NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
The Seattle SuperSonics have waived forward Ira Newble. Newble was acquired by the Sonics in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb. 21. He logged 17 minutes in two games for Seattle.
Sonics center Robert Swift met with Dr. Steve Lombardo in Los Angeles yesterday after suffering a torn lateral meniscus in the Feb. 21 game at Portland. Swift will undergo surgery on Tuesday, March 4. He is not expected to return to action this season following surgery.
Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger has been suspended for one game without pay for striking the Chicago Bulls’ Andres Nocioni in the face, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President Basketball Operations.
The incident occurred with 7:10 remaining in the fourth period of Indiana’s 113-107 loss to the Bulls on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at Conseco Fieldhouse. Granger will serve the suspension tonight when the Pacers visit the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.D
InsideHoops.com NewsWire: Philadelphia 76ers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski announced today that the team has waived guard Gordan Giricek. Per team policy, terms of the agreement are not disclosed.
In 12 games with the Sixers, Giricek averaged 3.1 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 9.2 minutes, while shooting 31.7% (13-47) from the floor.
Several Phoenix-area newspapers had reported in recent days that, should the Sixers buy Giricek out, the Suns would be interested in adding him.
I think if the Suns do add him, his playing time would probably be very limited.
The Chicago Bulls announced today the team has assigned rookie forward Demetris Nichols to the Iowa Energy of the D-League.
Nichols (6-8, 216) has appeared in four games with the Bulls since the team claimed him on waivers on Dec. 7, 2007. He has also spent time this season in New York and Cleveland, having appeared in three games with the Cavaliers before his stint with Chicago.
Nichols was originally selected by Portland in the second round (53rd overall) of NBA Draft 2007 after a four-year standout career at Syracuse.
The Atlanta Hawks have signed guard/forward Jeremy Richardson to a second 10-day contract, effective February 28, 2008, according to Hawks Executive Vice President/General Manager Billy Knight.
Richardson has appeared in 6 games with the Hawks, averaging 4.2 ppg in 8.0 mpg (.500 FG%, .556 3FG%).
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has requested waivers on center Theo Ratliff after reaching a contractual buyout agreement. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Several newspapers in Detroit have reported that Ratliff may sign with the Pistons.
“Theo indicated to us that he wasn’t sure of his plans in the future – whether he was going to play or not – and there was an indication that he would not re-sign with us if he did choose to continue playing,” said Timberwolves Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale. “This provides us an opportunity to play our younger post players – Craig Smith and Chris Richard – and give us more time to continue to evaluate them. I cannot say enough about Theo’s professionalism throughout the entire season and we wish him the best of luck in the future.”
Ratliff, in his first season with the Wolves, appeared in 10 games (six starts) for the Timberwolves this season, and posted averages of 6.3 points (.511 FG%), 3.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 21.4 minutes per game. He missed 45 games this year due to soreness in his right knee, and underwent arthroscopic surgery on Dec. 18. The 13-year NBA veteran has career averages of 8.0 points (.497 FG%), 6.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in 689 career NBA contests. The 6-10 center was acquired by Minnesota in a trade with Boston on July 31, 2007.
InsideHoops.com is breaking exclusive news about Houston Rockets point guard Rafer Alston.
It concerns a legal issue from the summer.
It’s no longer a concern.
The story is here.
By DJ Leon Smith
I’ve been a Seattle Supersonics fan pretty much since I’ve been a basketball fan. Back to the days of Michael Cage, watching them draft Shawn Kemp, the first-round heartbreak against the Denver Nuggets, the 1996 NBA Finals… everything. Now, their new owner Clay Bennett, wants to move them to his hometown of Oklahoma City, after essentially holding the team to ransom against the city of Seattle. He wants the city to build a half-a-BILLION dollar stadium, when they built built a new stadium in 1995 and the city has offered to pay for upgrades to the Key Arena. Oh by the way, and the stadium in Oklahoma City is far worse and holds less people than Seattle’s Key Arena.
The worst part about the whole deal? David Stern has sided with Bennett and is letting the whole thing happen – even though one of Bennett’s partners, Aubrey McClendon, admitted they bought the team purely to move them (very smart move, since Seattle is the 14th largest market in the US and OKC is the 45th, meaning less profits for the league and other team owners if the Sonics are moved) after Bennett had been saying for months that they want to keep the team in Seattle and are doing their best to keep them there. McClendon also admitted they don’t mind if the team loses more money in OKC than in Seattle, as long as the team is moved there. This should have been a deal-breaker in itself.
Essentially, because Stern and Bennett are old buddies, he’s prepared to lose millions of dollars and alienate the entire city of Seattle (and every rational NBA fan) by letting them move the team. I’m not even from Seattle, so I’d like to think I’m in an even better position to comment on this because I’m not blinded emotionally by city loyalties, but anyone with half a brain can see this whole situation reeks.
—
DJ Leon Smith is one of Australia’s top DJs and basketball journalists. He’s worked with artists including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Jon and Usher and has also written for every Australian basketball publication and several US magazines, including SLAM and XXL. You can visit him on MySpace here or check out his blog here.
If the playoffs started today, the Celtics, Pistons, Magic and Raptors would have home-court advantage in the East. The bottom four current playoff teams in the conference are the Cavaliers, Wizards, Nets and 76ers.
Close to qualifying for the East playoff spots are the Hawks and Bulls. It’s also possible that the Bucks or Pacers sneak in. On paper I could see those first three teams making it happen. The Pacers don’t seem poised to suddenly improve.
At the bottom of the East are the Bobcats, Knicks and Heat.
Out West, the top four current playoff seeds are the Lakers, Spurs, Hornets and Jazz. They’d have home-court if the post-season began today. The other four teams are the Suns, Mavericks, Rockets and Warriors.
With Yao Ming out for the season it’s quite possible Houston falls out of the post-season.
Very close to qualifying for the playoffs are the Nuggets, just half a game out of the #8 spot held by the Warriors.
The entire West seeding is up for grabs. Although they should fall, the Rockets, at #7, are only 3.5 games behind the Lakers at #1. It’s amazing how close and awesome the competition is.
The Trail Blazers, who did so well earlier in the season, have an outside shot at making the playoffs if several squads mentioned above suddenly forget how to play. If Portland had it in them to dominate for stretches of the season already, maybe they can do it again.
The Los Angeles Clippers today waived point guard Sam Cassell. The official report is here.
It’s too bad that Elton Brand and Shaun Livingston got injured. I’d have liked to see the Clippers this season with those guys alongside the improved Chris Kaman (yes, Brand being hurt did put more responsibility on Kaman’s shoulders, but he also did really get better). They looked like a decent team, but fell off for a bit, and now Cassell is gone. Of course, he’s not the future – Shaun Livingston, if he can recover from serious injury, and meet his potential, is.
If Cassell does wind up signing with the Boston Celtics, I think it’ll work out in a big way. What better backup point guard than a guy like him? He’s a smart player, and a scoring point guard, but he does it in a manner that helps a team. As opposed to scoring point guards that take bad shots and don’t fit into a total team offense.
I assume that on Boston, Rajon Rondo would continue to start and play the bulk of minutes, but Cassell would get plenty of time off the bench. And Cassell will help Rondo improve in practice.