From Draft Express’ Jonathan Givony.
The Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers are in advanced discussions involving a trade that would send Bozi Wells to replace the firepower lost from Peja Stojakovic’s departure to New Orleans. The reported trade would send Jeff Foster and Saurunas Jasikevicius to Sacramento in a sigh and trade for Wells.
The Sacramento Bee’s Marty McNeil, figuring “If the Kings are attempting to win an NBA championship and build a badly needed arena, the time to go after it is now.,” would prefer to see Sacramento cough up for Bonzi.
The Kings might want to engage in a sign-and-trade deal that can get Wells more money. That could be a way for them to address what they believe might be a more pressing need, such as a big, athletic center/forward.
Wells and Phillips also are involved in a hazardous financial game. Teams can spend only a certain amount of money. Chicago and New Orleans had real room under the salary cap; unofficially, the Bulls have committed most of those funds to Ben Wallace and the Hornets to Peja Stojakovic and Bobby Jackson.
Ultimately, Wells and Phillips will have to decide which team makes the best offer and accept it because offers can disappear. And eventually, they’ll decide whether the best offer depends solely on cash or whether a team preference and/or location play a major role. History usually indicates cash carries the most weight.
The Kings need to re-sign Wells, unless they believe their group of young guards — Kevin Martin, Francisco GarcÃa and Quincy Douby — is ready to take major steps.
Days after a trio of young Knicks took turns trashing Larry Brown, Newsday’s Johnette Howard wasn’t buying it.
To hear them tell it, what was missing was just a little J-O-Y. A well-timed pat on the butt that never came from mean ol’ Larry Brown.
Bad Larry. Bad bad bad!
“He was trying to take my joy,” Robinson said last week.
Or maybe it was this: After you get over the fact that it’s kinda cute to see a 5-9 man dunk, this is the truth about Robinson: If egos were measurable and listed on rosters like height and weight, Robinson — not Starbury — would be the elephant in the Knicks’ locker room.
“I think something we lost track of, when people have done a good job, there’s been a lot of positive reinforcement from all the coaches now,” Lee said. “When you get a positive remark after you played hard on defense, it does really motivate you to do it the next time.”
Imagine what this could mean. We all thought the Knicks just stunk. But what if it turns out the Knicks’ defense could’ve been better if only Brown had promised everyone who did their slide steps on every possession an ice cream after the game?
I don’t buy that Bonzi Wells is worth that much money. Wilcox is another one month wonder but at least he has some size which the Sonics need. Wells on the other hand has a number of younger players who have the potential to do the same things (Martin, Garcia, and Douby) behind him. I’d let this group play together some next year and get a better sense of my roster before i tie down my salary cap. it’s not like with Wells they are any better then a 5 or 6 seed out west anyway.