NBA 2012-13: This time it's... well, probably the Lakers and Heat

McMillan would be a popular choice, but there has been talk that they plan to do it right and hire a proven NBA GM or talent advisor. There has even been talk that they might get Phil Jackson to come in because supposedly his son is friends with Christopher Hansen. But that is way too early talk.

So the official purchase agreement has been announced and apparently handed off to the NBA. Most commentators think the NBA is likely to approve the sale and then the move of the team to Seattle for next year. Of interest is that the Seattle group is or has put down a $30m non-refundable deposit. The thinking is that this gives them legal recourse if the Maloofs pull something or if the NBA ends up telling the Maloofs to sell to a local buyer. On that front, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson had a press conference today where he said he has 19 locals willing to put up $1m each. Obviously this is PR, but he says he will shortly announce a big backer to cover the rest of the bid. The assumption at this point is that the Kings will file to relocate to Seattle by the March 1 deadline and that then in mid-April the NBA board of governors will meet to either approve the sale to the Seattle group or go with whatever deal Kevin Johnson is able to put together to keep the team in Sacramento.

It's 20 local buyers now with possibly Mastrov and Burkle teaming up and funding the rest. That 30 mil is just the the Seattle group being stupid now. Since it at least admits they know there is a chance this deal won't go through and it was the only way to get the Maloofs to agree to sale. I'm still holding out hope that the Kings stay but it's been a very slow process so far that isn't looking good.

I wouldn't call the $30m stupid. At the very least its legal leverage. If the NBA decides to keep the team in Sacramento then they will be forced to come to some arrangement with the Seattle group.

Like I said earlier, the best case scenario is that KJ comes up with a legitimate ownership alternative, the Kings stay in Sacramento, and Seattle gets an expansion team. I see the $30m as legal leverage to make that happen.

If the NBA ignores a legit Sacramento alternative then that is on the NBA.

Earl Clark playing the most minutes on the team is definitely how I envisioned this Lakers season playing out. Ugh.

Every time I think I'm out, the Lakers keep pulling me back in. Their upcoming road trip could be the end of the season if they don't start winning away from home, but they'll probably do just well enough on it to keep hope alive for the playoffs.

Hey look, its LeBron saying something stupid!

A lot of people think he will bolt for the Laker in the big free agent class of 2014. At that point he will have at least one title so maybe money will be the priority for him. If Seattle has a team by then, they could get good quickly if they are an expansion team or the ex-Kings and their non-existent payroll under the Maloofs.

Do they? I thought even Lakers fans knew that was just wishful thinking.

That's what the guys on the LA Sports Radio Network (also known as Fox Sports Radio) think, anyway. The Lakers have nobody but Nash signed beyond 2013-14 at this point, so the assumption is that they will pair Howard and LeBron and let Kobe decide if he wants to keep playing knowing the Lakers won't overpay him to finish his career as a Laker.

FUUUUCCCCK. Just when it looks like the Lakers may have turned a corner, they lose Pau for 6-8 weeks. :(

I've never been a Kobe fan, (quite the opposite, I think he is No. 2 in the "guys I love to root against" sweepstakes behind Karl Malone) but good for Kobe.

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with Kobe.

And the Spurs destroying the Bulls in Chicago without Duncan, Parker, Ginobli, or Jackson is yet more evidence that Popovich is the greatest coach ever.

I find this Billy Hunter story pretty interesting. Hunter is(was) the head of the players union, a position he'd had since 1996. Last year current union president Derek Fisher asked for a review of Hunter's job performance based on some reports of questionable decisions and that review found, at the very least, some major conflict of interest issues wherein Hunter was pushing union business in directions that benefitted his son and daughter, and himself as well. It also turned out that his most recent contract was never offcially accepted in the way required by the union rules. A week or so ago Hunter was suspended from his job and today he was officially voted out. Except that he's talking to lawyers and who knows what is going to happen next.

So Jerry Buss is dead at 80. He was a bit of a perv, but he was a fantastic owner. I'm not looking forward to the Jim Buss era, but there's a small minority that thinks he's competent. Hopefully they're right.

Kevin Johnson announced the details of the plan to try and keep the Kings in Sacramento. Sounds like a competitive offer. What it comes down to is whether the other owners are willing to tell the Maloofs to stuff the deal with the Seattle ownership group. It has happened before in other sports, though I'm not sure if there is NBA precedence for it.

I still think the best scenario would be for the NBA to promise Seattle an expansion team, but Stern has been adamant that isn't going to happen. Still, the owners could decide to do it anyway.

I hope the Kings stay in SAC but I think Stern is doing Stern things to make sure they end up in Seattle.
Be nice to see a Cowtown group show (fuck you) Howard Schultz how it's done though.

This is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Ricky Rubio talking to Alexey Shved during a blowout loss to the Lakers.



“Alexey. Change this face. Be happy. Enjoy.”

It's a shame Kevin Love (and half their team) got hurt, although in a selfish way I'm glad the Lakers don't have to compete with them for a playoff spot.

I'll just leave this here...

Interesting comments from Stern this weekend, basically saying that the Sacramento offer that has been put together by Kevin Johnson isn't anywhere near enough at the moment. I guess that gives Johnson and his big investors time to improve their offer, but it also raises the question of how far those guys are willing to go to keep the team in Sacramento. Meanwhile, the group trying to move the team to Seattle is about to open up some sort of "ticket interest" registry which indicates that either they are very confident or that they are hoping for a big number to present to the NBA owners to help nail down the transaction next month.

5 years ago today Boston broke the Rockets 22 game win streak. Miami plays at Boston tonight, tied with the Rockets 22 game win streak.

Will history be made tonight?

Heat Lose:
The Heat have lost the last 10 straight regular season games in Boston.
Miami facing 3rd game in 4 nights away
Boston doesn't want Miami making history on their court especially with Ray Allen
Boston on an 11 game win streak that started with a win against....the Heat.

Heat Win:
KG a game time decision. He was rested Saturday, but didn't do the shoot around today. 50/50 chance, but i'm shocked if he sits.
Rondo out. Celts have been playing pretty good without him. Boston picked up a good veteran in JET who knows what it takes to beat the Heat.
Heat playing the best ball of the Big 3 era. Good acquisition of Bird Man Anderson giving them some size on the boards.

I'm rooting for the Heat, but I think the streak will end tonight.

It was close, but the Heat won.

In other news, Bynum had double knee surgery and won't play this year. While the Lakers have not had a very good year, at least their fans can celebrate the fact that they got something for him.

No, we're not that desperate yet that we'll celebrate Bynum getting hurt. Or at least I'm not. And if they miss the playoffs / lose in the 1st round and Dwight leaves, the Lakers didn't get much more out of the trade than Philly.

I leave the country for a week and a half and all I read about is that Dwight Howard finally looks good and the Lakers are back. Then I watch the Phoenix game and Dwight Howard looks useless and the rest of the team can't hit a shot in the fourth quarter. If they're so tired that they can't play well for 2 games in 2 nights, maybe they shouldn't be using a 7-man rotation? Ebanks and Morris have looked decent at times.

The Bulls ended the Heat's winning streak tonight.

Next week is the big showdown as far as the future of the Kings goes. Sacramento gets their chance to show why the relocation committee should recommend that the Seattle offer for the Kings be denied by the owners. The Seattle group will also apparently get a chance to make a presentation.

I don't know what will happen. The league loses either way. Do they set a precedent and tell the Maloofs they have to sell to the group put together to buy the Kings and keep them in Sacramento? It has happened before in other sports - MLB has done it before - but it would be new ground for the NBA. On the other hand, do they tell Sacramento "sorry" when it looks like there is a legitmate buyer and new arena deal ready? If they do decide to keep the team in Sacramento, then what do they tell the Seattle group, which has all its money and arena in place in a bigger market and has followed the process they were told to follow to get a team? Somebody is going to be angry when the decision is made, unless the owners decide to promise the Seattle group an expansion team.

I hate the Heat, but I was kind of enjoying the streak. I'm glad it ended before getting too close to 33, though. Makes their game at San Antonio a lot less interesting, though.

Re: Sacramento, I seriously doubt the league wants an expansion team. I'm sure it would be profitable, but the league can't make it seem like it would be after crying about how poorly all the owners were doing during the lockout. I wish there was a way to force the Bobcats to move, but barring that I'm still for using whatever sneaky tricks the league needs to use to get a team to Seattle.

Regarding another team to Seattle instead of the Kings, history suggests that this tactic doesn't really work out in the end. At some point the city trying to get a team feels they are being used by the league. Look at what happened in Tampa - years of trying to get a baseball team to move there with some near misses (including MLB denying a sale of the Giants at one point) and when they finally got a team its been poorly supported. Seattle already feels like the NBA screwed them by letting the Sonics be moved to OKC, so another league decision against them when they have all their ducks in a row has the potential to be very damaging. In some ways I think this might be a "now or never" scenario for a return of the NBA to Seattle. Making the city go through this again with the Bobcats or the Bucks or something like that? Ugh.

