A plurality of Hoops Rumors readers said that they thought the Sixers would win between 10 and 15 games when we asked earlier this week, but it’s worth wondering whether the “Less than 10” wins option might have garnered a few more votes if the poll had appeared this morning. The season debut of Michael Carter-Williams Thursday was a 53-point loss to the Mavericks as the pain continues in Philadelphia. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- An Eastern Conference executive isn’t sold on Rajon Rondo‘s worthiness of a maximum-salary contract and believes the point guard’s impending free agency is a drag on his trade value, as the exec tells Chris Mannix of SI.com.
- The Nets and Shaun Livingston had mutual interest heading into the offseason, but he made it a priority to seek as lucrative a contract as possible after he missed out on higher paydays earlier in his career, as Tim Bontemps of the New York Post details. The Nets could only offer the mini mid-level, and Livingston exceeded those salaries in his new contract with the Warriors. “At the end of the day, everything I’ve been through as a player in this league, was about putting myself in the best position, one, to win, and also to get the value as a player, your market value,” Livingston said. “I think that was my case last [summer].”
- The mere presence of Phil Jackson boosts the public perception of the struggling Knicks, who can sell hope based on the championship coaching experience of the newly minted executive, opines Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.