Category: Rumors & Gossip (Page 108 of 225)

      NBA investigating Arenas’ locker room dispute

      January 1, 2010 /

      Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports….

      An NBA investigation into Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas’ possession of guns inside the team’s locker room has been linked to a confrontation with teammate Javaris Crittenton, multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports.

      The league’s ongoing probe hopes to determine whether Arenas had accessed any of his unloaded firearms while engaged in the dispute prior to a team practice at the Verizon Center on Dec. 21 in Washington. Tensions between Arenas and Crittenton escalated because of a festering disagreement between the two players, sources said.

      Peter Vescey of the NY Post reports that the dispute was over a gambling debt.

      NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas and his Washington Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other in the team’s locker room during a Christmas Eve dispute over a gambling debt, The Post has learned.

      It was the three- time all-star Arenas, 27, who went for his gun first, sources said, draw ing on the 22-year-old Crittenton, who quickly brandished a firearm as well.

      The duel in DC — unprecedented in sports history — was sparked when Crittenton became enraged at the veteran guard for refusing to make good on a gambling debt, a source said.

      “I’m not your punk!” Crittenton shouted at Arenas, according to a league source close to the Wizards.

      That prompted Arenas to draw on Crittenton, who then also grabbed for a gun, league security sources said.

      A playground pal of Crittenton’s from Atlanta, Kendrick “Bookie Ball” Long, confirmed the locker-room standoff and said he learned of it directly from the third-year player out of Georgia Tech.

      “He [Arenas] was f- – -ing with him; he [Crittenton] was just defending himself!” declared Long, who said the dispute was over money but would not elaborate.

      Arenas has a reputation of being funny crazy, but this just sounds like crazy crazy.

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Hornets to move West?

      December 30, 2009 /

      Yesterday, we discussed the possibility of New Orleans trading Chris Paul, and now Henry Abbott of TrueHoop is bringing up the possibility of the Hornets trading David West before the February trade deadline so that they can avoid paying the luxury tax this season.

      Yet the Hornets are currently $3.3 million over the tax line and remain prepared to send away Brown in a deal that brings back no guaranteed money, as seen over the summer when New Orleans felt it had to essentially donate Rasual Butler to the Los Angeles Clippers because of the tax benefits.

      There is a belief among some rival executives — or perhaps it’s more accurate to call it a hope — that the Hornets will not be able to resist moving All-Star forward David West before the Feb. 18 trading deadline to ensure that they get comfortably under the tax threshold.

      New Orleans’ preference would obviously be moving out player(s) from its list of veterans with contracts that stretch beyond this season. That list presumably includes Emeka Okafor, Peja Stojakovic, James Posey, Mo Peterson, Darius Songaila and Julian Wright.

      West has two years left on his contract, but he’ll almost certainly terminate the final year since it’s only worth $7.5 million and he’s likely to make more than that in a new deal. If the Hornets trade West, expect Chris Paul to become very unhappy. If the team was so concerned about the luxury tax, it should have thought about that before trading for Peja Stojakovic, signing Morris Peterson and James Posey, and trading for Emeka Okafor. West’s affordable deal is obviously not the problem, but it’s movable and that might appeal to the Hornets.

      I still think the team will do what it can to hold on to its nucleus and weather the financial storm. The Okafor trade was a signal that owner George Shinn is willing to spend.

      NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Should the Hornets trade Chris Paul?

      December 29, 2009 /

      Common sense says “no.” But Bill Simmons, the self-proclaimed VP of Common Sense, says it’s not such a crazy idea after all. He has one caveat: It has to be a “Godfather”-type offer (one the Hornets couldn’t refuse).

      Fake Trade 8A: Houston trades Aaron Brooks (expires in 2011) with T-Mac, Scola and Brian Cook (all expire in 2010) for Chris Paul and the Peja-Songaila-Posey cap-killing trio. Considering Houston’s deep pockets, it would have to do it — how else could the Rockets acquire a top-10 player? And New Orleans would fall under the tax (saving them about $16-17 million this year, plus another $25-30 million next year) and replace a decent chunk of Paul’s production with a Brooks/Darren Collison combo.

      Fake Trade 8B: Same trade as above, only with Miami giving up three ECs (Jermaine O’Neal, Mario Chalmers and Dorell Wright) plus Michael Beasley. Not as good a deal as the Houston one. Although the thought of a Wade-Paul backcourt just made me pee on myself.

      Fake Trade 8C: Cleveland deals the Shaq/Ilgauskas ECs with Jamario Moon (expiring 2011), J.J. Hickson (ditto) and Jawad Williams/Darnell Jackson (EC throw-ins) for CP3, Emeka Okafor, Peja, Peterson and Songaila. That knocks the Hornets well under this year’s tax, gets them out of $26.6 million of Peja-Songaila-Peterson in 2011 AND dumps Okafor’s monster deal ($70 million through 2014). Sure, it’s the biggest salary dump trade of all time. But shouldn’t New Orleans do the Grizzlies routine for a year or two (super-low payroll, rebuild through the draft) rather than losing $25-30 million a year to be a fringe contender these next three years? And if you’re Cleveland, don’t you have to take a risk like this to keep LeBron?

      Looking at the Hornets’ cap situation, they’re not going to have any real cap flexibility until the summer of 2012, which is the same summer that Paul can opt out of the final year of his contract. The Hornets could create about $12-$13 million of cap space in 2011 if they are able to move James Posey.

