Earlier today, it was reported that Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan is interested in the vacancies of the Charlotte Bobcats and Orlando Magic. Sloan last appeared in the NBA as head coach of the Utah Jazz, before resigning partway through the 2010/11 season. Do you think he will take either of these jobs? Or will he coach elsewhere? Will he stay retired? Weigh in below.
Many members of last year's draft class received recognition for their first NBA seasons today, when the league announced its All-Rookie squads. Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Kenneth Faried, Klay Thompson, Brandon Knight, Iman Shumpert, and Kawhi Leonard all earned first-team honors due to a three-way tie for the fifth spot. The second team consisted of Chandler Parsons, MarShon Brooks, Derrick Williams, Tristan Thompson, and Isaiah Thomas. Here's the latest on the 2012 draft class that will be eligible for All-Rookie accolades a year from now:
This morning, the Golden State Warriors made official their planned move to San Francisco for the 2017/18 season. Here's a roundup of reactions from around the league and media to the announcement:
The Los Angeles Lakers held their exit interviews today following last night's elimination from the playoffs. Lakers.com's Mike Trudell has details (links to all tweets) of guard Ramon Sessions' interview, which touched on his upcoming player option and future with the Lakers.
Sessions, acquired from the Cavaliers in March, said he hopes to remain with the Lakers, and that the team has expressed interest in bringing him back as well. Sessions has a player option for the 2012/13 season worth approximately $4.5MM, which he must decide on by June 20. He says he has not made a decision.
A few Tuesday afternoon odds and ends from around the NBA:
4:03pm: Mullin is not a candidate for the Blazers' GM opening, a source tells Haynes.
3:45pm: Blazers president Larry Miller says the team's process won't be accelerated or modified now that another team (the Magic) has interest in some of the candidates Portland has interviewed. Miller told Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com that he and owner Paul Allen could meet with a couple more candidates this week.
1:35pm: Earlier this month, Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported that the Trail Blazers were eyeing current Hawks general manager Rick Sund for their GM opening. However, it doesn't appear that the interest is mutual. Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com hears from a source that the Blazers' job is "not in [Sund's] plans."
Broussard initially reported that the Hawks denied the Blazers permission to speak to Sund because the team was still alive in the playoffs. It sounded at the time like that stance could change after the club's season ended, but it doesn't appear that the Hawks GM will interview for the Portland job. Sund's current deal in Atlanta expires on June 30th, so the two sides are in talks about a new contract. However, Haynes hears that retirement is also a possibility for the 60-year-old.
As for the Blazers' other potential targets, Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld (Twitter link) reports that former Warriors GM Chris Mullin is in the mix for the Portland position. It's not clear yet if or when Mullin will be interviewing for the job.
As I noted this morning when I rounded up a few coaching rumors, the Magic and Bobcats are currently the only two NBA teams searching for a new head coach. While more desirable positions may open up in the next few weeks, former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan expressed his interest in the two current openings to Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida.
Sloan told Tomasson that the job in Orlando would be "very intriguing" and that the Bobcats' opening interests him as well, since "it's not always about starting at the top." However, he acknowledged that neither team has contacted him. For the Magic, who only let go of Stan Van Gundy about 24 hours ago, that's hardly a surprise, but the Bobcats have been conducting interviews for weeks — I wonder if they've decided to go in a different direction or simply weren't aware of Sloan's interest.
When Sloan left the Jazz last season, he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to coach again, but his desire to return to an NBA bench has resurfaced over time.
"I felt like I needed to get away from basketball," Sloan said. "I worked (26) years (as a head coach). It was time for me to move on and see what was going in the world. That’s been kind of interesting. But I still have that void of basketball."
Whether it's the Magic, the Bobcats, or another team that inquires on Sloan at some point this summer, he intends to keep an open mind.
"I don’t have an agent," Sloan said. "I don’t need for anybody to talk for me. If somebody calls me, I will listen."
We already rounded up a series of Tuesday morning Lakers updates, so let's take a look at what's going on with Los Angeles' other team. Here's the latest on the Clippers….
2:35pm:
San Francisco mayor Ed Lee and members of the Golden State Warriors spoke to media on the San Francisco waterfront today, making official the announcement we knew was coming: The Warriors intend to move across the bay in time for the 2017/18 season.
"We are working with the Warriors to get a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose arena built on the waterfront in San Francisco and completed in 2017," Lee said in a statement released by the team. "The Warriors have been the Bay Area’s basketball team for 50 years, and today sets the stage for the Warriors to be the Bay Area’s team for another 50."
As we outlined yesterday, there are a number of challenges facing Warriors ownership before the new, privately-funded San Francisco arena becomes a reality, but owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber are adamant that those obstacles will be overcome and that the move will be made by 2017, tweets Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group.
The Warriors were previously known as the San Francisco Warriors from 1962 to 1971, but became the Golden State Warriors when they moved to Oakland in '71, making their home there ever since.
Deron Williams has traveled to Turkey and Russia since the Nets' regular season ended, crossing paths with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and GM Billy King during his vacation. But Williams stressed to reporters today that they shouldn't read into the trip, and that he's no closer to deciding on where he'll sign than he was a month ago (link via Andy Vasquez of the Bergen Record).
"I want to reiterate, I don’t know what I’m doing next year," Williams said. "Still. Nobody does but me. Not even my mom, my brother, my uncle, my cousin. I haven’t talked to anybody about where I’m going next year."
Williams explained his trip to Russia by saying he'd never been there before, and suggested that when he visits his hometown of Dallas later this week, it shouldn't be interpreted as a clue either. The 27-year-old also had an answer for why he continued to work out at the Nets' practice facility in New Jersey.
"I’m here right now because I sold my house in San Diego so I can’t go there," Williams said. "I have a house in Utah that I’m trying to sell, but it has no furniture in it, so I can’t go there. Plus my kids are in school till June 28th, so I have to stay here. Then I leave on July 5th for the Olympic training. So it doesn’t really make sense for me to go anywhere."
The top free agent on the market this offseason, Williams is expected to be heavily courted by the Nets and Mavericks, among other teams. As I explained last week, the Nets can offer the most money, but the difference may not be significant enough to be the deciding factor in the point guard's decision.