NBA

This isn't the first we've heard of the Mavs' reported interest in both Howard and point guard Chris Paul. In fact, Dirk Nowitzki said he's willing to play salesman to the two free-agent stars and is also open to taking a substantial paycut next summer to make the financials work. Both Howard and Paul would have to leave a year and several million dollars on the table to sign with Dallas, but the lure or playing for a title next to Dirk might be enough to win them over.

There is no indication of anything serious, and the MRI is just designed in order to monitor his recovery after he's dealt with a calf injury during the playoffs. We don't expect Parker to miss any time, but we're putting him on the injury report just in case. Parker reported improvement in the calf, but also noted it was the worst bruise of his career.

Wade was never in danger of missing this one, but after he described himself as day-to-day, there was some concern. Regardless, Wade will be out there for the opening tip and has already said he isn't planning to take time off to rest his knee.

Remember all of those rumors about Jackson returning to the sidelines? They look laughable now. Regardless, we're sure to hear plenty of other rumblings regarding Jackson's future in the front office after he admitted to having a deal in place with Chris Hansen to join the Sonics if the Kings had wound up moving from Sacramento.

"I still haven't been cleared," Beal said after the draft lottery. "It's been six weeks since I've done any basketball-related activities," he said. "In the next couple weeks or so I'm going to get another X-Ray and see if the fracture actually started closing and see if can get back out there. Until then I'm still rehabbing, lifting weights and refraining from any basketball activity." We're not concerned yet, but this isn't something fantasy owners will want to linger.

The report comes from legendary columnist Dave D'Alessandro, so we're inclined to take this one with some truth behind it. Skiles was reported to be on the Nets radar previously, but D'Alessandro elevates that to deeming Skiles the "frontrunner." After the way his tenure ended in Milwaukee, if Skiles is hired by Brooklyn, we'd expect there to be plenty of questions regarding how he will approach the team.

He's still not cleared for physical activity and it's taking him much longer to recover from the stress fracture in his right leg than was anticipated. We should have an update next week, after the X-rays are taken.