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The 2012 NBA trade deadline date is March 15.

NBA Rumors for Wednesday, Feb. 8

InsideHoops NBA rumors updated 1:30 p.m. ET.
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Reigning Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft, and Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Ricky Rubio, who ranks third overall in assists, lead a list of 18 players selected for the 2012 NBA Rising Stars Challenge game to be held on Friday, Feb. 24, in Orlando during NBA All-Star 2012. Joining Griffin from the Sophomore class are: DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings), Landry Fields (New York Knicks), Paul George (Indiana Pacers), Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz), Greg Monroe (Detroit Pistons), Tiago Splitter (San Antonio Spurs), Evan Turner (Philadelphia 76ers), and John Wall (Washington Wizards). InsideHoops.com

Irving and Rubio are joined by fellow first-year players MarShon Brooks (New Jersey Nets), Brandon Knight (Detroit Pistons), Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs), Markieff Morris (Phoenix Suns), Tristan Thompson (Cleveland Cavaliers), Kemba Walker (Charlotte Bobcats), and Derrick Williams (Minnesota Timberwolves). The participants in the 2012 NBA Rising Stars Challenge were selected by the NBA’s assistant coaches, with each team submitting one ballot. InsideHoops.com

Amar’e Stoudemire will miss three more games as he grieves the loss of his older brother, who was killed in a car accident earlier this week. Stoudemire plans to return to the Knicks on Monday, the team announced. He will miss Wednesday night’s game in Washington, a home game Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers and Saturday’s game in Minnesota. The Knicks (10-15) are also missing Carmelo Anthony, who is out because of a strained groin, leaving them without their two biggest scorers for the time being. Bill Walker and Jared Jeffries will be in the starting lineup Wednesday night and probably through the weekend. NY Times Blog

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Clippers guard Chauncey Billups suffered a torn left Achilles tendon in last night’s 107-102 Clippers’ win in Orlando. The injury, which occurred with 5:48 remaining in the fourth quarter, will sideline Billups for the remainder of the 2011-12 NBA season. Billups underwent an MRI today at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio which confirmed the injury. He will return to Los Angeles on Thursday for further evaluation. A date for surgery is yet to be determined. InsideHoops.com

But the 35-year-old Billups doesn't plan on retiring. "No, sir. There is no way I'm going to crawl out of the league," Billups said Tuesday. "I'm going to be back. Trust me." Billups was examined at the Cleveland Clinic and he will return to Los Angeles on Thursday for further evaluation. No date has been set for his surgery. LA Times

But it is expected that Billups will be sidelined at least eight months while recovering from the injury. "I'll get it taken care of and get back the best way I can. That's exactly what I'm going to do," he said. LA Times

His contract with the Clippers runs out after this season. Billups said he wants to return to the Clippers — if the feeling is mutual. "I've really enjoyed it," Billups said. "The movement that the team has going on, it's fun and I love it. Obviously I feel like there some unfinished business there. Of course they've got to move on without me and try to replace me. I respect that too. "And I'll be around. It's not like I'll be gone." LA Times

Kendrick Perkins respected Blake Griffin for not making a spectacle of the dunk afterward or gloating about it. But he wasn’t too appreciative of LeBron James tweeting praise to Griffin. Several NBA players commented about the dunk on Twitter and in media interviews, but the only one that bothered Perkins was James. Yahoo

Shortly after the dunk, James tweeted, “Dunk of the Year! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!!! Wow! I guess I’m No. 2 now. Move over #6.” James was referring to his alley-oop dunk he threw down after jumping over Chicago Bulls guard John Lucas III a day earlier. Yahoo

“You don’t see Kobe [Bryant] tweeting,” Perkins said. “You don’t see Michael Jordan tweeting. If you’re an elite player, plays like that don’t excite you. At the end of the day, the guys who are playing for the right reasons who are trying to win championships are not worrying about one play. “They also are not tweeting about themselves talking about going down to No. 2. I just feel [James] is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him.” Yahoo

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have signed guard Donald Sloan to a 10-day contract. Sloan, a Texas A&M University product, appeared in five regular season games with the Atlanta Hawks this season before being released on January 27. Originally signed by Atlanta on December 9, 2011, Sloan averaged 1.2 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 4.0 minutes of play with the Hawks. InsideHoops.com

The NBA announced Tuesday that Kevin Durant's basket with six seconds remaining in regulation Monday at Portland should not have counted. Durant was awarded two points when an official ruled that a blocked shot by LaMarcus Aldridge was goaltending. “With the benefit of slow motion replay following the game, it has been determined that Aldridge made contact with the ball just before the ball hit the backboard,” the statement read. “Therefore, this should have been ruled a good block and goaltending was the incorrect call.” The statement went on to clarify that referees are prohibited from using instant replay on goaltending calls, as determined by the NBA's Competition Committee. Oklahoman

Tayshaun Prince agreed to a four-year, $28 million deal rather than go home to play for one of the teams in Los Angeles — or someplace else. "I am not the type of person who will run away when something is not good," said Prince, a 10-year NBA veteran who turns 32 this month. "Things are not looking too well with what has happened the last few years, and I read all those articles that said I was not going to be here. "It crossed my mind, but at the same time, from Day 1, this has had special memories and has been a special place." Detroit News

