Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders compiled a list on his take of who the best available free agents are. At the the very top is Ray Allen, who we learned earlier today is mulling retirement. We’ll look at the latest on Allen and round up more from around the league below:
- The news that Allen is considering retirement is hardly surprising to Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk, who heard as early as last summer that the veteran guard would be unlikely to move on to Cleveland with LeBron James since it would require relocating his family and living in a cold climate.
- Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy isn’t shy about praising team owner Tom Gores, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press reveals. “I’ve said this for a few months, I absolutely mean it: I’ve got confidence that over time here we’re going to get this turned around, but if we don’t it ain’t gonna be on Tom Gores,” Van Gundy said. “He’s doing absolutely everything anyone can do. I can’t imagine an owner doing more or even close to what he’s been willing to do.“
- Long-time Celtics player Paul Pierce understands Boston’s decision to trade Rajon Rondo, writes Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. “It was either ‘We’re going to build around him’ or ‘We’re going to build for the future,’” Pierce said. “That’s what most teams do. When you have a star player, an all-star-caliber player and if you aren’t able to put the other star players around him or you have other young guys, you’re either going to build with him or you build without him.. They decided to move forward and build around the young pieces that they have.“
- The Greek club AEK Athens is finalizing a deal with Pops Mensah-Bonsu, David Pick of Eurobasket.com reports (Twitter link). The only hurdle at this point is his physical exam, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia tweets. Mensah-Bonsu, who was briefly in training camp with the Nuggets this fall, has been free since Hapoel Jerusalem released him earlier this month.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.