HoopsHype.com Rumors

Adrian Wojnarowski: Dunleavy will take a portion of Bucks mid-level exception, and wear that uniform that his father, Mike Sr., did for much of his career. Twitter

Milwaukee Bucks, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Still a tricky list of B-list of deal points, including drug testing, early entry draft age, D-League assginments that must be agreed on. Twitter

Draft, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: There are over 25 player agents on a conference call now discussing the next steps for the players against the NBA, Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Privately, owners saying union left impression they would accept 50-50 if system issues were resolved, and that's why NBA returned to talks. Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: With the NBA standing firm on an offer of a 50-50 revenue split, talks ended, source tells Y! Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Hunter: "The thought among some of the owners is that once the players started missing checks, they would cave..." Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski 

Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski joined the Mut & Merloni show Friday to discuss the NBA lockout. To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. Wojnarowski got right to business, making it clear that both sides of the lockout — the owners and the NBA Players Association — are prepared to dig in for the long haul. “I think there’s a real chance that they lose a whole season with this lockout,” Wojnarowski said. “I don’t claim to be an expert on the NFL labor dispute. I’m not sure I’m an expert on the NBA’s yet, but I don’t think they’re looking to change the structure of things in the NFL. In the NBA, they’re changing the structure, and really the whole system. That’s not going to come easily. I think the comparison is what happened in hockey, where they tried to put the hard cap, and they lost the full season in ’04-’05. I think that’s where we may be headed with this stoppage. There’s no doubt in my mind they will miss games, and they’ll be where they were in ’98, where it’s either going to be a shortened 50-game regular season, or they cancel the whole thing.” WEEI.com

CBA, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski 

On the timing of the lockout: “I think the NBA’s in a different place than the NHL was then,” Wojnarowski said. “The NBA is at the height of interest and popularity.” WEEI.com

CBA, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski 

He added: “The game’s never been more popular, watched certainly globally, but here the interest from what happened last year in free agency with LeBron, whether people love him or hate him they all watched. Boston has been good, your marquee markets have been very good again. Boston, L.A., Chicago, New York is having a bit of a revival. I think it’s a dangerous time for the league. I think the players are going to have to give. I think they know they’re going to have to give back, but I think right now, to me, there are so many organizations in the NBA, so many bad owners, poorly run franchises who want to blame competitive balance on the fact that they don’t do their jobs very well. There are enough small-market examples — San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Detroit for a very long stretch without a superstar player, who have shown you can do it. While I understand there’s got to be some tightening up here, there’s no question, I think a lot of this the owners, they’re looking to have the players dig them out of a hole that in many instances, they’ve created for themselves.” WEEI.com

CBA, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Concerning how current contracts will be handled: “They want rollbacks on the current contracts. They want rollbacks. This is my feeling on contracts in the NBA. I think that star players, the elite players, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Derrick Rose, even like a Blake Griffin who comes in the league and is selling out arenas on the road in his first year. What Clippers games have ever sold out anywhere? This year I live in Jersey and I was going to take my son to a Nets-Clippers game because he wanted to see Blake Griffin and it was sold out. And I said, ‘How could a Clippers-Nets game be sold out? Wow, Blake Griffin.’ Those guys, generally are to me underpaid for what they do for television, for the interest. WEEI.com

Los Angeles Clippers, Blake Griffin, CBA, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski 

“And I think a lot of probably the middle class might be overpaid. A lot of those guys are probably more interchangeable than they want to believe they are. They don’t put people in stands. What will happen is while their salaries are going to go down, the superstar player is probably going to be very underpaid compared to what they’re worth for these franchises. But, what they do want is rollbacks on the current deals. What the owners proposed right now, they’re looking at 25 percent, 20 percent rollbacks on an existing deal you already have now. That’s going to be hard to swallow for guys, not just on your next deal, but on your current deal. You’re going to lose money on a deal you’ve already agreed to.” WEEI.com

CBA, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Former Celtic Nenad Krstic recently signed a two-year deal to play in Europe for CSKA Moscow. Wojnarowski expects others to follow. “I think you’re going to see that,” he said. “The problem right now is that a few years ago overseas was a big threat and then the euro crashed. There aren’t as many teams in Europe as there were a few years ago. There was a couple years there where, you know, Josh Childress had a $6 million a year deal in Europe. Those deals aren’t there anymore for those kind of guys. If a front line NBA guy wants to go over there, he can get a good contract. The middle-of-the-road, the middle-class guys who were going over there and really getting paid well, getting paid more than they could get with say the veterans minimum here or even like a $1.8, $2.2 million deal, they could get a little better over there. That money isn’t really there anymore. So you will see more guys go over there. Now for Krstic it was easy because he’s from Europe and he has a comfort level there. But I think you’ll see a few more guys sign up like that, fringe guys, but the guys who are under contract and aren’t free agents right now, they’re going to have to ride it out.” WEEI.com

Free Agency, Josh Childress, CBA, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, Nenad Krstic, NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski, CSKA Moscow 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Joe Dumars has yet to make contact with the 3 top Detroit coaching targets, Kelvin Sampson, Mike Woodson and Lawrence Frank, sources say. Twitter

Detroit Pistons, Mike Woodson, Joe Dumars, Lawrence Frank, Adrian Wojnarowski, Kelvin Sampson 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Several league execs believe Colangelo will have to go 'opposite' in next coaching hire, with focus on defense. Lawrence Frank makes sense. Twitter

Lawrence Frank, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Just texted a source close to Colangelo and D'Antoni about a possible Phoenix reunion, and reply came an emphatic, "No." Stay tuned. Twitter

Phoenix Suns, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Unless Knicks had coach that they really wanted to hire -- and who would that be right now? --- doubtful they'd let D'Antoni leave for TOR. Twitter

New York Knicks, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Heat spokesman tells Yahoo that video tape of Boston's bus during April game showed no one entered vehicle during Heat-C's game. Twitter

Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Carmelo Anthony's contract extension with Knicks includes ETO (opt-out clause) after 2013-'14 season, sources tell Y! Deal runs until 2015. Twitter

Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Jason Quick: Despite the silence, the thing that has the players and agents on alert is @Adrian Wojnarowski is rarely, if ever, wrong Twitter

Media, Adrian Wojnarowski 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Players mostly unchanged from original Denver-NJ-Detroit 3-way, but draft picks going to DEN for Melo still being worked out, sources tell Y Twitter

Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Draft, Adrian Wojnarowski