Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald: “While doing some research, an interesting fact was uncovered that might suggest the NBA is headed into a new era of point guard domination. This is relevant, obviously, because the Bulls are counting on Derrick Rose to be the primary scorer next season, now that Ben Gordon will make his points for the Pistons. New Orleans’ Chris Paul and San Antonio’s Tony Parker aren’t as tall as Rose, but probably qualify as role models for the Bulls’ reigning rookie of the year. Last season, Paul averaged 22.9 points and shot 50.3 percent from the field. Parker produced 22.0 points while shooting 50.6 percent. The question is, how often does an NBA guard accomplish such a feat – average at least 22 points and shoot better than 50 percent from the field? Go ahead and think about it. You have to go back more than 10 years and the answer is not Michael Jordan.”
Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: “Don’t be fooled by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s veiled knocks at Pistons free-agent acquisition Ben Gordon. Reinsdorf recently told the Chicago media that the Bulls decided to pass on Gordon a long time ago since they were set with a backcourt of Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich and John Salmons. He added: ‘Ben wasn’t going to get a whole lot of playing time. It was going to be diminished. So Ben really no longer fit. Ben’s a terrific player. But Ben needs minutes. He would not have been happy with the minutes he was going to get.’ Reinsdorf makes it sound as if Gordon would have been playing only during garbage time for the Bulls. But that’s highly unlikely for a guy who carries an 18.5-points-per-game career scoring average in five seasons and has never shot less than 40% from beyond the three-point line. In fact, there is some concern within the Bulls’ organization that Gordon’s departure will have a negative impact on Rose.”
D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog.com: “The Clippers small forwards assist margin was the worst of the 5 positions. The small forwards also got outscored by opponents to the tune of 2.8 points a game, which was the second worst position total on the team. Hollinger’s PER system is less than perfect, but it is telling that the Clippers’ small forwards were 4.7 PER points worse than the opposition, which was by far the lowest total of the 5 positions. Based on these stats, the small forward position was where the Clippers were outmatched most often last season. Going forward, Gordon will desperately need a good rebounder and defender on the wing next to him to cover up for his lack of size. Al Thornton doesn’t appear to be that guy, as his skills just don’t seem to mesh well with the rest of the young core. If the Clippers are serious about contending this year and in the future, they simply have to upgrade the starting small forward position.”
Sekou Smith of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Two-deep rosters aren’t strictly for NFL teams. Hawks coach Mike Woodson has a white board hanging from the back wall of his office with various scribbles on it, but it wasn’t hard to make out the two rows of initials he jotted down one recent afternoon, or the glaring omission in one category. There was no power forward listed behind starter Josh Smith. And there is little in the way of depth behind Smith, starting center Al Horford and starting center Zaza Pachulia in a frontcourt rotation that looks dreadfully thin on paper. Seldom-used backup Randolph Morris is under contract but will have to make a major push in training camp to push his way into the rotation. ‘We’re in a bind right now,’ Woodson said. ‘When you see it up there on the wall, it really hits home where we’re lacking right now.’ While big men have been flying off the free-agent shelves all summer, the Hawks have had no luck in luring talent outside of the organization.”
Chip Crain of 3 Shades of Blue: “The Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins wrote on Sunday, August 1st that the Grizzlies were not bringing back any of their ‘amateur’ scouts. Last season the Grizzlies had 5 full-time amateur scouts, two full-time European scouts, Tony Barone, Jr, Kenny Williamson, Tony Barone, Sr. and Chris Wallace devoted to scouting players plus some other people the Grizzlies listened to. In all there were 12 people involved in the draft process according to Micheal Heisley in an exclusive interview given to 3 Shades of Blue last month. That’s 12 people following respective draft choices all year. There are only 60 people drafted and out of that group some don’t even make it to the NBA the year they are drafted. Information is much more readily available now than in the past (perhaps you’ve heard of this thing called the internet). So that means the Grizzlies employed more than one person for every 6 people drafted. So Michael Heisley decided to save some money. That’s right. Heisley isn’t denying that the scouting cuts were motivated somewhat by saving money.”
