Orlando Magic Shaking Up Front Office

New Orlando Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan has started to reconfigure the franchise’s baskeball operations department.

On Sunday, Hennigan fired Assistant General Manager Dave Twardzik and six scouts.

In addition to Twardzik, regional scout Tom Conrad, international scout Rudy D’Amico, international scouting coordinator Sam Foggin, pro scout Bob Staak, regional scout Greg Stratton and NBA advance scout Al Walker were let go, team spokesman Joel Glass confirmed.

Scouting coordinator Brian Wright will remain on the staff, Glass said.

Hennigan declined to comment.

Josh Robbins and Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel

Bobcats Want Barnes, But Not at #2?

(Harrison) Barnes is still a lock to go in the top five, but he might not wind up with the Cavs.

The Charlotte Bobcats are believed to be high on Barnes — keep in mind the Michael Jordan/North Carolina connection — but don’t want to take him second overall. That’s why so much speculation persists on the Cavs and Bobcats working a deal that would give the Cavaliers the No. 2 pick and access to anyone not named Anthony Davis, while the Bobcats would drop down two spots, still in position to take Barnes, and would presumably pick up the Cavs’ extra first-round pick (No. 24 overall).

Off the court, Barnes is smooth and polished. He speaks well, seems thoughtful and appeared for media interviews at the combine wearing dress pants and a sweater while almost everyone else appeared in shorts and T-shirts. Barnes said he did it because this was a job interview and he was taking it seriously.

via Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal

Rockets Intent on Pursuing Howard Trade

Upon hearing of Sunday night’s developments, one rival general manager told ESPN.com that he believes Houston’s real aim is acquiring two top-10 picks this week to turn around quickly and offer both to the Orlando Magic as part of a considerable trade offer for Dwight Howard.

The Rockets’ willingness to trade for Howard — even without the All-Star center’s signature on a contract extension — is an open secret around the league. But it’s believed that two top-eight picks, assuming Houston managed to complete trades with both Sacramento and Toronto, would seriously pique the interest of new Magic general manager Rob Hennigan, who could then quickly start following the same sort of roster-building blueprint relied on by his previous employers in Oklahoma City.

Acquiring those early lottery picks, though, only represents half of Houston’s challenge if Howard is indeed the Rockets’ target. The other hurdle is convincing Hennigan, who hasn’t even been on the job for a week in Central Florida, to part with Howard so quickly. As much as he’s been schooled in building through the draft while working alongside Thunder GM Sam Presti, Hennigan could opt to take a more measured approach, make one more run at trying to convince Howard to sign an extension before entering the final year of his contract and then trade him later in the summer if those efforts go nowhere.

via Chad Ford and Marc Stein of ESPN

Noah, Deng May be Traded to Keep Others

The Bulls want to give Omer Asik and Taj Gibson new deals, so they’re exploring ways to trade Luol Deng and/or Joakim Noah to teams that can send them a trade exception and a No. 1 pick.

via Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News

Deron Williams Narrows to Nets, Mavs?

When NBA free agency begins at midnight July 1, Brooklyn Nets star guard Deron Williams will be choosing from a two-team list that only features the Nets and the Dallas Mavericks, according to sources close to the situation.

Sources told ESPN.com on Saturday night that, while this summer’s No. 1 free agent remains “up in the air” about which team he’ll ultimately chose, Williams already has made the decision to narrow his list of potential destinations to those two franchises.

Other teams, including the Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, had been hoping to lodge their own bids for Williams once free agency begins, sources said.

via Mark Stein of ESPN New York

Mavericks Hope to Draft Rotation Player

In what is perceived to be a draft deep with talent, Donnie Nelson believes the Dallas Mavericks are positioned to pick up a quality player when the NBA holds its annual draft at 6 p.m. Thursday in Newark, N.J.

The Mavs hold the No. 17 and 55th picks in this year’s draft.

And considering 10 of its current 15 players are projected to be free agents on July 1, the Mavs could use an abundance of help.

“It’s that time of the year where we’re looking at everything and the kitchen sink at 17 and trying to figure out who’s going to fall where,” Nelson, the Mavs’ general manager, said. “It’s a crazy time of the year, and the coffee machines are working overtime.

“We should be able to come up with something that can help us. Hopefully it’ll be a rotation-type player.”

via Dwain Price of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram

2012 NBA Finals Top Ratings

The 2012 NBA Finals – the Miami Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder to become NBA Champions – generated the most-watched and highest-rated five-game average for The Finals since 2004 and the second most-watched in ABC history, according to Nielsen.

The Finals averaged 16,855,000 viewers (P2+) and 11,584,000 household impressions, up five percent from 16,084,000 viewers and 11,061,000 household impressions in 2011. The series generated a 10.1 household rating, up six percent compared to a 9.6 last year through five games.

Thursday’s Game 5 broadcast delivered a 10.9 HH rating, 18,461,000 viewers and 12,538,000 household impressions, up 1 percent compared to Game 5 last year (10.8 rating, 18,313,000 viewers and 12,472,000 household impressions).

NBA Finals Game 5 was the highest-rated program of the night and helped ABC win the night among all programs on broadcast and cable. This marks the 30^th consecutive time the NBA Finals have led ABC to win the night.

2012 NBA Finals – Top 10 local markets: 1.Oklahoma City (43.8); 2.Miami (33.1); 3.Tulsa (26.9); 4.West Palm Beach (20.1); 5.Cleveland (17.4); 6.Memphis (15.9); 7.New Orleans (14.4); 8.Atlanta (14.2); 9.Chicago (14.1) 10.San Antonio (14.0).

ESPN Digital Media’s average audience during the five game days of the NBA Finals, which includes ESPN.com, ESPN Mobile Web and ESPN’s ScoreCenter app, was 81,504, up from 56,400 in 2011.  The NBA section of ESPN.com saw more than 1.7 million average daily unique visitors spending more than 15 million total minutes on game days during the NBA Finals, up +9 percent and +12 percent, respectively, compared to 2011.

The NBA section of ESPN’s mobile website saw an average of 1.5 million daily uniques on game days, up +24 percent compared to last year, while the NBA card on ESPN’s ScoreCenter app had 984,000 average daily unique visitors on game days, up from 336,000 in 2011.

ESPN3/WatchESPN: Game 5 of The Finals on ABC, live through special simulcasts on ESPN3, logged an average minute audience of 122,251 across computers, smartphones and tablets via WatchESPN and through ESPN on Xbox LIVE.  All five games of the NBA Finals averaged 330,000 unique viewers and 17.7 million minutes, with an average minute audience of 105,621 across all ESPN digital platforms. The average live Finals game was up +42 percent for total uniques and up +49 percent for total minutes spent compared to the average of NBA Playoff games on ESPN3 and WatchESPN this season.

Kia NBA Countdown averaged a 3.5 rating and 5,353,000 viewers during The Finals on ABC, which is up 16 percent in rating (vs. 3.0) and 13 percent in viewership (vs. 4,738,000) in 2011.