Clips Nation: “There would seem to be seven ’safe’ Western Conference picks – with Dallas and Phoenix being less certain than others. But for that 8th spot, while most pundits agree that the Clippers, the Nuggets and the Warriors might make a run at it, the consensus would seem to be that the Blazers have the inside track. It makes a lot of sense on paper. They were 41-41 last season, and they’re adding three supposedly high impact players this season. But let’s be clear. The 41-41 is perplexing at best, and hardly indicative of their season. Based on their points for/points against of 95.4/96.3, the Pythagorean win-loss comes in at 38-44. Still respectable, certainly. What’s really difficult to resolve is the hot streak. After beginning the season 5-12, the Blazers won 17 of their next 18 to move to 22-13. For the final 47 games, they were 19-28. That’s 47 games of .400 ball. And the team was about as healthy (ignoring Oden) as any team can ever hope to be – the only player in their top 10 who missed more than 8 games due to injury was James Jones, who is now in Miami at any rate.”
Channing Frye: “First, thank you for responding to my question for recommending local artwork. I have discovered that not only is Portland full of hippies, but full of artsy fartsy folks, LOL – JK! I wish I could put everyone’s work on my walls but I don’t make that much money, so I had to narrow it down. And I have looked in depth at all the suggestions as my foot has been elevated during this rehabilitation process. I’m still deciding. It’s a hard process because of all the extraordinary talent that is out there. Once I do choose and the art is on my walls, I’ll take a photo of my choices and post it on the blog so you guys can see them. Thanks again for participating. A lot of my friends also got artwork from what you’ve recommended on the blog. Since I’ve been injured, I realize how much I thrive on physically and mentally challenging myself all the time. Being immobile for a week has been great and agonizing. It’s great to rest my body before the season, but my personality and who I am, it’s making me crotchety and I will be until my cast comes off.”
Tom Ziller of NBA FanHouse: “So, at age 20, Bynum was a better scorer, rebounder and shotblocker than every notable recent big man who was in the league by age 20 … including Dwight Freaking Howard. And it can be argued Bynum’s body was behind Howard and Jefferson at this point — both those fellows came into the lig built like oxen. Bynum had baby fat and intsy calves last October when he started this mess.”
Jody Genesy of The Deseret News: “The Jazz’s team salary for the 2008-09 season will be $65.3 million. While that is above the salary cap, it’s well below the more important luxury-tax threshold, which will be in the $72.4 million range. For 2009-10, however, the Jazz’s salary could skyrocket to $74.4 million — about the same as the projected luxury-tax threshold — if all players with options remain with the team. The problem? The Jazz would still need to sign two more players to reach the required 13-player mark, meaning their salary level would be at least a million or so into the dreaded luxury-tax zone where Miller said his team won’t go.”
Lakers Blog: Jordan Farmar shoots hoops for charity [Video]
Ricky Treon special to The Star-Telegram: “While he was never officially a part of BBBS growing up in inner-city Seattle, Terry had a city councilman as a mentor. Terry gives him much of the credit for his successes as a player and person. “He mentored me, he made sure my grades were right, made sure I got to practice and got home that night, and I wouldn’t be here without him,” Terry said. “So anything I can do to help and give back to the community, I’ll do it.” Some athletes are approached by charitable organizations to sponsor and host an event, but Terry asked officials at BBBS of North Texas to let him headline an event as soon as possible after being one of the celebrity golfers in last year’s classic. “I saw how it was run. It was beautiful, first class, and I said, I have to be in on this,” Terry said. “Dallas has embraced me as a son of the city, and this is my way to give back.”"
And One: A sneak peak at the documentary featuring LeBron James and his high school teammates [Video]
DENVER STIFFS: “The point is that the players listed above are the ones most often compared to the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony who, like his predecessors from the 1980s and early 1990s, is a score-first phenom and the team’s de facto leader. To Melo’s credit, he has led the Nuggets into the highly competitive Western Conference playoffs in each of his five seasons in Denver thus far (something neither LeBron James nor Dwyane Wade have done in the Junior Varsity Eastern Conference). But with the Nuggets entering 2008-09 with arguably the least talented team surrounding Melo since his arrival in Denver, I’m anxious to see if he’s like Alex English – who routinely led the Nuggets into the postseason regardless of the talent around him – or more like Adrian Dantley, who in spite of averaging about 30 ppg in his seven seasons in Utah, guided the Jazz to the playoffs just three times (playing in two).”
Detroit Bad Boys: “In hindsight, if anyone took the regular season for granted last year it was the coaching staff. The Pistons were one of the deepest teams in the regular season last year (mathematically speaking, only the Spurs were deeper), and yet come playoff time, Flip Saunders choked up the rotation and relied almost exclusively on veterans. Talk about a guy showing that the first 82 meant nothing to him … Trouble is, “conventional wisdom” says Saunders did absolutely nothing wrong. Everybody knows that teams shorten the rotation in the playoffs, right? Well, when’s the last time that conventional wisdom won an NBA title? Teams that make calculated risks to separate themselves form the pack win titles, not those concerned with “playing it safe.” Here’s to hoping that Curry feels secure enough as a first-year coach to realize that come playoff time.”
NetsDaily: “Vince Carter was easily the Nets’ best clutch player last season and not just in scoring. According to 82games.com, Carter was among the top 20 in seven different clutch categories: 15th in points per 48 minutes of clutch time and trips to the foul line, first in free throw shooting–he didn’t miss a free throw in clutch time; 16th in assists, 19th in +/-, and (shockingly) second in steals. He was also among 53 NBA players didn’t commit a turnover in clutch time. He was not however a good shooter in the clutch. Carter tied for 92nd in field goal percentage at 37.5% (with Kevin Garnett, Eddy Curry, Rashard Lewis and Tony Parker, among others) and 35th in three-point shooting at 40.0%.”
Peninsula is Mightier: “Michael Beasley has fired his agent, pinning his lack of a shoe deal on representation rather than the fact that he’s neither a high-scoring guard nor a big man of the Shaq/Oden genre, the fact that he played college basketball at a relatively obscure school that made no noise in the NCAA Tournament, the widely-held belief that the team that drafted him was really, really reluctant to draft him, and the fact that he landed with a team with a young superstar already firmly entrenched as its best player and resident product pitchman. I’m not sure which of those circumstances can be blamed on his agent – or actually I am sure, and it’s none of them. It’s disconcerting that a young man who has yet to play a regular-season NBA game already needs to push the reset button in this fashion, but I’m encouraged that he’s aware of his surly/goofy public image and is at least attempting to take steps to repair it. Not to be harsh, but Beasley’s kind of a joke right now.”
