Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: “If the Lakers don’t defend their title, they won’t be able to blame Artest’s Twitter account or Khloe’s TV show. They’ll fail because Pau Gasol lost his legs in March or Andrew Bynum didn’t tap into enough of his potential or Kobe finally began to wear down or Artest simply wasn’t a good fit. Distractions? Two years ago, Kobe demanded to be traded, leaving the Lakers to wonder whether he would even show up for camp. Court TV once tracked them for six months, and now they’re supposed to be worried because TMZ turned on its camera? Crazy is as the Lakers do. The Lakers wanted this circus, or at least a dancing bear. They could have stayed with the safe and secure. They could have re-signed Trevor Ariza for the same money they gave Artest. Ariza fit well. He hustled. He defended. He didn’t need a lot of shots. He was young and likely to only get better. He also wasn’t Artest. Artest was the more dynamic player. Bigger. Tougher. More than anything, he carries an edge to him that the Lakers could use. For too long in last season’s playoffs, the Lakers coasted, drifting on talent alone.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “It didn’t take long on Tuesday for the Trail Blazers to realize this would be no ordinary first practice, and thus, no ordinary season. Coming off an ahead-of-schedule 54-win season, and with an improved roster that includes proven point guard Andre Miller and a now-healed Martell Webster, the Blazers learned what the great teams of the early 1990s and the late 1970s did: After capturing the heart of Portland, the eyes of the city soon follow. So on Tuesday, the eyes arrived, en masse. Owner Paul Allen. Team president Larry Miller. Team founder Harry Glickman. Team ambassador Bill Schonely. The entire basketball operations staff. The entire broadcasting crew. Even future Hall of Famer Gary Payton, and Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson. Later, one of the largest media contingents in some time filtered into the gym, which had barely enough room to accommodate them, while a small crowd of fans waited outside in the street. What the standing room only crowd signified was that this is no longer a darling little team of good guys with untapped potential. Now, this team is expected to win. And win big.”
Marcus Thompson of the Oakland Tribune: “The Warriors’ first day of training camp lacked the fireworks of Monday’s media day. With star guard Monta Ellis’ proclamation still resonating (that he and rookie guard Stephen Curry couldn’t win together), the Warriors took a step toward harmonious. Ellis eased off his statements. Coach Don Nelson toed the line of being supportive and authoritative. And Curry played the part of humble rookie. The consensus: The two can play together when the matchups allow. ‘Well, (Ellis) didn’t say anything that was not true,’ Nelson said, referring to Ellis’ comments that he and Curry were too small to be effective as the Warriors’ backcourt. ‘There will be plenty of times where they won’t be able to play together. There are a lot of big guards in this league, guys 6-foot-8, 6-9. That’s a little bit too much to ask for anybody that’s 6-4 or 6-2 to play the big two guards. But there’ll be plenty of other opportunities.’ Curry said he wasn’t ‘at all’ hurt by Ellis comments, which hardly qualified as an olive branch by many accounts.”
Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: “Doc Rivers, not for the first time, caught the heat of Kevin Garnett’s ire on his ears yesterday. At issue was the Celtics coach’s decision to pull Garnett off the floor late in the first practice of training camp. Those are, after all, an expensive pair of knees – one of them surgically repaired – that Rivers is attempting to protect. And so Garnett vented. That’s a good thing. The big guy must be feeling good. He wants to stay on the floor. ‘I just have to be patient with what (trainer) Ed (Lacerte) and Doc are telling me,’ Garnett said. ‘When you’re going and competing, I’m a very prideful person, I take my work very seriously. I take getting better seriously, and when you prohibit that from me sometimes I’ll come at you. I’ll lash out a bit, but I’m gaining patience every day – believe that. … (It means) a lot,’ Garnett said. ‘Just think about what you guys get to do. If you love it, if you care about it and suddenly you don’t get to go out and do what you know how to do, it’s difficult. I’m definitely not a cheerleader. I’m not good with pom-poms. I don’t think I look good in skirts. I have to be out there with my teammates wreaking havoc, and other than that it’s very difficult.’”
Howard Beck of The New York Times: “Danilo Gallinari missed training camp last season because of back problems and played only 28 games, which served as his virtual training ground. He reported to camp this year looking sturdy, with seven more pounds of muscle on his frame. He is now listed at 6 feet 10 inches and 225 pounds. The Knicks contend Gallinari’s skills could help push them into playoff contention. It appears he will get every chance to start on opening night. He played with the projected first unit on Tuesday, alongside Chris Duhon, Wilson Chandler, Lee and Harrington. ‘I just admire his game,’ said Donnie Walsh, the team’s president. ‘He looks to get his teammates involved, he can shoot the ball, he can handle the ball and he’s a pretty tough kid.’ D’Antoni opened camp with a round of defensive drills Tuesday morning and set a goal of being one of the top 15 teams, based on opponents’ shooting percentage. The Knicks were 28th last season.”
