Lakers Interested In Delonte West
The Lakers are interested in signing free agent Delonte West, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave McMenamin. The 29-year-old West spent last year in Dallas, where he averaged 9.6 PPG and 3.2 APG in 44 games. The team views him as a versatile guard who can fill an important role backing up both Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash.
Los Angeles still has its mini mid-level exception to use, which allows the team to sign someone to a first-year salary of $3.09MM, but Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has said there's a chance his club doesn't use it. If this in fact turns out to be the case, expect the Lakers to offer West a one-year offer at the veteran's minimum (about $1.2MM, in West's case).
Earlier today, Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson said he was in negotiations with West, and that he hoped the two parties could work something out. Throughout his eight-year career, West has been involved in several on- and off-court incidents that have prevented him from signing long-term deals with one franchise. The Lakers would be his fifth team.
Free Agent Rumors: Landry, Thomas, Mason
A few more free agents have come off the board today, as A.J. Price and Pablo Prigioni finalized deals with the Wizards and Knicks respectively, while Ronnie Brewer was among the players to agree to a new contract, reaching a deal with the Knicks. With a number of available players still on the market though, here's a round-up of a few of the day's assorted free agent rumors:
- The Hornets have renounced Carl Landry's Bird Rights, making a sign-and-trade difficult to work out, writes Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld. The Bobcats were interested in a sign-and-trade deal for Landry, but New Orleans would need to get back under the cap to have room to make it work.
- Malcolm Thomas, who was named to the All-Summer League team, is drawing interest from a number of teams, including the Clippers, Bulls, Hawks, and Bobcats, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
- Former Lakers second-rounder Patrick Beverley is seeking an NBA job, having worked out for the Bulls, Cavs, and Rockets this offseason. Agent Kevin Bradbury tells Scott Powers of ESPNChicago.com that he thinks his client would be a good fit in Chicago: "He plays defense and does what’s asked of him. He fits the Bulls’ system. I think that’s intriguing for the Bulls. He really respects [Tom Thibodeau]."
- The Wizards have interest in bringing back Roger Mason, but Mason isn't looking to sign a one-year, minimum-salary deal, says Michael Lee of the Washington Post. The veteran guard has also received interest from the Thunder, Hornets, Bulls, and Lakers.
Odds & Ends: Howard, Celtics, Turiaf, Warriors
While it's always a little dangerous to read too much into Summer League results, it's still worth looking back at the month's top performers in Orlando and Las Vegas. A pair of SBNation.com scribes have done just that, with Mike Prada ranking the drafted rookies, from Damian Lillard to Fab Melo, while Scott Schroeder lists a few of the top "veterans," including Josh Selby, Tobias Harris, and Markieff Morris.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the Association:
- We haven't heard many updates about the Dwight Howard talks involving the Magic, Lakers, and Cavaliers in the last couple days, but Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio hears they're not entirely dead — they're just in a holding pattern for now, with teams (particularly the Magic) weighing other options.
- An opposing executive tells Amico that it's too early to evaluate Chris Grant's job performance as Cavs GM.
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com takes an in-depth look at the Celtics' roster and payroll situation
- Spain's Real Madrid is eyeing big men, and Ronny Turiaf is on their radar, according to Javier Maestro of Encestando.es (English link via HoopsWorld).
- Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com names a few forwards the Warriors could still potentially target in free agency.
Lakers Notes: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash
- Pau Gasol was a trade candidate last year and the Lakers were reportedly shopping him aggressively before the draft. Yet Kobe Bryant, once a critic of Gasol, seems firmly in his corner, saying, "As long as I'm there, he's going to be there," tweets Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press. On the topic of Bryant staying in Los Angeles, the future Hall of Famer spoke about his future earlier this week and alluded to the fact that he may retire at the end of his current contract in 2014.
- Lakers officials also have a renewed excitement about seeing how Steve Nash's playmaking ability can enhance Gasol's performance, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Prior to playing with Ramon Sessions for the second half of the season, Gasol was forced to rely upon the skills of Derek Fisher and Steve Blake to get him the ball from the point guard position.
- Bryant understood that the Lakers needed to use Gasol as trade bait in order to obtain a point guard, but knows that Gasol isn't going anywhere given the team's acquisition of Nash, tweets Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Magic Not In Hurry To Trade Dwight Howard
3:44pm: The Magic hope to have a deal by early August, reports Sam Amick of SI.com (Sulia link).
3:04pm: Magic officials continue to hold out for the best Dwight Howard deal, and are unlikely to trade him in the next few days, Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld writes. The Rockets, a major player in trade talks, will be tied up while waiting for the Bulls to decide whether to match their offer sheet to Omer Asik, and it won't be clear what kind of cap space and assets Houston will have available until that situation is resolved, Kennedy says.
