Earlier today it was reported that Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni would permanently bench Pau Gasol in favor of Earl Clark in an attempt to get faster and smaller. The move has obvious implications on Gasol's long term future with the team, but Yahoo! NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski has tweeted that the Lakers refuse to take back long-term money in Gasol's place, complicating things.
With the luxury tax, they don't want to tie up a chunk of their salary cap in Bryant, Howard, and another player two years from now. So, should the Lakers move Gasol before the deadline, even if they aren't able to get back anything close to equal talent? With another year on his contract, Gasol would be making $19.2MM as a bench player next year.
Josh Smith has been the subject of off-and-on trade rumors for years, but even as the Hawks' roster changes around him, Smith has remained a fixture in Atlanta. His contract is finally set to expire this summer though, and with a month remaining until the trade deadline, it's not entirely clear what the veteran forward's future holds.
For most of this season, Smith expressed satisfaction with new general manager Danny Ferry and the Hawks' direction. However, a recent slide by the team has frustrated the 27-year-old, something agent Wallace Prather conveyed to Ferry last week. Neither Smith nor his agent requested a trade, and a weekend report suggested that the team was still committed to the longtime Hawk, but Smith's frustration and a one-game suspension doled out by the club seemed to bring some of those old issues back to the surface.
Zach Lowe tackles the possibility of the Hawks trading Smith in his latest piece for Grantland, noting that there are a number of factors in play. Potential suitors could be reluctant to give up much of value for a player on an expiring contract, and the Hawks may not want to part with Smith if they intend to pursue Dwight Howard this summer, since the two are good friends. Nonetheless, Lowe sees a few teams as real candidates to be trade partners if Atlanta explores deals over the next few weeks. The Rockets, Mavericks, Suns, and Nuggets top Lowe's list.
So what do you think? Is this the year we finally see Smith on the move, or will the Hawks hang on to him, hoping to re-sign him to a long-term contract this summer?
Anyone who has either visited Miami or has the good fortune of living there knows that it's the kind of place that you don't want to leave. Fantastic weather, Cuban sandwiches, pretty girls, the ability to wear an abundance of white without getting made fun of – Miami has it all. LeBron James has gotten to toss the Labor Day rule to the wayside while enjoying all of the roast pork he could ever want for two years and change while being at the center of one of the league's most dominant teams. It's inconceivable to some that James would leave Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh by opting out after the 2013/14 season, yet some league executives and agents are absolutely convinced that he will use the opportunity to make a face turn and reverse the infamous "Decision" by returning to Cleveland in that summer.
On the surface, it seems incredibly unlikely that James would walk away from one of the strongest teams in the NBA in order to join forces with a team that still may be under construction in 18 months, even with a blossoming superstar in Kyrie Irving. And while some superteams have reportedly dealt with locker room drama (we're looking at you, Dwight and Kobe), the Heat have by and large stayed as a cohesive unit and found enough shots for everyone.
On the other hand, we already know that LeBron doesn't have any reservations about following his heart and changing zip codes if he feels that it's the best move to make. When LeBron is faced with the first of his two-opt out years with Miami, he'll be closing in on his 30th birthday and hearing the chatter about his legacy and place amongst the all-time greats more than ever. Winning a title with a Cavs team that likely won't have the same top-heavy roster as the Heat would be a massive plus for his resume. Nuggets coach George Karl is a believer. Are you?
Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay has been in several trade rumors these last few weeks, and the combination of his expensive contract and team's need for outside shooting makes it possible one of them comes true. Where will he end up at the end of the season?
Earlier today, it was reported that the Maloofs were finalizing an agreement to sell the Kings to a Seattle-based group led by investor Chris Hansen. That's certainly cause for celebration for the basketball widows in Seattle, but the deal isn't as close to being completed as first thought.
We've been through this before with the Maloofs. There have been rumors of the team being sold over the years and in 2012 they were being courted by the city of Virginia Beach. Of course, all of that conjecture has yet to manifest itself in the form of a sale or a move. It seems that most NBA fans outside of Sacramento are on board with the Sonics 2.0, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the transaction will go through. When all is said and done, do you think we will see the Association return to the Emerald City?
