Good morning. Let’s basketball.
The Kings aren’t *that* ridiculous
Good morning. We have a minor rant on that whole thing and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
OH GOD, THEY TRADED MIKE MILLER: The Cavaliers finally flipped the Brendan Haywood contract, shipping it to Portland along with Mike Miller and two second-round picks. Why? By dumping Miller, who didn’t play much for Cleveland in the playoffs, the Cavaliers will save something like $10 million in salary and taxes. And trading Haywood now grants Cleveland a $10 million trade exception that can be used to acquire a player sometime in the next year. It’s little skin off of Portland’s teeth; Haywood’s contract is unguaranteed if he’s waived by Saturday.
The Miller thing is funny only because the Heat’s waiver of Miller for tax purposes was seen as one reason LeBron James left Miami.
THEY’RE GETTING WARMER: Tim Cato examines the Heat, who look to have the pieces to make a serious run at the East despite missing the playoffs last season.
SPEAKING OF WHICH ... Miami dumped Shabazz Napier on the Magic. It still cracks me up that LeBron essentially convinced the Heat to draft Shabazz with an innocuous tweet, then bolted.
OH, DEAR GOD: Anthony Davis turned down Dancing With The Stars.
WHY A HUSTLE STAT? Jason Concepcion talks to Kiki Vandeweghe about the purpose of the new stat.
HE IS EVOLVED: This is Zach LaVine deciding to intentionally miss a free throw by throwing it off the backboard and then dunking the rebound. How I would love for him to try this in an NBA game.
THE ANKLE WHISPERER: This will be Gary Zitti’s last season as the Lakers’ full-time trainer. He’s been there for Magic and Worthy and Kareem and everyone since. Nice piece by Mike Bresnahan looking back.
MICROPHONE PLUS ONE: Interesting column by Richard Deitsch on how women in televised sports media handle pregnancies.
RIO 2016: An update on this summer’s minicamp and the overall 2016 USA Basketball roster from Marc Stein.
GOD BLESS POP: Gregg Popovich on a female head coach, another openly gay player and, in my favorite quote, being real about America: “In America, we are great at sticking our heads in the sand and being behind the rest of the world in a whole lot of areas. We think we are this big democratic, fair place. But you look at our world now, whether it’s gender-wise or racially or religiously, there’s all kinds of stuff that is not the way it’s supposed to be.”
THIS WILL END TREMENDOUSLY WELL: Leah Still challenges Riley Curry to a Whip Off.
ON THE RISE: Nice piece by Howard Megdal, chatting with Laurel Richie about the status and future of the WNBA she leads.
THE SUPERSTAR WHISPERER: I just noticed that Kendrick Perkins signed with the Pelicans. (I demand an agility test showdown between he and Omer Asik.) It’s funny how Perk will now have played with Durant, LeBron and Anthony Davis. He’s like the Phil Jackson of hard-ass vets.]
A QUICK WORD ABOUT BELIEVING EVERYTHING THAT BOLSTERS YOUR OPINION. The Kings parted with analytics pioneer Dean Oliver recently. On Sunday, Sportando (an outlet that reports heavily on European basketball transactions) reported that Oliver got canned because new boss Vlade Divac thinks analytics are incredibly stupid. Because the Kings have become the joke of the NBA this summer (much of the damage self-inflicted), everyone ate it up. People who have never before cited Sportando ate it up. People who know better ate it up. Why? Because it reinforced what these people think about the Kings. As it turns out, the Kings let Oliver go because Divac instead wants to start fresh in the front office. Both Jason Jones (local beat writer) and Marc Stein reported on Sunday that the Kings are seeking to hire a new analytics director. The lesson? Use your brains when an item too good to be true comes across the wire. If you’re really that thirsty, drink a refreshing glass of water.
Happy Monday. See you next time.
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