Jerome Soloman of the Houston Chronicle: “Perhaps now we can go against the code and criticize an injured player, even a player who could be facing a surgery that will test him in ways no lockdown defender ever could. Unless he says the Rockets violated a trust or didn’t support him in his time of need, or what’s on his official Web site is a hoax (hey, the Internet is tricky), there is little defense for what he has done the last couple of days. There is a growing lack of love between McGrady and Rockets fans. But he makes it hard to love him. There is always something. Drama, drama and more drama. His proclamation on his Web announcement that he has “the best fans in the world” might be true, but that group is getting smaller every day. Unless he delivers a championship to Houston, McGrady will never win back a large segment of local fans. He might not be able to win Rockets management back, either.”
Charley Rosen of FOXSports.com: “Posey’s competitive chops were roused as the Heat went on to win the championship. But Miami’s fortunes were blighted the following season when Dwyane Wade suffered a series of crippling injuries, and Posey was itching to see what kind of interest his own free agency status would attract. The next stop for Posey was Boston, where he reverted to being a money-shooter and defensive ace. A pattern is certainly discernible. Throughout his career, Posey has been at his best while playing for competitive teams such as the Grizzlies’ 50-win season, plus championship seasons in Miami and Boston And it’s precisely because New Orleans is such a long ways from being a championship contender that Posey seems to be just going through the motions. The Hornets’ comparative lack of success is a surprise to most NBA-watchers, especially on the heels of their 56-win season in 2007-08. But whatever the reasons for the Hornets’ decline, it has greatly affected Posey’s attitude.”
A. Sherrod Blakely of MLive.com: “‘Rodney’s the key to our team, period,’ Pistons coach Michael Curry said. While Curry is quick to clarify that Stuckey is not the one to blame for the team’s mediocre record (27-25), he said better play from the second-year guard would get the Pistons on track. ‘We’ve had other guys on the court that have played well, and it doesn’t affect everybody else,’ Curry said. ‘But when he plays well, everybody gets a chance to play well.’ Curry said Stuckey’s impact on the Pistons’ chances of winning is not all that different than the effect the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant have on their teams. ‘I’m not putting him in that category,’ Curry said. ‘But for us, his numbers show it. When he plays well, we’re a pretty good team.’”
Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic: “Look hard enough, and you can find some great stories inside this turbulent basketball season. Hill is one of them. He will turn 37 in October. He was the team’s best defensive player during the Terry Porter train wreck, often guarding players 10-15 years younger. ‘The perception when Grant Hill signed with the Suns was, ‘Can he keep up?’ ‘ Hill said. Keep up? For the first 50 games of the 2008-09, he was one of the few Suns who actually were playing hard, running fast, trying to make it all work. Behind the scenes, he was the guy trying to get Porter to loosen the reins. Now that the last gasp of an era has begun, Hill will have another platform on which to shine. His playing time had diminished under Porter, down almost three minutes a game. Hill is best in the open court, when the game becomes a sprint. The return to a ‘breakneck’ style can only help. So will his relationship with new head man Alvin Gentry.”
Detroit Bad Boys: Allen Iverson knows he’s a role model
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “Every GM in the league ended their business day Wednesday believing that Rod Thorn has no other choice but to go into dump mode, and that he’ll be willing to take back virtually nothing but expiring contracts in exchange for Carter. An ESPN report even quoted two of these executives, each of whom stated that the Nets are trying to ‘give Carter away.’ Remarkably, Thorn didn’t exactly deny it when asked to comment on that perception, but he gave it his own spin. ‘I’ve always said you do trades for two reasons,’ the Nets president said Wednesday night before the Nets faced the Mavericks. ‘You do them for the present, or you do them for what’s best moving forward. Those are the only two reasons, as far as I’m concerned.’ In other words, you can dump salary, for the sake of putting the franchise on more solid financial footing and in a better situation to compete in the 2010 free-agent market.”
