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The New Jersey Nets have requested waivers on forward Shawne Williams, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today.
Williams was acquired on January 11 via trade from Dallas along with Kris Humphris in exchange for Eduardo Najera. Currently in his fourth NBA season, Williams has career averages of 5.2 ppg and 2.4 rpg in 126 games with Indiana and Dallas. The former first round draft pick (17th overall) of the Pacers in 2006 has not played in a game this season.
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The New Jersey Nets have acquired forwards Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams from the from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Eduardo Najera, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today.
Humphries, currently in his sixth NBA season, holds career averages of 4.3 ppg and 3.1 rpg in 313 games with Utah, Toronto and Dallas. The 6’9” forward out of the University of Minnesota was the first round pick (14th overall) of the Utah Jazz in the 2004 NBA Draft. After two seasons with the Jazz, Humphries was traded on 6/8/06 to the Toronto Raptors. Following three seasons in Toronto, Humphries was traded to Dallas this past offseason (7/9/09). This season, Humphries has played in 25 games for the Mavericks, averaging 5.6 ppg and 3.8 rpg in 12.6 mpg. He has season highs of 15 points on 11/20 vs. Sacramento and 11 rebounds on 11/27 at Indiana.
Williams, currently in his fourth NBA season has career averages of 7.6 ppg and 3.7 rpg in 15 games with Indiana and Dallas. The former first round draft pick (17th overall) of the Pacers in 2006 has been on the Mavericks inactive list every game this season.
Najera (6-8, 235) will be returning to Dallas after playing his first four professional seasons for the Mavericks. Dallas originally acquired the rights to Najera in a draft night trade with Houston on June 28, 2000. He played in 208 games (34 starts) as a Maverick averaging 4.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per contest. Najera also played in 39 postseason games with Dallas, including 19 games (5 starts) in 2003 when the Mavericks advanced to the Western Conference Finals.
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Several media outlets Friday night reported that the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks are close to agreeing on a trade that will send forward Eduardo Najera back to Dallas, and forward/center Kris Humphiries and forward Shawne Williams to New Jersey.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo and Marc Stein of ESPN are reporting that the deal, if it happens, will likely becoming official Monday.
Wojnarowski also reports something that InsideHoops.com has heard was in consideration for a long time now: The Nets are expected to waive forward Sean Williams.
Najera started his NBA career with the Mavericks in 2000-01, playing in Dallas for four years before bouncing around until he landed with the Nets in 2008. But he was injured last season and very ineffective in the 13 games he’s played this season.
Humphries averages 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 12.6 minutes per game.
Williams is an outcast from Dallas. The team separated itself from the player and has not used him at all this season.
The National Basketball Association announced today that Commissioner David Stern has denied the Dallas Mavericks’ protest of their 116-108 loss to the Houston Rockets on December 18.
In the protest, the Mavericks argued that the referees, following an instant replay review, improperly called a technical foul on Erick Dampier with 1:01 remaining in overtime, which – as his second technical foul – resulted in his ejection from the game.
Commissioner Stern determined that the referees’ decision to assess a technical foul on Dampier was a judgment call, and not a misapplication of the playing rules, which cannot successfully be protested under NBA rules.
The AP reports:
Houston’s Carl Landry was taken to a hospital after breaking teeth in a collision with Dirk Nowitzki during the second quarter of Friday night’s game between the Rockets and Mavericks.
Nowitzki drove into the lane and missed a short jumper with 9:28 left in the second quarter. He was fouled by Landry, who was hit in the mouth on Nowitzki’s follow-through.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
The Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki and the Rockets’ Carl Landry were lost early in the second quarter when Landry cut off Nowitzki on a drive, catching Nowitzki’s right elbow in the mouth, dislodging or breaking parts of five of Landry’s teeth.
Landry was taken to the emergency room and will see an oral surgeon today to determine the extent of the damage. Nowitzki needed 30 minutes for pieces of Landry’s teeth to be removed from his elbow.
After they left, the Rockets answered the Dallas runs as they could not in the previous two meetings this season, won by the Mavericks by an average of 24.5 points after the Rockets had taken early leads. The Mavericks seemed to lose their poise, drawing six technical fouls, some at the worst possible times.
The New Jersey Nets have named Del Harris as an assistant coach, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today. Harris joins Tom Barrise, John Loyer, Roy Rogers and Doug Overton as a member of Interim Head Coach Kiki Vandeweghe’s staff.