      The Hornets’ current dilemma is largely due to the decision to trade for Peja Stojakovic in 2006. GM Jeff Bower took a risk, thinking he’d get the Sacramento-era sharpshooting Stojakovic, one capable of spacing the court for Paul to do his work. Unfortunately, Stojakovic isn’t the scorer that he once was, and he’s such a defensive liability that it’s tough to give him big minutes. Moreover, he has a monster contract that will pay him another $14 million next season.

      So do the Hornets continue to play the luxury tax for a team that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere? Unless someone wants to take on one of these big contracts, no major changes can be made until the summer of 2011, and by then West will be unsigned and about to turn 31.

      The Okafor/Chandler trade was a sign that owner George Shinn isn’t afraid to spend, so I don’t see him blowing up the franchise (i.e. trading Chris Paul) to save money. He’s more likely to ride out these bad contracts, tinker around the edges, and try to create a situation to re-build around Paul in 2011 or 2012. Paul can’t opt out until 2012, and I don’t think he’ll want to leave — he has an owner who is willing to spend, but the gambles — Stojakovic, Posey, Peterson — simply haven’t worked out.

      There is enough talent in New Orleans for the Hornets to be a perennial playoff team until they can ride the Stojakovic/Peterson/Posey storm out. Unless you’re in dire fiscal shape (and like I said, the Okafor trade is a sign that that’s not the case), you don’t trade away a superstar who is in the middle of his prime.

      NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Chris Bosh to Miami makes too much sense

      December 28, 2009 /

      In his latest (6900-word?) column, Bill Simmons plays GM and suggests several “fake trade offers” for teams looking to save money this season.

      He made an interesting point about Chris Bosh.

      As I wrote in July, there’s nothing more dangerous than a GM worried about his job who dumps the team’s long-term interests to protect the short term. Everything Bryan Colangelo did this past summer screamed, “I need to keep my job!!!” Now the Raptors are hamstrung with an overpaid, below-.500 roster that doubles as the worst defensive team of this decade — seriously, what did they think would happen when Jose Calderon, Hedo Turkoglu and Andrea Bargnani were three of the team’s best four guys? — and Chris Bosh seems like a mortal lock to leave. You can’t do the Frank Drebin Memorial “Please disperse, nothing to see here, please disperse” routine. Raptors fans are too smart. They get it.

      By dealing Bosh, Colangelo would be effectively saying, “I made some mistakes, we need to press the RESET button and start over.” Translation: “Fire me, I deserve it.” Because nobody would ever sabotage his job like that, he probably will keep Bosh, make a smaller trade and pray things turn around. If they don’t, the Raptors will get nothing for him. Not fair to the Raptor Truthers. At all.

      If Colangelo is feeling the heat, then it is unlikely that he’ll move Bosh before the February deadline. He’s going to have a tough time getting equal value because the whole league knows that since the Raptors are losing, Bosh is likely to bolt. Why would other teams trade for a guy that they can sign in six months?

      Well, one reason to believe that Bosh may indeed be on the move is that a team out there (like, say, the Miami Heat, who have their own superstar to worry about) might want to acquire Bosh now and not wait until the summer to try to sign him. In the case of the Heat, it would be doubly important because trading for Bosh would almost certainly convince Wade to stay in sunny Miami next summer. (Unless, of course, he already has other plans.)

      Doesn’t a deal that would send Bosh and the bad contracts of Marcus Banks and Reggie Evans to Miami for Michael Beasley and Jermaine O’Neal’s expiring contract make a lot of sense for both teams? Yes, it’s not equal value for Bosh, but the Raptors would get a good young player (Beasley) and would save almost $10 million next season. In fact, they’d have $8 million of cap space to spend if they so choose. All of this for a guy they have almost no chance of re-signing anyway.

      I know Heat fans would want to do this. What about Raptor fans?


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Wade and LeBron plan to “sit down and talk about” playing together in 2010

      December 23, 2009 /

      This came straight from Dwyane Wade, via Peter Vecsey of the New York Post…

      “A lot of times in this league, players usually wind up going where they can get the most money. We’re both blessed within that area. We’ve made a lot of money. So we wanted to base our decision on two things, the organization and the ability to win a title. And that’s what we’ll do. When the season is over, we plan to sit down and talk about it.

      “I’m not saying it will happen. But I’m intrigued by the idea.

      “I probably couldn’t have handled playing with someone like LeBron earlier in my career, but I’m older now. You’re talking about two big egos and meshing them. That’d take a lot of sacrifice on LeBron’s part and it’d take a lot of sacrifice on my part to succeed. But we would succeed because we know winning takes care of everything.”

      The Heat will have the cap space to re-sign Wade and sign another max contract free agent, but other than that, there aren’t any teams out there with that kind of flexibility. If the Knicks can shed Jared Jeffries’ contract (which seems more likely than moving Eddy Curry at this point) they would also be able to sign two max players.

      If the Heat were able to sign both Wade and LeBron, I think they’d have to agree beforehand to take the same money, so the two are on equal footing. (The Heat can offer Wade an extra year since they hold his rights.) It’s not often that two swingmen of this caliber are paired together, but it worked pretty well in Chicago with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and I don’t see why it couldn’t work in Miami (or New York, for that matter). The Jordan/Pippen combo was a bit different as MJ was the clear alpha dog while Pippin was tasked with being the team’s defensive stopper, though with their Team USA experience, LeBron and Wade are going into next summer with open eyes. They know they can play together.

      Cavs fans shouldn’t hold out hope that Wade will land in Cleveland. The team doesn’t have the cap space necessary to sign a free agent of his caliber, so it would have to be done via sign-and-trade (i.e. the Heat would have to agree to trade him). The chances of that happening are slim to none.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

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