New Lakers Roy Hibbert, Lou Williams and Brandon Bass had an incredulous silence when asked in a press conference today whether they’d heard from new teammate Kobe Bryant, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com shows via Instagram. Indeed, none of the three have heard from or touched base with the Lakers star, notes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Forward Josh Smith said that he considered joining the Clippers last season after he was waived by the Pistons, Bill Oram of The Orange County Register writes. “It was an option,” Smith said. “It was a definite thought process and conversation I had with my family.” Smith instead signed with the Rockets, but now comes to Los Angeles on a one-year, minimum salary arrangement.
- When asked why he chose to sign with the Clippers, Smith indicated that it came down to having a defined role, something he didn’t feel that he had in Houston, Melissa Rohlin of The Los Angeles Times relays. “We did some special things in Houston but it was more of a visual, concrete type of situation-scenario for me here,” Smith said. “When you have vision and it’s not kind of foggy on what’s your role and your purpose on the team, you got to make a decision you feel is best. My whole thing was I was looking at scenarios more so than being wowed by red-carpet layouts.”
- New Lakers center Hibbert waived part of his 15% trade kicker to join the team, a move he considered a “no brainer” because the franchise made it known that they wanted him, something the Pacers did not do, Medina tweets. The big man gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been a $2.3MM payout for being dealt. Hibbert had moved to Los Angeles at the end of last season, knowing he would likely be dealt away from Indiana, though he didn’t know it would be to the Lakers, Oram adds (Twitter link).
Should the Rockets have promised Smith more of a defined role, or were they wise to move on?
I’m pretty surprised they didnt keep him
Thats pretty lucky for Hibbert lol.
Well, if you think you’re going to get traded but you don’t know where, and you want to move right away, it makes sense to pick a place with two teams instead of just one, heh!
the fact that its LA probably was a good starting point, regardless of what happened
Well I hope he brings his A game other wise he better be just renting
Hibbert’s A game showed up for maybe 10% of his career so far, good luck with him. People forget that he was a bit of a head case early in his career, not just at the end of his Pacers run.