The Basketball Blog

Heat acquire Anderson from Rockets for Fitch

The Miami Heat acquire Derek Anderson from the Houston Rockets for Gerald Fitch.

Heat acquire Anderson from Rockets for Fitch [Yahoo Sports / AP]

Sixers trade Nailon to Cavaliers

The Philadelphia 76ers traded forward Lee Nailon and a second-round pick in the 2006 draft to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday for a conditional second-round pick.

Sixers trade Nailon to Cavaliers [ESPN / AP]

Nets send Jackson to Hornets

According to ESPN.com the New Jersey Nets have agreed to send Marc Jackson and forward Linton Johnson to the New Orleans Hornets in for Bostjan Nachbar.

The Nets' motive for the deal was to get under the tax level to sign Tim Thomas if and when the Bulls buy out his contract.

Nets clear cap room, send Jackson to Hornets [ESPN.com]

Nuggets acquire Patterson, Evans; send Watson to Sonics

According to ESPN.com the Denver Nuggets will acquire Ruben Patterson and Reggie Evans and send Earl Watson to the Seattle SuperSonics. The Portland Trailblazers get Nuggets guard Voshon Lenard and Sonics center Vitaly Potapenko as part of this three-team deal. Portland's Charles Smith will end up with the Nuggets as well in this deal.

Three-way deal brings Watson to Sonics [ESPN.com]

UPDATE:

The details have changed a bit:

Seattle center Vitaly Potapenko and Blazers guard Sergei Monia were sent to Sacramento, which moved forward/center Brian Skinner to Portland.

Blazers make deadline deal, get frontcourt help [ESPN.com / AP]

So the Trailblazers get Skinner instead of Potapenko. This it not a bad deal for Portland and Skinner of course. Skinner is a good rebounder and can block shots when he gets to play that is! Makes you wonder what Sacramento's long-term plans are for the center position. This leaves them with Jamal Sampson behind Brad Miller; maybe the plan is to play Shareef Abdur-Rahim more at this position. Kenny Thomas has been filling the starting power forward role lately since Adbur-Rahim's broken jaw injury.

Steve Francis headed to New York Knicks

According to ESPN Insider, the New York Knicks and the Orlando Magic.
agreed to a deal Wednesday that would send Steve Francis to New York for Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza.

Sources: Francis dealt to Knicks for Penny, Ariza [ESPN Insider]

Pistons trade Darko Milicic to Magic

Wednesday night word is, The Detroit Pistons are trading Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo to the Orlando Magic for a first-round selection and center Kelvin Cato.

Deal is done: Darko is gone [The Detroit News]

Pistons trade Milicic to Magic [Yahoo Sports / AP]

Sonics trade Radmanovic to Clippers for Wilcox

I'm sure Vladimir Radmanovic, who turned down a $42 million, six-year deal with the Seattle SuperSonics before the season, is happy with this deal. Radmanovic has been complaining lately about decreased playing time under coach Bob Hill. Time will tell if Radmanovic can improve as a Clipper and actually deserve the kind of deal he turned down with the Sonics. Hopefully this deal helps Chris Wilcox as well; his stats and minutes have been a disappointment this year.

SuperSonics send Radmanovic to Clippers for Wilcox [Yahoo Sports / AP]

Chris Andersen dismissed for drug use

New Orleans Hornets forward Chris Andersen was dismissed from the NBA for drug use on Friday.

According to the league's collective bargaining agreement, a player can be disqualified only for a fourth positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, or a first positive test for "drugs of abuse."

Andersen Gets Drug Ban [latimes.com / NBA Report]

Szczerbiak to the Celtics for Ricky Davis

The Timberwolves sent Wally Szczerbiak to the Celtics for Ricky Davis on Thursday as part of a major multi-player trade.

Timberwolves trade Szczerbiak to Celtics in multi-player deal [Yahoo Sports / AP]

Artest King after all

The deal that failed ended up happening after all. The Kings are sending forward Peja Stojakovic to Indiana for Ron Artest.

