Sports Morning Headlines - Thursday, 7/12/12
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- Created on Thursday, 12 July 2012 04:43
- Last Updated on Thursday, 16 May 2013 07:51
- Written by MVPTexas Morning Sports Report
Spurs roster for Las Vegas Summer League announced - The Spurs officially announced their roster for the Las Vegas Summer League and, wait for it, RYAN RICHARDS IS PLAYING. That’s the biggest news I think Spurs fans will take from this announcement. Richards has been a mystery for Spurs fans since being drafted in 2010. He’s hopped from club team to club team in the lower levels of European basketball and even jumped from the Great Britain national team program to try and join the Jamaican National Team. At 6’11″ with a good shooting touch, he’s an intriguing prospect. Here’s to hoping he performs well enough in Vegas to earn a contract with the Spurs and some development time in Austin this season. READ MORE
Kaman Tweets That He Agrees To Deal With Mavs - Chris Kaman says he has agreed to a deal with the Dallas Mavericks. The 7-foot center, who played in New Orleans last season, announced on his Twitter account Wednesday that he is going to Dallas to play with Dirk Nowitizki, his friend and teammate on the German national team during the 2008 Olympics. The Mavericks didn’t announce any deals Wednesday night. READ MORE
Ian Mahinmi Traded to the Indiana Pacers for Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones - The Mavericks' front office broke out another deal today. Just hours after signing Chris Kaman and waiving Brendan Haywood with the amnesty clause, Donnie Nelson agreed to sign and trade Ian Mahinmi to the Pacers in exchange for point guard Darren Collison and combo guard Dahntay Jones. Ian Mahinmi was looking for an increase in pay from his meager earnings, just over a million last year, as well as for long term security. It is reported that the Pacers got Ian for 4 years and $16 million dollars, which satified both Mahinmi and the Pacers, who were looking for stability for the back up center position. READ MORE
Rockets re-emerge as contender in Howard sweepstakes as talks with Magic grow ‘serious’ - With the Brooklyn Nets going another direction, the Rockets could be in the driver’s seat to land disgruntled Magic star center Dwight Howard. The problem, as it has been for months, is getting the continuing talks to go far enough. Talks on Wednesday grew “serious,” and at one point seemed close to an agreement, according to a person familiar with the process, but the Magic backed off to consider their options. Rockets are open to the three-team deal in which they would receive Lakers center Andrew Bynum with Howard going to the Los Angeles Lakers, but are primarily working directly with the Magic to acquire Howard, the individual with knowledge of the talks said. Getting in position for the planned next move will be difficult. To create enough cap room for the kind of blockbuster trade that has been proposed, the Rockets are considering making veteran forward Luis Scola an amnesty cut, likely in the next 48 hours, a person with knowledge of the move said. That would create enough cap room for the Rockets to take on the additional contracts necessary to complete a trade for Howard. Scola, 32, is due $21 million guaranteed over the next three season. The Rockets could wait until July 17 to make Scola an amnesty cut, in which he would receive his full guaranteed salary but not count against the salary cap or luxury tax figures, but received information that he would have a better chance of moving to a stronger team if the move was made quickly. READ MORE
Howard/Bynum talk transforms the big picture for Rockets - According to reports, the Rockets were still in talks for the league’s best center, Howard, but the league’s second-best center, the Lakers’ Andrew Bynum, also was part of the discussion. Nothing was definitive as of Wednesday afternoon, but speculation is that the Lakers would get Howard, the Rockets would get Bynum, and the Magic would get some of those “really young players’’ McHale talked about or perhaps a veteran like Luis Scola or Kevin Martin or perhaps a draft choice or two and perhaps some combination of all of the above. There are some obvious issues with acquiring either Howard or Bynum. Howard, 26, entered the NBA out of high school, played his first game a few weeks before his 19th birthday, and matured quickly into a team leader. He’s a terrific player, averaging 20.6 points and 14.5 rebounds last season. But his season ended prematurely because of back surgery. More troubling, he seems to have immatured, if that’s a word, within recent months. READ MORE
Rangers’ Matt Harrison gets roughed up, but All-Star experience means more - One rough stretch did not dampen the All-Star experience for Rangers left-hander Matt Harrison. He entered in the fourth inning Tuesday night at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium and retired the first two National League hitters — Pablo Sandoval and Dan Uggla — on four pitches. The next four hitters — Rafael Furcal, Matt Holliday, Melky Cabrera and Ryan Braun — produced one single, two triples and a homer that produced three runs. “It was a rough inning, but I’ll always cherish this,” Harrison said. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything. I enjoyed every minute of it.” The inning changed when Holliday, batting as a pinch hitter, was fooled on a change-up but flicked the pitch to right for an opposite-field, run-scoring single. Harrison followed with what he admitted was a poorly placed fastball to Cabrera, who sealed the Most Valuable Player award with a two-run homer. READ MORE
