Hawks, Williams close in on deal

By Mark Bradley and mailto:sksmith@ajc.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Free-agent forward Marvin Williams said via text message Wednesday that a Yahoo! Sports report that he has reached agreement to remain a Hawk is premature but admitted the sides are “close.”

Hawks general manager Rick Sund wouldn’t comment on the negotiations Wednesday, but Williams told the AJC via text he would be in Atlanta next week for face-to-face talks.
The Hawks are believed to have offered a contract worth $37.5 million over five seasons, with incentives that could push the package as high as $40 million. As a restricted free agent, Williams could have accepted the Hawks’ qualifying offer of $7.5 million and become an unrestricted free agent in July 2010.

Should Williams re-sign, the Hawks will have locked up a 23-year-old who averaged 13.9 points last season and is still regarded as a developing talent. They would also have retained three of their four key free agents — Mike Bibby and Zaza Pachulia have re-signed; Flip Murray hasn’t — and added guard Jamal Crawford in the same offseason.

With Williams back in the fold, the Hawks would enter the 2009-10 season having kept seven of the top eight players from a team that won 47 games, finished fourth in the NBA’s Eastern Conference and advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

Veteran forward Tim Thomas signs with Mavericks

DALLAS (AP) -- The Dallas Mavericks have signed free agent forward Tim Thomas.

The 6-foot-10 Thomas, a 12-year veteran, played for the Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and Chicago last season. He averaged 8.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in his 64 games, 36 with the Knicks, 18 with the Bulls and 10 with the Clippers. He played 191/2 minutes a game.
Thomas has made 946 career 3-pointers, shooting 37 percent from long range in 806 games. He made 41 percent of his 3-point attempts last season.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed Tuesday. Thomas has also played for Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Phoenix.

Source: Bobcats, Hornets swapping centers

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Charlotte Bobcats are finalizing a trade that would send Emeka Okafor to the New Orleans Hornets for Tyson Chandler, two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Monday. The swap of 26-year-old centers wasn't expected to be completed until Tuesday and was unlikely to include other players, the people said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made.

Nash signs 2-year, $22 million extension with Suns

PHOENIX (AP) -- Steve Nash thought about leaving the Phoenix Suns after this season.

But after mulling other options, Nash realized there were no guarantees of winning an NBA championship elsewhere.
So he agreed to a two-year, $22 million contract extension that will keep the two-time MVP point guard under contract with the Suns through the 2011-2012 season.ut leaving the Phoenix Suns after this season......Read More Here

Players clamoring to play for the red, white and blue on Team USA

Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski and Kobe Bryant and LeBron James made wearing the red, white and blue cool again, and it helped that those colors have been trimmed in gold since August.

Colangelo assembled the U.S. national basketball squad, coached by Duke boss Mike Krzyzewski, that defeated Spain for the title at the Olympics last year in Beijing.
Now, onto Phase II of the program, two days of drills at Valley High to indoctrinate new players into the system that will be capped tonight at 8 in a Blue-White Showcase scrimmage at the Thomas & Mack Center. Tickets are $13 to $78...Read More@ Las Vegas Sun

Jazz want Michael Beasley

It is believed Utah is most interested in obtaining Michael Beasley — the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft — if the team ends up dealing Boozer to Miami.

Read More: Deseret News

Pacers buy out Tinsley, avoid arbitration hearing

The Indiana Pacers suddenly ended their year-long banishment of Jamaal Tinsley on Wednesday, agreeing to buy the 31-year-old point guard out of the final two years of his contract after not allowing him to play during the entire 2008-09 season.A league source said that the Pacers will give Tinsley approximately $11 million of the $14.7 million that remained on his deal. Tinsley is now an unrestricted free agent and able to sign with any team in a week.......NBA.com