Pacers hoping Artest changes his act in Sacramento after trade [Yahoo Sports / AP]

The Sacramento Bee has an overview of What the nation's writers are saying [SacBee]

Artest meets with Pacers to discuss the trade that fell apart (for now).

Pacers' Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird meet with Ron Artest again Wednesday morning to discuss the trade with the Sacramento Kings that fell apart Tuesday. What's next?

Artest explains, ‘No trade right now' [The Indianapolis Star]

Peja Stojakovic is clearly disappointed with how things were handled. Who can blame him?

Peja's gone - then he's not [SacBee]

According to ESPN's Marc Stein the Kings are better of letting this one go.

The Kings don't have the clear-cut franchise player or the coach with a hammer or the big-city allure to keep Artest committed to the team concept. Golden State really doesn't, either. Unless you've got those prerequisites, dealing for Artest goes beyond mere risk.

Stein also questions the Pacers' motivation and speculates on a future Peja sign-and-trade in the off-season potentially including the relocation of Jermaine O'Neal.

Test Ron should scare off Kings [ESPN.com]

Ron Artest not a King

Apparently, Ron Artest going to the Sacramento Kings for Peja Stojakovic was a sure thing until Artest decided he didn't want to play for the Kings after all.

Artest not heading to Kings [Yahoo Sports / AP]

"There's no deal," he told the newspaper. "It's not that I don't want to play there ... I'm letting my agent handle things. He's taken over things.", Artest told Indianapolis Star. According to the Kings organization, they claim they received a call from Artest's agent indicating that Artest in fact does not want to play in Sacramento. Confused?

Kings nix deal after Artest balks [SacBee]

Seattle Sonics fire coach Bob Weiss

Coach Bob Weiss was too laid-back and nice for the Seattle Sonics after all (or as expected?). Weiss was promoted to head coach in July when Nate McMillan left for the Portland Trail Blazers head coach job Assistant Bob Hill will take over. Hill has previously coached Indiana, New York and San Antonio.

Sonics fire coach Bob Weiss [Yahoo Sports / AP]

Sonics Fire Weiss [kirotv.com]

Hill brings organization to Sonics [ESPN.com]

Artest trade demand

In an exclusive interview published Sunday, December 11, by the The Indianapolis Star, Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest makes a first public trade request.

Quotes from the interview: "I still think my past haunts me here," Artest said. "I think somewhere else I'm starting fresh. I'm coming in with baggage, but people already know about it and how I'm going to be. Either they're going to be for me or they're not going to trade for me. Here I think my past haunts me.
"I think they will be a better team without me."

Artest to Pacers: Trade me [IndyStar.com]

I personally have no doubt the Pacers will be better of without Artest. His past will haunt him elsewhere to though.

And who really wants his bag of tricks? The Sacramento Kings and Kings president Geoff Petrie have been rumored in the past to have had talks with the Pacers about a Ron Artest - Peja Stojakovic trade. According to Ailene Voisin from the Sacramento Bee, the Kings certainly don't need him:

"after this latest display of absurd behavior, where he griped about his scoring opportunities, ripped his coach and completely alienated the Indiana Pacers organization - including his own Brawl Brothers - the guy has become pure poison."

Kings don't need this guy Artest [sacbee.com]

There are tons of other news paper articles with speculation and rumors on the impending Artest trade and where he might end up. According to the Toronto Sun, Artest along with second-round pick Erazem Lorbek could be heading to Toronto for Morris Peterson, another roster player (potentially Matt Bonner) and a first-round pick.

Artest could be T.O. bound [Toronto Sun]

The league fined Artest $10,000 for his public trade request.

Pat Riley replaces Stan Van Gundy as Heat coach

I guess everyone had predicted this would happen eventually if things didn't go extremely well for the Miami Heat this season. Well here it is; Miami Heat with a 11-10 win-loss record decided to let Stan Van Gundy go and move Pat Riley to the sidelines.

Riley replaces Van Gundy as Heat coach [Yahoo Sports / AP]