The latest tidbit comes from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, and it provides details on the last straw for the Cavs.

"Before Bynum was thrown out of his final practice and suspended," Wojnarowski wrote, "he was shooting the ball every time he touched it in a practice scrimmage, sources said —  from whatever remote part of the court he had caught the ball."

The capper came, according to reports, after Bynum stopped trying on the court and was disruptive at practice. If that sounds like a pro player being a petulant child, it's a sound conclusion to reach.

Bynum appears to be happier as a member of the Indiana Pacers. In his wake are deals that didn't help the Philadelphia 76ers or the Cavaliers. Remember, the Sixers acquired him and got nothing as Bynum was never healthy enough to play. And the Cavs, who were wise to sign Bynum to a low-risk, incentive-laden contract, left the team with precious little in return.

Except, it appears, peace of mind.


NOT SO SMOOTH-IE


The NBA, in addition to being a worldwide basketball industry, also moonlights as a consumer watchdog.

According to The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, the league took a hard look at Smoothie King, the new sponsor of the New Orleans Pelicans' arena, before any deal was completed. As part of the process, the company's products were tested. Some were found to contain banned substances, including DHEA and androstenedione (the stuff Mark McGwire took 15 or so years ago).

From the Times-Picayune's report:

The NBA had announced that Smoothie Kings products would be scrutinized well before the naming rights deal was confirmed. In addition to testing for banned substances, they also required that the labels on every product sold in a Smoothie King franchise was accurate, ensuring that what Smoothie King says is in a Passion Passport smoothie is, in fact, in it.

Smoothie King CEO Wan Kim, who purchased the company from founder Steve Kuhnau in July 2012, said the NBA wanted to make sure its athletes could eat and drink Smoothie King products and still pass the association’s mandatory drug tests.

“Say we become the official smoothie of the NBA,” Kim said. “If a player consumes one of our products and then fails the drug test, he could go to the NBA and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ All of a sudden it’s the NBA’s fault.”

Rocky Gettys, the company's vice president of product development, told The Times-Picayune the substances were found in nutritional supplements the company sold.

Later, Gettys also said, "Our menu of smoothies was not impacted at all."

The naming rights deal was announced last week.


SLOW DOWN, SEATTLE


Seattle is riding high from its Super Bowl victory, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver is ready to bring the people of Seattle down to Earth.

"Seattle is a wonderful market. It would be very additive to the league to have a team there," Silver told ESPN. "But we're not planning on expanding right now, so it's not a function of price."

Teams entering the league are required to pay an expansion fee. The fee is split between the current teams evenly; when the Charlotte Hornets entered in 2004, they paid $300 million. Seattle's fee could reach $800 million, the amount investers were willing to commit in 2013. That's $26 million per team, a price owners would have to balance against money lost by giving up a share of TV and shared revenue.

"I just think the price of the expansion fee has to be so high that the NBA owners think, 'OK, we're crazy not to do it," said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, per ESPN. "What that number is, I don't know. But I'm open to it."

Silver is more concerned with competitve play, citing the current issues with the Eastern Conference. Four teams at or below .500 will make the playoffs as of Wednesday afternoon. Toronto (at No. 3, 27-25) and Chicago (No. 4, 26-25) aren't much better.

"I and the owners will look at not only the dilution of economic opportunities with one more partner to divide national and international money but also dilution of talent," Silver said. "Right now some are already making comments about the [Eastern Conference], so is it the ideal time to be adding another 15 or 30 players to the league?"

ESPN's piece also sites current problems in Milwaukee, where Silver deemed the arena "unfit" and owner Herb Kohl wants to sell the team, but only to a buyer who won't move the Bucks to a new city.

With that unresolved as well as an abysmal Eastern Conference, expansion to the rainy city doesn't look to be happening anytime soon.

Contributors: Tom Gatto, Cassandra Negley