Prince doesn't like to lose, and he never expected the Pistons to take this big a dive.. He vows, however, this team will win again — under his watch. "You can never be in a position to say what if I did this or did that after the fact because you will always second-guess yourself," Prince said. "Now that I find myself in this position, the most important thing is to find a way to get ourselves out of it. Detroit News

Prince: "Did I expect to struggle early? No question. We have a new coaching staff and we have people playing bigger roles. Yeah, I understand that but I never thought we would be playing so up and down during the first 20 something games. That is the part that is so disappointing to me. I expected to build off the last couple of years and move forward." Detroit News

Jason Maxiell tries to eat healthy, and he credits his fitness coming into training camp as the reason Pistons coach Lawrence Frank routinely calls him "one our most consistent players all season." "That's a setup, right there -- can't do that," Maxiell said Tuesday of the late-night smorgasbord. "At times when you really want to splurge for yourself on a nice little meal, you got to watch your intake." Since Maxiell was drafted in the first round of the 2005 draft, his weight has fluctuated and his playing time has been inconsistent among three previous coaches. Detroit Free Press

The Washington Wizards announced today that they have waived center Hamady Ndiaye. Ndiaye appeared in three games for the Wizards this season and appeared in 10 games for the Iowa Energy (the Wizard’s NBA D-League affiliate). InsideHoops.com

Conventional wisdom pegs Jeremy Lin's recent success as inexplicable. He was undrafted, has been released by two other teams, is rail skinny and before this week, he'd been considered a novelty who many assumed survived with only a Harvard-educated basketball I.Q. But here's the unusual twist in Lin's story: His success has little to do with smarts. He is, according to players, virtually unguardable. Wall Street Journal

Those who have defended him say that Lin has an extremely rare arsenal of moves—the byproduct of posture, bent knees and peculiar fundamentals. And while being a dribbling expert sounds as exciting as being a chef who specializes in porridge, Lin has made it a devastating art. Knicks guard Iman Shumpert, who first guarded Lin during lockout exhibition games and now does in practice, said his possessions play out like this: When he's close to the basket, he starts an "in-and-out" dribble with his knees bent and his arm straight forward, creating the idea he can go inside or outside—and he does both. All of this is combined with what Jerome Jordan calls a "lethal first step." Lin is, in short, the NBA's undetectable star. Wall Street Journal

Lin's actual genius is that he does things the rest of the Knicks do not do. While star Carmelo Anthony's game focuses on long shots, Lin drives to the rim consistently for high-percentage shots. Anthony's performance on Saturday, when Lin became a sensation, was a case study in inefficiency. Anthony took just two shots at the rim and made both, according to hoopdata.com. He took seven from 16-23 feet and missed all of them. Lin took eight shots at the rim and made six of them. In Monday's win against Utah, he took seven shots at the rim and made six of them. Lin's role will only increase. On Tuesday, Anthony was ruled out for one-to-two weeks with a groin injury, and Amar'e Stoudemrie said he'd take more time off in the wake of his brother's death. Wall Street Journal

But with the Chinese New Year falling on January 24th this year, nobody was in the office to receive that request. Like everybody else in China, the CBA completely shut down for a about a week to go home and celebrate the country’s most important holiday with their families. While officials were on vacation, Kenyon Martin’s letter sat untouched, unread and unanswered and by the time they got back from their break, the seven day period had already passed, giving FIBA the right to open Martin’s road back to the NBA. NIUbball

Not surprisingly, CBA officials are upset that the letter was sent in during New Year, a move that they are deeming unethical due to what they feel was a deliberate attempt to take advantage of the Chinese holiday. Using Martin’s signed letter of commitment that was turned into the CBA when he was bought out from Xinjiang in late December, the league originally considered appealing the decision. According to a top CBA official, Gong Luming, the letter stated that Martin promised not to play in any other professional competition until after Xinjiang’s season was over. NIUbball

The February 7th appeal date has come and gone without an official appeal however, and the CBA, knowing full well that they had little if any chance of winning their case, have moved on to the more pressing matter at hand: making sure the league’s other NBA players stay in China. NIUbball

Because the effects of Martin’s return to the NBA are not just limited to the CBA’s Beijing office. Besides CBA government officials, Martin’s unexpected return to an NBA roster has raised the alarms for both players and individual team general managers, both of whom are equally unhappy over the development. Upset that one NBA-to-China player has broken free of their CBA chains, several foreign players reportedly want out immediately, which in turn has lead to increased pressure on their GMs, who have themselves become angry over their suddenly sulking high-end investments. NIUbball

No charges will be filed against Kobe Bryant over an alleged incident in August at a church in San Diego, the city attorney's office announced. A young man had alleged that Bryant assaulted him while both were attending Sunday services at St. Therese of Carmel Church in the upscale Carmel Valley neighborhood. The accuser said that Bryant aggressively pulled on his arm because the Lakers star thought the man had taken his picture. LA Times

Thomas Hagos, 20, later went to a hospital because of a minor wrist sprain, police said. "As prosecutors we cannot ethically file a criminal case when we lack sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt," said a spokeswoman for San Diego City Atty. Jan Goldsmith. "Based upon our extensive investigation and interview of independent witnesses, we've concluded that charges cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt." LA Times

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