Lots of Scuttle: The D-League Showcase wrapped up several days ago, but whenever the league gathers in one location, lots of juicy rumors are soon to follow. Here are some of the notable nuggets that are out there this week:
Making A Pass At Granger: Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports dropped a couple of interesting notes this weekend, suggesting that the Minnesota Timberwolves made a pass at the Indiana Pacers offering up Al Jefferson for Danny Granger.
Apparently Minnesota's advances on Granger were immediately turned away (add to that the fact Granger is a Base Year Contract player, making him more difficult to move), but the move at least has league sources believing that Al Jefferson could be had for the right price.
Jefferson has three years and some $42 million remaining on his contract and still has not found his groove this season, after missing the bulk of last year to a knee injury. Despite putting up strong numbers this season, Jefferson is well below his career highs of last season.
The belief on Indiana is that they are indeed open for business and would trade just about anyone not named Danny Granger or Roy Hibbert.
UPDATE: Timberwolves' president David Kahn is taking exception to reports that he's been shopping his players, sticking to his line that he's not interested in trading any of his core players this season.
"As I've said publicly," Kahn told ESPN.com, "I have no intention of trading any of our core players this season."
"I spoke to Larry Bird in person Friday in between our shootarounds for 20 minutes and neither player's name was ever mentioned."
Bold Move In San Antonio?: The San Antonio Spurs are not happy or satisfied with where they stand today. League sources said recently that the Spurs made a pass at New Orleans trying to pry away Chris Paul with an offer that included Tony Parker.
The offer was immediately turned away by the Hornets.
However it is interesting to hear San Antonio would consider parting with Parker, but if it returned Chris Paul the move is easy to justify. Parker has one more season remaining on his deal worth $13.6 million and could be one of the top free agent guards in the summer of 2011.
Jamison Wants Out: More than a handful of people near the situation say that Washington Wizards' forward Antawn Jamison is tired of the situation in Washington and may have urged the team to explore trading him.
Jamison is extremely active off-the-court with The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and several youth programs and has been less than pleased with how he has been seen over the last few seasons.
Jamison is the consummate team guy so voicing his own concerns is almost out of character for Jamison, however it should illustrate how bad things have gotten for one of the league's genuinely good guys.
Jamison has been linked to the Cavaliers most recently, however reports say the Cavs offer included the ending contract of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a player the Wizards have zero interest in. If the Cavs can find a taker for Big Z that yields better assets for Washington, a three-team deal is how Jamison gets moved.
The number of would-be suitors for Jamison is likely to be small because of his two remaining contracts years - $13.3 million in 2011 and $15.076 in 2012 – The Cavs do not seem to be concerned about those numbers.
Is 'Sota On The Move?: The Minnesota Timberwolves are reaching that point in their lost NBA season where experimentation and strange lineups may become the norm and for stars Kevin Love and Al Jefferson it may mean time with the Timberwolves second unit, which may not sit well with guys used to starting games.
Wolves head coach Kurt Rambis sent his starters to the bench very early in the game on Saturday versus the Bulls, something he says he may experiment more with as the season moves on.
"I'm just fiddling with things in my mind," Rambis said to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune . "It's not a demotion. It's not a promotion. It's about finding what's best for the team. I'm trying to find the combination so that both units are strong."
Rambis has been using the word "sacrifice" a lot lately, and has been talking up the practice play of Sasha Pavlovic and even new addition Alando Tucker as guys that could see their minutes increase.
There has been a lot of talk among league insiders that both Love and Jefferson may not be as compatible as once believed and that in the triangle offense Rambis has installed in Minnesota those two many not fit quite a seamlessly as Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum fit in L.A., which was supposed to be the blueprint.
For his part, Kevin Love said he wants to remain in the starting lineup, but understands it is not up to him.
"That's up to coach. I feel like I'm better starting the game because I'm loose, my legs are feeling good. I don't know if that will work [coming off the bench], but that's up to Coach and whatever he wants to do."
If the Wolves can find a better rhythm on the floor without Jefferson and Love, it's hard to imagine the Wolves wouldn't explore moving one or both players far more aggressively than they already have been.
Bosh And Bynum? This weekend the venerable Peter Vecsey of the New York Post floated out that he'd been told of the Lakers interest in acquiring Chris Bosh from the Toronto Raptors, going as far as suggesting that the Lakers had offered up the Base-Year Contract of Andrew Bynum to jump start talks.
Vecsey reached out to Raptors' GM Bryan Colangelo for his response to the report, and he said via e-mail to Vecsey:
"For the record, I am not actively seeking a deal or discussing Bosh with any team, much less the Lakers.
"I haven't traded him yet and our position has been the same. We will not make a deal just to make a deal. Our intention is to keep him here long term.
"Additionally, I have not yet offered an extension as Dwyane Wade and LeBron James both received [from their respective teams]. So technically he has not said no.
"I honestly don't think C.B. knows what the future holds, or what he wants to do, so I would say we're still in the game as far as his pending free agency."
Sources close to both teams labeled it as a "pie-in-the-sky" rumor, but when pressed about viability of such a discussion both sides were clear that "if a deal were going to go down, that is the kind of talent that would have to be involved" – Toronto getting a legit All-Star caliber front court player, and the Lakers getting a player that insures more championships.
Lakers' sources were quick to point out that Bosh's salary demands going forward would preclude a deal from going down, while league sources point out that Bynum's base-year status makes him tough to move, even for Bosh.
League sources are adamant that Toronto has not entertained a serious offer for Bosh at this point despite teams trying to pry him away.Virtually every team that has called is saying they have called and they have made offers and been turned away.
Hollins' Extension: The Memphis Grizzlies remain a .500 ball club, which to some is not nearly enough to get excited about in the Western Conference, but for the Grizzlies who have lived in the NBA's under achiever club for years it's a huge milestone.
The Grizzlies are 18-18, and two games behind the 8th seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and have won seven of their last ten games.
The Grizzlies are starting to look good on the floor together. Many of their young guys are starting to look like legitimate NBA stars and the Grizzlies are winning games against winning teams and a lot of the credit is being given to Lionel Hollins, who is in the final year of his contract with the Grizzlies. Something that is about to change.
"I made up my mind that I would start negotiating [with Hollins] after the start of the year," Heisley said to Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal. "I told Chris [Wallace] that back in September. I'm not going to discuss contract negotiations in the paper. But I'm not interested in making any changes. We're going to work on an extension for Lionel. He's earned it."
"Lionel's proved he can coach," Heisley said. "He's connected with the players. He has them playing together and we're winning games."
The Grizzlies have had 12 coaches in their 15-years as a franchise – Hollins having served in the role two times before (in 1999-2000 and in 2004) – so adding some stability for a team headed in the right direction is a smart move.
"It would certainly feel nice to have it done. It would show that I've come in and laid a foundation and built on it," Hollins said of an extension. "It would show that Heisley believes that I'm his guy, so that speaks volumes if we can come to an agreement."
NBA Chats: HOOPSWORLD has two NBA chats today, starting with Bill Ingram at 11am EST. Bill will do his best to answer as many of your questions as possible. HOOPSWORLD's rookie Alex Kennedy will host his weekly NBA chat at his new time of 3pm EST. Both chats fill up fast so getting in early always helps your odds. You can always find the next NBA Chat here: Upcoming HOOPSWORLD Chats.
