Happy Fourth everyone! I'm exceeding my pay grade and grabbing the Daily Clipper this morning.
- Clippers interested in Courtney Lee - latimes.com - The Clippers reached out to Courtney Lee on Tuesday after the 6-foot-5 guard was told that the Houston Rockets weren’t going to make him a qualifying offer, a person close to Lee who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed to The Times. Not much here, but at least we know the Clips are paying attention. I spoke with Fearless Leader Clipper Steve on the bat phone last night (he's alive!) and we both agreed that the most significant thing about Lee and the Clippers might be is that his acquisition would help keep the Clippers a young team. A three or four year deal for Jamal Crawford (along with a deal for Chauncey Billups or Ray Allen) sends you in the opposite direction. It certainly remains to be seen if Lee will sign for the MLE... which is all the Clips have to offer.
Of course, then there's this...
- Twitter / SpearsNBAYahoo: had a positive meeting w/Jamal Crawford in LA today & made a contract offer,but hes still considering MIN, PHL, MEM, PHX, source says. Not much info, and unconfirmed. But Spears is pretty good and it says, in no uncertain terms that the Clips made an offer. Make of that what you will.
- Eric Gordon agrees to Suns' $58 million offer sheet; Hornets plan to match - Yahoo! Sports - Eric Gordon says he wants to go to the Suns, but the Hornets intend to match the maximum offer he received. EJ also said he hopes NOH wouldn't match and "his heart is in Phoenix now." This smacks of Lamar Odom's "It's my destiny..." remarks, which many of us still haven't gotten over. EJ needs to shut up. Then there's this:
- Twitter / SHowardCooper: Hornets have to match. Can't begin the Benson era with teams thinking they can raid the roster. Statement time. Besides, Gordon is too good. So, can NO work a sign-and-trade with Phoenix? Can that be done any longer?
- Twitter / CP3: CONGRATS to my bro @DeronW CONGRATS to my bro @DeronWilliams on his extension and to my bro @ReggieEvans30 both in BK!!! Gonna miss ya big dawg #Iaintlyin. Typically generous words from CP3 about his friend and soon to be former-teammate.
- Twitter / WojYahooNBA: Dallas is considering this too: Take a step back, clear cap space for the summer of 2013 and chase free agents Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. It is the gorilla in the room.
And finally:
- It's a boson: Higgs quest bears new particle | Reuters - Scientists at Europe's CERN research center have found a new subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe, which appears to be the boson imagined and named half a century ago... This guy named Higgs had a theory about a subatomic particular that just had to be somewhere. Some guys in Switzerland smashed a bunch of protons with that giant Hadron Collider and guess what? They found the freaking boson! It's Higg's boson! Bigger news than Dwight Howard going to NJ-- I mean Brooklyn.