Odds & Ends: Cavaliers, Sessions, Morey, Johnson
The Cavaliers have a ton of draft picks in this year's draft, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mary Schmitt Boyer breaks down the specifics in a mailbag.
- Also from Schmitt Boyer, here are five questions with former Cavaliers, and current Bobcats, guard Ramon Sessions.
- Jodie Valade has a profile on Houston general manager Daryl Morey, a native of of Medina, Ohio.
- Pacers rookie guard Orlando Johnson has joined the rotation for the first time this season, writes IndyStar.com's Mike Wells.
Texas Notes: Sessions, Dominique Jones, Harden
All three Texas teams are better than .500 through three games, and the Spurs are the league's first team to go 3-0 this season. The addition of James Harden to the Rockets might give all three Lonestar State clubs a shot at the postseason this year, though last night's loss to the Blazers showed Houston still has some work to do, as we cover below in our roundup of items from the Texas Triangle.
- This summer, the Mavs strongly considered signing point guard Ramon Sessions, tweets Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Sessions wound up with the Bobcats instead.
- The Mavs declined their 2013/14 option for Dominique Jones and made multiple efforts to trade him within the last week or so, but last night Jones might have delivered the best performance of his career, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes.
- While Harden seemingly did it all in his first two outings, last night's signs of fatigue demonstrate why the Rockets have to find a complementary scorer, observes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Colleague Randy Harvey concurs.
- Undrafted Xavier point guard Tu Holloway, whom the Mavs waived right before training camp, has signed to play for Aliaga Petkim in Turkey, Sportando's Emiliano Carchia reports.
- As we noted earlier, the Rockets were the first team to contact the Thunder about Harden.
Southeast Links: Sessions, Hawks, Vaughn, Magic
There are seven preseason games around the NBA tonight, and not one of them involves a team from the Southeast Division. But that doesn't mean their aren't links coming surrounding the division that houses the current NBA champs. Let's keep track of them here:
- Ramon Sessions talked with Marc J. Spears of Yahoo!, explaining why he decided to opt out of his contract with the Lakers to sign a 2-year deal with the Bobcats. Sessions, who has bounced between teams throughout his career, was concerned that the Lakers may move him and was looking for some destination certainty, which he found in Charlotte.
- Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that should the Hawks stick to the 15 player roster limit, the last two spots will come down to James Anderson, Damion James and Anthony Tolliver. Point guard Carldell Johnson is still with the club, but will almost definitely miss the cut. Vivlamore adds that it is no guarantee the Hawks keep a roster of 15, but they need to get down to at least that by October 29.
- New Magic coach Jacque Vaughn says that, despite the loss of Dwight Howard, he intends to instill his own defensive philosophy this year which revolves around protecting the paint, says Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Robbins is skeptical is they have the personnel to do it, but Vaughn says, “The way we’re playing defensively is definitely geared toward the personnel that we have right now, for sure. It is a team defense based around five guys being in the right position at the right time."
- Brian Schmitz of the Sentinel writes that the Magic have essentially had a superstar in 19 of 20 years of the franchise's existence if you don't count the first three. Without Howard, Schmitz opines that the team's history tells us that it is only a matter of time before they find the next one. The question is, how long can they keep him once he arrives, whoever he is.
Amico On Mavs, Clippers, Hornets, Bobcats
Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio has posted some thoughts from the weekend's preseason action, including impressions of players that have changed teams this offseason:
- Amico was impressed with the Dallas debuts of Chris Kaman and O.J. Mayo, both of whom signed with the Mavs this summer.
- Out of the several veterans the Clippers signed this offseason, Amico says that Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes made positive first impressions, while Lamar Odom looked considerably less impressive.
- Amico writes that Hornets rookies Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers had good performances in their preseason debuts.
- Second overall pick Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and third overall pick Bradley Beal had strong showings in the Bobcats' victory over the Wizards, Amico writes.
- New Bobcats acquisitions Ben Gordon and Ramon Sessions also had strong performances off the bench, writes Amico.
Bobcats Sign Ramon Sessions
SATURDAY, 3:26pm: The Bobcats have officially signed Sessions, according to a team release.
FRIDAY, 6:07pm: According to Yahoo! Sports reporter Marc J. Spears, Ramon Sessions will earn $5MM per season in his two-year deal (Twitter link).
Bobcats Rumors: Humphries, Sessions, Haywood
Antawn Jamison talked last week about the possibility of finishing his career with his hometown Bobcats, but it appears there's no shortage of options for the veteran forward. We learned last night that the Nets are discussing a sign-and-trade deal that would send Jamison to Brooklyn, and that the Lakers are in the mix too. As Jamison weighs his options, here are a few more Bobcats-related updates, courtesy of Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer….
- Charlotte appears re-engaged in trying to acquire Kris Humphries to upgrade their power forward spot (Twitter link). ESPN's John Hollinger tweets that DeSagana Diop would have to first be amnestied before Charlotte could offer Humphries a plausible salary.
Odds & Ends: Nets, Brooks, Heat, Turiaf, Blazers
It's been another busy day of NBA free agency, and no team has been busier than the Nets, who've either signed, re-signed, acquired or traded 13 players today, according to the count of New York Times reporter Howard Beck (Twitter link). Many of those moves came as the team finalized earlier deals, like the swap for Joe Johnson, but some of the news was fresh, like the four-year extension for Brook Lopez. It doesn't appear GM Billy King and company are finished, either, as they're reportedly discussing a sign-and-trade deal for Antawn Jamison. We have plenty more on the moves to come here:
Free Agent Rumors: Wallace, Grizzlies, Fisher
We're into the home stretch of the July moratorium, and it won't be long before all the moves that have been agreed upon in the last week are made official. In the meantime, teams have two more days to prepare for the next stage of free agency, and the rumors continue to swirl. You can track all of the contract agreements to date using our Free Agent Tracker, and you can follow many of today's free agent rumors right here, with the latest up top….
- There's a "pretty good chance" that Ben Wallace will return to the Pistons next season, a source tells Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News.
- A source told The Commercial Appeal (via Twitter) that it's unlikely that the Grizzlies will sign Russian guard Alexey Shved. Shved allegedly received offers from the Grizzlies, Cavs, and T'Wolves.
- However, the Grizzlies are working to bring veteran guard Willie Green to Memphis, The Commercial Appeal tweets. The soon-to-be 31-year-old averaged 7.6 PPG last year for the Hawks.
Earlier updates:
Free Agent Rumors: Lucas, Camby, Lewis
Jeff Green reached an agreement to remain with the Celtics on Saturday, while Aaron Brooks became an unrestricted free agent after the Suns withdrew their qualifying offer to the guard. What will Sunday bring? Here are the latest rumors on a number of free agents still on the market:
- The Heat have interest in unrestricted free agent point guard John Lucas III, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com.
- Marcus Camby's meeting with the Knicks today was "very positive," a source tells Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com, and Zwerling hears that Camby is drawn to the Knicks because of his "great relationship" with GM Glen Grunwald.
- "Everything went well" during the Heat's meeting with Rashard Lewis today, as Lewis' agent tells David Aldridge of TNT (Twitter link). Lewis has yet to make a decision, with the Knicks and Hawks still in the running, Aldridge says.
Earlier updates:
Odds & Ends: Hinrich, Bulls, Meeks, Mayo, Tolliver
- Ersan Ilyasova plans to meet with Bucks owner Herb Kohl on Tuesday, which is seen as an important opportunity in the team's effort to retain the 6'10'' forward (Gery Woelfel of the Journal Times reports). Earlier this week, we reported that Milwaukee offered a deal worth around $40MM over five years.