Harris, 72, joins the Nets following one season as an assistant with the Chicago Bulls were he helped first-year coach Vinny Del Negro reach the playoffs.
Prior to his time in Chicago, Harris was an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks from 2000-08. During that time, Harris worked closely with Vandeweghe and Nets point guard Devin Harris. Harris brings 50+ years of coaching experience to the Nets including 30+ seasons in the NBA. As a head coach, Harris amassed a career record of 556-457 (.549) in parts of 14 seasons with the Lakers, Bucks and Rockets, reaching the playoffs 11 times. Harris received the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in 1995 after guiding his Lakers to a 48-34 (.585) record, finishing third in the Pacific Division.
Harris also has international coaching experience as he coached Nets forward Yi Jianlian and Team China in the 2004 Olympics, where the team finished eighth out of a field of 12. He also coached seven seasons in Puerto Rico’s National Superior League (1969-75), posting a 176-61 record and winning three national championships (1973-75).
Before entering the NBA ranks, Harris was the head coach of Earlham College from 1965-74 finishing with a 175-70 (.714) record.
The Plainfield, Indiana native attended Milligan College in Tennessee where he played four years of basketball with career averages of 18.0 points and 9.5 rebounds.
Wednesday night in New Jersey the Nets (0-17) are hosting Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks. For New Jersey this is a must-win game if they want to avoid making some very negative history. With no wins and 17 losses coming into the game, if the Nets fall to 0-18 it will mark the worst start of any team in NBA history.
The Nets hung tough in the first quarter, which ended a tie at 28-28.
But then, all heck broke loose. The Dallas Mavericks went bonkers in the second quarter and outscored the Nets 49 to 22. The halftime score is Mavs 77, Nets 50.
For the game, Dallas is shooting 29-of-36 (80.6%) with 7-of-8 three-pointers and a perfect 12-of-12 free throws. Dirk Nowitzki has 13 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. Erick Dampier has 12 points. Jason Kidd has 12 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. Jason Terry is 5-of-5 with 11. Tim Thomas is 4-of-4 with 10.
As a team, the Mavs had 22 first half assists.
For New Jersey, Brook Lopez leads with 12 points. Chris Douglas-Roberts has 10. No Nets player has more than 3 assists or 3 rebounds.
The Nets as a team shot 50% in the first half — a very nice showing. But the Mavs went bonkers and unleashed one of the most unstoppable displays I’ve ever seen.
Eddie Sefko, special to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reports:
The Mavericks survived a scary situation Sunday evening that had nothing to do with a 95-90 win over the Detroit Pistons.
When Erick Dampier left the pregame warmups because he wasn’t feeling right, nobody was quite sure what was happening. Minutes later, with emergency medical personnel working on Dampier, he was whisked by ambulance from the Palace of Auburn Hills to a Pontiac, Mich., hospital.
By the end of the game, the Mavericks received news that Dampier’s symptoms had subsided. No team personnel divulged what those symptoms were, but an NBA official said that doctors had ruled out any serious health issues, including H1N1 (swine flu).
Dampier apparently was lightheaded when he left the arena, but was feeling much better at the hospital, giving the Mavericks a huge sigh of relief.
Glad to hear that Erick is OK.
Marc Stein of ESPN reports:
The incoming NBA Development League franchise in suburban Dallas, co-owned by Dallas Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and scheduled to begin play in the 2010-11 season, has made a bold choice for its first head coach: Nancy Lieberman.
Lieberman, an ESPN television analyst, is poised to become the first woman to be a head coach the D-League, which sent 20 players to the NBA last season and is widely regarded as the most scouted league in the world outside of the NBA.
Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com Nelson’s ownership group has secured approval from the NBA to hire Lieberman to coach the yet-to-be-named team based in Frisco, Texas, which will serve as the Mavericks’ D-League affiliate next season. A formal announcement of her hiring is expected this week, possibly as soon as Wednesday.
Chris Dell of the Dallas Morning News reports:
Former Dallas Mavericks player and current assistant coach Ronald Jerome “Popeye” Jones was arrested Sunday evening in Richardson and accused of drunken driving.
Jones, who played for the Mavericks from 1993 until 1996 and again in 2002-03, was bonded out of jail this morning at about 4 a.m., according to Richardson Police Department public information officer Jonathan Wakefield.
The report went on to say that Jones declined to take the breathalyzer test, which we logically assume is usually only done by someone who has something to hide, unfortunately.