The Rockets and Lakers have been forced to bid against each other for Howard, and the Magic will weigh their final offers once the Bulls make their decision on Asik, according to Kennedy. Asik has signed the offer sheet but the Bulls have yet to see it, meaning the three-day period Chicago has to match is not yet under way. Last night, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio also noted the Magic's patient approach, but heard from an opposing team's GM who said there's no way the Magic can bring Howard to training camp in late September. I'm not sure if that deadline holds much weight, however, since Howard and the Magic already co-existed last season amid plenty of trade speculation, and there's no guarantee Howard's back will be healthy enough to allow him to make the start of camp anyway, though the big man insists he'll be ready for the season.
If Howard is still with the Magic come January 15th, when the Nets can trade Brook Lopez, Newsday's Rod Boone believes Orlando and Brooklyn would reinitiate talks, but obviously much can happen between now and then (Twitter link).
The Magic remain focused on their coaching search in the meantime, which is down to assistants Jacque Vaughn of the Spurs, Michael Curry of the Sixers and Lindsey Hunter of the Suns, Kennedy says. With the second round of interviews complete, Vaughn still appears to be the frontrunner, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, with Hunter the next choice. The next step involves meeting with the DeVos family, the owners of the team (Twitter links).
Los Angeles Notes: Gasol, Hill, Simmons
Last night, the Lakers reached agreement with big man Jordan Hill on a two-year, $8MM deal. The former No. 8 pick in the 2009 draft didn't necessarily shine in his seven regular season games for Los Angeles but averaged 4.8 points and 6.3 rebounds in 18.1 minutes per game in the postseason. Here's more out of the Staples Center..
- Kobe Bryant isn't the only one high on Pau Gasol, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter) says that Lakers brass has renewed excitement about him with Steve Nash joining the mix.
- The "high character guys" on the Clippers made Grant Hill's free agency decision an easy one, writes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Last season, Hill started 46 of 49 games for the Suns, putting up 10.2 points in 28 minutes per game.
- The Clippers are also looking into re-signing forward Bobby Simmons, Turner writes. "We've been talking," agent Mark Bartelstein said. "There is interest, but no decision has been made."
Odds & Ends: Nets, Lakers, Felton, Sixers
ESPN's Chris Broussard (video link) ran down his winners and losers of the NBA offseason thus far and the Nets top his list thanks in large part to their acquisition of Joe Johnson. The Lakers are also in the winners circle after landing Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison. Later, Broussard puts the Mavericks in the losers category as they failed to sign Deron Williams or trade for Dwight Howard. Here's more from around the league..
- Chris Bernucca of Sheridan Hoops recaps the Lakers' offseason and dismisses talk of Nash and Kobe Bryant clashing stylistically. However, he notes that the training staff in Los Angeles will have to pull the same kind of magic as the Suns staff did in order to keep the aging point guard healthy.
- Point guard Raymond Felton is looking to revitalize his career with the Knicks, writes Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld. The 28-year-old was less-than-stellar in the first half of the year with Portland but showed promise after coach Nate McMillan was fired, averaging 14.4 PPG on 46.3% shooting with 7.7 APG.
- The Sixers did a solid job of addressing their lack of size in the frontcourt this offseason and improved their team overall this summer, opined Charles Barkley in an interview with CSNPhilly.
Odds & Ends: Nowitzki, Collison, Humphries, Hill
NBA superstars are often reluctant to take a back seat to anyone, but that's just what Mavs coach Rick Carlisle wants to see Dirk Nowitzki do. For the Mavs to contend for a championship again, someone other than Nowitzki must be the best player on the team, Carlisle told radio station 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis (via the Dallas Morning News). Of course, after missing out on Deron Williams, it doesn't appear like Nowitzki will have to relinquish his status as the team's alpha dog any time soon, unless Dallas somehow jumps to the forefront of Dwight Howard trade talk. We've got more news and analysis from around the league here:
- Mark Bartelstein, the agent for Warriors free agents Brandon Rush and Dominic McGuire, will speak with Wolves GM David Kahn this weekend, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
Earlier updates:
- Carlisle, in the same interview, also said he's excited to see what the extra motivation of a contract year will do for the play of point guard Darren Collison, acquired in a trade with the Pacers.
- Brian Kamenetzky of ESPNLosAngeles.com looks at the effect re-signing Jordan Hill will have on the Lakers. He also notes that the team doesn't have any money committed beyond 2013/14, except for the final season of Steve Nash's contract.
- Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News examines how agent Dan Fegan patiently waited for the market to turn in favor of client Kris Humphries, who re-signed with the Nets on a two-year, $24MM deal, taking advantage of the team's inability to acquire Dwight Howard.
- With Humphries, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace and Brook Lopez, the Nets are believed to be first team with five players making at least $10MM a year, writes Chris Bernucca of SheridanHoops.com.
- The Spurs are high on 6'9" free agent Eric Dawson, who signed a pair of ten-day contracts with the team last season, and he's a candidate to return, says Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. It might be tough for him to make the team right out of camp, though, since the team already has five big men under contract, as McDonald notes (Twitterlinks).
- The offseason is only a few weeks old, but Ben Golliver already has a list of free agency winners and losers on CBSSports.com. The Heat, Nets, Pacers, Lakers, Mavs and Nuggets have come out on top, Golliver says, while the Magic, Knicks, Bulls, Suns, Rockets and Trail Blazers didn't fare so well.
Dwight Howard Rumors: Friday
Last night, we heard from agent Dan Fegan that Dwight Howard would not be signing an in-season extension with any team that acquires him this year. This news comes as no surprise — even if Howard had been dealt to his preferred destination in Brooklyn, it would have been shocking if he'd immediately finalized a three-year extension, rather than waiting until next summer to ink a more lucrative five-year contract. And as many writers have pointed out, even a promise that he'd re-sign when he becomes a free agent is technically against NBA rules.
Regardless, if sounds like Howard is becoming more amenable to signing long-term with the Lakers, so it's hard not to consider L.A. the current frontrunner in the D12 sweepstakes. Here are today's Howard updates, with the latest news up top:
- Amico elaborates on the difficulty the Magic have been presenting possible trade partners, saying they keep changing the terms of potential deals at the last minute. A source tells Amico that Nets GM Billy King thought he had finalized a trade with the Magic at one point earlier this summer before the Magic pulled back.
- Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio reiterates that it's the Magic, rather than Bynum's or Howard's representatives, that are complicating a potential deal (Twitter link).
Earlier updates:
- The three-team talks involving the Magic, Lakers, and Cavaliers are running into the same problems that plagued Orlando's talks with the Nets, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The Magic aren't convinced that this is the best they can do for Howard, while the Cavs are reluctant to get too serious until they find out if Andrew Bynum would be open to committing long-term to Cleveland.
- Berger hears from one source that Howard was convinced to waive his early termination option in March by Magic officials that said if things didn't work out for Dwight in Orlando, the team would trade him to Brooklyn. However, another source tells Berger that no such promise was made to the star center.
- The Magic, Lakers, and Cavs are still "far" from finalizing any deal, but aren't deterred by comments made by Fegan or Bynum's agent David Lee, says Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio (Sulia link).
- Kris Humphries said today that he was never approached about accepting a sign-and-trade to the Cavs, so the Magic/Nets talks didn't advance that far, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
Latest On Andrew Bynum
As many Dwight Howard rumors as we've been subjected to over the last few months, it's been easy to overlook that many of those trade rumors also include another All-Star center, who will hit free agency himself at just age 25 next summer. Andrew Bynum's agent David Lee was asked yesterday by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal specifically about whether his client was interested in the Cavs, but Lee spoke to a number of reporters in more general terms as well, including Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com and Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. Here are the highlights from the two pieces:
- The Lakers have yet to grant any team linked to Bynum, such as the Cavs, Magic or Rockets, permission to speak to Lee.
- "I can't imagine any team foolish enough to do the deal without asking permission to speak to Andrew," Lee said. "That's beyond belief, but strange things happen." Based on Adrian Wojnarowski's report for Yahoo! Sports yesterday though, it sounds more like the Lakers are unwilling to let teams speak to Bynum without having agreed to a trade in principle.
- Lee denied that Bynum has a preferred list of destinations.
- ESPN.com's Chris Broussard (within Shelburne's piece) reports that Bynum is unlikely to sign an extension anywhere except maybe with the Lakers. Again, like the story on Howard last night, that's referring to an in-season extension, which would max out at three years and is unlikely for any star player.
- Extension discussions between the Lakers and Lee have yet to begin, but the agent expects them to get underway soon of the Howard trade talks drag out much longer.
- Also within Shelburne's piece, ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst adds that while the Cavs are interested in Bynum, the club has no choice but to view him as a one-year rental for now.
- The constant trade rumors haven't soured Bynum on the Lakers at all, according to Lee: "He's never had a problem with the organization despite all the things he has gone through. I don't think I've ever heard him offer a negative comment about the (Lakers) organization."