The Lakers and Magic have had talks about a possible deal, and plan to talk further about constructing a trade. No deals are imminent, and the process has remained fluid as teams have begun to inquire with more serious offers for Howard.
Sources say there is one other trade scenario for a significant player that intrigues Magic general manager Rob Hennigan, but that target is unclear. Before the Magic would agree to consummate a trade for Bynum, they would need to know they could sign him to a contract extension, sources said. Bynum is entering the final year of his contract in the 2012-13 season.
What’s more, Bynum wouldn’t nearly be enough to satisfy Hennigan’s desires for a return on Howard. The Lakers would need to send draft picks and absorb long-term money off the Magic’s payroll, sources said.
[Related: Hawks trade Joe Johnson to Nets; send Marvin Williams to Jazz]
The Lakers offered Bynum to the Magic for Howard at the March trade deadline, but the deal never materialized because Howard eventually waived his early termination option for this summer, and Orlando pulled Howard off the market.
The Magic are in no rush to make a deal for Howard, sources said. Howard is rehabilitating from back surgery in Los Angeles, and it’s unclear whether he would even be ready for the start of the regular season in November.
However positively the Magic feel about Bynum, they still need the Lakers to take back one of their expensive veteran contracts – Hedo Turkoglu or Jason Richardson – as part of any proposed trade. With Bynum, Orlando could use cap space to quickly retool its roster around him and become an Eastern Conference contender. Bynum is coming off his best season for the Lakers, averaging 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds. Still, his immaturity at times left Lakers coaches and officials unsettled about his disposition to be an every-night dominant player.
Howard told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday night that, ”There's only one team on my list and if I don't get traded there, I'll play the season out and explore my free agency after that.” Howard told Yahoo! Sports that he requested a trade during the season, and repeated that request again on Friday in a meeting with Hennigan in Los Angeles.
Nevertheless, the Lakers believe that once they bring Howard into their winning culture, the Hollywood celebrity scene and tradition of great centers, that there’s no team elsewhere offering salary-cap space to sign him in 2013 that could get Howard to leave for less money than they could offer him with his Bird Rights. The Lakers have wanted to know that Howard would sign an extension should they trade for him, but with the Nets' salary cap space gobbled up, the chances of Howard agreeing to a deal will likely increase dramatically.
[Also: Anthony Davis to likely miss Olympics after injuring ankle in workout]
Howard’s next Adidas deal will be worth significantly more money – perhaps even double – if he’s playing in the major market of Los Angeles or New York, sources told Yahoo!
The Magic have continued discussions with the Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets, but aren’t enamored with the possibilities of players and picks that those teams can offer. Orlando likes Brook Lopez, but the prospects of paying the restricted free agent near a max contract is unappealing. Power forward Kris Humphries holds no appeal to Orlando, and a third team would be needed to give him a multiyear contract in a sign-and-trade deal.
The Lakers had been on Howard’s initial list of three preferred teams – along with Brooklyn and Dallas – but eventually dropped off. Part of the reason has been the frayed relationship between Howard and Kobe Bryant. Those two stars had a contentious phone conversation over a year ago about Howard’s potential offensive role with the Lakers, sources said, and there’s been an uncertainty between both about how they would co-exist on the floor.
Nevertheless, Bryant and Howard do have history together with Team USA, and there’s a belief among those who know them that the bond of chasing a title would ultimately bring them together.
“They would fight for the first week of training camp, and then be best buddies by the start of the preseason games," one league source who knows both Bryant and Howard well told Yahoo! Sports. "They need each other to win.”
After spending the past 16 months recruiting Deron Williams, the Nets met with their free-agent superstar point guard yesterday to give him one last sales pitch.
Part of that sales pitch was acquiring six-time All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson from the Hawks. The trade, which won’t be official until July 11, when the moratorium on signing free agents has been lifted, includes the Nets sending several players with expiring contracts — guards Anthony Morrow and Jordan Farmar, forward Jordan Williams and center Johan Petro — to Atlanta, along with a sign-and-trade of guard DeShawn Stevenson and Houston’s lottery-protected first-round pick in next year’s draft.