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: “Marco Belinelli heard the pleas of his buddies growing up, the calls to be like them, to join the crowd, to do the right thing. It was Bologna, Italy, after all, and if a kid didn’t play soccer, well, he wasn’t really a normal kid, was he? But a young Belinelli would ignore them, he’d let them go off without him because he’d found his passion. On a basketball court, not a soccer pitch. ‘I remember when I was young, everyone wants to play soccer but I wanted to play basketball,’ Belinelli said after his first workout with the Raptors on Tuesday. ‘That’s what I wanted, I have a passion for that. I play only basketball in my life. I think it is the best sport in this life. It’s incredible and I love to play.’ There does seem to be an unbridled joy to the 6-foot-6 guard when he’s on the court. Raptors fans haven’t seen much of him – he didn’t get a lot of playing time or TV exposure with the Golden State Warriors the last two seasons – but people in the organization rave about him.”
Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia News: “The core group of players who should see most of the playing time for the Sixers this season has an average age of just under 25 years, not including 19-year-old rookie Jrue Holiday or elder statesman Elton Brand – who is all of 30. And rookie coach Eddie Jordan is relying on Brand to provide some veteran leadership to this youthful group. ‘What we’re looking for out of Elton is his leadership right now,’ Jordan said. ‘The drills are what they are. They’re new and it’s the first day and people are out of sync and no one’s going to have their rhythm and no one’s going to look great offensively. ‘But on defense I want [Brand] to be a leader, talking. I want people to feed off of him, to play off of him.’ Jordan is not the only one who sees the leadership qualities in the 10-year pro. Monday night, Jordan asked his players who they thought the leaders are. Brand graded out very high.”
Tim Povtak of FanHouse: “There is a good reason that Boston and Cleveland — two of the three serious contenders in the Eastern Conference — added proven big men to their roster this summer. They already know what’s coming. Magic center Dwight Howard, already the best big man in basketball, is going to be even better this season. Howard has come to training camp with another 10 pounds of muscle on his well-muscled frame, up to 275 pounds. He also believes his 59 percent free throw percentage — his only serious flaw — will rise to 70 percent after a summer of sharpening his shot. He expects to be both more powerful — and more accurate. It’s why the Cavs added Shaquille O’Neal and the Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace. Both are players who have given Howard problems in the past with other teams, but both are probably too old to give him serious trouble now.”
Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Business and basketball intertwine on a daily basis in the NBA. So when Hawks captain Joe Johnson said he will not sign a contract extension and will play out the final year of his contract this season, it’s strictly a business-of-basketball decision for the three-time All-Star. ‘My sole focus right now is on this team and what we’re trying to accomplish this season,’ Johnson said. ‘I have some goals set for this season for my team, and I have some individual goals set for myself as well. I really feel like I can be one of the elite players in this league, and it’s going to be an exciting year.’ Johnson, 28, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, joining a deep and talented free-agent group that is headlined by reigning league MVP LeBron James and includes All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Hawks made a four-year, $60-plus million contract offer to Johnson this summer, but Johnson said that he decided not to sign the extension after mulling it over during the offseason.”
Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “Ginobili arrived at training camp completely healed of the stress fracture in his right distal fibula that ended his season on April 5, and had transformed one of the league’s most feared postseason performers into a helpless spectator for the Spurs’ first-round playoff ouster against Dallas. Of all the additions the team made during the offseason, and there were many, the one they might be most excited about is a healthy Manu Ginobili. The Spurs were 36-12 with him in the lineup last season. They were 23-20 without him, including five playoff games. ‘Hopefully, Manu will just be Manu,’ Tony Parker said. The last time Ginobili took an entire Argentine winter off — in 2007 — he responded with the best season of his NBA career. A repeat would be nice for the Spurs. It would also be nice for Ginobili’s pocketbook. At age 32, Ginobili is entering the final season of his contract.”
Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald: “It’s his nature to want to improve. Wade, like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, doesn’t just want to be on par with his peers; he wants to dominate them. And that would require even more work and, yes, an even better player than the one who dominated the league at times last season. That means it’s OK not to expect just another great season from Wade, but the best season he has ever had. He expects it. So why can’t we?`That’s fine,’ Wade said after the Heat finished its first official practice session of the season Tuesday. `I expect myself to do a lot more than other people expect me to do. So with that said, it’s easy on me.’ The game does come easy to him. Just last week, coach Erik Spoelstra was bragging about how Wade can pick up in a few days what it takes most players several weeks to perfect. Wade also is the best kind of copycat, so it’s no surprise that he has looked at some of the best in the game and tried to incorporate their skills into his game. Other than continuing to extend his shooting range — a scary thought for anyone who had to guard him while he was draining threes last season — Wade has worked on adding a midpost attack. You know, the same type of game that makes Bryant so difficult to defend and made Michael Jordan impossible to cover.”
