Metta World Peace tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News that he has no hard feelings toward the Lakers, who amnestied him last week. The former Ron Artest thinks the move was a shrewd business decision for the team, and while the Lakers will save some luxury tax money, the amnesty wound up helping World Peace's bank account, too. He'll receive his $7.7MM salary from the Lakers as well as the nearly $1.6MM he'll make from his contract with the Knicks this season, minus a small amount taken away from his Lakers paycheck because of set-off rights. There are plenty of other maneuvers, financial and otherwise, happening in the NBA, as we round up here:
- Brandon Jennings is no lock to return to the Bucks, tweets Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times, who says the team is still looking at other point guards.
- The Mavs won't comment on a Brazilian report that the team has been in contact with free agent Leandro Barbosa, notes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
- The Rockets have drawn mention as one of the front-runners for Marcus Camby this week, and agent Rick Kaplan confirms to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston that the team is a leading candidate, referring to Houston as Camby's "adopted hometown" (All Twitter links).
- Patrick O'Bryant, the ninth overall pick in the 2006 draft, is hoping to return to the NBA, but he's only drawn interest from foreign clubs so far the summer, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. O'Bryant last appeared in the Association with the Raptors in 2008/09.
- Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov will likely lose upwards of $50MM this year as he presides over an NBA-record expenditure on the team's roster, writes Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes.com (hat tip to Nets Daily).
- Shaun Powell of Sports on Earth previews next year's star-laden free agent class, arguing that no team has greater stakes on the outcome of the summer of 2014 than the Lakers do.
- Mark Madsen earned a quick promotion after the Lakers hired him in May to coach their D-League team. The Lakers today officially named Madsen and Larry Lewis as assistants on coach Mike D'Antoni's staff.