Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle: “Only when the series against the Lakers ended did Battier realize he was exhausted. ‘I was more mentally spent than anything else after trying to guard Kobe (Bryant) for a seven-game series,’ he said. ‘The mental fatigue was pretty amazing. When you’re in the middle of it, you’re just going. You’re in the zone and you’re focused, and you’re putting everything you have into that particular series.’ One of the more amazing things of Battier’s match-ups with Kobe was that he never once responded to the constant taunting and yapping. ‘I know when I walk away from this game, there are very few people that will ever think about me again,’ he said. ‘That’s just the truth. Do you think Kobe Bryant is going to waste any of his time worrying about what I’m doing? Probably not. Why should I worry about what he thinks of me? It’s part of his game. To answer him would be a waste of energy and time. I’m sure he doesn’t care what I think. I don’t particularly care what he thinks of me.’ What’s his opinion of Kobe? ‘He’s the best. I respect him more than any other player in the league. To play him, … you can’t take any possessions off. LeBron (James) is getting to that level as well. To play against Kobe and LeBron at this point, they bring it every single possession. Every other player in this league, there are times you don’t have to be on your game every possession.’”
Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Andre Iguodala spent the summer shooting jumpers, and it looks is if he will spend some of the winter playing shooting guard. Despite last season’s failed experiment with Iguodala at the two-spot, 76ers new head coach Eddie Jordan has Iguodala, right now, starting in the backcourt with Lou Williams. Yesterday at St. Joseph’s University, the Sixers finished their third day of training camp, holding both a morning and an evening session. Camp will end tomorrow. The Sixers will play their first preseason game Tuesday night in London, Ontario, against the Toronto Raptors. Through three days, Jordan has run the same five guys on his first team: Williams, Iguodala, forward Thaddeus Young, power forward Elton Brand, and center Samuel Dalembert. ‘He will play some forward in the offense while he plays some guard,’ Jordan explained. ‘The best players find their way . . .’ Within Jordan’s Princeton Offense, the guards and forwards are often interchangeable, meaning that while Iguodala may start in the backcourt, he’ll often finish on the wing.”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “The Grizzlies’ offense was in high gear when the basketball reached Allen Iverson. The veteran guard ended his sprint and jumped into a shooting motion for what would have been an open shot. Instead, Iverson fired a pass intended for a streaking Zach Randolph under the basket. The play resulted in a turnover and Iverson smacked his hands together as if he was providing sign language for what Randolph had to say. ‘Shoot that,’ Randolph told Iverson. ‘That’s your shot.’ In truth, Randolph couldn’t have summed up any better how Griz coach Lionel Hollins wants to operate offensively. The Grizzlies intend to play fast this season in a free-flowing system that encourages the open guy to shoot regardless of the name on a jersey. … ‘Coach (Hollins) just keeps telling us to play defense, rebound and run,’ second-year guard O.J. Mayo said. ‘It can’t get much simpler than that.’ Hollins said a slow game in which he’s calling every play doesn’t take advantage of the NBA’s only roster with four players who averaged at least 17.5 points a game last season.”
Matt Steinmetz of FanHouse: “Three days after Black Monday, the issue no longer is whether or not Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry are going to play together. That’s going to happen. Heck, it’s happening already. The real question is, how much? ‘We had a scrimmage (Wednesday night), the last 20 or so minutes we were on the same team,’ Curry said of Ellis and himself. ‘He was running the point and I was running the two. Defensively, we played against Kelenna (Azubuike) and Corey (Maggette). It was fun because offensively we got into the open court and we had (Anthony) Morrow on the other side. ‘And that’s kind of a deadly attack, I think, the way Monta can penetrate and really attack and then have two shooters on each side … a lot of different threats. That was fun last night.’ The main reason Curry will play this year, and by default play alongside Ellis, is that last season the Warriors weren’t a very smart team; they couldn’t pass and their decision-making was borderline awful. Those all would seem to be areas that Curry can impact in a positive way, regardless of his smallish stature or slight build. In fact, Warriors coach Don Nelson hasn’t ruled out starting Ellis and Curry together in the backcourt.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “For those who thought Rudy Fernandez was an exciting player last season, wait until you see what Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan has in store this season for the Spanish guard. In a move that somewhat resembles what McMillan did two seasons ago with star Brandon Roy, the Blazers this season plan to have Fernandez handle the ball more in order to initiate plays for himself and teammates. The Blazers still plan to have the 6-foot-6 guard run all over the court, utilizing screens to get open for his specialty – the three-pointer – but this season they also want Fernandez to run pick-and-rolls to take advantage of his passing and driving ability. McMillan calls it using Fernandez as a point guard, but in essence he will just be handling the ball more in half-court sets and be encouraged to push the ball in transition instead of giving it up to the point guard. Fernandez said no one has told him there will be a change, but he can tell something is in the works by the types of plays that are being called by McMillan when he gets the ball in practice.”
