The party
celebrating the Miami Heat’s NBA World Title is still going on in South Beach,
but the 29 other teams in the league are already busy with their own title
plans for next season. The following is a look and some of the more relevant
news and notes for this week in the NBA.
2012 NBA Draft
The 2012 NBA
draft was held last week and as expected, the New Orleans Hornets selected
Kentucky forward Anthony Davis with the first overall pick. While the addition
of Davis will certainly help put some fans in the seats for new team owner, Tom
Benson, who also owns the Saints, but do not expect any miracles from a team
that has been opened at +4000 to win the Western Conference and +10000 to win
an NBA title.
Rounding-out
the rest of the top five were Davis’s teammate at Kentucky, Michael
Kidd-Gilchrist going to Charlotte at No.2, Florida guard Bradley Beal going to
Washington third, Syracuse guard Dion Waiters going fourth to Cleveland, and
Sacramento Kings selecting Kansas forward Thomas Robinson with the fifth
overall pick.
2012 NBA Free-Agency
Following
closely on the heels of the college draft was the start of this offseason’s
free agency signing period. While as of Monday afternoon, there were no major
deals announced, the open market is heating up with players such as Steve Nash,
Deron Williams, Kevin Garnett, and Ersan Ilyasova commanding attention as the
top unrestricted free agents. Eric Gordon, Roy Hibbert, Brook Lopez, and
Nicolas Batum are some of the top names heading-up the list of restricted free
agents.
Toronto is
reportedly very interested in signing Nash and has offered him as much as $36
million for a three-year deal that would bring the native son back home to
Canada. Williams is considering resigning with the New Jersey (or Brooklyn)
Nets or possibly entertaining an offer from Dallas to help the Mavericks get
back to the NBA Finals. Much of the talk has centered on Dwight Howard in
Orlando. He still has a year left on his deal with the team, but the on
again-off again love affair between Howard and Magic is apparently back off,
which has everyone talking about offseason trade that might send the All-Star
center to Brooklyn if the Nets can find a way to keep Williams with the team as
well.
Clippers lock-up Griffin for five
more years
The Los
Angeles Clippers took a significant step towards protecting their future by
signing their All-Star forward Blake Griffin to a five-year extension that is
reportedly worth up to $95 million. This means that Griffin will be with the
team for at least the next six seasons and make an estimated $7.2 million next
season.
The Clippers
also offered a three-year extension to guard Chris Paul that was worth close to
$60 million, but he decided to play the waiting game and decline the deal. He will
be in the final year of a contract that will pay him $17.7 million next season.
Paul has already told sources that he plans to wait until the end of next
season before agreeing to any new deals.