Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register: “Bryant now sits at 48.4 percent field-goal shooting on the season, a meteoric rise since he shot just 39 percent in the six games leading into the Dec. 16 game against New York. Lakers coach Phil Jackson had called Bryant’s unsteady production back then ‘bothersome’ at one point and wondered about fatigue in spite of Bryant’s insistence that he felt great. Bryant did play all 82 regular-season games last season, followed by 21 playoff games – a combined total of 103 that stands as a career high. Then he added the full Olympic experience for Team USA’s gold-medal run over the summer on top of that. But he said Wednesday night that he hasn’t even put it into ‘third gear’ yet this season, and there’s a lot to be said for him conserving energy and maintaining health by killing with non-contact jumpers now, which will also open up sure-thing driving lanes later in the season.”
Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: “Sloan has some sympathy pains for Boozer — both for being injured and for getting questioned by some about just how injured he really has been. The former defensive standout of the Chicago Bulls knows from personal experience just how frustrating dealing with all aspects of injuries can be. He said getting out of the daily basketball routines can be strange. ‘After you’ve been hurt a couple of times and being away from everything, you’re like in another world away from everybody,’ Sloan said. ‘It’s a pretty cold feeling, but that’s the facts of this business. Coaches have to go ahead about their business, players have to try to get ready to play. It’s just the way it is. It’s not a very comfortable position to be in.’ The doubters and naysayers make it all the tougher. ‘Everybody’s looking at you like, ‘What’s really wrong with this guy?’‘ Sloan said. ‘They questioned me when I played. I thought I was a pretty hard-nosed guy and played hard. But people still questioned. … There’s nothing you can do about it, so just get yourself ready to go whenever it’s time and go on with your business.’”
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “To accelerate Hill’s learning curve, Popovich has given him more and more responsibility lately. Hill started the fourth quarter in each of the past two games, with the outcome still in doubt. At one point in Thursday night’s victory over the Clippers, Popovich even ceded the head coach’s chair to Hill, and let the rookie run a timeout. Afterward, Hill said it was the highlight of his season. ‘I’m going to tell everyone back home I got to run a timeout,’ Hill said, beaming. The Spurs would like to believe they will continue to get steady progress out of Hill. But ‘steady progress’ tends to go with ‘NBA rookie’ the way ‘gastric restraint’ goes with the term ‘competitive eater.’ For Hill, there is that wall looming in the distance, which can tend to make even the most talented rookies go south around the All-Star break. The challenge is not just a physical one. ‘Mentally is where it’s toughest for rookies,’ said Roger Mason Jr., the Spurs’ fifth-year guard. ‘Physically, they can handle 82 games. Mentally, the wear and tear can affect you.’”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “With Ron Artest sitting out for the third time in the five games of the road trip, and Tracy McGrady planning to sit out tonight at home against New York, Rockets coach Rick Adelman was ready to advocate normalcy. Though he has gone with McGrady’s plan to play every other game in back-to-backs, Adelman said he was considering a switch to letting his player rest and get well and return to the floor when they can stay on it for more than one game in a row. ‘We have to figure out what we’re going to do,’ Adelman said. ‘You get a guy for a game and you lose him again. We keep going back and forth. We have to figure out how we go on from here. We do have a little break in the schedule as far as off days, but somehow we have to start making some progress. It’s really not doing us any good, especially right now. We not only need guys in the games, we need them to be practicing. We keep taking one step forward and two steps back.’”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “Until Sean May weighs 260 pounds, he’s not playing basketball for the Charlotte Bobcats. It’s that simple and that non-negotiable. May told the Observer on Friday those were the orders he heard recently from Bobcats managing partner Michael Jordan and coach Larry Brown. ‘MJ and Larry expressed to me that this is for my own good – for my longevity,’ May said before Friday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.‘Coach Brown is really old-school and really cut-and-dry. This is tough love-type stuff. Now I understand it, and I just want to play.’ May opened the season as the starting power forward but hasn’t been activated for the last 14 games because of conditioning issues and tendinitis in his right knee. He says he weighs 270 pounds, down about 15 from what he weighed entering training camp in October. ‘I haven’t been 260 since I left (North) Carolina. But if that’s what they want, that’s what they want. Coach Brown has been upset with me because I’ve plateaued for a while at 270.’”
