Category: General NBA insight

Forward Ronnie Brewer says he has taken a physical to sign with the Houston Rockets.

The 28-year-old free agent forward tells KRIV-TV of Houston that he has agreed to a two-year contract with the Rockets.

The 6-foot-7, 225-pounder out of Arkansas would be entering his eighth year in the NBA.

Reported by the Associated Press

Among center Dwight Howard’s demands when he met with the Los Angeles Lakers before signing with the Houston Rockets were quieting or releasing star Kobe Bryant and firing coach Mike D’Antoni.

Comcast Sports Net Bay Area reported that Howard wanted the Lakers to either “muzzle” Bryant or amnesty him. Howard did not see eye-to-eye with the hyper-competitive Bryant.

Howard also wanted the team to cut ties with D’Antoni. It has been reported by several media outlets that Howard did not get along with D’Antoni and did not fit in with his high-tempo offense.

— Reported by the Sports Xchange

Miami Heat star LeBron James has evidence that he is trying to establish some chemistry with recently-signed center Greg Oden.

James posted a photo on Instagram of him and Oden working out in a weight room.

Oden, a former No. 1 draft pick who has not appeared in an NBA game since 2009 because of knee problems, signed a two-year deal with the Heat this summer.

— Reported by the Sports Xchange

Dean Meminger, the former Marquette guard who played a reserve role on the New York Knicks’ 1973 NBA championship team, was found dead Friday in a Manhattan hotel room. He was 65.

New York City police said staff at the Hamilton Heights Hotel found Meminger unconscious and unresponsive inside a room and emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead. Police said there were no signs of trauma and that the cause of death hadn’t been determined. They said an investigation is ongoing.

”We want to thank everyone for their prayers and condolences during this difficult time for our family,” Meminger’s family said in a statement. ”Dean ‘The Dream’ Meminger touched the hearts of so many on and off the basketball court. Through basketball and education, he helped countless people around the country receive scholarships, high school and college admissions, and even employment.”

Reported by the Associated Press

OAKLAND, CA – The Golden State Warriors have signed free agent guard Seth Curry to a contract, the team announced today. It is likely not a guaranteed contract. Curry probably must still fight to make the actual regular season roster. But we have not confirmed this.

Curry, 23, went undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft following his senior season at Duke University in which the 6-2 guard averaged a team-leading 17.5 points to go along with 2.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 32.3 minutes over 35 games.  He ranked second in the ACC in scoring and three-point percentage (.438), earning First-Team All-ACC honors and Second-Team All-America recognition from The Sporting News.  In four NCAA Tournament games, he averaged 21.0 points per contest, including a 29-point effort in a Sweet 16 victory over Michigan State.  On April 15, 2013, Curry underwent surgery on the right lower leg injury that he played on throughout the 2012-13 campaign, an injury that kept him out of a majority of the team’s practices during the season.

A native of Charlotte, NC, Curry enjoyed a three-year career at Duke in which he averaged 13.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 29.1 minutes in 106 games (86 starts).  He closed his Duke career ranked third on the school’s all-time list in three-point percentage (.420), fifth in free throw percentage (.825) and eighth in three-pointers made (223).  Prior to transferring to Duke, Curry began his college career at Liberty University in 2008-09. At Liberty he earned Big South Freshman of the Year honors after averaging 20.2 points per game, which was the highest scoring average in the country amongst freshmen.

Seth is the younger brother of fifth-year Warriors guard Stephen Curry.  In 2012-13, the duo became the highest scoring brother tandem in NCAA history, finishing their college careers with a combined 4,736 points (Seth – 2,101 points at Liberty and Duke; Stephen – 2,635 in four years at

Phoenix Suns rookie Alex Len, the fifth overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, expects to be ready when the team opens training camp as he recovers from ankle surgery, the Arizona Republic reported.

The 7-foot-1 Len has had surgery on both ankles and will miss all of the summer-league action.

Len had been wearing a boot, but he has been out of the boot for a week.

Reported by the Sports Xchange

Seattle billionaire Chris Hansen says he regrets funding a secretive effort to block a new downtown arena for Sacramento’s professional basketball team.

Hansen’s involvement was disclosed by California’s campaign watchdog Friday.

He issued a statement saying he ”made a mistake” by giving a Los Angeles law firm $100,000. The firm secretly funneled $80,000 to a group gathering signatures to force a public vote on the arena plan.

The Fair Political Practices Commission sued to learn Hansen’s identity.

Reported by the Associated Press

The Milwaukee Bucks, who lost guards Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings during the offseason, signed center Larry Sanders to a four-year, $44 million extension of his rookie deal, Yahoo! Sports reported.

Incentive bonuses could add as much as $4 million to the deal.

The 6-foot-11 Sanders is best known for his defense, averaging 2.8 blocks per game.

He also averaged 9.8 points and 9.5 rebounds.

Reported by the Sports Xchange

Monta Ellis says he had to do ”60 percent of everything” in Golden State and Milwaukee.

Since the new Dallas Mavericks guard might use that to explain why he shot an alarmingly low 29 percent from 3-point range last season, he’s about to find out if a little help will make any difference.

That’s because new backcourt mate Jose Calderon wants to be the facilitator for Ellis and Dirk Nowitzki and everyone else on a roster that is going through its third makeover in as many seasons.

”Maybe not going to be fancy passes for me,” Calderon said with a smile. ”Just effective. That’s what I do.”

Ellis and Calderon were among seven free agents introduced in Dallas on Thursday. The list included an old Maverick in Devin Harris, who started his career in Dallas as a top five pick nine years ago, and a returning one in Brandan Wright, who figures to be the backup to another newcomer in Samuel Dalembert.

Reported by the Associated Press

His title is NBA president of basketball operations — essentially, the No. 4 man in the league, replacing Stu Jackson — and his duties will be a bit different this go-round.

The reason is manpower and global reach: “When I left, we had maybe 11 or 12 people, and now … well, I haven’t counted them yet,” Thorn says. “But it involves all game operations, referees, scheduling, analytics and everything overseas, which has grown enormously. So it’s the same things, only a lot more of it.”

Yet, in some ways, it could be easier than the last time, when he spent hours a day watching videos of players gone wild, and being the arbiter in a daily game of crime and punishment.

“Nowadays,” Thorn says without amusement, “I think we have two or three people that just watch out for things like uniform violations.”

Reported by Dave D’Alessandro of the Newark Star-Ledger