to the Hoosiers.
- For his part, Woodson told reporters, including Adam Zagoria of SNY (on Twitter), that he was unhappy with the report tying him to Indiana. Meanwhile, Isola (Twitter links) notes that Woodson has a history of playing coy when it comes to this sort of thing.
- Count Charles Oakley among the former Knicks players who believes that Jackson will do a great job in his new role, writes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. “He’s someone with a brand, an ex-Knicks player, 11 championships — he’s got he whole resume,” Oakley said. “Having him is like taking a test and already having the answers. You can’t go wrong when his hand is involved in what you’re trying to do.“
- Jackson shouldn’t be concerned about not being cut any media slack from the get-go, writes Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.
Texas Notes: Parker, Larkin, Carmelo
At the start of every game, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle‘s gameplan is rather simple: get the rock to Dirk Nowitzki. “We want to get him touching the ball early in the game in every game,” Carlisle said, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “If it doesn’t happen, I blame myself for it. We want to play a flowing, random type game as often as we can because we feel it’s a strength, but the ball has to move through the best players. When it doesn’t, I have to intervene and make play calls to get him involved touching it, to get Monta involved touching it, things like that. But we’re at our best when we’re playing a free-flowing game without play calls with good recognition.” More out of the Lone Star State..
- In an update to his earlier report, Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter) now hears that only Shane Larkin and Ricky Ledo are headed to the D-League, not Gal Mekel. To keep up with all of this year’s D-League assignments, check out our running list.
- In an era of tumult and turnover, the Spurs‘ Big Three of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili has managed to stay together, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The Spurs are humble about what they’ve accomplished over the years, but fans should stop and admire what they’ve done, even if the team won’t.
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Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter) wonders if Carmelo Anthony would ditch New York for Houston and if the Rockets would give up Terrence Jones or a future first round pick to pull it off. A report yesterday linked the Knicks star to Dwight Howard & Co. Sean Deveney of the Sporting News explains why it’s a long shot from a financial standpoint.
Heat Sign Justin Hamilton
1:30pm: It’s a two-year deal containing guarantee dates for next season, league sources tell RealGM’s Shams Charania (on Twitter).
1:25pm: Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter) hears Hamilton has been signed for the remainder of the season and not a 10-day deal.
12:18pm: The Heat have signed former second-round pick Justin Hamilton to a 10-day contract, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reported yesterday that Miami had their eye on the big man.
Hamilton, a 7’0″ LSU product, just wrapped up a 10-day deal with the Bobcats and saw a grand total of four minutes on the court. Before that, he was with the Sioux Falls SkyForce of the D-League and averaged 19.3 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 2 BPG in 35.2 MPG over 37 games.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old was drafted in the second-round in 2012 by the Sixers and subsequently traded to the Heat for the rights to Arnett Moultrie. The Heat then waived Hamilton back in October of 2013, but today’s move brings him full circle, at least for a week and change.
Heat Release DeAndre Liggins
The Heat have released DeAndre Liggins, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The move will make space for Justin Hamilton, whom the Heat just signed to a 10-day pact.
Liggins signed consecutive 10-day contracts with the Heat and his second deal was set to expire on March 18th. The wing appeared in 39 games with the Thunder last year, after playing in 17 contests with the Magic in his 2011/12 rookie season. However, the Thunder cut ties with him after some legal troubles came up. The Heat decided to pick him up earlier this month after those charges were reduced.
Sixers Sign Darius Johnson-Odom
The Sixers announced that they have signed Darius Johnson-Odom to a 10-day deal. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter) first reported that the two sides were nearing agreement. He has been playing with the Springfield Armor of the D-League.
Johnson-Odom, 24, auditioned for the Sixers on Tuesday. The shooting guard saw four games of NBA action with the Lakers last season, making him a more familiar name to fans than Scott Suggs, who also worked out for coach Brett Brown & Co. James Nunnally and Kevin Murphy tried out for the team, too.
Johnson joined the Lakers again for camp in the fall and split the season between China and the Nets D-League affiliate. Jorge Gutierrez recently edged out Johnson-Odom for a 10-day contract with Brooklyn, but it sounds like he’s found a (temporary) home elsewhere in the Atlantic Division.
The Sixers have 15 guaranteed contracts on their roster, so they cut Lorenzo Brown loose in order to make room. It initially appeared as though Philadelphia was looking to replace Jarvis Varnado, who had been on a 10-day contract, but he re-signed Wednesday for the rest of the season.
Sixers Release Lorenzo Brown
11:19am: The Sixers officially announced the move, via press release.
8:54am: The Sixers will release Lorenzo Brown in order to make room for Darius Johnson-Odom, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The Sixers agreed to sign Johnson-Odom to a 10-day deal yesterday.
Philadelphia already had 15 guaranteed contracts on the roster before signing Johnson-Odom, meaning that someone had to go. It looked like Jarvis Varnado would be the man on the block, but he re-signed with the team for the rest of the season on Wednesday.
Brown has been shuttled between the Sixers and the club’s D-League affiliate in Delaware multiple times this season. In 26 games for Philly this season, Brown has averaged 2.5 PPG and 1.6 APG in 8.6 minutes per contest. In 12 D-League games, the guard put up 17.8 PPG and 6.4 APG in just under 33 minutes per night.
Kings Notes: White, Thomas, Gay
Last night, the Kings announced that they recalled forward Royce White from their D-League affiliate Reno Bighorns. White, signed by the Kings to a 10-day contract on March 6, immediately reported to the Bighorns and averaged 8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.50 steals, and 24.8 minutes per game in four games. More out of Sacramento..
- Kings guard Isaiah Thomas tells Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops that the biggest reason for his development has been coach Michael Malone’s trust in him, especially after starter Greivis Vasquez was dealt to Toronto in the Rudy Gay trade. “He’s given me an opportunity to lead this team and kind of just play my game,” Thomas explained. “I always tell people the NBA, I think, is a game of opportunity. Once your opportunity comes, you’ve got to take it and run with it. My opportunity is here and I’m trying to do the best I can to not look back.” One Eastern Conference GM sees Thomas getting between $4-5MM per year on the open market while a scout sees the full mid-level exception as his maximum.
- Thomas is learning to lead as he approaches restricted free agency, writes Andrew Perna of RealGM.
- In a Q&A on the Kings’ website, GM Pete D’Alessandro spoke about Gay’s future and says that he looks forward to talking with Thomas’ camp about a new deal.