Points in the Paint

» July 13, 2009 5:24 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Ira Winderman has some inside information on the Heat’s trade/free agency front: “What’s known is this: Heat interest in Iverson, at least at this point, is wildly overstated. Further, way too much is being read into comments from Dwyane Wade about interest in a scorer such as Iverson. Privately, it almost is as if Iverson is a non-issue with Wade. As for Boozer, there is both smoke and fire. He wants to be in South Florida. Wade would like him as a running partner (although saying he is pushing for such a trade might be overstatement).”

Jonathan Feigen: “While on the subject of McGrady, he has taken his first on-court steps in his rehab. It is, be design, not much, just some light cuts, set shots and free throws. Reports are pretty optimistic, with McGrady’s leg strength particularly encouraging.” Feigen also reports McGrady will change his uniform number to No.3 to promote his ‘3 points Darfur’ initiative.

Rosen on Cleveland’s signing of Anthony Parker: “Parker is capable of doing the kind of trenchwork that all championship teams require. Plus his considerable, yet unassuming talents can fit into any system. Imagine the damage and the nightmarish matchups that the following unit could inflict on opponents: Shaq, LBJ, Williams, Delonte West and Parker. In fact, these five have all the earmarks of a championship-winning lineup. In Parker, at long last, the Cavs have a perfect compliment to LBJ’s unique skills.”

Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “The Jazz remain ‘unequivocally’ opposed to going to Las Vegas, according to O’Connor, both out of frustration at their own league’s demise and the belief that the environment along the Strip is the wrong introduction for players entering the NBA. ‘The things that I’ve heard of and things that have happened, guys being in the casinos with their practice stuff on or their game stuff on,’ Sloan said. ‘I don’t know, is that something you want to accomplish with young guys?’ Added Sloan: ‘We have a tough enough time trying to keep the image going in the right direction.’”

Celtics coach Doc Rivers on what Rasheed Wallace will bring to Boston: “I think he’s one of the best communicators on the floor defensively and I think Kevin may be the other one. I kept thinking if we put these two guys together, our defense never takes a dip during games and that’s important for us going into this year.”

Frank Isola included this little tidbit in the fastbreak section of his latest column for the Daily News: “No one should be surprised that once Shaquille O’Neal was traded from Phoenix, both Hill and Nash decided to re-sign with the club.”

Last week, I linked to a blog by Bulls.com’s Sam Smith which estimated LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and company could be forced to give up as much $40 million to change teams next summer. Smith checked his calculations, and found that his estimate was a little high: “Esteemed NBA media VP Tim Frank informed me the figure is closer to $29 million with the extra year and 10.5 percent raises versus eight percent. Though players leaving a team can start at the same 105 percent of their previous salary figure as players staying.”

Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “David Falk, the super agent whose book The Bald Truth, warns of pitfalls in the current NBA salary structure, said superstars like James, Wade and Bosh ultimately won’t be hurt by the falling cap as much as the next level of players will be. When the current CBA, which expires in 2011, was negotiated in 2005, Falk told NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter that two salary pools should be created within the cap: one for the max players, and one for the rest. Falk thought this would eliminate what he calls abuse of the mid-level exception while allowing the stars to get paid without hurting the middle-class players. ‘If the cap goes down to $52 million and you have two max players, that’s $32 million,’ Falk said. ‘That’s 60 percent of the money. You only have $20 million for the other 11 guys. Those two guys should be in their own pool, and that’s what I recommended to Billy in 2005. The stars are always going to get paid. Always. They’re going to get paid first, because they’re the foundation of the game. When the cap goes down, who it’s going to hurt is the guys at the next level. If you make a movie and you put De Niro and Pacino in it,’ Falk said, ‘it doesn’t matter who the third person is. That’s where this thing is headed.’”