NBA News From FanSided: Omer Asik Rumors, Key Players Return from Injuries, Joakim Noah vs Kendrick Perkins, and more!
By Dante Nelson
Dec 18, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets center Omer Asik (3) and point guard Jeremy Lin (7) walk to the locker room during halftime at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports
NBA News From FanSided is your chance to recap this past week’s news on and off the court in the NBA provided by the awesome bloggers here at FanSided.
Injury Report
Tyson Chandler is back for the Knicks after being out since early October. Knicks didn’t play very well without him. Of course, if the Knicks continue to struggle with Chandler in play, heads could roll. The Atlantic Division still doesn’t have any team over .500 although the Nets have been playing better. With Chandler back, perhaps Knicks follow suit.
Bucks are tying to preserve Ersan Ilyasova for a few games while he tries to deal with an ankle injury.
Danny Granger finally played this season.
Glen Rice Jr. is out 3-6 weeks with a wrist injury.
J.J. Redick is making January 15th as his return date from a broken hand. He’s ahead of schedule.
Kobe Bryant is out again. This time, for six weeks. Sigh.
Andre Iguodala is back in action for the Warriors. As the Warriors have learned, he’s a very key player. I’ll leave it at that.
Quincy Pondexter is out indefinitely after having foot surgery.
Rumors
After Rudy Gay was traded from the Raptors, some reports came that Raptors were also urgently trying to ship off Kyle Lowry. Welp, the Raptors deny such reports. There’s a tweet in the link. It tells us that Raptors are shopping Lowry, but, are not “urgent” in their hunt for a trade partner.
Omer Asik is still a Rocket. Rockets told us that they wanted to trade Asik by December 19th. Reports from all over with various scenarios surfaced. It doesn’t seem to matter now because the “deadline” has passed and the Rockets have decided to end talks for now. It seems like a trade is inevitable. We already talked about how one GM thought the asking price for Asik was “delusional”. Rickets may indeed have to settle for something because they are not getting production from the big guy. Wasted talent right now.
Somebody figure Rajon Rondo would be traded to the Kings. Well, those rumors are just not true.
Heat appear to be interested in Jordan Crawford of the Celtics.
Marcin Gortat wants you to know that he’s fine with the Wizards and his situation on the team. This is coming because reports came about that he was unhappy.
Is Ricky Rubio on his way to getting a max contract this off season? According to him, yeah. Would I want to offer him that? Hahaha.
Off the court
Bucks’ ownership needs to make a move fast. It’s clear that the NBA isn’t a fan of the Bucks’ home arena and so the Bucks could be on the move to a city like Seattle who is better “equipped” to handle an NBA franchise. So, Bucks’ owner is looking to expand ownership to raise the funds to keep the Bucks in town.
I got a good laugh off of this. Joakim Noah decided to visit the OKC Thunder’s locker room after a game. He got kicked out. There’s quote of the exchange. Awkwardly funny.
Transactions
Jordan Hamilton is suspended one game for a punch thrown. There’s video in the link. Um…good call. If that punched made serious contact, a fight would’ve broken out. My opinion.
Lakers are hurting in their PG department. So, they have turned to the D-League for help. They signed Kendall Marshal who had been lighting it up for my favorite D-League team, the Delaware 87ers. He’s got a real chance to shine here. Let’s see if the former lottery pick can take advantage.
Milestones/Accomplishments/New Records
Portland Trailblazers broke a franchise record with 3 pointers made in a game. They made 21 of them against the Sixers. The NBA record is 23.