The Heat‘s James Jones, who is also the secretary treasurer of the NBAPA, shot down the notion of a LeBron James led boycott next season if Donald Sterling was still the owner of the Clippers, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Jones said, “There is no boycott. There isn’t a lot of talk about a boycott. The union wanted to see the league step up and did what they did what we felt was appropriate – which was to remove Donald Sterling. They did that. It’s a process and we know it’s going to take time. But there is total trust between the union and the league and commissioner and the owners, knowing that eventually it will all play out the way we agreed – which is Donald Sterling no longer being the owner of an NBA team. We’re all on the same page. The Donald Sterling situation is a league situation. It’s not basketball.”
More from the east:
- Roger Mason clarified his previous statement that James would lead a players boycott next season. Mason tweeted, “LBJ never said anything about boycotting. He’s a friend and I would never want to imply something he didn’t say.”
- The Celtics are set to interview Marcus Smart and Dante Exum at the Chicago Combine this week, reports A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (twitter link). Blakely also tweets that Boston is “really big” on Exum.
- Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer looks at the Sixers approach to this year’s Draft Combine, as well as speculates on who the team might select with their multitude of draft picks.
- With the Nets being eliminated from the playoffs this evening, the focus turns to whether or not Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett will return to the team, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
4 Team Deal
Rockets, Nets, Hawks, Lakers
Nets get Jeremy Lin, Pedro Antic,Rockets 1st Round Pick 2016 and LA Lakers 2015 first Round Pick *Lottery Protected*
Hawks get Omer Asik, Andray Blatche, Rockets 1st 2014, and MarShon Brooks
Lakers get Kevin Garnet, and Patrick Beverly
Rockets get Deron Williams Paul Millsap,
Lakers would have to miss out of Gasol and get a player that replaces Gasol, keep them competitive with Kobe coming back and not adding salary for next offseason and a PG to start most games if Nash plays at all
Hawks get a center to let Horford play PF, a upgrade on the back up center position with Blatche, and a SG in Brooks to replace Jenkins who seems like may need time before he become possibly a rotation player plus the 25. Pick this year.
Nets Russian is cut throat, if Livingston and Pierce leave (very possible), may look to get back some first round picks and move a big contract with suspect play in D-Will and I think there’s a change Lin improves his play in Brooklyn with Jason Kidd there. And Blatche could be expendable increasing Plumlee and Mirza’s minutes and having another young big in Antic.
Rockets GM most likely wants to make a big move to improve his team after a 1st round loss he may look to make a big move. Replacing Lin with DWill is a “we’re all-In move.” It’s alil risky, D-Will has struggled with injuries and is not the player he was, but with Millsap, Harden, Parsons and Howard Rockets need a man to pass and Dwill still seems to have be a big upgrade to Lin. Plus the Addison of Millsap is what they ve already been after.