NBA
NBA Rumors: Pelicans Signing Cunningham?
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated06 Nov 2023
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Months after authorities dropped domestic assault charges against him, free agent forward Dante Cunningham could be returning to the NBA, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Cunningham, a 6-foot-8 forward, worked out for the New Orleans Pelicans over the weekend and the franchise is strongly consider signing him soon, sources said.
Six months ago, Cunningham was arrested for domestic assault and spent time in a jail cell. Later on, the charges were dropped and a police investigation found that the accuser had lied and tried to frame Cunningham by sending herself threatening messages. Even those the charges were dropped, the incident was enough to keep Cunningham from being signed when his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves expired over the offseason.
Now, Cunningham has been trying to clear his name and resume his career. He had been working out near Penn State, where one of his college teammates is coaching, and waiting for a call from a team.
It appears the New Orleans Pelicans are the first team to take a look at him and could be interested in signing him after waiving Darius Miller and Patric Young on Sunday.
Earlier this year, Cunningham’s agent Joel Bell told the Associated Press that one NBA team said they couldn’t afford the public-relations backlash that would come from signing Cunningham, given the negative headlines that athletes with domestic violence charges have made lately.
New Orleans is doing their homework on Cunningham and taking a look at him, but it remains to be seen if they will look past his recent off-court issues and sign him.
“Even though one day I’ll be without Timmy and Manu and Pop,” Parker said, “we’re still going to try to compete and bring in good players and try to be a franchise that wins games . . . I trust the Spurs. I trust R.C. (Buford) and Peter (Holt), that we will still have a competitive team.”
At some point in the near future, Tony Parker will no longer be surrounded by Tim Duncan (38 years old), Manu Ginobili (37 years old) and Gregg Popovich (65 years old), but he’s confident that San Antonio will remain a good team as long as R.C. Buford and Peter Holt are in charge of the franchise.
Fortunately for the 32-year-old Parker, the Spurs have been preparing for the future while competing in the present in recent years, adding talented young contributors like Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Tiago Splitter among others. The Spurs are also set to have a ton of cap room very soon, which will allow them to load up the roster in preparation for life after Duncan and Ginobili.
This article was about Parker someday being in the same position as Rajon Rondo, who is the lone leftover from Boston’s star-studded championship team after watching Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Doc Rivers leave.
This is inevitable, but how the Spurs surround Parker with talent at that time will determine if the team can remain a contender or if they’ll miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
Said (Brooklyn Nets’ Coach Lionel) Hollins on Friday: “Mason (Plumlee) needs to play better. … It’s not just scoring because we’ve talked about Brook. It’s not just rebounding. It’s not just defense. It’s everything. Being [in] the right spot, making the right rotation, finishing a layup, getting a defensive rebound, getting an offensive rebound. And I have to go with who I have confidence in. … That’s why certain guys play and certain guys don’t. You gotta give me confidence.”
When Plumlee was asked about Hollins’ critique of his game, he shook his head and got annoyed.
“It’s whatever,” Plumlee said, according to Mazzeo. “That’s my quote”
The big man then added that he’s adjusting to playing fewer minutes, since he averaged 18.2 minutes per game last season under Jason Kidd and even started 22 games but this year is playing just 12.8 minutes under Hollins.
Hollins recently told reporters that Jerome Jordan has moved ahead of Plumlee in the rotation.
This is a big surprise, considering Plumlee played well last year and emerged as a significant contributor for Team USA during the FIBA World Cup over the summer. He was expected to be a key player for the Nets, but he and Hollins clearly haven’t been on the same page.
The Nets are currently 6-9, which puts them outside of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.
In addition to Plumlee, Hollins has also had issues with Andrei Kirilenko, who told reporters he “has no idea” what he needs to do to enter Hollins’ rotation and who likely has played his last game with Brooklyn after being excused from the team.
