John Calipari “desperately” wants back into the NBA, an NBA front-office executive tells Steve Popper of The Record, and that executive sees a way for that to happen with the Nets, the team Calipari ran in a coach/executive role from 1996 to 1999. Popper hears from sources who cite Calipari’s ties to Nets CEO Brett Yormark, though sources close to Calipari tell Popper that it would take a dual coach/executive role for the Kentucky coach to return to the pro game. Calipari and the Cavs reportedly had discussions about such a role and a would-be lucrative contract last offseason, but Calipari instead signed a new deal with Kentucky. Here’s more on the Nets and the rest of the Atlantic Division:
- Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has “great interest” in a new deal with Jared Sullinger, but it would likely come with a weight clause, writes Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com. Sullinger, who’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer, would be on board with a weight-based stipulation, as he tells MacMullan, though he’s reluctant to admit that he ballooned to 300 pounds at one point this season, as the Celts believe he did.
- Sixers coach Brett Brown hates having to cut the minutes of Henry Sims to find time to evaluate Thomas Robinson and Furkan Aldemir, but that’s what’s happened as the end of the final season on Sims’ contract approaches, as Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News examines. Perhaps not coincidentally, the downturn in playing time comes with Sims needing 10 more starts to trigger a higher qualifying offer this summer, as I noted. He hasn’t started since March 2nd. “I try not to think for them,” Sims said of the Sixers. “For me, I feel that I’ve done enough out here to let them know what I can do. I feel like I’ve done my job and that’s all I can do.”
- The Knicks have been so impressed with midseason signee Langston Galloway‘s video preparation that they’ve told him to watch less, as Newsday’s Al Iannazzone notes as he looks at the rookie’s heavy workload. Galloway, who’s averaged 31.6 minutes in 34 games this season, has non-guaranteed salary with partial guarantee dates for next season, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported.