Associated Press

Cavaliers’ J.R. Smith charged with breaking fan’s phone

Associated PressAug 31, 2018, 6:01 PM EDT
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NEW YORK (AP) — NBA player J.R. Smith is facing charges he broke the cellphone of a fan who tried to take video of him in the middle of the night outside a Manhattan pizzeria.

The Cleveland Cavaliers guard, 32, turned himself to police Friday. He was released with a summons to appear in court at a later date on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.

Asked to comment, the NBA champion’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said, “This is nonsense and we are not responding to nonsense.”

The charge stems from a report by a 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania who said he was on a busy block in the Chelsea neighborhood at about 2:45 a.m. July 29 when he recognized Smith walking by and tried to record him using Snapchat, police said.

The man alleged Smith responded by snatching away his phone and heaving it across 10th Avenue into a construction zone, breaking the screen, police said. The man flagged down two patrol officers who looked around for Smith, but by then he was gone.

Smith played for the New York Knicks until 2015, when he was traded the Cavaliers. He was on the LeBron James-led team that won the NBA championship in 2016.

New Orleans waives DeAndre Liggins

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By Kurt HelinAug 31, 2018, 9:46 PM EDT
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Friday was the day to waive and stretch players for the upcoming season, and it’s the day a number of players have been let go from their contracts. While not ideal for the players, it’s better it happens now as opposed to when training camps have already started, this way players have a better chance of landing on the training camp roster of another team.

Enter DeAndre Liggins, who was waived by the Pelicans on Friday. He played in 23 games for them last season, starting three, but he still averaged just nine minutes a game.

He just got squeezed by the numbers. On the court, he would have been behind E'Twaun Moore, Darius Miller, and Solomon Hill. Plus the Pelicans’ payroll is pushing the tax line and Liggins was owed $1.8 million, but could be bought out for $75,000.

Liggins likely will land on another training camp roster.

Watch Isiah Thomas’ speech at Aretha Franklin’s memorial

By Kurt HelinAug 31, 2018, 8:23 PM EDT
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Aretha Franklin is a Detroit legend, a Motown icon.

Isiah Thomas is a Detroit legend, too — leader of the Bad Boy Pistons, the Hall of Famer brought titles to Detroit.

Thomas knew Franklin and was one of those asked to eulogize the famed singer at her memorial service Friday. Above you can see Thomas talks about their friendship and what it meant to him.

Kyrie Irving found out about trade to Boston on set of Uncle Drew

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By Kurt HelinAug 31, 2018, 7:06 PM EDT
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The trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston a summer ago was one drawn-out affair — news leaked in late July Irving wanted a trade, a month later a deal was announced, then the extent of Isaiah Thomas‘ injury started to really reveal itself, the Cavaliers asked for more, and the entire process to finalize the trade more than a week. In what is usually the dead part of the NBA summer, there was serious drama.

Where did Kyrie Irving learn about the deal finally becoming official? On the set of “Uncle Drew” and he disrupted shooting with his celebration. Chris Forsberg of ESPN has a deep dive on how that trade went down.

The screams came first, followed by a couple of loud expletives. [“Uncle Drew” director Charles] Stone pivoted in the director’s chair and looked toward the commotion just in time to see Irving sprinting through a set of doors leading to the exterior of the Atlanta night club that the “Uncle Drew” crew had rented to film that night….

“All of a sudden I hear someone screaming, like a guy is just yelling and screaming. And then I see Kyrie run across the dance floor and down through the club and book it right out the door,” Stone said. “And I’m already numb from the grind of shooting. I just kinda looked at my [assistant director] and deadpanned, ‘What happened now?'”

“I left out of the club that we were shooting at and I had to decompress for a quick second and it was just an energy shift,” said Irving.

It’s worth reading the entire story. Danny Ainge, Brad Stevens and the Celtics brass talk about how painful it was for them to trade away Isaiah Thomas, who they loved, but they felt they had to because Irving could be the transcendent player they needed to become a contender. Irving opens up about his emotions, and his teammates talk about how excited they were with the trade.

This coming season, with Gordon Hayward back healthy (*knock on wood*) and Irving healthy for the playoffs, we can finally see the full impact of that trade. It is what makes the Celtics the team to beat in the East this season and could have Boston back in the NBA Finals.

Rumor: Suns have tried to trade for Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker, other point guards

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By Kurt HelinAug 31, 2018, 5:15 PM EDT
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While you can make sense of the Suns’ trade for Ryan Anderson — if you believe De'Anthony Melton can turn into a quality NBA rotation guard, although the jury is still out on that — the deal sent Brandon Knight to the Rockets and left a burning question for the Suns:

Who is going to play point guard on this team next season?

The Suns spent this summer trying to construct a trade that would answer that question with a star player, but fell short, according to the well connected John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 in Phoenix.

That shouldn’t be a surprise — that the Suns tried and that they were shot down.

Right now the Suns have Shaquille Harrison and rookie Elie Okobo at the point. Harrison played 23 games for the Suns last season and showed a great work ethic and some real potential, he was solid when he was in for them. Okobo, out of France, was the 31st pick in last June’s draft and showed flashes at Summer League but has a lot of adjusting to do, and his game needs to mature, to really fit at the NBA level.

Neither of those are particularly good options. The Suns could put the ball in the hands of Devin Booker as their primary playmaker, and while he can get buckets he is not a true playmaking point guard and floor general. Those results have been mixed, at best.

Look for the Suns to make a trade and/or scour the waiver wire during camp, looking for someone who can give them quality minutes at the point. Because outside of the one slot the Suns have an interesting starting five — Booker, Trevor Ariza, Ryan Anderson, Deandre Ayton, with Josh Jackson and Mikail Bridges coming off the bench.