Every team in the Pacific Division pulled off at least one trade during the season except the Suns, who’d already shaken up their roster with five offseason trades. All of that activity is over for the next couple of months at least, but it suggests that GMs feel the need to be aggressive in an ultra-competitive Western Conference. Here’s the latest from the Pacific:
- Doc Rivers won’t close the door on the prospect of J.J. Redick missing the rest of the season with a bulging disk in his back, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times observes. “I don’t know,” Rivers said. “I haven’t had that fear yet. I don’t want that fear, maybe would be a better way of putting it. But I don’t know. I just keep getting updates. I’m sure there is some thought of that. He’s been out for so long. But we’re just hoping for the best.”
- Wesley Johnson hopes he can re-sign with the Lakers this summer, as he tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “Hopefully it’s a long-term thing,” Johnson said. “But we’ll have to see what happens with what the front office decides and how they move around things. I would like to be here.”
- The Warriors haven’t established themselves as a surefire playoff team in the Western Conference, but Mark Jackson doesn’t deserve the brunt of the blame, argues Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group.