Tracy McGrady thinks the Lakers would be the ideal team for him if he were to return to play in the NBA, as he told Bleacher Report’s Les Carpenter (hat tip to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports). McGrady was contemplating a comeback this fall, as Wojnarowski wrote in September, but a commitment to a basketball showcase that would have him in China during October got in the way. McGrady doesn’t want to play for an NBA team unless he attends training camp with that club, Carpenter writes, so that presumably means he won’t return to the league this season.
Here’s more from out west:
- Vince Carter will be 40 years old when his contract with the Grizzlies expires in 2017, and the veteran has every intention of playing until then, Dwain Price of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports (Twitter links). “My intentions are to play it out for sure. I have no intentions of backing down until the body says so,” Carter said. “Right now I just take it day by day and year by year and go from there.”
- The Mavs are finding their point guard-by-committee approach to be successful thus far this season, Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes. Instead of having a true star at the point, Dallas has instead opted for a quartet of “heady decision-makers” that have all been acquired since June, and who don’t take up a large amount of cap space, Aschburner notes. “The guards we have now, everyone brings a little something different,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “Jameer [Nelson] is probably the best shooter, Devin [Harris] is a great driver. I think Raymond [Felton] has the in-between game. I don’t even know what J.J. [Barea] does. We just give him the ball and he just goes wild out there. We run a couple pick-and-rolls for him, he keeps circling and circling. So I think all four guards bring something to the table, which we need.”
- Former Warriors coach Mark Jackson briefly addressed the negative comments made against him by Golden State’s co-owner Joe Lacob, Carl Steward of The San Jose Mercury News reports. Speaking at his weekly sermon, Jackson said, “[Lacob] said I was good for nothing, an owner that knew me for three years and spent a couple of minutes around me, an owner that had the audacity to say that 200 folks don’t like me in the business.”
- The remaining $620,794 of the $2,316,429 trade exception the Kings created from the Rudy Gay trade is set to expire tonight. Sacramento had previously used $1,695,635 of this exception when they acquired Reggie Evans from the Nets.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.