I'm mixed about the streak. It would have been nice to have, but I'm also glad it's over. A championship is more important. Trying to maintain the streak would have affected their playoff performance, plus every team played as if it was game 7 of the finals. You can see how exhausted they were if watch them regularly. Lebron got so physically beat up in these games and got fouled so hard and often that it's probably good he doesn't have such a target on his back for now.

Pat Riley, responding to comments from Ainge about how Lebron is embarrassing himself when he complains about not getting foul calls.

How does Miami win in San Antonio without Lebron, Wade, or Chalmers? Crazy.

http://www.nba.com/2013/news/featur...-nowitzki-q-and-a/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt3b

A nice piece at NBA.com that talks about the Sacramento/Seattle situation.

The same way Miami lost to Chicago without Noah or Rose.

Kobe Bryant has played 95 minutes in the last two games. That's nuts. It's also a little weird he couldn't get out of the game earlier when they ended up winning by 20.

I can't see the Lakers winning at Portland tonight or at home against San Antonio in a few days, but they need one and preferably both. If they can't win both games, they weren't going to do anything in the playoffs anyway, so it's time to finally show something. Come on Portland, just let us win there one more time.

While the NBA continues to do its homework prior to the scheduled ownership meeting later this month that is supposed to include a vote on whether to accept the sale of the Kings to the Seattle group, interesting things continue to happen on the issue. The vote is purely about whether to accept the sale, and has nothing directly to do with the Maloofs turning around and selling to the proposed Sacramento group. Today, however, it came out that the Maloofs have indicated they are willing to consider selling to the Sacramento group if the league turns down the Seattle group. The interesting twist is that the report is that the Maloofs are setting a deadline for this Friday for a matching bid, which strongly suggests the Sacramento group still hasn't offered as much for the team as the Seattle group. If that is the case, Sacramento could lose in the end even with a viable ownership group and arena deal.

Do the Mavs get to shave at the end of the season even if they never make it back to 0.500 or are the players all going to start next season with monstrous beards?

I'm confident in Sacramento making sure they'll do what needs to be done. But it's the Maloofs so who knows what will happen. I feel this is just the Maloofs trying to play both sides now. We really don't know what the dollar amounts are so it's hard to tell where everybody stands. But word is the Maloofs want a "equal" offer from Sacramento including the $30 mil guarantee so it just may be them trying to make sure they get a little extra no matter who the team is sold to.

Opinions of Coach of the Year? I'm thinking:

1) Spoelstra - 24 game win streak and lately they've been able to win even with one or none of the big three playing.
2) Popovich - Everyone said they were too old, but they're fighting for the top seed in the West.
3) Karl - They have talent, but no real superstars and he's done a good job managing all of them and finding rotations and styles that work.

But you could make a strong case for a number of other coaches (sadly, not D'Antoni).

Well, we do know what the original deal with the Seattle group was - $325m or so for a majority chunk of the team, a valuation that effectively meant the team as a whole is now worth more than $500m (which we all know it really isn't). The league would also pocket a relocation fee. Even Stern said a few weeks back that at that time the Sacramento group had not yet given a competitive offer. Stern hasn't said anything since, but we don't know how much, if any, the Sacramento offer has improved.

There also has to be a financial point at which the price of the team doesn't make sense for the potential owners. And all economics considered, its likely that the Seattle market could support a higher price and still be profitable then the Sacramento market. At that point it would come down to how much the Sacramento owners want to risk.

Then there is also the matter of the debt the Kings have and whether that would be paid by the Hansen group or the Maloofs since it comes due upon relocation. I'm trying to remember how much it was but I think it was around $50 mil or so, maybe more. The Sac group wouldn't have to worry about immediate repayment for it unlike the Seattle group. Either way $500+ million evaluation for the Sacramento Kings is crazy high and plus public money for an arena and the only guarantee winner out of all of this is the NBA.

I really hope this whole matter is settled soon as I'm getting annoyed by Seattle fans, present company excluded as you actually have been pretty unbias and reasonable. But then I hate Sacramento fans too sometimes. Actually I probably hate all fanbases as I'm starting to get annoyed by Niners and Giants fans too.

The Spurs trying to fall to the 2-seed to avoid the Lakers is pretty much the dumbest theory out there, isn't it? I'd think having home court against OKC would be vastly more important than whether you play the Lakers or Rockets in the first round. The only thing that makes sense is Popovich trying to give his guys some rest and time to heal and not worrying about falling to the 2-seed (an argument which may be only semantically different from the first, but people seem to only be talking about the Spurs being scared of the Lakers).

A local reporter says he has sources that indicate a potential rift is developing between Stern and some league owners over how active Stern is behind the scenes in trying to help Sacramento.