We heard earlier today that Mavs owner Mark Cuban would have liked to have kept Jason Terry, who signed with the Celtics. Terry said he was disappointed that the first call he fielded this summer wasn't from the Mavs, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram details. Cuban also claims that he vetoed a deal former Mavs coach Don Nelson had set up during the 2004/05 season that would have sent Terry to the Jazz for Raul Lopez, Price notes. That one seems far-fetched, but if it's true, you'd have to give Cuban credit for quite a save. Here's the rest from a busy day and night in the NBA.
- O.J. Mayo can opt out of his contract this summer, but Cuban hopes he'll stay with the Mavs even longer than the eight years Terry was around, Price tweets.
- Chris Paul and former Hornets teammate Marco Belinelli are close friends, but Paul didn't recruit Belinelli to join the Clippers this summer because he thought the Bulls would be a better fit for the Italian sharpshooter, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune observes (Sulia link).
- The Bulls went hard after Jamal Crawford before last season, but wound up giving the money they had set aside for him to Richard Hamilton instead, according to Johnson (Sulia link).
- Though Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was telling reporters Monday that coach Dwane Casey's job is not in jeopardy, Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun wonders whether that will be Colangelo's call to make, surmising everyone in the organization except Jonas Valanciunas shouldn't get too cozy.
- Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times corrects his earlier statement about the draft pick the Lakers owe the Suns, detailing the protections on that and other draft picks that will prevent L.A. from drafting in the first round next June.
- Sean Deveney of The Sporting News gauges the early returns on the rookie-scale extensions handed out before the season, and believes Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday and DeMar DeRozan are the steals of the bunch.
- SB Nation's Tom Ziller goes in depth on the Maloof family dynamics at play as the fate of the Kings, the team they own, hangs in the balance.