“We have to get some veterans,” Williams said at his season-ending press conference in April. “Guys that know how to play the game of basketball, make the right plays, extra passes. That was the most frustrating part of this year.”
With Johnson in the fold, the Nets could show Williams a blueprint for a team he could pilot to be very competitive in the Eastern Conference this fall, when the team begins play in Brooklyn in the brand new Barclays Center. Besides Williams, Johnson and Wallace, the Nets also will match any offer for restricted free-agent center Brook Lopez and also are planning on using their mid-level exception to land Bosnian power forward Mirza Teletovic, who has range out to the 3-point line.
In addition, the Nets held on to MarShon Brooks, who is coming off a successful rookie season, and Gerald Green, whom they hope to re-sign in free agency. They also have the $1.9 million bi-annual exception to spend on free agents and can use a pair of small trade exceptions as well.
The Nets’ meeting with Williams yesterday came after the point guard sat down with the Mavericks earlier in the afternoon. Dallas always has been seen as the one team that could possibly pry Williams away from Brooklyn, thanks to the combination of offering him a chance to play alongside star power forward Dirk Nowitzki and to return to his hometown.
But the Nets are the only team that can offer Williams a five-year max contract, which would guarantee Williams roughly $100 million, and he would be the unquestioned face of the franchise as it makes the move to Brooklyn. The Mavericks, or any other team, could only offer him four years for about $75 million.
Money was a major reason why Atlanta was shopping Johnson, despite his talent. The 6-foot-7 swingman is owed roughly $90 million dollars over the remaining four years of his contract — a deal the Hawks agreed to just two summers ago in order to keep him from signing with the Knicks, where he would have been reunited with Mike D’Antoni and Amar’e Stoudemire, his coach and teammate in Phoenix before leaving for the Hawks several seasons earlier.
The move also means the Nets are likely out of any further discussions for Magic center Dwight Howard, whom they have chased since the lockout ended last year in the hopes of pairing him with Williams. Howard repeatedly has made it clear he would like to be traded to the Nets, but their window to land Howard all but closed back in March, when he inexplicably opted into the final year of his contract in the hours leading up to the March 15 trade deadline, keeping him out of free agency this summer.
The Memphis Grizzlies have made qualifying offers to restricted free agent forwards Marreese Speights and Darrell Arthur.
Speights averaged 8.8 points and 6.2 rebounds in 60 games last season after being acquired from Philadelphia in January.
Arthur missed the 2011-12 season because of a torn right Achilles. His career average is 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Memphis can now match any offer Speights or Arthur gets from another team.
Mo Williams will be reunited with the Utah Jazz as part of a four-team deal that will send Lamar Odom back to Los Angeles for a second chance with the Clippers.
William's agent, Mark Bartelstein, initially told The Associated Press the deal was finalized about 3:45 p.m. MDT Friday, and the Jazz and Clippers officially announced it in releases three hours later.
The deal initially was believed to involve only three teams, but a fourth, the Houston Rockets, got involved after Thursday's draft. The Rockets received the rights to the Clippers' 53rd overall pick, Furkan Aldemir, and the Jazz sent the team's trade exception to Dallas. The Mavs also received cash considerations from Houston.
Williams must pass a physical but is expected to hold a news conference in Salt Lake City on Monday or Tuesday.
The Jazz drafted Williams in 2003 but allowed him to leave after one season, a decision that general manager Kevin O'Connor said was the worst he ever made.
Dallas faced a Friday deadline on a $2.4 million buyout of Odom's $8.2 million option for next season.
Williams' decision to exercise his $8.5 million player option cleared the way for the deal.
''He's really excited,'' Bartelstein said. ''This is where his career started. They've got a terrific young team. He thinks he can come in and bring real leadership. He's excited about that. They made it clear how much they wanted him. They did a good job of recruiting him.''
Williams played in 57 games as a rookie before going to Milwaukee. He eventually became a starter and was an All-Star as recently as 2009.
