Rasual Butler arrested

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports: Former Heat forward Rasual Butler was charged Monday with waving a loaded gun at passers-by at about 5 a.m. on Washington Avenue, according to a Miami Beach police report. Butler, 29, who has been with the New Orleans Hornets since being dealt by the Heat in 2005, faces charges of carrying a concealed firearm and improperly displaying a firearm. He was released on $6,000 bond.

InsideHoops.com says: Hey Rasual, that’s a brilliant move! Stand on the street waving a gun around like a crazy idiot! Weeeeeeeeeee!

Hawks add coaches and management staff

The Hawks, who it’s fun to mention made the playoffs last year and took the eventual-champion Celtics to seven games, have added coaches and front office staff.

The team has signed assistant coaches Larry Drew and Bob Bender to new contracts to continue on Mike Woodson’s staff, and named league veterans David Pendergraft and Steve Rosenberry to the Hawks’ Basketball Operations staff.

Pendergraft becomes Atlanta’s new Assistant General Manager/Director of Player Personnel, while Rosenberry will serve as Director of Pro Personnel/College Scouting.

Drew and Bender, each of whom concluded their fourth seasons on the Hawks staff, will return as assistants to Woodson as the franchise seeks to improve upon a first-round playoff berth which culminated with a seventh game defeat at the hands of the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics.

To learn more about all these guys, read this.

As for the Hawks in general, maybe they should look into taking the route the Celtics did and see about trading a bunch of young guys for a top star that isn’t going anywhere with their current team and can use a change. The bad news is, off the top of my head I can’t really think of anyone they could do this with. Can you? If so, post about it on our board.

Nuggets suspend Carmelo Anthony 2 games

The Denver Nuggets have suspended forward Carmelo Anthony for the first two games of the 2008-09 regular season, Nuggets Vice President of Basketball Operations Mark Warkentien announced today. Anthony was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol on April 14 and is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.

“We take drinking and driving very seriously,” said Warkentien. “Carmelo admits he made a serious lapse in judgment and has expressed his sincere remorse numerous times since to the Nuggets organization, his fans and the Denver community. We will continue to support Carmelo as he strives to live up to the high expectations set by Carmelo himself and the Nuggets organization on and off the court. We will respect the legal process moving forward and continue to handle the matter internally without further comment.”

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Nets hire Doug Overton as assistant coach

The New Jersey Nets have named Doug Overton as an assistant coach, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today. Overton joins Brian Hill and Tom Barrise as a member of Head Coach Lawrence Frank’s staff.

“We are very pleased to add Doug to Coach Frank’s staff,” said Thorn. “He was a player who conducted himself with a great deal of professionalism for 11 seasons in the NBA, and his addition will be an asset to both our players and coaches.”

Overton had served as an assistant coach on Phil Martelli’s staff at Saint Joseph’s during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 campaigns. Prior to his stint at Saint Joseph’s, the Philadelphia native spent the 2005-06 season as the Director of Player Development for the Philadelphia 76ers, where he assisted the coaching and scouting staffs and worked with the team’s community outreach programs.

An 11-year NBA veteran, Overton spent three different stints with the Nets (1998-99, 2000-01 and 2003-04) averaging 6.0 points and 2.8 assists in 26 games. In 499 career games with seven teams (Washington, Denver, Orlando, New Jersey, Boston, Charlotte Hornets and Philadelphia), Overton averaged 4.5 points and 2.1 assists.

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Pistons coach Michael Curry has his assistants

New Pistons head coach Michael Curry now has his assistants.

Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars announced today that the team has signed Darrell Walker, Pat Sullivan and Harold Ellis as assistant coaches.

See more info here.

The big question for Detroit is what their roster will look like last year. I was surprised that Flip Saunders got fired. The team had a terrific regular season, and they were better than everyone in the East except the team that wound up winning the league championship. It’s not like they lost to the Hawks or Wizards or something. But still, management seems to feel change has to happen, and Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups, two guys getting up there in age a little, are still the favorites to go, if any of the core does get sent away.

Heat waive Alexander Johnson

The Miami Heat announced today that they have requested waivers on forward Alexander Johnson.

Johnson signed with the HEAT as a free agent on August 24, 2007, and appeared in 43 games (six starts) for Miami during the 2007-08 season. He averaged 4.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game.

Jeff of InsideHoops.com says: On paper, Johnson is one of those guys that could easily fall out of the league, but I’ve seen him enough to think that he honestly belongs on an NBA roster and can help a squad off the bench. He’s worth signing.

Draft Green Room players

The Draft prospects invited by the NBA for the annual day-before-draft special media session (the players who are also invited to the Draft’s ‘Green Room”) are: Joe Alexander (West Virginia), Darrell Arthur (Kansas), DJ Augustin (Texas), Jerryd Bayless (Arizona), Michael Beasley (Kansas State), Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Eric Gordon (Indiana), DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M), Brook Lopez (Stanford), Robin Lopez (Stanford), Kevin Love (UCLA), OJ Mayo (USC), Anthony Randolph (LSU), Derrick Rose (Memphis), Brandon Rush (Kansas) and Russell Westbrook (UCLA).

Bucks have a few contract issues

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Michael Hunt) reports: A tad more than $16 million, or almost 30% of the Bucks’ payroll, is committed this season to Bobby Simmons and Dan Gadzuric. To unload those contracts, the Bucks would have to take back roughly $16 million in salaries of players who have most likely been likewise financial drains on their franchises in hopes that the changes might do somebody good. Michael Redd and Mo Williams do not represent dead-money contracts, but they are scheduled to make almost $24 million between them this season. That’s about 40% of the payroll wrapped up in a backcourt that does not work well together. So you can see how creative Hammond is going to have to be to dig the Bucks out of this financial hole, and that’s not even to mention a resolution of the Yi Jianlian-Charlie Villanueva overlap, mostly because Villanueva’s rookie contract against his production would make him easy to move, should the Bucks opt to go that way.

Pat Riley almost drafted Kaman over Wade

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Ira Winderman) reports: Pat Riley, you see, was leaning toward selecting Central Michigan center Chris Kaman with the No. 5 pick that night. “I looked at him as a little bigger Dave Cowens. And I thought he would develop into a real good interior scorer, rebounder, which he has,” Riley said in a reflective moment recently. “That particular draft, we definitely were in need of a post-up presence, of an inside presence.” While Riley was looking out for a power rotation rocked by the kidney illness of center Alonzo Mourning, his staff was looking out for its leader. The Riley cabinet, which included General Manager Randy Pfund, wanted Wade. Revisionist history offers the tale of Riley, on a treadmill in Milwaukee months earlier, being smitten by the performance of Marquette’s Wade during the NCAA Tournament. But at the 11th hour, there still was need for convincing.

Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer probably making Olympics roster

The Salt Lake Tribune (Ross Siler) reports: The official announcement won’t come until Monday, but USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo all but confirmed Friday that the Jazz’s Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams will be making the trip to Beijing as members of the Olympic team.    “They are two highly thought-of candidates to be on the team,” Colangelo said in a phone interview with The Tribune. “We’ve said that all along, but we’re not pre-announcing anything.”    Colangelo confirmed that he would be keeping three point guards on the U.S. roster – expected to be Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Williams – and said he was still in the process of notifying players who were going to be on the 12-man team.