HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

Croatian forward Dario Saric will withdraw his name from the 2013 NBA Draft, his agent Marc Cornstein told ESPN.com on Sunday.

Saric has signed his letter of withdrawal from the draft and Cornstein will deliver it to the NBA on Monday, the deadline for players to withdraw from the draft.

Saric was ranked at No. 11 on our Big Board and was widely regarded as a lottery pick by many NBA GMs and scouts. Saric was under serious consideration from the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Philadelphia 76ers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks.

via Chad Ford of ESPN

If the Wizards want to see Indiana junior swingman and former DeMatha standout Victor Oladipo, they will have to come to him and not the other way around.

According to multiple league sources with knowledge of the situation, Oladipo has declined the Wizards’ invitation to work out at Verizon Center. But Oladipo has given the team the option of watching him work out at DeMatha or another facility in Bowie, where he has been preparing for the NBA draft.

Oladipo grew up in Upper Marlboro but doesn’t expect his career to begin with his hometown team, which already has its backcourt set with John Wall and Bradley Beal. When asked about the possibility of playing for the Wizards during the NBA combine last month in Chicago, Oladipo didn’t sound as if he thought it would be the best fit.

“It would be interesting because they already have John Wall and Bradley Beal,” he said, “but I feel like if I land there, I can make an impact in whatever area they want to, and just help the team win.”

via Michael Lee of The Washington Post

Hakeem Olajuwon remembers the enthusiasm and hard work New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire put into their low-post classes last summer in Texas.

That is why Professor Olajuwon felt terrible when Stoudemire endured an injury-wracked season, playing in just 29 regular-season games and coming back rusty for the Knicks’ final four playoff contests.

That is why the legendary Rockets center can’t wait to get Stoudemire back to his Sugarland, Texas, ranch in August for another weeklong session at Hakeem University, work with him more on his low-post game and get him back to reaching his potential

“He put in so much work, was excited and so confident,” Olajuwon told The Post by phone from his winter home in Amman, Jordan. “To see he didn’t get a chance to really show it, I felt very bad for him. I felt for him this season because of how hard he worked. He looked so much forward to the season but with injuries he didn’t get a chance to show what he learned last summer.”

via Marc Berman of The New York Post

If the Rockets sign a top free agent, their payroll soon would move between the salary cap and the luxury tax, giving them mid-level exceptions, worth roughly $23 million over four years, beginning next summer.

By going over the salary cap this season, they will be able to offer an exception worth $5.4 million over two years, enough that on a team with one of the top free agents they could attract the sort of solid backup wing they would need after trimming the roster to have sufficient cap room for their free-agent pursuit.

The Rockets have told agents for Francisco Garcia, Carlos Delfino and Aaron Brooks that they will not pickup contract options this month. That exception and veteran’s minimums could be used to shift to a much more experienced roster if the Rockets land a top free agent, a plan they apparently will make a significant part of their presentation.

via Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle

Dirk Nowitzki has a vested interest in Mark Cuban’s contributions to SMU to fund a research project on flopping. After all, Dirk’s a flopper. Or at least a seller of fouls. He freely admits as much.

“We’re never going to get rid of it,” he said recently. “But you got to limit it. It’s part of sports. It’s part of winning. Some people are smart and do a little extra thing to kind of sell the call. To me, that’s part of sports. You don’t want the obvious ones, the really, really bad ones. I think we’d love to get rid of those. But if somebody really does get shoved or hit a little bit, just to sell it a little for the referees so it does get the call, I don’t have a problem with that. I think that’s part of the game.”

In other words, Nowitzki is happy to help the referees see what maybe their eyes may have missed in the course of action on the court.

via Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News

The proposed cross-country move of Doc Rivers from the Boston Celtics’ bench to the Los Angeles Clippers’ bench remained in limbo Saturday night because of the teams’ ongoing haggling over prized young guard Eric Bledsoe, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

Sources told ESPN.com that the Celtics will not consent to allow Rivers out of the final three years and $21 million on his contract unless they receive both Bledsoe and Clippers center DeAndre Jordan in a corresponding trade for Boston’s Kevin Garnett, along with at least one future first-round pick as compensation for Rivers.

Yet sources say that the Clippers continue to tell Boston that they will not include Bledsoe in the proposed trade for Garnett, largely because they are determined to keep Chris Paul’s backup to headline a separate down-the-road trade once they’re certain that Paul has committed his long-term future to L.A.

The viability of the trade scenario featuring Rivers and Garnett thus hinges on either the Celtics or the Clippers relenting in the next day or two. Boston is also said to be insisting that the Clippers absorb the contract of either Jason Terry or Courtney Lee to clinch the deal.

via Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN

Spurs guard Tony Parker said Saturday the strained right hamstring that wore him down this week could tear “any time now” heading into Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Miami HEAT But he’s giving no thought to letting the injury properly heal.

“If it was the regular season, I would be resting like 10 days,” Parker said. “But now it’s the NBA Finals. If it gets a tear, it’s life.”

It would also deal a major blow to the Spurs’ chances of winning this title.Yet despite the blunt assessment of his hamstring, the All-Star told reporters he is getting stronger on the eve of San Antonio’s final home game Sunday night. Parker said he is confident, staying disciplined with treatment and still aspires to be “close to 100 percent” by tipoff.

via Associated Press