When the 1-4 Lakers fired Mike Brown, it was hard to imagine the season getting much worse in Los Angeles. But nearly 30 games later, despite playing a reasonable schedule, with more home than road games, the Lakers are still three games under .500, at 15-18. Los Angeles currently sits 3.5 games back of the 20-16 Nuggets and Trail Blazers for the Western Conference's final two playoff spots.
As Ric Bucher of the 95.7 The Game points out (via Sulia), we may be nearing a tipping point, where the idea of the Lakers making the postseason is more far-fetched than the idea that they won't. After all, if Denver's and Portland's current pace of 46 wins represents the price of admission to the postseason in the West, the Lakers would have to go 31-18 the rest of the way to get there. For a team that's currently without Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, and Jordan Hill, that could be a very tall order.
Still, as Zach Lowe of Grantland writes, the Lakers have had a borderline top-five offense and the NBA's eighth-best point differential, which suggests some potential for a turnaround. And it's not as if they'd have to pass a collection of juggernauts in the Western Conference standings. The Timberwolves are banged up, the Jazz have played sub-.500 ball, and two of the teams currently in the top eight, the Rockets and Trail Blazers, are young and fairly unproven.
One thing is clear: The Lakers can no longer be considered a playoff lock. And if the team does crack the top eight, it figures to face a team like the Thunder, Clippers, or Spurs in the first round, without homecourt advantage. What do you think? Will the Lakers make a second-half run and appear in the postseason, or will the injuries and the slow start be too much to overcome?
The Timberwolves are currently in ninth place in the Western Conference, fighting for a playoff spot with the Lakers, Mavericks, and Jazz hot on their heels. But news today of Kevin Love missing time with a broken right hand could deter those playoff plans.
With the trade deadline looming, do you think Minnesota will sell assets (Derrick Williams, Andrei Kirilenko), add pieces that could help them in the short term, or do nothing?
Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote an interesting column today regarding the current state of the Utah Jazz. Despite having a roster filled with talented young pieces and valuable veterans, a variety of factors have the Jazz trapped in NBA mediocrity.
Most important, they simply aren't good enough as currently constructed and will likely be a fringe playoff team. Additionally, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson are both unrestricted free agents at the end of the year. Utah has never been a traditional landing spot for big name free agents, nor has it had a great track record of keeping its best players (see Deron Williams). So what should the Jazz do?
The easy answer is to move Millsap and Jefferson this season for draft picks and/or young assets, especially when you consider that the team's best young players – Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward and Enes Kanter – play similar positions to them and would receive valuable bumps in playing time. That is essentially what they did with Williams. But compiling a team of 20-to-24 year olds, while it looks good on paper, is a risk in itself. For every Oklahoma City Thunder type result, there are teams that spend a decade in the lottery taking this approach.
Should Utah decide to make a run at a playoff spot, they could keep their big man duo and either attempt to re-sign one or both of them after the year or look to replace them with other free agents. But again, the Jazz have had limited success luring any free agents to Utah, much less impactful ones.
Every option comes with a certain level of uncertainty. So what would you do if you were running the Jazz? And please, feel free to expand on your selection in the comments section, especially if you selected "Other."
In his column yesterday for NBA.com, TNT's David Aldridge listed what he felt were the 10 biggest NBA stories of 2012, including Linsanity, the Dwightmare, and the Lakers' drama in Los Angeles.
On New Year's Day, it seems appropriate to look back on the year that was, and the stories that dominated headlines for the last 12 months. Today's poll asks which story you felt was the biggest of the year. When you think about 2012 a few years down the road, what will be the first thing that comes to mind? LeBron James' first title? The Nets' move to Brooklyn? Jeremy Lin's magical run in New York? Or something else?
Weigh in with your thoughts in the poll and in the comments section.
December 30th, 2012 at 10:01pm CST by Michael Pina
Earlier today it was reported that Rockets rookie forward Royce White would decline his D-league assignment. In other news that's possibly related, the Rockets signed free agent forward James Anderson to a non-guaranteed three-year contract.
According to the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen, White's contract is worth $1.6MM this season and $1.8MM next season, with both seasons guaranteed. If the Rockets cut him without showing cause, White would have to be paid the balance of the guaranteed two seasons of his contract. But they could try to show he had not fulfilled his contract.
Should they keep him around? Or is this situation too far gone?