Royce White this evening made his first appearance in any sort of NBA game since last preseason, and though the former first-round pick completed a nifty coast-to-coast layup, he committed four fouls in the span of a minute and 26 seconds. It’s questionable, at best, whether the Sixers will pick up his 2014/15 option by the deadline to do so at the end of this month, as Mark Deeks noted yesterday in a piece for SB Nation. Among the latest chatter out of the East, there’s word on another player who’s unlikely to get good news as a contract-related deadline approaches:
- Ekpe Udoh‘s name emerged in trade talks this past summer, which would seem to counter any slim chance he has of receiving an extension to his rookie scale contract before the October 31st deadline. His odds of an extension grew worse today as the Bucks announced that he’ll be sidelined as long as six weeks after undergoing right knee surgery.
- Earl Clark and coach Mike Brown only briefly worked together on the Lakers, but Clark says Brown’s presence in Cleveland was a major reason why the forward decided to sign with the Cavaliers, according to HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler (Twitter link).
- Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal believes Andrea Bargnani won’t have any problems fitting in with Carmelo Anthony on the court, and posits that the three draft picks the Knicks gave up in the trade to acquire the former No. 1 overall pick can easily be recouped through future deals. I’d argue that it’s not so easy to acquire draft picks these days, given that the 2013 trade deadline passed without a single first-rounder changing hands.
- We rounded up a few items from the Central Division this afternoon.