Points in the Paint

» August 7, 2009 5:49 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Brett Martel of the AP: “Chris Paul discovered he didn’t really need a translator to teach young players in China some of the skills he uses so effectively in the NBA. ‘The best thing about the whole situation was the fact that, with basketball, there’s no language barrier,’ Paul said. Paul spent the early part of this week in the world’s most populous country, serving as an instructor at a basketball camp, dedicating a court, launching a Chinese edition of his basketball shoe and even visiting the factory workers who make it.”

Jeremy Tyler, the high school player who skipped his senior year to turn pro in Europe, has signed with Maccabbi Haifa.

Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times: “The N.B.A.’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs is much less stringent that the policies in baseball and the N.F.L. There is no testing out of season, when antidoping experts believe players most benefit from using the substances. The 10-game suspension for a first positive test in the N.B.A. is a little less than an eighth of the season. A first positive in baseball results in a 50-game suspension (about a third of the season) and a first positive in football results in a 4-game suspension (a quarter of the season). Lewis will be docked about $1.6 million of his $18 million salary for the 2009-10 season, The Associated Press said. ‘When you do something stupid and what you think is harmless, you feel bad about it, because you’re letting your team and your organization down,’ said Otis Smith, the Magic’s general manager.”

Stan Van Gundy on Lewis’ suspension, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel: “You’re going to start now for sure two new people and maybe as many as three for the first 10 games of the year,” Van Gundy said. “Like with anything bad that happens, and this is certainly something we didn’t want to happen, there’s always a silver lining. And the silver lining here will be that a lot of those new faces, pretty much all of them, will get a significant opportunity early in the year. I think right off the bat we’ll get a better indication of where we want to go in terms of lineups and rotations when Rashard gets back.” Ben Q. Rock of Third Quarter Collapse muses about how Orlando will replace Lewis in the lineup.

Charley Rosen examines what to expect from the league’s aging All-Stars, and speaks with a podiatrist about Shaq’s surgically repaired toe.

I can’t stop thinking about this little tidbit from Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Mark Jackson is known in NBA circles for backstabbing John Stockton in Utah and becoming a clubhouse lawyer in Indiana.” Former NBA point guard and current ESPN analyst Mark Jackson quarreled with John Stockton? A quick glance at B-R.com confirms that Jackson and Stockton played for the Jazz in 2002-03, but I don’t remember reading about animosity between the two.

This morning, I linked to an article by Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press in which Rodney Stuckey spoke of taking on more of a leadership role next season. Matt Watson, who covers the Pistons for FanHouse, describes Detroit’s leadership dynamic last season: “In the midst of Detroit’s doomed first-round matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, I asked one of the young players who the team’s leader was, who the rest of the team took direction from when things got tough. Not surprisingly, he couldn’t offer a single name, simply saying, ‘The older guys, I guess.’ And who did the older guys take direction from? ‘Your guess is as good as mine, man.’ As things played out, the notion of Detroit as a rudderless ship was reinforced, not only in how the Pistons were swept out of the first round, losing every game by double-digits, but also how things played out behind the scenes after Game 4. Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace — the only remaining members of the 2004 championship team — all dodged the media, either sneaking out of the locker room early, waiting in the shower area until reporters on deadline gave up or blatantly ignoring questions while walking through a throng of reporters.”

Ben at Blazers Edge penned a must-read blog listing five improvements he’d like to see from Roy next season. Here’s a sampler: “Thanks to a glimpse at a Synergy Sports’ Brandon Roy profile (that I can’t reproduce or link to because I would be instantly killed by an unknown assassin in the middle of the night), I learned the following things about Roy’s game: His overall scoring effectiveness is rated as ‘Excellent’; He rates ’Good’ shooting off the dribble, ‘Very Good’ going left and ‘Very good’ going right; he is ‘Very Good’ in iso situations; he is ‘Very Good’ in handling pick and rolls (except when he is doubled and the ball is taken out of his hands). We also know that he’s a pretty solid free throw shooter too. Seriously, this guy is a machine. Synergy does find one major area in his offensive game that needs improvement. Brandon shot 45.6% on unguarded jumpers last year; he was ridiculously accurate without a hand in his face. When guarded, however, his jump-shooting percentage fell to 32.2%, considered ‘average.’”