Don Seeholzer of the Pioneer Press: “‘It feels great,’ guard Randy Foye said Friday. ‘To be able to play like that, freely, and just to get up and down the court. It’s just fun the way McHale lets us play.’ No one has benefited more than Foye, who has led the team in scoring in three straight games and is shooting 17 for 25 (68 percent) from three-point range in the past five. All he did Wednesday night was match his career high of 32 points in three quarters, in a 129-87 rout of Oklahoma City that was the second-biggest win in Wolves history in margin of victory. Style-wise, it was the kind of game McHale told the players he wanted in their first team meeting. ‘He wants up-tempo,’ guard Mike Miller said. ‘He wants to have the ball hopping, and we’re getting better at that. The ball’s moving around the perimeter a lot better.’ The result has been a higher-scoring, highly efficient offense that still takes fuller advantage of Al Jefferson in the low post.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “Hill’s shooting has improved dramatically since his return to the starting lineup. He shot 42.5 percent as a reserve and made 2 of 12 3-pointers. In 17 starts, he had shot 56.3 percent from the field entering Friday and had made 11 of 28 3-pointers. ‘Some days you might get six, seven shots, and some days you might get 14, 15,’ Hill said. ‘We have so many weapons on this team. If you’re an opposing player, who do you focus on? I may go seven minutes without shooting, but I can still be out there being productive – rebounds, defense, assists – and when the time comes, I’ll get my opportunities. Shaq (O’Neal), Amaré (Stoudemire) and Steve (Nash) and the attention they bring allows him to get wide-open shots and easy shots,’ coach Terry Porter said. ‘He also has very good shot selection. Grant isn’t a guy who’s just going to jack a shot for the sake of jacking one. Most of his shots are high-percentage shots.’”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “This only figures to add to the debate of whether Shawn Marion has a definitive place, let alone a future, on this roster. While Michael Beasley was playing the entire fourth quarter and overtime, and while Udonis Haslem and Jamaal Magloire were splitting time in the power rotation over that span in Friday’s victory in Sacramento, Marion was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter. He didn’t play in the overtime. On one hand, it would be two-faced in this space to previously have questioned Beasley’s meager playing time and then make an issue of Marion’s lack of minutes in Friday’s epic struggle. But, on the other hand, it’s not as if Marion didn’t provide eight points and seven rebounds in the 29 minutes he was utilized, including all 12 minutes in a third quarter that saw the Heat outscore the Kings 30-22. What it means is what it always has meant: This is a mismatched roster, with three players who are at their best when utilized at power forward.”
Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post: “Billups is the latest example of how big an impact one player can still have in the NBA. ‘I haven’t coached a guy like him in a long time that is an orchestrator first, but then when the game kind of gets a little bit goofy — which a lot of NBA games get goofy — he seizes the responsibility of getting it under control in the right way,’ Nuggets coach George Karl said. ‘I would say he’s done that a half-a-dozen times already. ‘And it comes in different packages, from defense to scoring to shooting. And then when he explodes, with the three-ball most of the time in the late third, early fourth quarters, it can become a pretty powerful ending.’ Meanwhile, Iverson and the Pistons struggled in their first 21 games together, going 10-11. Early statistical analyses reveal declining shooting percentages and increasing opponent scoring and efficiency. Iverson’s worth to a team has been heavily questioned, and though the Pistons have won seven of their last eight games, it hasn’t fully recovered.”
Alan Hahn of Newsday: “Walsh must be realizing he may not get anything close to Lee’s value in a trade. As far as fitting in his future contract — $10M a year still may be a bit steep, but they should be able to find a more workable number over a long-term deal with, perhaps, an early opt-out — the Knicks could still keep themselves relatively close to $40 million or so under the cap in 2010 if they can trade Eddy Curry, who right now takes up $11.2 million of the payroll in 2010-11. In fact, if the Knicks can re-sign Lee for $10 million or less and move Curry, they could save $1.2 million or more. There is a small window where teams can start up extension talks, but it won’t likely happen until after July 1. The Knicks are committed to just four contract for about $23.4 million (rounded) in 2010-11. That includes Curry’s $11.2M. You have factor the salary of a first-round pick — where the Knicks sit right now, that could be a little over $2 million — into the equation, of course, which raises the number to $25.4 million.”