Trade for Justin Upton 'makes a lot of sense' for Rangers - While most of the rumors buzzing around the Rangers these days involve pitchers like Cole Hamels and Zack Greinke, ESPN's Buster Olney sees another big name that might make sense -- Justin Upton, Arizona's electric outfielder who the Diamondbacks are reportedly fielding calls for. "As the Rangers explore ways to improve, here's one that makes a lot of sense: A trade for Justin Upton," Olney tweeted Wednesday. "Ariz. looking for 3B, and [Mike] Olt fits." Olt, widely considered the Rangers' second-best position prospect behind shortsop Jurickson Profar, has been at the center of trade rumors in recent weeks because his path to the majors is blocked by Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre. Upton, meanwhile, would fill out the outfield spot that's currently in rotation between David Murphy and Craig Gentry, while also giving the Rangers a bit of Josh Hamilton insurance, as Olney points out. READ MORE
Second half will help Astros evaluate talent - Altuve has star qualities at second, while Harrell is bright spot in rotation. The Astros were one of baseball's best surprise stories for the first seven weeks of the season, pulling to within a game of .500 after rookie pitcher Lucas Harrell outdueled reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium on May 25. Not much has gone right since for the Astros, who saw their taxed bullpen struggle to hold leads and everybody in their lineup fall into a slump at the plate at seemingly the same time. Houston lost 30 of its next 41 games to drop into last place in the NL Central, dealing slugger Carlos Lee to the Marlins along the way. READ MORE
MLB's Forgotten First Half - There sure were an awful lot of things to talk about over the course of the first half of the 2012 MLB regular season. There were so many things to talk about that you've probably forgotten about most of them. One of the awesome and overwhelming but mostly awesome things about baseball is that, once it gets going, it's going all the time, every day. With rare exception, which we'll talk about a little later. Football, for example, has week-long gaps in between game days, so too much is made of too little by necessity to fill in the gaps. On a league scale, baseball doesn't have any gaps in between game days, so the volume of things to talk about is practically limitless. There is always something. There are always several things. READ MORE
Will Cowboys take former Baylor WR Josh Gordon in supplemental draft? - The Cowboys have a chance to add to their roster. The question is whether or not it’s worth the price. The NFL stages its supplemental draft Thursday. Eight players are eligible, led by former Baylor receiver Josh Gordon. The Cowboys can use a third receiver. The competition for that spot is wide open as training camp begins later this month. But what are the Cowboys, or any other team, willing to offer for a receiver who didn’t play in college last season, pulled his quad during this week’s workout and will have missed the off-season program? READ MORE
Vance Joseph Talks About Development Of Brandon Harris And Roc Carmichael - I retweeted a few quotes from Vance Joseph a few days ago, but I neglected to get a full post up about what the DB coach for your Houston Texans told Nick Scurfield about the progress of Brandon Harris and Roc Carmichael. The development of Harris and Carmichael would have been a topic of interest regardless, but there's probably a heightened focus because of the rumors swirling about why Harris couldn't get on the field last year and the fact that Carmichael is coming off a rookie campaign spent on injured reserve. As you'd expect in July, Coach Joseph is bullish on both guys as they approach their second season. READ MORE
Josh Gordon ran 4.52 - Former Baylor wide receiver Josh Gordon ran a 4.52 40-yard dash in front of representatives from 21 teams at his pro day Tuesday, according to the Houston Chronicle. Gordon held the workout in advance of Thursday's supplemental draft. He spent last season out of football after Baylor dismissed him from the team in August 2011. Gordon then transferred to Utah but had to leave the school for the supplemental draft for financial reasons. Gordon left Baylor after being suspended for violating an unspecified team rule. The Houston native said the suspension was for a failed drug test. "It (suspension at Baylor) was due to a failed marijuana test," Gordon told the Chronicle after working out at the Houston Texans' facility Tuesday. "It was against school policy, of course, and I was (suspended) in the summer. I've definitely put that part of my life behind me. I don't plan to ever go back there. It was a difficult time, but I learned from it, and I've moved on." READ MORE
Stars' Roy has shoulder surgery - Only nine days after being acquired by the Dallas Stars, center Derek Roy had shoulder surgery and will be out until November. According to Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News, Roy, who was added in a trade that sent Steve Ott and Adam Pardy over to the Buffalo Sabres, had the procedure done Wednesday in Dallas. Heika reported Wednesday that Roy was cleared medically for the trade, but upon a more intense physical in Dallas, it was revealed that surgery was needed. READ MORE
Mike Modano Named To United States Hockey Hall of Fame - USA Hockey announced today that Dallas Stars legend Mike Modano will be enshrined into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2012. The three-member class, which also includes New Jersey Devils executive Lou Lamoriello and former NHL player and current NBC Sports announcer Eddie Olczyk, will be formally installed into the Hall this fall, with a date and location of the ceremonies to be announced in the near future. "What a remarkable class," said Ron DeGregorio, president of USA Hockey. "The positive impact this group has had on our sport is one that will be felt for decades to come." READ MORE
---Staff and Wire Reports contributed to this story
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