Jessica Camerato of WEEI.com: “He seems like the same guy to Doc Rivers. ‘He’s normal again,’ the Celtics coach said of Kevin Garnett. Well, there is one change. ‘He’s happy, he’s talking more, which I didn’t think was possible,’ Rivers said following the USI Shamrock Classic at the Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord. ‘He’s got his quickness back and he just looks normal again.’ Talking more? Over the last 14 years, Garnett has developed a reputation as one of the most vocal players in the league. This offseason his words have a different message. Garnett has been joining his teammates at the Sports Authority Training Center in Waltham as they prepare for training camp. Even though the Celtics forward, who is coming off season-ending knee surgery, has not been cleared for contact drills, he has found his own way to participate during workouts.”
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “Terrence Williams — for reasons that elude logic — looks like the Nets’ best player two weeks before camp opens. Nobody wants to say this aloud for print, but they’ll go this far: ‘He’s playing really well – a freak of nature athletically,’ Keyon Dooling said yesterday. ‘In the moments I’ve watched, he’s really unique. What you don’t see from the great athletes is a high basketball IQ. But he has a nice floor game – a really nice floor game.’ Then there’s this from Mr. Reticence: ‘He’s really good. I worked with him some, watched him some, and I’m very impressed,’ L-Frank said. Both sounded as though they were looking over their shoulders, waiting for someone to jam a towel down their throats. Nobody wants to christen any rookie as The Next Big Thing, but everyone else we spoke to claims that T-Will the Thrill has absolutely torn up the gym.”
Jeff Latzke of The Associated Press: “After getting back from overseas, he immediately resumed working out with his teammates in Oklahoma City more than three weeks before the start of training camp. While he was taking a health class at Texas, he hit the gym with fellow Longhorns alums and NBA players like D.J. Augustin and Royal Ivey. Thunder general manager Sam Presti said it’s that daily devotion to getting better and a respect for the game that drive Durant’s success. ‘I think that Kevin continues to grow as a player and that growth is directly attributed to the amount of work that he puts in and the focus with which he prepares,’ Presti said. ‘We feel like clearly his best basketball is ahead of him, but throughout his development as a basketball player the characteristics that he walked in the door with the day he was drafted – such as humility, work ethic and being a good teammate – those things continue to remain consistent even with his growth and development as a player.’”
Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News: “Pistons rookie Austin Daye has been getting a lot of text messages from friends back at Gonzaga. School has started and Daye is reminded of college life. ‘It’s kind of funny because a lot of my friends are saying how I’m missing out on a lot of stuff, a lot of the parties going on,’ Daye said after an informal workout Thursday at The Palace. Daye, 21, has a ‘y response for his pals at school. ‘I’m getting paid for what I want to do and I love to do,’ said Daye, a 6-foot-11 forward who averaged 12.7 points and 6.8 rebounds at Gonzaga last season. Daye, a first-round pick, is getting acclimated to NBA life, on and off the court. Training camp begins Sept. 29 and Daye is doing whatever he can to learn some basics before practice begins. ‘The defenses are a lot different than in college,’ Daye said. ‘You have to know when to be in spots and not to be in spots on the defensive side. It’s an adjustment.’”
Matt Steinmetz of FanHouse: “As last season wore on, Warriors coach Don Nelson and rookie forward Anthony Randolph finally began to find some common ground and move past the acrimony and tension that had marked November and December. Randolph thought he should be playing more, and Nelson thought Randolph should be working harder. Things reached a low point in December when Nelson declared he was putting Randolph ‘on ice’ until Randolph began to show a glimmer of a work ethic. Randolph’s response, in essence, was to say that he ‘was going to continue to work hard.’ Things eventually thawed between the two, and Randolph would make some nice strides in the final months of the season. And from the looks of it, both men want to pick up where they left off – not go back to Square 1. Maybe that’s why Nelson is getting mom and dad involved. Nelson reached out to Randolph’s parents, Anthony Sr. and Crystal, in early July to try to gain some more insight into their son, the one that Nelson couldn’t seem to get through to early in the season. The three of them spent an evening together, having dinner, talking about Randolph and getting to know one another.”
Tom Knott of the Washington Times: “Judging from his selective trip down memory lane with Mike Jones of The Washington Times, Gilbert Arenas has returned to his old, mercurial, otherworldly self. As it turns out, he holds the organization accountable for his protracted stay on the shelf. He says he needed to be protected from himself, if not bound in the parachute he was training with two summers ago, and ordered to stop overdoing it. But he says no one in the organization had the inclination to do so, perhaps because of a need to sell tickets, and so he became a victim. That could be one version of the truth. It could be equally true that Arenas was going into the opt-out year of his contract and the organization was looking to keep him happy. If the intent of the organization was to rush Arenas back and sell tickets, it has not worked out well. Arenas has undergone three operations on his left knee in the last two-plus years, and the team has been stuck in purgatory. Arenas has the benefit of hindsight now. But to be fair to the principals, Arenas always has been allowed to go his own way. That is the prerogative of being the franchise player, and Arenas exercises that prerogative whenever it suits him.”
Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald: “Danny Ainge wasn’t surprised to hear that Rajon Rondo isn’t optimistic about signing a long-term contract extension anytime soon. The Celtics [team stats] general manager said there’s a simple reason for Rondo’s uncertainty: The sides haven’t yet had a serious discussion about an extension. ‘I haven’t even had a conversation with him so maybe that’s why he doesn’t feel overly optimistic,’ Ainge said yesterday at the Celtics charity golf tournament at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord. ‘But I don’t know. I honestly don’t know where they stand and I don’t think they know where I stand, so at some point we’ll get together and have that discussion.’ Ainge expects to sit down with Rondo and his agent Bill Duffy by the end of the month to begin talks. If the sides don’t reach an agreement by Oct. 31, Rondo will be a restricted free agent next summer. ‘I think that Rajon is in a situation where we certainly want him and consider him a big part of our future,’ Ainge said. ‘At this time of year, it’s one of those circumstances where we would want a deal that would be good for us and might be security for him, and he probably wants a deal that’s really good for him.’”
Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee: “Is he the Desmond Mason of old or the old Desmond Mason? That’s the question the Kings signed on to have answered Thursday, when they added the 31-year-old renowned high flier to their youth-filled roster and upped the competitive ante on the training camp session that begins Sept. 29. Mason, the former Oklahoma City Thunder swingman who is entering his 10th season, was grounded by a right knee hyperextension Jan. 28 and underwent arthroscopic surgery days later. Now he must prove to the Kings that his career can be airborne again, as none of the $1.18 million in his one-year deal is guaranteed. Kings coach Paul Westphal hopes to enjoy a déjà vu experience, as he coached the then-boundless rookie in Seattle in 2000 before being fired 15 games into the season. ‘The biggest question is, ‘Are we going to see the Desmond Mason of three years ago, or are we going to see somebody who really can’t play anymore?’ ‘ Westphal said. ‘There’s only one way to find out. … It’s kind of a no-lose situation. If he has recovered from the injury, he could help anybody.’ The question of health is the only mystery regarding Mason. The more reliable attributes, Westphal said, are his respected leadership abilities and reputation as a relentless player and standout defender.”
Chris Young of the Toronto Star: “DeMar DeRozan will be given every chance to start, even if that means he’ll be out for just six minutes to open each half – and after years of coaches who wouldn’t play kids (Lenny Wilkens) or didn’t have any high-wire, blue-chippers to speak of (Triano’s predecessor Sam Mitchell), that is different, too. ‘We might start him off with more minutes, we might start him in games (and) let him play with a good bunch of players – if we don’t start him, maybe we’ll have a hard time getting him in,’ said Triano. ‘You can’t let a No.9 pick rot on the bench and not develop him.’ Triano and his assistants, who will gather this weekend for a final retreat, are tasked with working 10 new faces into their schemes. Not surprisingly, they’ve been watching a lot of tape from different outposts. Pretty much every one of the incoming, and especially Hedo Turkoglu, have a play or two they call their own to be stitched into the team’s offensive sets. ‘Thumb-down 35 special,’ says Triano, spilling into blackboard talk for Turkoglu’s bread-and-butter play in Orlando. ‘Give him the ball with a high screen and roll (with Chris Bosh), and three shooters … we can put (Andrea) Bargnani where Rashard Lewis was, we can put Jose (Calderon) in one of the corners and put another shooter, (Jarrett) Jack, in the other corner. A pretty darned good play.’”
Charles V. Bagli of The New York Times: “The developer Bruce C. Ratner, who received final state approval Thursday to build an $800 million arena in Brooklyn for the Nets, is inching closer to selling a majority stake in the team to a Russian billionaire, according to two executives briefed on the negotiations. Ratner, who bought the team for $300 million in 2004 with plans to move it to a new home in Brooklyn, has acknowledged in recent weeks that he is talking to potential investors. The arena, which would be known as Barclays Center, is the centerpiece of a planned 22-acre residential and commercial development project. The executives said that Mikhail Prokhorov, one of the richest men in Russia and an avid sports fan, is the leading contender to buy a majority stake in the team and in the planned arena at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. The Nets, who play at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., declined to discuss potential investors.”
Howard Beck of The New York Times: “A lockout of N.B.A. referees has become ‘imminent and unavoidable,’ according to the referees’ chief negotiator, after another breakdown in contract talks Thursday. The N.B.A. is not ready to make the same proclamation, but it appears highly likely that replacement referees will take the court when the preseason opens in two weeks. The parties negotiated by telephone Thursday, a day after the referees unanimously rejected the league’s latest offer. They have agreed on the broad parameters of a two-year deal, including salary terms. But they remain sharply at odds over proposed changes in pension and severance, as well as a league proposal to allow referees from the W.N.B.A. and the Development League to officiate a small number of games for training purposes. ‘The N.B.A. concluded in our last phone conversation that there was no need to talk further, because we’ve reached a stalemate as it relates to some of the systemic changes they’d like to make,’ said Lamell McMorris, the referees’ chief negotiator. ‘So it appears that a lockout is imminent and unavoidable.’ According to McMorris, the N.B.A.’s proposals would effectively push a number of referees into retirement over the next two years. He accused the league of trying to ‘purge some of the older referees’ from the staff.”
