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Cleveland Cavaliers fire coach Byron Scott

The Cleveland Cavaliers have released Head Coach Byron Scott, the team announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts. The announcement was made by Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant.

“I have tremendous respect for Byron professionally and a great deal of admiration for him personally. At the same time, it is critical for where we are as a team to ensure that we capitalize on every opportunity for development and success and we have fallen short of that on the court,” said Grant. “I believe we needed to make this change in order to get to a better position to achieve our goals. I know I speak on behalf of the entire Cavs organization and the Cleveland community, in thanking Byron for his three years here and his hard work and many contributions on and off the court. We wish Bryon and his wife, Anita, the best.”

Scott, 52, was named the 18th head coach in Cleveland Cavaliers history on July 1, 2010. The Cavaliers’ record during Scott’s tenure as Head Coach was 64-166.

“I want to thank Chris Grant, Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers organization for the opportunity I had to coach this team the last three seasons,” said Scott. “Anita and I have enjoyed our time here in Cleveland and greatly appreciate the support we received from this special community and the many friendships we developed. I am certainly proud of the progress that many of our players have made and greatly appreciate the dedication of my coaches and our team in our efforts to attain the success we all desired.”

The Cavaliers will immediately commence a search, led by General Manager Chris Grant, for the team’s next head coach.

“I wish Byron Scott and his entire family the best going forward. Byron is a class guy, both on and off the court, and I thank him for his three years of coaching the Cavaliers,” said Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert.

“I fully support the difficult move that was made today. Although we saw progress with young individual player development, we did not see the kind of progress we expected on the team level this past season. We understand it was challenging with the injuries, but when you are at our stage in the building process, you don’t only measure team progress in wins and losses.

It has been our strong and stated belief that when our team once again returns to competing at the NBA’s highest levels it will be because we have achieved our goals on the defensive side of the court.

Our fans have been incredibly loyal and supportive during these transition years. They deserve better than we have been delivering as of late and it is our full intent to deliver them the kind of competitive team that they expect to see on the court beginning next season,” Gilbert concluded.

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Tracy McGrady has chance to finally advance in playoffs

Tracy McGrady has chance to finally progress in playoffs

Let’s start with the playoff thing. Because that’s where any discussion of Tracy McGrady usually starts, and often ends.

The playoff thing has dogged McGrady at practically every stop of his high-scoring career, whether it’s his six previous NBA destinations or, most recently, to the other side of the world in China.

The 33-year-old swingman signed by the Spurs on Tuesday for the postseason push bears this ignominious distinction: He is the only scoring champion in NBA history never to have won a postseason series.

That fact is a fact, and McGrady has found it to be inescapable.

“I think so much is made (about) I’ve never got past the first round,” McGrady said Wednesday morning after his first practice in San Antonio, “but it takes more than just me.”

Still, the playoff thing is an albatross. Nil-for-eight in previous postseasons, McGrady has been gifted with a chance to exorcise that pockmark from his otherwise sterling NBA résumé, but with a twist.

If the Spurs, seeded second in the upcoming Western Conference playoffs, do advance to the second round this season, McGrady won’t be the one driving them there. He is a passenger, only along for the ride.

— Reported by Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News

Major changes likely coming for Dallas Mavs

Eight or nine players from the Mavs’ final roster will be free agents, depending on whether O.J. Mayo exercises his option to return for a $4.2 million salary or tests the market for the second straight summer. Almost to a man, they say they’d like to be back in Dallas, but that’s not the way the business works.

The Mavs, depending on Mayo’s decision and the salary cap figure the NBA sets, will have somewhere between $13 million and $18.7 million in spending money this summer — unless they create more space with salary-dump deals. They need significant upgrades to have a serious chance of competing at the level they had become accustomed to over the previous dozen seasons.

“I’ve been saying it all season long: It’s a big summer for us,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who is the only player guaranteed to return to Dallas next season. “We’ll see what Mark and Donnie can come up with. They’re always geniuses at making stuff happen. We need a big summer, obviously, to compete again for the championship and not for the eighth seed.”

