The Los Angeles Lakers have assigned center Robert Sacre and guard Darius Morris to the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA D-League, the team announced.
You can view every D-League assignment and recall of the 2012/13 season Hoops Rumors' D-League assignment tracker.
The latest news and notes from around the Pacific Division on Saturday morning:
The Utah Jazz did not move Paul Millsap before the February 21 trade deadline, but Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld reports that they discussed deals for the forward with the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Clippers, neither of which ended up coming to fruition.
Kennedy tweets that the Jazz and Pacers discussed a trade that would have sent Millsap and Alec Burks to Indiana for Danny Granger and Lance Stephenson. In a separate tweet, Kennedy reports that the Jazz and Clippers discussed a trade of Millsap and DeMarre Carroll for Eric Bledsoe and Lamar Odom.
Millsap, 27, is averaging 15.2 PPG and 7.4 RPG this season. He will be an unrestricted free agent in July.
As rumors fly long past the NBA's trade deadline, Marc Stein of ESPN.com checks in with a Weekend Dime that's heavy on items about Josh Smith, as well as plenty of news about the Rockets. There's even a link between Smith and Houston, so let's dig in.
The commissioner is in attendance at Golden State's game against the Rockets tonight, but David Stern's comments about the fate of the Kings overshadowed talk of the other team in Northern California. Nonetheless, there's plenty of Warriors-related news this evening, as we share here:
10:28pm: Mark Mastrov is confident his offer will be ready in time to present to NBA owners, as the Bee's Ailene Voisin tweets. "It's early," Mastrov said. "We are working on a very aggressive bid."
9:39pm: Stern said "there is a substantial variance" between the Mastrov and Hansen offers, as Bizjak, Dale Kasler and Ryan Lillis of the Bee note. The report also clarifies that a group of NBA owners will meet to see where bids stand on April 3rd, a few weeks before the April 18th Board of Governors meeting that's expected to decide the outcome of the tug-of-war over the Kings.
9:21pm: There might be other bids that could keep the Kings in Sacramento if the Mastrov-fronted effort falls through, according to Bizjak. Stern said he's spoken with investors other than Mastrov and Ron Burkle, who's a secondary partner in Mastrov's effort, as well as current Kings minority owner John Kehriotis, who's preparing a backup bid for the team (Twitter links).
8:36pm: Commissioner David Stern told reporters in Oakland tonight that the Mark Mastrov-led bid to keep the Kings in Sacramento must come up with more money in order to keep the team in town, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Stern is optimistic the bid will increase, but as of now it's not comparable to the package Chris Hansen and his team of investors has put together to move the team to Seattle (Twitter link).
The Seattle group has an agreement with the Maloof family, which owns the Kings, to commit $341MM for a controlling 65% stake in the team. Mastrov and company have come in with a figure slightly lower than that, though there are mitigating factors, since a Sacramento ownership group wouldn't have to repay a $75MM loan to the city, as anyone who moves the team would have to do.
The NBA's Board of Governors is expected to decide between the competing offers at a meeting in April. Yet unless Mastrov and his partners kick in more money, it might not even get that far, as Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee notes that Stern said the bid must increase to "get to the state of consideration" (Twitter link).
The Sixers ran up against a buzzsaw tonight, falling to the Heat as Miami ran its winning streak to 17. Philadelphia sits eight games out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and even if the team was somehow able to climb into that position, it would likely have to overcome the Heat in the first round. Either way, it looks like the Sixers will soon be turning their attention to the offseason, and there are already a few rumblings about the summer, as we detail here along with other news from Philly:
Former No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden has been linked to several teams in the past few months since making it known he's interested in a comeback, but one of the most prominent has been the Cavaliers. Oden was close to signing with Cleveland last month, and though a deal never happened, Oden tells Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal he's still interested in joining the Cavs.
Wherever he signs, it likely won't happen until this summer, as agent Mike Conley Sr. reiterated to Lloyd, in keeping with what Conley has previously indicated. Lloyd reported in February that the Cavs were preparing a three-year deal for Oden that included a team option for 2014/15. It's unclear how much the contract would have been worth, but the Cavs have plenty of cap space now and for this summer, so they could outbid many other teams. Their advantage is somewhat reduced, however, if Oden waits to sign until the offseason, when other clubs will free up more space and have cap exceptions to use on the big man.
Oden, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State, is at tonight's Cavaliers-Grizzlies game as a guest of Memphis point guard Mike Conley Jr., the agent's son. The Cavs invited Oden to move down into one of owner Dan Gilbert's front-row seats adjacent to the team's bench, Lloyd notes, and Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio noticed Oden talking with Cavs reserve Luke Walton (Twitter link).
Oden, as his agent has in the past, said the Cavs' partnership with the Cleveland Clinic will be a factor in his decision.
"With my process, one of the top two things I have to think about is the medical staff and how is it going to help me," he said. "I want to play and I want to play for some time. Not just come in and see what happens. I want to be able to have a career."
Brandon Jennings is considering a move that would make him an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2014, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. He's set to become a restricted free agent this summer, but if the Bucks make him a one-year qualifying offer to retain the right to match offers from other teams in the offseason, as they'll almost assuredly do, Jennings is free to take it. If he does so, next season will be his last in Milwaukee, as he tells Spears.
"If I take the qualifying offer and become an [unrestricted] free agent there is no way I am coming back," Jennings said. "There is no way."
Doing so would be a bold move for Jennings and new agent Jeff Schwartz, who could command much more than the $4.33MM Jennings would make on the qualifying offer. Still, it would allow him to ensure an early exit from the Bucks, who Jennings insists must upgrade their roster and turn their organization into a championship-caliber operation in order to retain him long-term, according to Spears.
"I just want to win," the point guard said. "The way I am playing now, I just want to go to a winning team and play like that. I don't care about being a superstar or being the main guy. I did that [the] first four years. I just want to win and be somewhere where it's all about winning. I'm not saying the Bucks aren't about winning. But I think [a title caliber situation] will help me, motivate my game and then you have to perform."
Bucks GM John Hammond said he'd be surprised if Jennings takes the QO, but added that he's "not taken aback" by his point guard's pronouncement, believing it to be "a natural discussion to have." Jennings, who turned down a four-year, $40MM extension before the season, indicated he could be dissuaded from taking the qualifying offer if the Bucks grant him a lucrative deal this summer.
Jennings last month confirmed his interest in signing with the Mavs in the offseason. Dallas will have plenty of cap room to make him an offer up to the maximum, but Milwaukee would have the ability to match any deal he signs with another team. If, for instance, Jennings signed a four-year deal with the Mavs, the Bucks could match it, and Jennings would be tethered to Milwaukee until 2017.
The Bucks possess an advantage over other teams this summer, since they alone could offer Jennings five years instead of four in his next contract. They could also offer him raises for 7.5% instead of 4.5% if they were to give him a max deal, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors examined when he looked at players likely to receive max deals this summer. Jennings is the last player on that list, but it's unclear if the Bucks or any other team considers the 23-year-old a max player.
We've had a couple interesting items come out of the Southeast Division already today, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported the Hawks nearly engaged in a three-way deal at the deadline that would have sent Josh Smith to the Celtics, while the Heat are expected to give 40-year-old Juwan Howard a second 10-day contract. There are other notable stories involving Southeast teams this evening, and we'll round up them up here: