UMass beat Fordham 120-118 in triple overtime in a game that produced a parade of stats you don't see every night, or every week, or every month.The Charlotte Hornets recently traded Nick Richards to the Phoenix Suns for Josh Okogie and future second-round draft picks. Hornets front office leader Jeff Peterson indicated that he’s open to making more deals too.
“We’ve received calls on multiple of our players,” Peterson said. “Nick Richards, we received multiple calls on him. We have good players. I think some of the injuries from a synergy standpoint have made it really tough to jell and see what this group can do.
“But, yeah, I think at this point, look, we are going to listen to everything. We are not going to do anything to compromise the future, but we are going to do what’s best for the organization that we see going forward in order to be sustainable going forward.”
Peterson said he won’t sacrifice long-term success to chase a playoff spot in the short-term.
“I have zero interest in making the playoffs for one year, and then being out for the next four or five, and then in for two and out again after that,” Peterson said. “So, we want to again build something that has sustainability to it. So, at the same time, we’ve got to continue to take advantage of deals like this that’s adding picks to our treasure chest, if you will, or whatever it may be for us to have that optionality.”
Two days after indicating that he didn’t want Mike Dunleavy and the Golden State Warriors to make a “desperate” move ahead of the trade deadline, Stephen Curry clarified that he is still eager to win. Curry’s comments came after a narrow win by the Warriors at the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Anyone who thinks I’m OK being on an average basketball team is insane,” Curry said. “Take whatever I said, I still stand on it. But that doesn’t mean we’re not in a situation where we are trying to get better, make appropriate moves that help you do that. Mike knows that. We’ve talked about it. That’s the expectation from me. It doesn’t mean you’re reckless. What people’s definition of that is is what I was talking about with Twitter fingers. Trade machines are fun. But what does that actually look like? We’re gonna handle our business. Mike is gonna handle his. We will see where we end up.”
Steve Kerr also spoke to the sentiment he shares with Curry.
“I hope there’s not a misconception that we are not fighting and scrapping and doing everything possible to keep this going,” Kerr said. “It almost feels like the narrative became the Warriors are giving in. We are not giving in. We’re just not gonna give away the future. Those are two totally different things. We’re fighting.”
As Jimmy Butler closes in on a return to the Miami Heat from his suspension, trade rumors continue to swirl around him and his team. Butler reportedly still wants to go to the Phoenix Suns, but that continues to be a hard trade puzzle to piece together.
It was also recently reported that Butler’s camp has told the Milwaukee Bucks that he isn’t interested in being traded there. Other league sources have said that Butler hasn’t ruled out a deal to Milwaukee.
It was also reported that Butler’s representatives let the Memphis Grizzlies know that he doesn’t want to be traded there. To this point, no additional reporting has come out to counter that.
