Steve Aschburner of SI.com: “Allocating the minutes will be Saunders’ job, same as navigating the irrepressible Arenas. The Wizards guard’s strong personality and, some would say, spotty discipline could make him a potential problem for a head coach known more as a facilitator than a dictator in his player relations. Or it could make Saunders, beyond his offensive leanings, the perfect go-along, get-along guy for Arenas. ‘In all my years, I don’t think I’ve been around anyone who’s as much of a basketball junkie as he is,’ Saunders said of Agent Zero. ‘That guy wants to work on his game 24/7. He’s got an unbelievable passion for the game. What happens, because of how much he loves to play, when he’s been injured, he hasn’t always wanted to go through the [rehab] process. He’s wanted to skip it, jump right back and do too much. Now, because of missing this last year, he understands and has gone through the process to get stronger.’ Arenas isn’t a prototypical Saunders’ point guard — he ranked fourth, fourth and fifth in shots taken in his last three healthy seasons — but the coach has adapted through the years.”
Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune: “Roy’s contract is at the maximum level for a player from zero to six years of service. He’ll be paid $3.91 million next season as part of his rookie contract. The extension will begin for the 2010-11 season, with the amount set next summer once the NBA’s basketball-related income is established. Roy will make 25 percent of the salary-cap limit, and with a potential drop in the cap next season, league insiders say they expect it to call for $12.5 million to $13.5 million the first season. That means the full value of the five-year deal would be between $77 million and $83 million. ‘It’s hard to put into words,’ said the Seattle native, who turned 25 last month. ‘I go to sleep every night, look at my kids and have a big smile on my face. I think about all the hard work I put into this dream. This has been a lifelong journey for me. But there’s still something missing, and it’s a championship – holding that trophy at the end of a season, knowing we’re the best team. This contract is great, but my goal when I came to this organization was to help win a championship. Not just one, but we have to start with one.’”
Fran Blinebury for NBA.com: “Brand believes his low post skills can be combined with the open court ability of Iguodala and his teammates in the new motion offense that will be played under new head coach Eddie Jordan. ‘It’s not a case of us having to choose one or the other — half-court or running — anymore,’ he said. ‘It’s the Princeton offense. It’s motion. It’s gonna give a lot of different guys a chance to be playmakers and it’s going to bring out the best in everybody’s games.’ After being put through several workouts by Jordan this summer, Brand is convinced that the Sixers are now on the right track. ‘I saw the schemes and I loved it,’ he said. ‘Now we’re going to have spacing where everybody can use their talents. Andre Iguodala can do everything out there. Lou Williams is gonna be able to slash and score. I’ll be able to cut into the post and not just be standing there on the block where the defense can get you with a double team.’”
Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “After news of Lewis’ positive test broke, I wondered how easy it would be to find the compound at local stores. Exceedingly easy, it turned out. It took 10 minutes to drive from the Orlando Sentinel’s offices to The Vitamin Shoppe store on East Colonial Drive, near Fashion Square Mall. When I walked into the store, I introduced myself as a Sentinel reporter to the employees behind the cash register and explained I was working on an article on whether it’s easy to find DHEA. One of the employees walked me over to one side of the store. ‘This is DHEA,’ he said, pointing to two shelves of bottles with ‘DHEA’ on the label. ‘I see a lot of people use it. Older people.’ Bottles of DHEA pills from eight separate manufacturers lined the two shelves. The tablets ranged in dosage from 5 milligrams to 50 milligrams. The bottles listed possible side effects, including acne, aggressiveness, irritability and increased levels of estrogen.”
Bruce Arthur of the National Post: “As for the lack of positive tests, the NBA doesn’t test in the off-season, and issues four random tests per season. In international sport, that would be considered a joke: Lance Armstrong was tested 11 times during the 2009 Tour de France alone. And Roger Clemens never failed a steroid test. Then, in this case, there is DHEA. It is prevalent among supplements, and The Orlando Sentinel quoted a World Anti-Doping official saying it wasn’t terribly effective. But then, a recent study on the effects of the hormone of military combat divers by scientists from Yale, Boston University, and the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder concluded that DHEA resulted in ‘superior stress tolerance.’ Think superior stress tolerance would help Lewis with any of those big shots he hit on the way to the NBA Finals?”
Bud Shaw of The Plain Dealer: “What is not signing an extension today with the Cavaliers a hedge against? Is he worried Dan Gilbert will sell the rest of the team off, this time to a group from North Korea? Over the past three years, the Cavaliers have done almost everything James could have wanted except win a title. You think New York, New Jersey or even Miami is closer? Anyone? Anyone? There was the new practice facility. Now there’s Shaquille O’Neal. They’ve even delivered a few things James shouldn’t have wanted, like Larry Hughes. Every major personnel decision has gone to his desk for input. That wouldn’t change if he signed today. He’s not a player, he’s a partner. When he blazed the trail for his superstar pals by deciding to sign for three years instead of four the last time around, the Cavaliers were put on notice. Make that further notice. Gilbert has always understood that anything other than making James happy would be financial suicide.”
Sam Smith of Bulls.com: “I often wonder why players go for the last dollar instead of a better lifestyle. I know the answer. Because money is the measuring stick and the biggest pile wins. But I still go through the exercise of trying to figure out how your life can be any different with say $40 million versus $60 million. So why not go where it is most comfortable and where you want to be? Wallace certainly didn’t do it to go with a winner, as the players like to say. The Pistons were a better team than the Bulls and Wallace had a much better chance of playing for another championship in Detroit than with Chicago. It was that old disrespecting thing you hear from the players all the time. What, $12 million a year is a lack of respect? The Bulls upped it to $15 million, and we heard back channel that Wallace was more than gently nudged by family and representatives to take the bigger payday. You could see from the first day he was with the Bulls he wished he were back in Detroit.”
Chris Tomasson of HoopsHype.com: “Chauncey Billups isn’t worried about his Denver Nuggets not picking up any big-name players this offseason. But he is worried about a teammate who hasn’t exactly been helping his name lately. With that in mind, Billups will fly Sunday to Las Vegas, where embattled guard JR Smith has relocated. Billups will spent the final three weeks of August working out with and mentoring Smith. ‘We’ve got some talking to do,’ Billups said in an interview with HoopsHype.com. Smith last month spent 24 days in jail after pleading guilty to reckless driving in connection with a 2007 automobile accident in which a friend, Andre Bell, died. More controversy surfaced after his release. The Denver Post reported there were posts on Smith’s Twitter page written in a way commonly associated with the Bloods street gang. It was reported that Smith, who since has shut down his Twitter page, wrote words with a ‘C’’ that were replaced with a ‘K’’ and, if the word contained both those letters, the ‘C’ was removed. ‘JR’s a work in progress,’ Billups said. ‘I’m happy and proud of the progress that he’s made. But the latest thing with the Twitter. That’s immaturity. It’s immature. Those are mistakes that we’ve got to stop him from making. We’ve got to spend some time.’”