NetsDaily: “Even if they don’t trade Vince Carter, the Nets will remain way down the NBA’s financial totem pole next year. The Wolves might drop below them, but not by much. Even with their cost-cutting, the Hornets’ payroll will still be $3 or $4 million above the Nets. The Clippers are so unstable no one knows where they will be, but it’s possible they too will be paying out more than the Nets. Only the Grizzlies are a sure thing to be down below the Nets. So it is entirely possible without moving anyone, the Nets could have the second lowest team payroll in the NBA next year. How’d that happen? Salary management of course. The Nets didn’t bring in Kiki Vandeweghe as a payback for taking KMart. His reputation is as a sane cost-cutter. So far, so good.”
Howard Beck of the New York Times: “N.B.A. team executives have coveted Lee and Robinson for some time. They are young, relatively cheap and improving daily. They are also heading for free agency this summer, creating a quandary for Knicks officials. If the Knicks re-sign Lee and Robinson, they could hurt their chances to sign a superstar (or two) in 2010. Mindful of the Knicks’ plans, rival teams have been trying to pry loose Lee and Robinson without offering much in return. The Knicks, in turn, have tried to coax teams into taking Eddy Curry’s huge contract in any deal for Lee. They have found no takers. The truth is, the Knicks are reluctant to trade Lee or Robinson at all, unless the return package is overhwhelming. ‘There’s no way they’re trading David Lee,’ said a person in the N.B.A. who deals frequently with Knicks officials. ‘They’re going to find a way to keep him.’”
Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: “Scott said before the game that Chandler’s ankle injury — which caused him to miss 12 games before Tuesday’s trade — likely would not be healed sufficiently to allow Chandler to play until Wednesday at the earliest when New Orleans returns home to host the Detroit Pistons. ‘We talked (Tuesday) at shootaround,’ West said. ‘His body feels well. He’s got to get that wheel right. We’ve got the start we wanted to post-All-Star break. Obviously we’re going on the road; tough games. We’ve got to be ready to gear it up for the home stretch.’ All-Star guard Chris Paul, who expressed disappointment at the prospect of his friend being traded, said Wednesday he was excited to have Chandler return. ‘Hopefully he comes back and hits the ground running,’ Paul said. ‘He’s still injured. But when he gets back, he knows what time it is. I think he can give us a huge lift. Hopefully, it can bring us closer together. T.C. is family to us. There won’t be any animosity when he comes in here. He understands what the goal has been all along.’”
CelticsHub.com: By the Numbers: Celtics Now Versus Celtics of Last Season
Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “It took a few more months than expected, but the Milwaukee Bucks and the Bradley Center have finally reached agreement on a new one-year lease for the current season. The lease is backdated to Sept. 30, 2008. It is the latest in a string of one-year leases prompted in large part by the Bradley Center’s financial challenges. ‘A one-year extension for the current season is the best that can be done at this point, and we appreciate the Bucks’ flexibility and willingness to work with us,’ Ulice Payne Jr., chairman of the Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp., said in a prepared statement released Wednesday. ‘However, the economic reality is that despite our best efforts, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the Bradley Center to generate the revenue needed to sustain an NBA team.’ As he has said before, Payne said it was time for local and sate officials and the entire community ‘to begin in earnest a discussion about the future of the Bradley Center.’ According to Bradley Center authorities, the lease is largely unchanged from previous years. At all events held at the Bradley Center, the Bucks receive 27.5% of concession sales and 13.75% of food beverage sales in the suites. The team also receives 30% of all merchandise sales at Bucks’ games.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “Since the salary cap is set every year based on revenue in the previous season, the cap and luxury tax levels could go down in 2010-11. That’s the season half the league is clearing cap space for, hoping to make a run at marquee free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and others. Chances are, they’ll have to clear more space than anticipated. The message Stern gave the GMs was a bit different than the one he gave publicly in his annual All-Star address Saturday night. In any event, just in case anyone wasn’t paying attention, the league office sent out a memo to all 30 teams on the eve of the trading deadline, warning them in writing of the possiibility of drastic reductions in the salary cap and luxury tax going forward, sources told CBSSports.com. The memo was first reported by Yahoo! Sports. Two team executives I spoke with didn’t find this particularly surprising. ‘We all have had this pounded into our head, trust me,’ one of them said. ‘It should not come as a shock to anyone.’ Of course, don’t underestimate the league’s ability to put a scare into the players’ association. Now that Stern and Billy Hunter officially have begun negotiating an extension to the CBA, all bets are off.”
