Knicks send Jerome Jordan back to D-League

jerome jordan

New York Knickerbockers Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations and Interim General Manager Glen Grunwald announced today that the team has reassigned center Jerome Jordan to the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA Development League.

Jordan, 7-0, 240-pounds, has scored 20 total points and grabbed 15 rebounds over 61 minutes in 13 games with New York this season. He had appeared in two games for Erie earlier this season, averaging 18.0 points on .500 shooting, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.00 blocks over 32.5 minutes.

Mavericks assign Lamar Odom to D-League

Lamar Odom

The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have assigned forward Lamar Odom to the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League.

Odom (6-10, 230) has played in 32 games with the Mavericks and is averaging 7.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 21.4 minutes.  He is shooting .357 (89-249 FGs) from the field, .259 (22-85 3FGs) from 3-point range and .577 (45-78 FTs) from the free throw line. The 12-year pro has missed the last three games due to a family matter.

The Mavericks acquired Odom on Dec. 11, 2011 along with a 2012 second round pick and other second round considerations in 2013 from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a protected first round draft pick.

Odom is scheduled to be in uniform on Saturday, March 3 when Texas battles the Austin Toros on HP Court at Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco at 7 pm.

Cavs assign Manny Harris to second 10-day contract

The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed guard Manny Harris to a second 10-day contract, Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced today.

Prior to being signed by the Cavs, Harris played in 17 games (12 starts) this season with the Canton Charge, the Cavaliers exclusively owned and operated NBA Development League team. Harris averaged 21.4 points on .470 shooting with 7.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals in 32.9 minutes per game with Canton.

Thunder assign Lazar Hayward to D-League

The Oklahoma City Thunder has assigned forward Lazar Hayward to the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti.

During the 2011-12 season, Hayward has appeared in 12 games with the Thunder and posted averages of 1.5 points and 0.9 rebounds in 5.9 minutes. Most recently, Hayward has missed the past six games recovering from an orbital floor fracture.

Hayward will be in uniform tonight as the Tulsa 66ers host the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at the Tulsa Convention Center.

Steve Novak, three-point bomber

steve novak

Shooting 3-pointers is what Novak does. He did it with the Houston Rockets as a rookie in the 2006-7 season, and then with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs. And now, to far more acclaim, he is doing it with the Knicks.

The Elias Sports Bureau says that since Novak has entered the N.B.A., a little more than 72 percent of his shots have been from 3-point range, the highest percentage of any player in the league over that period, based on a minimum of 500 total field-goal attempts.

Most players who are as tall as Novak prefer to take shots closer to the basket. But not Novak. And certainly not this season, when the number of 3-pointers compared with his other field-goal attempts — 113 to 27 — means almost 81 percent of his shots come from behind the arc.

Only the Mavericks’ Jason Kidd is devoting a higher percentage (85) of his shots to 3-pointers this season.

But Kidd has converted just 29 percent of his 120 3-point attempts, nowhere near the 46.9 percent success rate that Novak has had (53 of 113).

— Reported by Jake Appleman of the New York Times

Ramon Sessions’ future may not be with Cavs

Ramon Sessions

If Sessions ever wants to be a starting point guard, however, it probably won’t be in Cleveland. Irving, 19, could be a fixture for years to come.

Sessions has the ability to opt out of his contract at the end of the season. The Lakers, for instance, could trade for him and encourage him to opt out to reduce their luxury tax bill.

Either way, he’ll likely opt out. His contract is worth $4.6 million for 2012-13. He might sacrifice some money next season for the security of a multiyear contract.

Sessions is a luxury the Cavs might not be able to afford right now. They have so many other holes to fill.

— Reported by Bob Finnan of the News Herald

Danny Ainge says Rondo has been best Celtic

Rajon Rondo

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge would not comment publicly on the report that the Celtics are actively shopping Rajon Rondo, who turned in his 16th career triple-double last night in the Celtics’ 102-96 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I do not make comments on trade rumors because it never ends,” he told the Globe this afternoon. “Rondo’s been our best player.”

— Reported by Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe

Dajuan Wagner still hears about his 100-point game in 2001

Dajuan Wagner

The story, not surprisingly, has taken a life of its own over the years. There was the sniping between the coaches and a halftime fight among players – but most of all it just added to the high school legend of Dajuan Wagner.

Wagner scored exactly 100 points for Camden High in a 157-67 win over visiting Camden County Tech on Jan. 16, 2001.

What was bizarre was that it wasn’t even the highest individual scoring effort of the day. Cedric Hensley, of Heritage Christian Academy in Texas, dropped 101 points in a 178-29 rout of Houston’s Baniff School on the same day.

Still, Wagner didn’t need this performance to generate headlines. He was already considered the consensus No. 1 high school player in the country. He had made a commitment to attend the University of Memphis, where he would stay for a year before being the No. 6 overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Now 29, Wagner, who last appeared in an NBA game in 2007 for the Golden State Warriors, says he is hoping to make a comeback after suffering various health problems the last few years.

— Reported by Marc Narducci of the Philadelphia Inquirer

Magic CEO thinks Dwight Howard can be convinced to stay

Dwight Howard
Dwight Howard
Jumps very high

Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins apparently is not going to trade Dwight Howard until every last effort is exhausted to convince him to stay in Orlando.

Martins said on our radio show Thursday that he still believes the Magic can convince Howard that Orlando is the best place for him to win a championship.

“We have a couple of weeks until the trade deadline, which is a critical point on the calendar to determine how we can move forward together,”  Martins said of the ongoing Dwight saga.  “Our conversations with Dwight continue, and I feel good about the conversations we’ve had. … I’ve said all along our reason for not trading Dwight at the beginning of the season is that time would be on our side one way or another. Time would be on our side in the fact that we could work with Dwight to address his needs and ultimately convince him to stay. Or time would work on our side in that if Dwight made the decision that he didn’t want to stay, we would have more time to talk to other teams about what trade possibilities exist.”

— Reported by Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel (Blog)