The Sacramento Bee reports
The Kings waived forward Joey Dorsey on Monday. He was acquired Feb. 18 from Houston in the three-team trade that brought Carl Landry to Sacramento.Despite the Kings having nine healthy players Sunday, Dorsey was the only player who didn’t play. He averaged 1.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in eight games.
Excellent opportunity to pickup a quality young prospect for free. Read the rest of this entry »
Good article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on John Salmons’ strong play since joining the club — link.
One passage stuck out in particular:
Salmons is the tricky part. Of course, the Bucks want him back and almost certainly will have enough cap room to keep him. Without him, they probably won’t have a shooting guard next year. Michael Redd may never play again and, let’s face it, the Bucks have shown they are better without him.
The Bucks know Salmons will opt out of the $5.8 million he is scheduled to make next season, and why wouldn’t he? Read the rest of this entry »
RealGM has the press release
The Milwaukee Bucks have been awarded the contract of forward Darnell Jackson (6-9, 253) on a waiver claim, General Manager John Hammond announced today. Since Jackson was waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 23, after the March 1 waiver deadline for playoff eligibility, he will not participate in the 2010 postseason.
Jackson, 24, was originally selected out of Kansas by the Miami Heat in the second round (52nd overall) of the 2008 NBA Draft, before being traded to Cleveland for a 2009 second round draft pick.
Nice pickup by the Bucks. Read the rest of this entry »
ESPN reports
It’s the last thing a bad team on a long losing streak needs — a tantrum and a boycott from a young player who was just starting to put up some good numbers.Andray Blatche was benched after the first 7½ minutes of the Washington Wizards’ 95-86 overtime loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night.
Coach Flip Saunders said Blatche didn’t want to listen when the coach tried to talk to him about playing better defense.
“He didn’t want to hear it,” Saunders said. “I told him, ‘If you don’t come and talk, if you don’t want to be coached, you’re not going to play.’ We had coaches go up to him three different times, they said he didn’t want to play. Fifteen years, never seen anything like it”. Read the rest of this entry »
RealGM has the press release
The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed free agent center Zydrunas Ilgauskas to a contract, Cavaliers General Manager Danny Ferry announced today. Per team and league policy, terms of the contract were not released.Ilgauskas has averages of 7.5 points on .452 shooting, 5.3 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 20.5 minutes per game in 53 games (six starts) this season with Cleveland.
“The entire Cleveland Cavaliers organization from our hard-working part-time game day people to our front office, to the coaching staff, players, ownership and everyone else are thrilled that Zydrunas is coming back home to help us with our upcoming playoffs mission and hopefully, beyond. Read the rest of this entry »
The Chicago Sun Times reports
After missing three weeks with plantar fasciitis of the left foot, Noah had seven points (5-for-8 from the free-throw line) and four rebounds in 9:22 of playing time.
”My foot felt great; my lungs felt terrible,” Noah said. ”I was a little rusty, but it felt great to be on the court.”
For now, the plan is to play Noah only about 10 minutes a game.
Expect coach Vinny Del Negro to follow the playing-time guidelines closely this time. Read the rest of this entry »
The Chicago Tribune reports
About an hour before tip-off of Friday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the United Center, I asked coach Vinny Del Negro if it was safe to assume Luol Deng was out for Saturday’s game at Philadelphia.
That’s when Del Negro dropped the news that Deng won’t be playing any time soon — if at all the remainder of this season.
“Luol is gonna be out two to three weeks probably,” Del Negro said. “Luol’s gonna be out a while.” Read the rest of this entry »
Matt Steinmetz reports
Had a chance to talk to Warriors forward Kelenna Azubuike a couple of days ago, and asked him about next year’s player option worth $3.3 million.
Azubuike is finishing the second year of a three-year contract worth approximately $9 million, and can forgo the final year at $3.3 million if he wants. Back in 2008, Azubuike signed an offer sheet with the L.A. Clippers, but the Warriors matched.
No surprise, and I figured as much, but Azubuike indicated he’s virtually certain to exercise the option and return to the Warriors in 2010-11 rather than become an unrestricted free agent. Read the rest of this entry »
Interesting article on Sports Illustrated.com
The Portland Trail Blazers had a difficult decision to make a few years ago when they had the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft: Should they take Greg Oden or Kevin Durant?
After making Oden the top pick that year, the Blazers now have another tough decision. For how long, and for how much, are they willing to invest in Oden?
After two major injuries have limited the former Ohio State star to just 82 games over three seasons, it could be prudent to ask if Oden will ever be the player the Blazers — and everybody else in the league, for that matter — thought he would be. And if he is not, how long do the Blazers delude themselves into thinking he will be? Read the rest of this entry »
John Canzano reports
The Trail Blazers fired vice president Tom Penn today in what goes down as a curious move. Lots of speculation about the reasons, and timing, and Penn told me that he’s “surprised and disappointed” by the firing. Also, he said, “I suppose people are going to fill the void with whatever story is out there.”
Blazers company line: “Philosophical differences.”
Canzano then adds several notes
— A Blazers source tells me that Penn absolutely rubbed owner Paul Allen the wrong way in the war room during the draft that netted Portland Greg Oden. “Paul may never have recovered from that,” source said. But it raises some questions about why Allen would give Penn a raise and promotion so recently. Something more had to have happened for Allen to move so coldly to hand Penn the pink slip on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »
