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Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News reports:
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The Pistons’ coaching search goes on, and Mike Woodson is in town Monday to meet with team president Joe Dumars.
Woodson, the former Atlanta Hawks coach and one-time Pistons assistant, is considered the front-runner for the job due to his success with the Hawks…
The Pistons have already interviewed Lawrence Frank and Kelvin Sampson. Minnesota Timberwolves assistant and former Piston Bill Laimbeer will interview for the position Wednesday.
Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News reports:
It’s been a whirlwind the last several days for Dallas Mavericks’ lead assistant Dwane Casey.
Last week, the Mavericks claimed their first title. Casey helped celebrate with all of his team once they got back to Dallas later in the week.
And Casey also had what appears to be a successful job interview with Toronto general manager Bryan Colangelo.
Enough that the Dallas Morning News is reporting that Casey will be named the Raptors’ new head coach, perhaps as soon as later this afternoon.
Casey interviewed with the Raptors twice over the last several days. He apparently has beaten out Boston lead assistant and former New Jersey head coach Lawrence Frank.
Euroleague.net reports:
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Euroleague newcomer Unics Kazan (in Russia) loaded up its frontline with the signing of center Australian center Nathan Jawai, who comes off a strong Euroleague debut season with Partizan Belgrade. Jawai (208, 24) averaged 9.1 points and 5 rebounds in 16 Euroleague games with Partizan last season, which was his first in Europe. He contributed 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in the Adriatic League in helping Partizan lift that title as well as the Serbian League and Serbian Cup crowns. Before joining Partizan, Jawai spent two seasons in North America, suiting up for Minnesota and Toronto in the NBA and Sioux Falls and Idaho in the NBDL.
InsideHoops.com editor says: The 6-10, 280-pound Australia native is a likeable bloke who played for the Toronto Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves between 2008 and 2010, averaging 2.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game during his brief NBA stint.
Euroleague.net reports:
One of the signature stars and true gentlemen of the Euroleague over the last decade, Trajan Langdon of CSKA Moscow, announced his retirement from basketball on the club’s website Saturday. Langdon was a two-time Euroleague champion, in 2006 and 2008, and a three-time runner-up. He was the 2008 Final Four MVP and leaves the competition ranked fifth all-time in three-pointers made (339) and sixth in both scoring (2,178 points) and steals (216). He made his announcement two days after helping CSKA to its ninth consecutive Russian League crown. “Eight out of my nine years in Europe, I have been able to end the season with a win, which means that I’ve been a champion, and in each of my six years here at CSKA, I have been able to end my season with a win, so being able to do so to end my career is very special,” Langdon said in an interview on the club website. “It’s been an incredible run here, my six years here with CSKA, and something I will never forget.”
Langdon, 35, joined CSKA in 2005 and was one of the team leaders since. He won the Euroleague in his very first season with CSKA, at Prague in 2006, ending the club’s 35-year drought without a continental trophy. They returned to win again in 2008 in Madrid, with Langdon raising the MVP trophy, too, a short time after he had become a father for the first time.
Euroleague.net reports:
The Turkish Airlines Euroleague runner-up Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv keeps adding to its roster for he 2011-12 season with the signing of promising guard Jon Scheyer on a two-year-contract. Sheyer (1.96 meters, 23 years old) made a name for himself as a college star at Duke University, which he led to the 2010 NCAA title. He was named a consensus second-team All-American after his senior season, when he averaged 18.2 points, 4.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds. He finished his career as Duke’s top-ranked player ever in games played, with 144. He also made Duke’s career top-ten list in scoring, three-pointers made, free throws made, steals and minutes played.
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Washington Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld announced today that the team has picked up contract options on four players and extended qualifying offers to four restricted free agents.
The Wizards have picked up the third-year options on the rookie contracts of Trevor Booker, Jordan Crawford, Kevin Seraphin and John Wall.
In addition, the team has extended qualifying offers to restricted free agents Othyus Jeffers, Hamady Ndiaye, Larry Owens and Nick Young.
The AP reports:
Kurt Rambis has been waiting two months for an answer about his coaching future with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It turns out he had some homework to do before team President David Kahn could make a decision.
Kahn said on Friday that he asked Rambis to write an extensive, detailed report about his team and the changes he would make if he comes back for a third season as head coach. Kahn said he asked Rambis to complete the report in mid-May, and the coach turned it in last weekend, setting up a series of meetings this week.
Kahn and Rambis met for four hours Thursday night and were scheduled to meet for another few hours Friday.
Kahn hired Rambis away from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009, signing him to a four-year contract to start a massive rebuilding project in Minnesota. Rambis has won just 32 games in his first two seasons as coach — with 132 losses — and the Wolves finished last season with a 15-game losing streak that dropped them to the worst record in the NBA.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has signed Ricky Rubio, the fifth overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, to a multi-year contract. Rubio joins the Wolves following a decorated professional career in Spain that began when he was just 14 years old, the youngest ever to compete in the Spanish ACB League, and culminated with his FC Barcelona Team winning the 2011 ACB Championship earlier this week. Per team policy, terms of the contract offer were not disclosed.
“This is a day our organization and our fans have been eagerly awaiting from the moment we drafted him, and I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Ricky to Minnesota,” said David Kahn, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations. “Ricky’s skill set and feel for the game have made him one of the best young players in Europe for six years now, and at age 20 he’s still a young player with a lot of upside. I expect Ricky to enjoy a long and successful career here in Minnesota.”
Rubio and his FC Barcelona team clinched the 2011 ACB Championship on Tuesday, capping a two-year run in which the team also won two Catalan Cup Tournaments, two Spanish Supercups, two Spanish King’s Cups and the 2010 Euroleague title. Along the way Rubio earned All-ACB honors and was named the league’s Best Point Guard following the 2009-10 season. Rubio was also honored as the MVP of the 2009 Catalan Cup Tournament and won the 2010 Euroleague Rising Star Award as the best player under the age of 22 in Europe. In his two seasons with FC Barcelona, Rubio appeared in 68 regular season games, averaging 5.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.85 steals in 21.6 minutes per game.
Prior to joining FC Barcelona, Rubio played four seasons with DKV Joventut Badalona, where he averaged 7.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 20.3 minutes per game. Rubio won FIBA Europe’s Young Player of the Year award in each of his final three seasons with Joventut, honoring him as the top player in Europe under the age of 22. He was also selected as the ACB Defensive Player of the Year in 2009.
A longtime member of the Spanish National Team, Rubio competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, helping Spain win a silver medal. At age 17, Rubio was the youngest player ever to compete in the gold medal game at the Olympics. Rubio also led his Spanish team to the 2006 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship, where he averaged 22.3 points, 12.8 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 6.5 steals per game. Rubio posted two triple-doubles and a quadruple-double during the tournament, including a 51-point, 24-rebound, 12-assist, 7-steal performance in the championship game against Russia.
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X-rays taken yesterday at the UC Davis Sports Medicine Clinic revealed that Sacramento Kings forward Jason Thompson has a non-displaced sesamoid bone fracture in his right great toe. He will wear a walking boot for approximately four to six weeks, at which time Thompson will be re-evaluated.
Thompson, a three-year NBA veteran, averaged 8.8 points (.507 FGs, .605 FTs), 6.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game through 75 contests, of which he started 39 this past season for the Kings.
Nathan Vardi of Forbes reports:
Chris Sheridan, a basketball writer for ESPN, sued basketball columnist Peter Vecsey and NYP Holdings, claiming they “published a maliciously false article” that impugned “Chris Sheridan’s veracity and competence as a journalist.”
Vecsey’s article argued that the New York Knicks did not have a good chance of obtaining basketball player Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets and called Sheridan’s reporting the “latest fairy tale” derived from the “same fountains of misinformation that frequently play make-believe with ESPN’s Chris Sheridan.” Sheridan had reported on ESPN.com two days earlier that if Anthony were to be traded from the Nuggets, he would only agree to sign a contract extension if he was traded to the Knicks. Sheridan cited an anonymous source…
Sheridan claims that Vecsey was motivated by his “historic malice towards Mr. Sheridan” and “fabricated an entirely false and sustained tirade against Mr. Sheridan.” Sheridan claims he demanded a retraction from Vecsey and the New York Post on April 7, but that they did not respond.