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “If he is at all concerned about the reception that awaits him at EnergySolutions Arena, Carlos Boozer wasn’t letting on Tuesday, just two days before the Jazz will host Denver in their preseason opener. ‘I haven’t thought about it at all, to be honest,’ Boozer said. ‘I’m looking forward to playing, looking forward to proving a lot to everybody, to myself, and getting back to being an All-Star player.’ Back for a sixth season in Utah, Boozer will be making his first appearance Thursday before Jazz fans since conducting a series of offseason interviews in which he pushed for a trade, even naming Chicago and Miami as preferred destinations. With the Jazz having opted to bring him back, Boozer was asked if he thought fans eventually would be supportive. ‘Honestly, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I hope they support me. I hope the fans support me. I love our fans. I hope they know that I’m happy to be here, love being here. I’m going to bust my tail for them and give them everything I’ve got and prove everything on the court.’”
Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News: “Almost immediately after Ben Gordon signed with the Pistons in July, the questions began. Can Gordon and Richard Hamilton coexist in the same lineup? After all, the Pistons attempted a fairly similar experiment last season with Allen Iverson and Hamilton. That, for anyone who cares to remember, didn’t fare so well. Hamilton insists this is different. The two former Connecticut standouts will thrive, with each one on the floor, Hamilton said. ‘It’s going to be great,’ he said, looking re-energized and refreshed after a summer in which he got married. ‘It’s a blessing adding (Gordon) to our team. It takes a load off of me with his scoring. All that stuff he brings to the offensive end, it’s a big plus for us.’ Pistons coach John Kuester has maintained both players need to be — and will be — on the court together. He envisions both players playing in the backcourt, or Gordon at the shooting guard and Hamilton at small forward.”
Michael Lee of the Washington Post: “Antawn Jamison emerged from the first practice session of training camp on Tuesday looking like a walking billboard for the Flip Saunders regime. Around his neck, Jamison hung one of the iPod Touch that Saunders purchased for every member of the team. The devices have an application with videos and diagrams of Saunders’s playbook to ensure that every player fully understands where they need to be. ‘No excuses,’ Jamison said. He also wore one the new shirts Saunders handed out on Monday night with the two-word theme for the Wizards’ season: ‘Our Time.’ ‘It means a lot to me,’ Jamison said of the theme. ‘It’s not about talking about it. It’s about going out there and getting it done. If you believe it’s our time to take it to that next level or get the job done, it’s going to happen. I definitely believe everybody on this team believes it. If you don’t believe it, we’ll get you out of here.’”
Joe Freeman of The Oregonian: “Moments after the Trail Blazers opened their morning practice to the media Tuesday, the team started an intense and fast-paced zone defense drill that featured screaming players zigzagging the court with their arms raised. The focal point of training camp and perhaps the season was on full display early in the Blazers’ first practice. ‘(We were) selling it to you,’ coach Nate McMillan said, joking, when asked if it was a coincidence the team broke into a defensive drill the moment the media entered practice. ‘No … that’s our focus. We know for us to get better and improve, defensively is where it starts. And today was (designed) to set that tone.’ … But Brandon Roy made it clear Tuesday that extra motivation is not necessary. After hearing McMillan and his staff emphasize defense all of last season, the Blazers were offered a harsh dose of reality about its importance during their loss to the Houston Rockets in the opening round of the playoffs. ‘It’s one of those things where he could tell us all he wanted that you gotta play D, you gotta play D,’ Roy said. ‘But until we got into that playoff series and saw that we have to play D, we didn’t realize it. Now we know it. The fact that we got a taste of it last year … helped us.’”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Team owner Michael Heisley put a different spin on that slogan today before the Griz began two-a-day training camp practices. United, Heisley says, the Griz return to the postseason. ‘We‘ve got a team that can be in the playoffs if we play as a team,’ Heisley said while watching the Grizzlies’ morning workout on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College. … Lionel Hollins opened his first training camp as head coach with a focus on conditioning and unselfishness. The offensive drills and scrimmages were geared toward ball movement. Heisley said he’ll form an opinion about the Griz after training camp because he believes it’ll take the entire month for the team to jell. This is a chemistry set Heisley said he’d gladly put together again as the team’s primary decision-maker. He acknowledged making a calculated gamble to speed up the Grizzlies’ rebuilding plan. ‘I know I’m going to be held a lot more accountable,’ Heisley said. ‘I don’t want to downgrade (general manager) Chris Wallace or Lionel. Allen Iverson is here because of me and Zach Randolph is here because of me. O.J. Mayo is here because of me and Chris because I don’t think that was what the majority of people in the room were talking about doing (in 2008). I’m the guy who is going to take the heat on (No. 2 overall pick) Hasheem Thabeet. I don’t have any problem with that. The reality is if we start winning then people will be happy.’”