TMZ Shows Lebron Dunk Video

The highly-searched for Jordan Crawford dunk on LeBron has finally come to see the light of day. Several websites including TMZ and ebaumnation.com are now showing the Lebron dunk video that had seemingly been confiscated by Lebron James' people and Nike. The dunk occurred during Lebron's summer basketball camp pickup game as a virtually unknown player, Jamal Crawford, threw it down on James during the game.The dunk incident occurred at the LeBron James Skills Academy several weeks ago during a summer basketball camp game. College player, Jamal Crawford, who will be playing for Xavier this coming season, scored the two handed jam on King James. Various cameramen caught the footage including some from CBS. A high school player who was at the event Soon afterwards, all tapes of the "incident" were confiscated. Apparently some footage was not taken care of, as several websites were able to present the video footage as of Wednesday night.Check out the links below to see the video footage of "The Dunk" we thought we'd never see!

TMZ's presentation of Lebron dunk

Detroit Free Press shows Lebron getting dunked on

Nuggets, Pacers to play preseason game in Bejing

The National Basketball Association and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports today announced that the NBA will return to Beijing when the Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers tip off at the Wukesong Arena on Oct. 11. The game will mark the opening of the refurbished Wukesong Arena, formerly known as the Beijing Olympic Basketball Arena. This will be the NBA's eighth preseason game played in Greater China and the third game played in Beijing.....NBA.com

The Hawks want Joe Smith

Hawks: Barring a last minute change of plans, veteren big man Joe Smith is scheduled to visit town on Wednesday, according to two of my best spies. And the Hawks are not out of the running for Ben Wallace,who has yet to agree to terms with Detroit (though, one of my best spies up north insists that it’s just a matter of time before Wallace returns to the Pistons).
Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog

Clippers trade Quentin Richardson to Timberwolves for Sebastian Telfair, Mark Madsen, Craig Smith
July 20, 2009 · Filed Under Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota T-Wolves, News
Quentin Richardson is being traded all around the league this off-season.
The Los Angeles Clippers today acquired guard Sebastian Telfair, forward Craig Smith and forward Mark Madsen from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for forward Quentin Richardson.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Madsen and Smith have expiring contracts, as does Richardson, and Telfair has two years left, at $2.5 million and $2.7 million.
Richardson, who was re-acquired by the Clippers in a trade with Memphis on July 17, joins his fifth NBA team in the Timberwolves.
“We are really excited to add these three players to our team,” Clippers General Manager and Head Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “This move really gives some much needed depth.”
Telfair, 23, averaged a career-high 9.8 points, 4.6 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 27.9 minutes in 75 games last year for the Timberwolves. A five-year NBA veteran who was drafted by Portland with the 13th overall selection in the 2004 NBA Draft, Telfair joins his fourth NBA team. A 6-foot point guard, Telfair brings career averages of 8.2 points, 4.0 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 349 total NBA games to Los Angeles.
A former New York City high school legend before being drafted by the Trail Blazers, Telfair led Brooklyn’s Abraham Lincoln High School to three PSAL titles and one state championship en route to becoming New York’s all-time leading prep scorer, surpassing Kenny Anderson.
Inglewood native and former Fairfax High School star Smith returns to Los Angeles after averaging a career-high 10.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 19.7 minutes in 74 games last season for Minnesota. A career 55 percent shooter from the field, Smith shot 56.3 percent in 2008-09. Smith has appeared in 233 career NBA games since his rookie year of 2006-07, when he played in all 82 contests for the Timberwolves.
Smith was drafted by Minnesota with the 36th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft after a standout career at Boston College that saw him average 18.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.4 steals in 130 games from 2002-2006. Smith finished his Eagles career as the school’s all-time leading rebounder (1,114) and second in points (2,349) and was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference first Team in 2005-06.
A nine-year NBA veteran, the 33-year old Madsen is back in the city where he started his NBA career from 2000-2003 as the 29th overall pick out of Stanford University in the 2000 draft by the Lakers. The 6-foot-9, 255 pound Madsen has played in 453 career NBA games and averaged 2.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.4 assists in 11.8 minutes. Madsen joined the Timberwolves in 2003 and played in 19 contests, starting one and average 0.3 points and 0.9 rebounds last season