NBA News Roundup: 16th July - LeBron James meets with Luke Walton, set to miss Team USA minicamp

An offseason that started off at a mind-numbing pace with free agents signing deals left, right and center on the first couple of days has predictably cooled down. In a summer where few teams had cap space and fewer still were willing to tie it up long term, a number of worthy free agents like Clint Capela and Marcus Smart are still waiting to sing deals worthy of their usual market value.

Zach LaVine and Jabari Parker, on the other hand, have signed deals that could be termed as medium-risk, high-reward plays by the Chicago Bulls front office. Both of them are slated to earn $20 million in the 2018-19 season, and Capela figures to at least be worth that amount presumably whereas the Rockets' front office would prefer a deal more like Jusuf Nurkic's 4-year,$48 million, which the Bosnian 23-year-old signed with the Blazers.

But among other news, there is the mystique that comes with a superstar heading to LA in LeBron James, and in our roundup, we've got some news about The King to bring to you:

#1 Philadelphia 76ers try and fail to lure Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey

Houston Rockets Introduce Mike D'Antoni as Head Coach

The Sixers were "rebuffed" in their attempt to hire Daryl Morey from the Houston Rockets to be their new GM, according to the New York Times' Marc Stein. The Sixers' organization was rocked by a scandal relating to burner accounts operated by former GM Bryan Colangelo's wife Barbara Bottini, leading to his resignation after about 2 seasons in charge of the franchise.

Morey has been with the Rockets for the last 12 seasons. He was recently named the NBA's Executive of the Year for his role in assembling a roster which won a league-best 65 games and was within arm's reach of its first trip to the NBA Finals since 1995. He signed a four-year contract extension with Houston in June 2017 that will take him through 2020-21.

Head coach Brett Brown is currently overseeing basketball operations until a replacement is found.

#2 LeBron James meets with Luke Walton for the first time since signing

Cleveland Cavaliers v Los Angeles Lakers

While LeBron James may have attended the Lakers’ Summer League game in Las Vegas on Sunday to support his future teammates, there was a bigger reasoning behind his trip to the Thomas and Mack Center: his first meeting with Lakers head coach Luke Walton.

James met with Walton for the first time over the weekend, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported on Monday. James and Walton had only texted since James agreed to a four-year deal with the Lakers earlier this month.

Walton is favourably impressed by James' demeanour so far, and he said as much to the press.

“He’s about the team,” Walton told ESPN. “He’s about doing things the right way, and he’s about winning. I can work with those qualities.”

Walton was actually selected in the same draft class as James back in 2003, and has been reaching out to former coaches and players since James agreed to the four-year, $153.3 million deal — including Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

“I’ll just tell them LeBron’s easy,” Lue told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin earlier this month ahead of his breakfast meeting with Walton. "People get this whole thing built up like he’s hard to coach. It’s not. LeBron’s not the problem. It’s the outside tension that’s the problem. Just put added pressure immediately on the coaches, on his teammates. Now everything you do is under a microscope. So it’s going to be a totally different change for the Lakers. They’ll be able to handle it.”

So while it will definitely be a new challenge for Walton to coach the best basketball player in the world, he is doing his fullest to get up to speed. And he should do just fine, considering he oversaw the Warriors' 24-game winning streak with MVP Steph on it.

#3 LeBron to miss Team USA minicamp later this month

LeBron James is skipping next week’s USA Basketball minicamp, as reported by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

The minicamp will be held July 25-27 in Las Vegas, and it will be the first USA Basketball event with Gregg Popovich as the head coach. Popovich took over for Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Team USA to a gold medal win in 3 successive Olympics tournaments.

James was one of 35 names selected to the group of players able to participate in the USA Basketball camp. The list was released in April. The last time he made it to a major Team USA tournament, however, was the London Olympics in 2012.

After the camp, USA Basketball will select 12 players to compete in the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Edited by Amulya Shekhar