Don Seeholzer of the Pioneer Press: “As owner Glen Taylor told the Pioneer Press on Saturday night, Los Angeles Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis is expected to sign what is believed to be a four-year contract worth more than $8 million today and be introduced at a Tuesday press conference. Until everything is completed, there’s not much Wolves players and personnel can say about Rambis’ imminent arrival, but Mark Madsen is under no such restrictions. Traded July 20 to the Los Angeles Clippers, the veteran forward played two of his three seasons with the Lakers while Rambis was an assistant coach there and said the Wolves are making a great hire. ‘I think the Timberwolves and the state of Minnesota are very fortunate to have pried Kurt Rambis away from the Lakers,’ Madsen said. ‘First and foremost, he’s a great basketball coach. The way he communicates and interacts with players, Kurt Rambis is the type of person that knows when to use the carrot and when to use the stick. He just understands how to motivate different types of players, different types of personalities.’”
Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports: “Mark Jackson? You want to be a head coach? Get an assistant’s job. This is the guy that didn’t even want a gig as Nets color man last year, because he’d have to watch the 27 other teams that weren’t in Boston, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. That doesn’t bode well. Phil Jackson coached in Puerto Rico. Mike Brown ran the tape machine, back when they were using tapes. A supposed ‘re-tread’ like Flip Saunders worked the CBA sidelines forever. Stan Van Gundy dutifully served as an assistant for years. Being bad at a job that only runs from Christmas until the second week in June doesn’t make you a head coaching prospect. Your TV work clearly shows you as someone who is a step or 12 behind the modern NBA, and while the odd Haywood Workman anecdote is nice, it doesn’t mean I think you have any clue as to whether or not the Portland Trail Blazers were one of the fastest, or slowest teams in the NBA last season. And, as Woj mentioned, shouldn’t getting passed over by three of your bigger NBA buddies mean something? I mean, two of those guys were David Kahn and Donnie Walsh! Walsh traded for you … twice!”
Mike Baldwin of The Oklahoman: “Thunder fans received kudos nationwide for supporting their new NBA team. Rightfully so. Oklahoma City finished third in full season tickets sold, was ninth in percentage of seats sold (97.7), ranked 10th in ticket revenue generated ($46.0 million) and was 11th in overall attendance (18,704). But ‘packing the Ford Center’ is misleading. According to NBA turnstile counts published recently on CBSSports.com, Oklahoma City finished 16th in ‘actual attendance’ out of 30 teams. According to NBA turnstile counts, the Thunder averaged 14,415 fans a game. That’s one area the Thunder should improve. One reason why — when the league released the 2009-10 schedule, the Thunder has 22 weekend home games compared to 16 last season. Last season, there were zero Saturday home games. This season, there will be three. The Ford Center will host nine Friday games and 10 Sunday games.”
Mike Moreau of HOOPSWORLD: “With the arrival of free agent Hedo Turkoglu and first round draft pick DeMar DeRozan, Bargnani will have to be more than just a perimeter floater. While his strength is catching and shooting and quick attacks set up by his jump shot, his struggles have been in the post area. He’s been unable to hold inside position, getting bumped off his moves, and hasn’t had a good counter move when he gets jammed inside. And the longer he has held the ball, the more trouble he’s gotten into. All this means that with better perimeter scorers around him and a weak post game, Bargnani has to become better in the mid-range. This will start with his pick-and-pop game, and his primary focus should be on becoming a much better screener. His screens have been soft and he hasn’t held them long enough, which means the ball handler isn’t as free and Bargnani hasn’t had as much open space when he catches the return pass. Turkoglu is used to rock solid screens from Dwight Howard, and Bargnani can be expected to be the primary screener for Turk this year. The better the screen the more opportunities for both and this can become one of the most deadly pick-and-pop combinations in the NBA – especially if Bargnani can vary his roll angles for jump shots and catches in the lane.”
