Lakers, Scott need to fully embrace youth movement

When the Los Angeles Lakers selected Ohio State point guard D’Angelo Russell with the second pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, it was clear they were looking ahead to the future. While they could have traded the pick as part of a package for veteran players, general manager Mitch Kupchak looked at his roster and realized it was time to fully rebuild. Unfortunately, that rebuilding plan hasn’t reached the court yet.

Lakers head coach Byron Scott hasn’t embraced the youth movement with the same zeal as his bosses. Instead, he has chosen to bench Russell in key situations early in the season. While he is giving minutes to 2014 first-round pick Julius Randle, Scott has refused to put Russell on the court in crunch time, instead he has typikcally opted for free agent pickup Lou Williams.

That strategy hasn’t worked, as the Lakers have limped to a 1-7 start.

Harlem Globetrotters drop Washington Generals as opponent

The most prodigious losers in sports history are no more — and no, that does not mean Indiana has dropped its football program.

After more than six decades, the Harlem Globetrotters have dropped the Washington Generals as their primary opponent. The Generals’ first — and only — win in the rivalry came in a 1971 game.

“I got a call about a month ago, and they just told me that that was it,” Generals GM John Ferrari told ESPN’s Darren Rovell. “I turned to my wife and just said to her, in disbelief, ‘It’s over.'”

Ferrari said he was given no explanation, though it seems possible the Globetrotters have grown bored with their 44-year winning streak. Or, more likely, an ever-dwindling fanbase has. There was a time when the Globies were bigger than any NBA team, but you won’t find them hanging out with Scooby-Doo on Saturday mornings these days.

Report: Griffin initially told Jordan to stick with Dallas

In a wonderfully detailed piece of reporting, ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelbourne and Tim McMahon captured DeAndre Jordan’s odyssey from committed future Dallas Maverick to guy hiding inside his house so he could avoid Mark Cuban and stay with the Clippers.

There are plenty of interesting nuggets, but one in particular sticks out — Clippers star Blake Griffin initially encouraged his teammate to honor his commitment to the Mavericks.

Jordan had called Griffin on Monday to say he was having serious misgivings about his decision. He had built a life in Los Angeles. Why was he leaving? Had he just gotten caught up in the frenzy of the recruiting process? Did he really want to be the face of a franchise? Griffin told Jordan he had made a commitment and needed to live up to it. They’d still be friends, regardless of whether they were teammates. But Jordan seemed troubled. Griffin told him he needed to call Rivers if he really wanted to revisit his decision.

So had Jordan actually taken the initial advice of his best basketball buddy, they would no longer be teammates.

Enes Kanter to sign max offer with Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trailblazers have been looking for a way to replace recently-departed All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge, and on Friday they may have found it. Reports claim the Trail Blazers have agreed to a max offer with power forward Enes Kanter worth $70 million over four years.

Kanter is a restricted free agent and his current team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, have three days to match that offer. If they do match it, they will owe a luxury tax bill of $26 million for the 2015-16 season. If the Thunder allow Kanter to walk, Steven Adams would likely slide back into the starting center role.

NBA salary cap set at record $70 million for 2015-16 season

While the world is focused on the DeAndre Jordan hostage situation free agency mess, the NBA released some good news for most of the league late Wednesday night. The league has set the salary cap for the 2015-16 season at a record-high of $70 million.

The cap for next season has been raised by 11 percent, a surprising development after it had initially been projected to come in at around $70 million. Now that the cap has been set, the NBA will officially drop its moratorium on free agent signings at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Thursday.

Manu Ginobili returning for 2015-16 season

The San Antonio Spurs have been having quite the offseason so far. On Monday, it just got a little better.

Manu Ginobili took to Twitter Monday afternoon to announce that he will return to the team for the 2015-16 season. The 37-year-old Argentine guard played in 70 contests last season, coming off the bench in all of them. He played 22.7 minutes while averaging 10.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.

Sacramento Kings continue to be an utter disaster

The Sacramento Kings are not having a good last few weeks. What with All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins demanding a trade, owner Vivek Ranadive publicly feuding with his head coach and vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac making an underwhelming draft pick, things haven’t been swell in Sactown. Now the team’s strategy for free agency has gone completely off the rails as well.

The Kings opened free agency with a plan to bring in some combination of Rajon Rondo, Monta Ellis and Wesley Matthews. To free up cap space, they made a hilariously lopsided trade that sent Carl Landry, Jason Thompson and Nik Stauskas to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic. Gudaitis was the 47th pick of the 2015 NBA Draft and Mitrovic went 60th. Neither is expected to help the Kings any time soon, and the 76ers got Stauskas, who was the eighth pick in last year’s draft.

Lakers enlist Adam Levine’s help in LaMarcus Aldridge pursuit

The Los Angeles Lakers met with free agent power forward LaMarcus Aldridge last night while you were likely sleeping, and by all accounts the meeting went really well. The Lakers went all-in, enlisting Kobe Bryant, James Worthy and a host of other executives to try and convince Aldridge to be the future of the franchise. But they also got help from an unlikely source.

While team president Jeanie Buss was asking fans to retweet the hashtag #LAtoLA, life-long Lakers fan Adam Levine got in on the act. The Maroon 5 singer showed up on the team’s official Twitter feed wearing a Lakers jersey with Aldridge’s name and number.

Pelicans pay Anthony Davis a pretty penny, and get a deal

New Orleans Pelicans owner Tom Benson’s estranged would-be heirs recently took the old man to court, trying to prove he has lost his marbles and that the control of the Pelicans and Saints and future fortune was essential weasled away from the doddering fool by his current wife. His daughter and granddaughter lost that court battle, though they plan on appealing.

Tuesday night’s events aren’t going to help their argument that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

New Orleans extended star center Anthony Davis to a five-year, $145 million deal in the first minute of the NBA’s free agency period, which began when the clock struck midnight in the Eastern time zone. The best player to set foot in NOLA since Pete Maravich is now locked up with the team until 2020. (Sorry, Chris Paul — you may be better in commercials, but AD is already better than you ever were on the floor. And you were damn good in New Orleans.)

Report: Celtics offered four first-round picks to move up in draft

Post-draft analysis is fun in any sport, but the NBA draft is usually one of the craziest nights in sports. The stories that come out afterwards are insanely entertaining. Today a big one broke that is pretty mind-boggling.

A report claims that the Boston Celtics offered four first-round picks (and up to six total picks) to the Charlotte Hornets in an attempt to move up to the No. 9 spot in Thursday night’s draft. Those four (!!!!!) first-round picks would have only moved Boston up seven slots, but it would have put them in position to add Justise Winslow, who was still on the board at No. 9. The Hornets turned the trade down and selected Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky with the pick. Winslow quickly went off the board at No. 10 to the Miami Heat.