The Times-Picayune: New Orleans Hornets question why Chris Paul isn’t a leader in All-Star voting [Video]
Matt Steinmetz of The Examiner: Monta Ellis does full-court drills with teammates for first time [Video]
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “This was the kind of lapse in judgment the NBA can’t afford from its most famous airwaves ambassador. So in response to the news that Barkley will take an indefinite leave of absence from his TNT broadcast duties, I say good. It’s the right move. Call it a slap on the wrist if you like, but neither the NBA nor TNT is a court of law. Barkley, 45, had a blood-alcohol content nearly twice the legal limit, according to toxicology tests, and was in too much of a hurry to secure a romantic rendevous to bother stopping at a red light. The legal process will handle that. An intern with TNT or the NBA, for that matter, arrested under similar circumstances no doubt would have become another unemployment statistic by now. That’s not the point; I think we can all accept by now that athletes and all types of celebrities are treated differently in the workplace and in society. The point is that TNT — presumably with Stern’s blessing — did the right thing. Not only that, they did something no one — not a single referee, coach, opposing player, or even Stern — has ever been able to do. They silenced Charles Barkley.”
David Aldridge for NBA.com: “By one team president’s math, at least 16 teams already have cleared or will likely have cleared enough cap room by the summer of 2010 to be able to pursue at least one max-level free agent. By contrast, the team president figures, only five teams will be in a similar situation next summer. He didn’t specify, but it’s not hard to figure them out: Atlanta, Memphis, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Portland. Detroit could become a sixth, but only if it renounces its free agent rights to both Iverson and Wallace, which is extremely doubtful. Portland’s flexibility may well be compromised if the contract of Darius Miles, waived Tuesday by Memphis, ultimately winds up back on the Blazers’ books, costing them $9 million in cap space and near double that in possible luxury tax payments. Atlanta has to decide how much to put into Mike Bibby and Marvin Williams. The point is, there will be far fewer ‘09 suitors than ‘10 teams. And while Bryant is equally not likely to leave L.A. for smaller-revenue teams this summer, those teams are nonetheless in a buyer’s market similar to that of Major League Baseball. There will be solid, veteran players available who may well have to settle for cents on the dollar instead of bigger paydays. A wise team will likely get a whole lot more bang for its reduced buck in ‘09.”
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “The news has concerned the auto industry’s historic collapse. The $17.4 billion federal bailout for General Motors and Chrysler. The 35 percent decline in national December new car sales. The first projected loss for Toyota in 70 years in business. With Jazz owner Larry Miller operating one of the nation’s largest networks of car dealerships, the question is whether the downturn on one side of operations will affect the Jazz and what they can spend, especially looking ahead to this summer. For now, the answer is no, according to chief executive Greg Miller. The Millers have not closed any dealerships, and though sales have declined, their numbers are better comparatively than those nationwide during the current auto crisis. ‘If business holds up at today’s levels in the car division, it’s really not going to have any carryover with the Jazz,’ Miller said. ‘But if you see it drop off significantly from where it is now and our dealers start showing losses, it could have an adverse impact on the Jazz.’”
Adam Lisberg and Jotham Sederstrom of the Daily News: “Trimming Frank Gehry’s design for the Nets arena at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards will help ensure it gets built, boosters said Friday- but critics say the scaleback is the plan’s death knell. ‘The project is definitely on its last legs, and the wicked witch is almost dead,’ Councilwoman Letitia James (WFP-Fort Greene) said after the Daily News reported that developer Bruce Ratner wants to hire ‘value engineering’ firms to trim millions from Gehry’s plans. Sources told The News that Ratner needs to trim the arena’s $1 billion cost to get financing for the project, and hopes to remove architectural flourishes or substitute cheaper materials to get it built. ‘Atlantic Yards will happen, with the arena and everything else, and Frank Gehry-inspired for sure, but it may mean that some of the bells and whistles may have to be deferred,’ Borough President Marty Markowitz said.”
Jeff Zeleny for The New York Times: “At several junctures during his presidential race, Barack Obama spoke wistfully about the prospect of playing basketball on the White House grounds, where there is a seldom-used backboard on the southwest lawn. In nine days, he will have his chance when he becomes the first president who is just as likely to suit up and head for the court — not the bleachers — when the dribbling starts. And some basketball enthusiasts are waiting with such anticipation you’d think March Madness was arriving two months early. ‘The fact that he is a basketball fan and player will be translated around the world,’ said John Doleva, president of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., the birthplace of the game. ‘Basketball is an international language. There is a global American message here.’”
