In a piece for SheridanHoops.com, Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall.com previews the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs and recaps the standings for the season. Pastuszek also makes note of the American players who had been playing in China, some of whom could be candidates to return stateside and catch on with an NBA team. So far, Terrence Williams has signed a 10-day contract with the Celtics after his stint with the Guangdong Southern Tigers, while D.J. White is set to sign with the C's as well.
Here are a few more Tuesday afternoon odds and ends:
- The Sixers know what Andrew Bynum is capable of when he's healthy, which is why John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer argues that the club should shut down the big man for the rest of this season.
- In his latest mailbag, Ian Thomsen of SI.com cites one rival executive who expects the Sixers to re-sign Bynum this summer, negotiating language into his contract that gives the team some level of protection in case his knee issues continue. "If they don't sign him, then we'd all better run the other direction," said the exec. "Because they'll know his situation better than everybody."
- While the Mavericks' front office was reportedly "agitated" to see Derek Fisher sign with the Thunder, Mavs players didn't seem too shocked by the move, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com details. "It wasn't a big surprise," one Mavs veteran said. "We expected him to end up with the Lakers or OKC."
- Fisher told Oklahoma City reporters today that he's not necessarily planning to retire at season's end, according to Royce Young of Daily Thunder (via Twitter).
- Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld runs through all 30 NBA head coaches in an attempt to determine which ones are safe and which ones might be on the hot seat.
- The NBPA moved quickly to remove Billy Hunter from his exectutive director position, but finding a replacement figures to be a longer process, tweets Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal.
- 21 NBA scouts and one general manager, the Thunder's Sam Presti, were in France today to watch Rudy Gobert match up against Mouhammadou Jaiteh, according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com (Twitter link). Gobert ranks 12th on Givony's list of top 100 prospects, while Jaiteh is 32nd.