HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

HEAT Still Waiting On Haslem: Miami HEAT forward Udonis Haslem has been making progress on his injured left foot. In November, Haslem tore ligaments in his foot and has been on the shelf for most of the season.

Over the last few weeks Haslem has returned to on-the-court rehab, and after a sizable amount of court work on the HEAT’s latest road trip, the verdict on Haslem is still unclear, but the HEAT, namely head coach Erik Spoelstra, remain optimistic that Haslem could be ready at some point in the post-season.

"He’s a little sore from the road trip," Spoelstra explained to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald . "He did a lot more work during the road trip than he did the week before."

"I’m not being coy about it. None of us know at this point, until he’s able to go full speed, running, cutting, side to side and contact work. And how his foot responds to that, we won’t know. We’re still a ways from that."

Miami’s "Big Three" of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh all took a little less money in the first years of the deals to create some cap space for the HEAT to re-sign Haslem, who inked a five-year $20 million deal to remain with the HEAT this past summer.

"Getting U.D. back would be a bonus," Wade said. "With that injury, you can’t rush it. Just seeing him get healthy is all we care out. Of course we need him. But at the same time, we improvise. It’s a tough position for him to be in. It’s not [something] you can come back and mess around with."

Haslem who is known around the league as the dirty work guy, who rebounds, plays aggressive physical defense is an obvious missing piece for the HEAT and getting him back for the post season might be extra little bump the HEAT need to be a dangerous playoff team.

"We’re looking forward to him coming back whenever that is, but we want him to be as close to 100 percent," LeBron James said.

"When he’s ready to go, we welcome him with open arms. We’re definitely ready for that No. 40 jersey to be dusted off out of the maintenance room and get back on the floor."

The HEAT have five games remaining on their season and see just two teams with a record above .500.

As things stand today, the HEAT are three full games back from East leading Chicago. The Bulls magic number is three, any combination of Bulls wins and HEAT losses removes Miami from contention for the top spot in the East, however the HEAT are tied with the Boston Celtics for the #2 seed in the East and arguably have the better remaining schedule.

The NBA regular season ends on April 13th, with the first round of the NBA Playoffs set for April 16th, with the schedule of games still to be determined.

Thinking Retirement?:  Detroit Piston big man Ben Wallace will turn 37 in September and when the season comes to a close in Detroit in just under a week, Wallace will have played 15 seasons in the NBA.

Wallace has logged time with five NBA teams. In that span he was named Defensive Player of the Year four times. He has been a NBA All-Star four times and won a NBA championship in 2004.

When the season comes to a close Wallace says he’ll consider whether he’ll return next season.

"My legs may not be as quick, but those hands will always be there," Wallace said to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News.

"When the season is over with, I’ll see how my body feels. See if I can get my strength back. If can help this team, maybe I’ll come back."

"I’d definitely like to honor (the contract)," Wallace said of the $1.9 million he is owed next season. "But I have to do what’s best for me as far as my body.

"My legs are feeling good. Let me run up and down the court a little bit, see if I need to do some more work or sit my butt down."

"There’s no use in going out there, hurting myself," Wallace said. "I’m not getting any younger. My hair doesn’t turn gray, it turns white (laughs)."

On his career Wallace has averaged 6 points and 10 rebounds per game, which hardly reflects what an impactful player he has been, especially in his prime.

Wallace is owed $1.90 million this season, and has one more year worth $1.90 million remaining on the two-year deal signed last summer.

Josh Smith May Sit: Atlanta Hawks’ forward Josh Smith did not play last night in the Hawks’ 97-90 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and it looks like he may end up sitting out the next five games to rest up a bothersome right knee.

Smith, who banged his knee in late February has been dealing with pain and swelling in the knee and with the 5th seed in the East assured, the Hawks are starting to look at the post-season and getting guys rest and healthy for their first round match up with the Orlando Magic.

The Magic win over the Milwaukee Bucks combined with the Hawks loss to the San Antonio Spurs locks both teams into the 4th and 5th seeds respectively, meaning no combination of wins or losses can change their playoff seeding.

"We just want to try to get as much of the swelling out of it as we can and get it as strong as I can before the playoffs," Smith said to Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Hawks acknowledged last night that the move to rest Smith was more precautionary with eye towards the first round of the playoffs, with Hawks’ coach Larry Drew saying if last night’s game were a playoff game Smith would have played without limitation.

Drew wouldn’t say specifically that the Hawks were shutting down Smith, but with nothing left to play for over the next seven days, it’s more likely than not that Josh Smith has played his last meaningful minutes of the 20110-2011 NBA season and that the Hawks are looking more towards the playoffs.

Westphal Doesn’t Agree:  Sacramento forward Omri Casspi in an open letter to an Israeli website voiced his displeasure with his situation with the Kings, suggesting that that were several other teams with interest in his services and that it might be time for a change.

{AUTHOR_BOX}In the letter, Casspi says Kings’ head coach Paul Westphal told him in the final stretch of the season he was going to be trying different lineups and that team oriented play was not something important to the Kings, something Westphal totally disagreed with.

"He’s saying the truth the way he sees it," Westphal said to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. "I don’t agree with in particular his statement that he wants to go to a team where team play is important. Maybe that was lost in translation but that’s kind of a ridiculous statement."

Kings team president Geoff Petrie said it was too early to talk about roster changes, even with five games remaining on the season for the Kings.

Omri Casspi is under contract for next season and while Casspi is not happy, the Kings are taking the stance that they’ll look at the situation this off season but there was no urgency to address Casspi’s frustrations.

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