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “The Nets opened camp Tuesday in a building with a different name (The PNY Center in East Rutherford), but it was the same echo chamber, the same message, and the same old carrot/stick coaching principles. For the foreseeable future, the players can consider themselves lucky if the coaching staff even lets them touch a ball, much less shoot it. If you’re new in these parts, this historically proud defensive team has been routinely awful the past few years, and Frank has decided that he’s had enough. In past camps, the defense-offense split was roughly 70-30 in the first week, but this one is different — more of a teaching camp, with four new faces, and a younger nucleus — and it’s time to lay the defensive foundation. The coach is doing it this way: ‘We’re not doing offense,’ Frank said flatly. How does one score? ‘Score off defense. Defend better. Defend harder.’ Now that Coach Tarzan has laid down his law, it might also be noted that he isn’t really saying anything new there, either. Indeed, there is no plausible reason why the Nets would be so much better defensively in their next 82-game lap around the NBA, other than the fact that Courtney Lee and Terrence Williams are replacing Vince Carter as the primary defenders of the league’s best offensive players.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Delonte West skipped a second consecutive training camp practice Tuesday night and the front office is unsure when the troubled shooting guard will return to the team, sources told Yahoo! Sports. West, who has a mood disorder, had been expected to be an important part of LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal’s supporting cast this season. The Cavaliers could punish West with a fine or suspension, but that doesn’t solve the bigger issue for a franchise under immense pressure to deliver a title. Truth be told, the Cavs can no longer count on him. The Cavaliers had considered the possibility of trading West, sources said, but his recent instability makes that an improbable scenario. After an arrest on a weapons charge two weeks ago in Maryland, West was already facing possible legal action and a certain league suspension. West had three loaded and concealed guns on a motorcycle jaunt across a suburban Washington, D.C., highway. Last season, West left the team for several weeks to get treatment for his lifelong battle with mood disorders. Beyond the fact that he’s in his Cleveland apartment, one associate said, the reason for West’s absence is still a source of speculation for Cavs general manager Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “I’m not sure what the NBA referees were trying to prove by taking this hard-line stance against the league in collective bargaining negotiations that haven’t so much stalled as dived headfirst into an empty swimming pool. Whatever it was, and whatever it is, it’s time to stop it. Not only for the good of the game, but for the refs’ own good, too. … The refs’ negotiating position wasn’t so enviable to begin with, given public sentiment about their performance and the fact that there are hundreds, if not thousands of people who would claw the next person’s eyes out for a chance to make six figures officiating basketball games. It’s my guess that there are only a few dozen people in the country who are actually qualified to do so, and it looks increasingly like we will find out how good my math is — at least during meaningless preseason games. But the refs’ unanimity — not to mention their credibility — has taken a big hit with counter-attacks from the league office about their negotiators reneging on provisions that were agreed to months ago.”
Frank Isola of the Daily News: “William Wesley is the proverbial guy behind the guy behind the guy. He’s a basketball insider who has Michael Jordan on speed dial and is on a first-name basis with dozens of high profile NBA and college coaches. ‘World Wide Wes,’ as he is affectionately known, is also quietly emerging as an important player in the Knicks’ pursuit of LeBron James. Wesley is known to be a friend and confidant of LeBron, who can become a free agent on July 1. With that in mind, it probably doesn’t hurt that Wesley and Knicks president Donnie Walsh have become Best Friends Forever. Walsh even asked Wesley to personally oversee Eddy Curry’s offseason workout program. Despite the Knicks’ extensive – and expensive – roster of assistant coaches and fitness trainers, Walsh took the unprecedented step of outsourcing Curry’s training regime. Wesley is not a paid employee of the Knicks. He does, however, work with the agent for both Curry and LeBron, Leon Rose, having grown up with Rose in South Jersey. When Curry returned to New York 40 pounds lighter earlier this month and began scrimmaging with teammates, Wesley was at his side at Knicks practice in Greenburgh, N.Y. The Knicks’ association with Wesley doesn’t guarantee that the club has the inside track on signing LeBron. But as one team executive noted, ‘We’re leaving no stone unturned.’”
(Photo by Evan Gole NBAE/Getty Images)
