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The Brooklyn Nets, who today fired head coach Avery Johnson, have appointed Assistant Coach P.J. Carlesimo as the team’s interim head coach, it was announced by General Manager Billy King.
A search for a new head coach will commence immediately.
Carlesimo has previous NBA head coaching experience in Portland, Golden State and Seattle/OKC. He owns a career coaching record of 204-296 in the regular season and 3-9 in the playoffs.
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The Brooklyn Nets have relieved Avery Johnson of his head coaching duties, it was announced today by General Manager Billy King.
“The Nets ownership would like to express thanks to Avery for his efforts and to wish him every success in the future,” said Brooklyn Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov.
Johnson was named head coach of the Nets on June 15, 2010. In two-plus seasons as head coach of the Nets, Johnson compiled a record of 60-116.
The Nets are expected to name current assistant P.J. Carlesimo as the interim head coach.
Read NBA fan reaction and share your opinion in this basketball forum topic.
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Will the Knicks ever get healthy and whole?
Raymond Felton, the team’s starting point guard, said last night he has a fracture in his right pinkie, discovered following an X-ray. He added he will likely need surgery and be out four to six weeks.
Bah, humbug. Carmelo Anthony also missed last night’s 99-97 victor y over the Suns with a hyperextended knee suffered during Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers, but his injury doesn’t appear serious.
The timing of Felton’s latest injury is tough considering Amar’e Stoudemire is expected back on Jan. 1 and Iman Shumpert is gearing up to return later in the month. Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni will now be the point guards.
Felton took the X-ray of his shooting hand at halftime after sitting out last night. He injured the pinkie fighting for a loose ball with the Lakers’ Steve Nash. Felton will fly to New York tomorrow and see a hand specialist to confirm the next course of action, a Knicks official said.
— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post
The Oklahoma City Thunder has assigned forward Perry Jones, guard DeAndre Liggins and center Daniel Orton to the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti.
Jones has appeared in 10 games this season with the Thunder while recording averages of 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds in 7.6 minutes per game.
In seven games with the Thunder, Liggins is averaging 0.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 3.0 minutes per game.
Orton has seen action in one game for the Thunder, scoring two points in two minutes versus Cleveland on Nov. 11th.
All three players will travel with the 66ers to Canton for this weekend’s matchups with the Charge on Fri. Dec 28 and Sat. Dec 29.
Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has re-assigned forward Terrence Jones to Houston’s single-affiliation NBA D-League partner the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
Jones (6-9, 252, Kentucky) has averaged 22.5 points and 17.5 rebounds in two starts with Rio Grande Valley this season.
The Memphis Grizzlies re-assigned guard Tony Wroten to the NBA Development League’s Reno Bighorns, Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today.
Wroten (6-6, 208) averaged 13.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists on .370 shooting (.438 three-point shooting) in 22.8 minutes in six games for Reno during his first assignment from Nov. 27-Dec. 17. The 19-year-old scored a D-League season-high 21 points in his Bighorns debut on Dec. 2 at Santa Cruz and matched that total in his next game on Dec. 7 vs. Bakersfield.
The Seattle native will be Bighorns for their next game on Friday, Dec. 28 at Idaho.
Drafted by Memphis in the first round (25th overall) of the 2012 NBA Draft after one season at the University of Washington, Wroten has totaled eight minutes in three appearances for the Grizzlies during his rookie season.
Memphis will seek its fourth consecutive home victory tonight when the Grizzlies host the Philadelphia 76ers at 7 p.m. tonight at FedExForum.
The Miami Heat today assigned third-year center Dexter Pittman to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s NBA Development League affiliate. The assignment is the record 72nd of the 2012-13 NBA and NBA D-League seasons, and is the first for Pittman this year. He becomes the 43rd NBA player to have been assigned to the NBA D-League this season.
Pittman (6-11, 285, Texas) has appeared in four games for Miami this season, averaging 1.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 3.0 minutes. He returns to the Skyforce having played in 22 games on assignment as a rookie in 2010-11, when he averaged 14.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 27.8 minutes. In 41 career games for the Heat, Pittman has averaged 2.8 points, 2.0 rebounds and 7.9 minutes.
Originally selected by the Heat in the second round (32nd overall) of the 2010 NBA Draft, Pittman averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 134 career NCAA games.
Pittman is expected to join the Skyforce today and be available on Friday, Dec. 28, when the team hosts the Maine Red Claws in Sioux Falls at 8 p.m. ET.
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Kings center DeMarcus Cousins is not with the team and will not play against the Portland Trail Blazers.
It was coach Keith Smart’s decision not to bring Cousins on the trip.
Cousins was reinstated from an indefinite suspension Monday, but Smart said reinstatement meant Cousins would be allowed to practice, not necessarily play.
This will be the second game Cousins has missed since his verbal altercation at halftime of last Friday’s loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles.
— Reported by Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee (Blog)
The Chicago Bulls game against the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night (December 26) at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indiana has been postponed due to weather conditions.
The game will be rescheduled and announced at a later date.
Tickets for Wednesday night’s game will be honored for that game.
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Because of his toughness, guard Raymond Felton can’t be counted out for Wednesday night’s game against the Suns in Phoenix. But even he admitted after spraining his right pinkie on his shooting hand that if he plays he is likely to be limited by the injury.
“I ain’t the same with it,” he said of the injury. “We’ll see what happens.”
With a little less than nine minutes to go in the third quarter of Tuesday’s 100-94 loss to the Lakers, Felton and L.A.’s Steve Nash both dove for a loose ball. Felton said Nash tried to tap it away while he tried to corral it and the ball bent the finger outward.
He came out of the game and returned with it bandaged. He finished with 10 points on 5-for-19 shooting and six assists. He was 1-for-10 shooting after the injury. He left with a splint on the finger.
— Reported by Roger Rubin of the New York Daily News