Jared Dudley: NBA Insider

Move over David Aldridge.

Now we know where Rich Bucher really gets all of his inside information. From Phoenix Suns Forward Jared Dudley of course.

JaredDudley619@RicBucher and also matt will be at cleveland or atl… show ur boy some love

Dudley, through his twitter, told Bucher that Matt Barnes would be signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Atlanta Hawks. Dudley was Barnes’ teammate in Phoenix last season. After reports of these tweets surfaced all over the web, Bucher went on a tirade, complaining about people using his tweets as news and subsequently decided to stop tweeting altogether.

What did Bucher expect to happen? He shared his thoughts through the fastest growing networking site in the entire world and he didn’t think that people would report on what he said I like Bucher’s tweets, he sometimes gives some good information. This was potentially one of these times. Why wouldn’t someone discuss this story? Bucher reports on the NBA for a living, so it only makes sense that writers, bloggers and message board posters would discuss what Bucher says and in this case, what he receives through his twitter account.

Rumors have been circulating all week that Barnes’ agent, Aaron Goodwin has been in contact with the Orlando Magic. Goodwin is also the agent for Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard. Hoopshype.com has been reporting that Goodwin and the Magic have been in contact throughout the week and that the two appear to be close on a deal. There was no talk about the Cavaliers or the Hawks.

I’m not sure if we can trust NBA Insider Jared Dudley or HoopsHype. I’m going to sit back and wait and see, but I don’t think that the Magic are out of the mix with Barnes. I’m not as confident as I was yesterday, but I still believe that there’s a good chance that he will sign with Orlando when it’s all said and done.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger.Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily. Check out his ACC Coastal Division Football preview here.)