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Chris Andersen fitting in with Heat

Andersen sports a Mohawk haircut and who-knows-how-many multicolored tattoos, has been known to flap his arms as if they were wings — a nod to his “Birdman” nickname — and can be more than a little intimidating. At first glance, the idea of him fitting into a Heat organization that prides itself on doing everything in a first-class manner might have seemed absurd.

But the Heat looked at the big picture, how another energy-and-effort guy with size and strength would clearly help their chances of winning a second straight title. With that in mind, they offered him a deal, Andersen accepted, and he’s made the Heat look like geniuses for the move ever since.

“He’s perfect. Perfect,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “When you see his production, you get it. When you look at everything that Birdman is, what people say he is and even what he is to a certain extent, it doesn’t match. But when you look at how he plays and the production on the court and what we need, it’s a perfect fit.”

— Reported by the Associated Press

Fate of Pistons coach to be decided soon

Although his team isn’t headed to the postseason, Wednesday’s finale against the Nets offered at least a small bit of good news for Pistons coach Lawrence Frank.

He won’t have to take any more questions from the media about his job status.

He knows it’s out of his hands, and he can only hope that team owner Tom Gores shows patience and gives him a third season on the Pistons’ bench.

“Unfortunately, it’s been too long a talk for too long,” Frank said when asked if it crossed his mind that Wednesday might have marked his final moments as Pistons coach. “It’s been going on for awhile, so it’s not like this just jumped up and it’s news flash.

“Because you have to answer the question every day, it’s something you do give some thought to.”

The answer will come quickly — today, very likely — and indications are strong the odds aren’t with Frank, especially when you consider a strange twist Wednesday night. Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski reported late Wednesday that Frank is demanding the Pistons pick up his fourth-year option for $4 million as a condition for his returning for his third season.

— Reported by Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press

Bobcats finish above Magic in final standings

Combine the Charlotte Bobcats’ 105-98 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers with the Orlando Magic’s loss to the Miami Heat, and the Bobcats top the Magic by a game in the standings.

Small potatoes, maybe. But after going 7-59 last season – worst record in NBA history – 21-61 felt OK Wednesday night.

“Absolutely we wanted to avoid that worst record. It was definitely one of our small goals down the stretch,” said Bobcats co-captain Gerald Henderson (15 points and six assists). “Obviously things didn’t go as well as we hoped, but we played hard.”

“Coming down the stretch, we played as pros.”

True enough. They won six of their last 15, and in doing so might have saved their rookie coach’s job. Nothing has been decided one way or the other, but the relatively strong finish spruces up Dunlap’s short-term resume a bit.

— Reported by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer

Stephen Curry sets new NBA single-season three-point record

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has established a new NBA single-season three-point record with 272 three-pointers made, surpassing the previous record of 269 set by Ray Allen for the Seattle SuperSonics in 2005-06. Curry established the new mark in tonight’s regular-season finale at Portland, connecting on 4-of-11 attempts in a 99-88 Warriors victory over the Trail Blazers. He entered the contest needing one three-pointer to tie, and two to surpass, the previous record. Curry broke Allen’s record despite attempting 53 less three-pointers than Allen did in 2005-06.

Curry, 25, not only led the NBA in three-pointers made in 2012-13, but also finished third in three-point field goal percentage by connecting on 272-of-600 (.453) attempts from long range. The 6-3 guard is the first player in NBA history to hit 250 three-pointers and dish out 500 assists in a single season and is the second player in league history to hit 200-or-more threes in a season on 45 percent-or-better, joining Glen Rice, who did so in 1995-96.

Overall, Curry averaged career highs of 22.9 points (7th in NBA) and 6.9 assists (T-15th) to go with 4.0 rebounds, 1.62 steals and 38.2 minutes (7th) in 78 games during the regular season.

Earlier this season, Curry announced that for every three-pointer made he would donate three life-saving bed nets to the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign, which distributes insecticide-treated mosquito nets to protect families across Africa from malaria. A committed champion of Nothing But Nets since his time at Davidson, Curry’s record-setting season translates to 816 bed nets that will help hundreds families sleep safe from infection.