Asked to recall the amount he let Williams leave Utah for, O'Connor on Thursday night shook his head and said, ''It wasn't that much.''
Bartelstein, who has several other players on the team, found it hard to fault the Jazz.
''Mo was a really young player at that time,'
' he said. ''Kevin has wanted him back for a long time. Now, he's got him back. I think it's a great fit.''
Anthony Davis hugged his college teammate, hugged his coach, and climbed on stage as the No. 1 pick.
Turns out, that was just the start of Kentucky's party at the NBA draft.
The Wildcats became the first school to have the top two picks and tied a record with six players taken overall Thursday night.
After the New Orleans Hornets made the long-expected selection of Davis, Charlotte followed by taking fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Saying he was nervous even though his selection was no surprise, Davis shared an embrace with Kidd-Gilchrist, seated at a nearby table.
''My arm was shaking and my hands were sweaty. Got up and hugged Michael, my best friend, wanted to hug him for a minute,'' Davis said. ''When my name got called, wanted to make sure he stayed close.''
He did - following Davis as the next player to climb up and shake Commissioner David Stern's hand.
''It's crazy,'' Davis said moments after Kidd-Gilchrist's selection. ''Michael is a great player. We have two down and four more to go. Hopefully, all of them will go in the first round.''
They didn't, the only disappointment for the Wildcats. They settled for four in the first round and a tie with North Carolina, which won the race to four picks - all in the top 17 selections.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are trying hard to land Pau Gasol.
If they have to part with the highest draft choice in franchise history after just one season, the Wolves appear ready to do it.
That much became clear leading up to the NBA draft on Thursday, when Minnesota offered Derrick Williams in hopes of landing the second pick from the Charlotte Bobcats to help get Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers, two people with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press.
The people requested anonymity because the talks were meant to remain private. The deal never came together before the draft began, and the Bobcats stayed at No. 2 and took Kentucky forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
The Timberwolves are expected to continue their pursuit of Gasol in hopes of putting him with fellow Spaniard Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love on a revamped roster aimed at returning the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
The Wolves' interest in Gasol has long been rumored, with the highly skilled big man considered an ideal fit for coach Rick Adelman's corner offense, and the kind of playoff-tested veteran needed on one of the youngest rosters in the NBA. He's close friends with Rubio, the Wolves' superb young point guard who is recovering from a torn ACL and hopes to be ready early next season.
Gasol has teamed with Kobe Bryant to win two titles in Los Angeles, but always seemed to catch the brunt of the criticism when things went wrong.
That happened again this year when he averaged just 12.5 points along with 9.5 rebounds in the playoffs, and the Lakers were eliminated in the second round by the younger, quicker Oklahoma City Thunder. He often appeared to get lost in the shuffle while Bryant and Andrew Bynum got most of the touches on offense.
He was the subject of trade rumors all season, starting before it began when Commissioner David Stern, operating as owner of the New Orleans Hornets, nixed a deal that would have sent Gasol to Houston as part of a package for Chris Paul to the Lakers.
''It has been a crazy year and a lot to deal with. ... Unfortunately, we had tough losses and things didn't really go our way for the most part,'' the four-time All-Star said at the end of the season. ''You just have to regroup and digest this loss and this season, and learn from it and move on.''
Kevin Garnett isn't ready to retire.
Garnett has decided to return to the Boston Celtics and is expected to sign a three-year, $34 million contract, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. The NBA's free-agent period begins at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday and players can officially start signing contracts on July 11.
Garnett, 36, averaged 15.8 points and 8.2 rebounds for the Celtics last season. He was expected to draw interest from other teams, but his loyalty to coach Doc Rivers made him likely to return to Boston once he decided to keep playing. One NBA executive said Garnett would have only left the Celtics if they didn’t make him a solid contract offer.
The Celtics have several other free agents in Ray Allen, Brandon Bass, Marquis Daniels, Keyon Dooling, Jeff Green, Ryan Hollins, Sasha Pavlovic and Mickael Pietrus. Allen is expected to be courted by the Phoenix Suns.
The Boston Herald first reported Garnett's intention to re-sign with the Celtics.
