Already this offseason, international outlets have linked the Nets to contract agreements with Andrei Kirilenko and Mirza Teletovic, among others, but GM Billy King cautioned today not to believe everything you read.
"If you go back to summer, we've had a lot of guys that agreed to deals here, and if we'd agreed to all those deals, we wouldn't have room to sign them all," King explained, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. "So I think a lot of information gets fed out there, especially international where they just say it. And a lot of times they're doing it because they're negotiating, trying to get a player to Team A in Barcelona, so they want to get out there: 'This guy's going. You want to sign with us;' 'Hey, he's leaving, so you've got to sign here.'"
As we prepare to sift through the free agent rumor mill over the next few weeks, let's round up a few Wednesday afternoon odds and ends from around the league:
- Bondy also passes along a quote from King on Kris Humphries, with the GM hinting that Humphries may not be back with the Nets unless he's willing to reduce his salary expectations (Sulia link).
- Lang Greene of HoopsWorld spoke to Atlanta coach Larry Drew about the Hawks' offseason and the club's new general manager.
- Hornets coach Monty Williams tells Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com that he views the Trail Blazers' head coaching job as a prime opening.
- At the Basketball Jones, Mark Deeks explains why it'll take some time to determine the winner of yesterday's Bobcats/Pistons swap.
- Blake Griffin, Lamar Odom, and Anthony Davis will try out for spots on the U.S. Olympic team before the squad's training camp officially gets underway, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
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Re-sign with the Nets Kris!