Grizzlies sign Donte Greene and Willie Reed

The Memphis Grizzlies signed free agent forward Donté Greene as well as forward/center Willie Reed of the NBA Development League’s Springfield Armor to multi-year contracts, the team announced today.

Greene (6-11, 226) comes to Memphis with NBA career averages of 6.1 points, 2.4 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 16.8 minutes in 253 games (82 starts) over four seasons (2008-12) with the Sacramento Kings.

The 25-year-old has missed the majority of the 2012-13 regular season while recovering from a fractured ankle suffered during an offseason workout on Aug. 25. He recently played one game in Puerto Rico for Atleticos de San German of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN).

After leading Syracuse University in scoring (17.7 points) as a freshman, Greene was drafted by the Grizzlies in the first round (28th overall) of the 2008 NBA Draft. Memphis then completed a three-way trade on draft night that sent Greene’s draft rights and a 2009 second round draft pick to Houston in exchange for the draft rights to current Grizzlies forward Darrell Arthur (27th) from Portland. Houston also traded the draft rights to Nicolas Batum (25th) to Portland for the draft rights to Joey Dorsey (33rd) to complete the deal.

Born in Munich, Germany, Greene moved to the United States at the age of three and was named Maryland’s 2007 Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior at Towson Catholic High School in Baltimore, the same high school attended by Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony.

Reed (6-10, 220) joins the Grizzlies after averaging 14.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.77 blocks on .557 shooting in 29.3 minutes in 48 games (30 starts) for Springfield this season. The 22-year-old ranked fifth in the D-League in total blocks (83), posted 12 double-doubles and registered 24 games with multiple rejections in his first season with the Armor.

Reed enjoyed some of his best games this season against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, scoring a D-League career-high 27 points on Feb. 23 before netting 21 points and collecting a D-League personal-best 20 rebounds against Fort Wayne on March 17.

Undrafted in the 2011 NBA Draft, Reed signed as a free agent with the Sacramento Kings on Sept. 21, 2012 but was waived on Oct. 26, 2012. The Kansas City native played two collegiate seasons (2008-10) at Saint Louis University, where he recorded 10.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.69 blocks in 67 games.

The Grizzlies’ roster now stands at 15.

Warriors sign Scott Machado for remainder of season

The Golden State Warriors have signed guard Scott Machado (muh-CHAH-doe) for the remainder of the season, the team announced today. Machado is currently on assignment with the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League, who begin their second round D-League playoff series today against the Austin Toros in Texas.

Machado, 22, was originally signed to a 10-day contract as a GATORADE Call-UP from the Santa Cruz Warriors on April 7. The following day (on April 8) he was assigned to Santa Cruz where he averaged 4.5 points, 2.0 assists and 1.5 rebounds in 18.0 minutes per contest as Santa Cruz swept its first round playoff series against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

Overall this season, Machado appeared in 28 D-League regular-season games combined with Santa Cruz and Rio Grande Valley, averaging 8.9 points 2.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 24.0 minutes per contest.

Knicks bring back center Earl Barron

Rasheed Wallace out, a former Knick back in.

New York Knicks Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations and General Manager Glen Grunwald announced today that the team has signed center Earl Barron for the remainder of the season.

Barron, 7-0, 245-pounds, holds career averages of 4.9 points, on 37.5-percent shooting, and 3.6 rebounds over 14.7 minutes in 123 games (29 starts) over six seasons with Miami, New York, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Portland, Golden State and Washington. He last played in 11 games (one start) for Washington this season, averaging 2.5 points and 3.9 rebounds over 11.1 minutes, before being waived on Dec. 23.

The Clarksdale, MS-native, appeared in seven games (six starts) for New York in 2009-10, averaging 11.7 points and 11.0 rebounds over 33.1 minutes.

Earlier today, the team announced that Wallace has retired from pro basketball.

The NBA regular season ends tonight. The playoffs begin Saturday. The 2-seed Knicks will face the Boston Celtics in the first round.