Tom Enlund of the Journal Sentinel: “An enthusiastic Charlie Bell contends that he is in the best shape of his career for training camp and he provides teammate Andrew Bogut with an assist for that. In a back-handed kind of way, that is. It’s seems that Bell and Bogut placed a ‘gentleman’s’ wager as to who would show up with the lower body fat on the opening day of training camp. As it turned out, the Milwaukee Bucks’ guard prevailed and it’s a victory that he doesn’t hesitate to chirp about. ‘This summer, we both got here and we went in for a body fat test and mine was higher so he started calling me ‘Fatboy’ and this and that he’s in better shape and he’s got a better body,’ said . . . that Bell. ‘I said, ‘OK, I’ll bet you that come time for the season, we’ll see who’s got the lower body fat’. He said, ‘Ok, let’s bet.’ So he . . . then, the next thing you know, he said something on Twitter put it out there for everybody. So I said, ‘OK, I’m going to work even harder. He don’t know it but while he was asleep, I was up there on the treadmill, at 11 or 12 o’clock at night, burning fat while he was sleeping.’”
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: “The NBA, although its rosters go 15 deep, is still a star’s stage. And though Bosh’s game has flat-lined since he established himself as a perennial all-star four seasons ago – though he has led the Raptors to precisely one over-.500 season in six years – there is at least some reason to believe that now, at age 25, Toronto’s best player is poised to pair his newly found lean muscle into a competitive leap. It’s too early for grand pronouncements, of course, but on a team with nine freshly arrived players, the longest-tenured Raptor has the look of a new man, indeed. ‘He’s more engaged now,’ Triano said. ‘I get a text from him now once a week, `Watching tape. I really clogged things up last year. How are we going to eliminate that this year?’ Or, `Coach, we need to move the ball a little bit better.’ He’s wanting to get better, (asking) `What can I do not to clog things up? What can I do defensively?’‘ The coach, needless to say, is enamoured with Bosh’s contract-year commitment to both the barbells and the details and he is all too happy to offer suggestions for further advancement. ‘I gave him three (things to improve) and he texts back, `Anything else?’ I said, `If the door’s open.’ And I gave him seven more. So now you have 10 things. And he was, like, `Thanks. Love constructive criticism.’‘”
George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal: “Cavaliers center Shaquille O’Neal has gotten a quick lesson in why the team was so successful last year: hard work. ‘The most impressive thing about this team is that they’re here two hours before, working on their game and two hours after,’ O’Neal said after finishing practice Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic Courts. ‘Now I see why they played so well last year. It’s going to be a very fun, exciting season.’ Apparently O’Neal fits in. Coach Mike Brown has liked what he’s seen out of O’Neal in the first week of training camp, saying that it has been fun to watch the center work thus far — more so because it appears O’Neal is practicing and planning to play with a chip on his shoulder, because he has something to prove. ‘I always feel that guys like that feel that way. I know he does,’ Brown said. ‘He’s told me in so many words that he wants to go out and prove not only to himself but to everybody else that he’s got a lot left. So far, as early as it is, he’s showing that he’s capable of doing a lot of things still.’”
Tania Ganguli of the Orlando Sentinel: “Howard’s lack of moves in the low post have been one oft-criticized aspect of his game. ‘Have you ever seen a better athlete with worse low-post moves? Er, move?’ wrote ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons in a diary of Orlando’s Game 4 loss to the Lakers in the NBA Finals. ‘He’s like a jukebox with one song — and in this case, the song is, ‘I’m going to turn right, bring the ball down low, take a dribble, put my shoulder into my guy and shoot a jumphook.’ I think the Lakers know it’s coming, Dwight. No offense.’ But to Howard, that’s not the real issue. ‘People say that, but when you get double-teamed every play, it’s hard to get post moves,’ Howard said. ‘My biggest thing is passing out the double team and allowing my guys to get shots, trusting them. That way I have an easier chance to score.’ The Magic have given him plenty of practice with that this week. Nearly every time Howard touched the ball in scrimmages on Wednesday and Thursday, he was double-teamed. And just in case he needs it, he’s also paid a lot of attention to his jump shot.”
Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “You could see several significant changes in Yi Jianlian’s game now, and at the risk of sounding completely delusional a few months hence, we’ll come out and say it anyway: He had a great summer. It’s all there, a noticeable hike in confidence, aggressiveness, and even quickness despite the obviously thicker torso. It manifests itself in a number of ways, but the best way — at both ends of the floor — looks like a willingness, or even eagerness, to hit first and let the guy know he’s not going to back down. Oh, and he’s showing a pretty nice left hand, too, which is convenient since 80 percent of the shots we’ve seen him take the last few days are rim attacks. ‘I think he’s had two very good practices back to back, which is very encouraging,’ L-Frank said. ‘His last two practices, you have to be impressed with his performance.’ It’s the simple NBA formula: Offseason work leads to more confidence and more confidence leads to more aggressiveness. He’s even shouting on defense, and it was no ordinary shout. He sounded like a wounded moose.”
Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times: “Look at it this way: The Clippers’ training staff and Coach Mike Dunleavy are going to get in excellent shape if the first few days of camp are any indication. How so? Chasing after rookie and No. 1 draft pick Blake Griffin, who supposedly is limited in camp because of his injured left knee. ‘He’s a guy you can’t keep off the court,’ teammate Marcus Camby said after practice Thursday. ‘I mean, he’s not supposed to be shooting and you’ve got Jasen [Powell], the trainer, running out on him and telling him, ‘You can’t be out there. Blake is huffing and puffing and he’s upset.’ That is mostly a good thing, an old-school attitude where so often so many players don’t want to play at this stage of training camp. This was a couple of days after Dunleavy had to bang on the glass of his office and dash downstairs at the training facility when he spotted Griffin on the court, jumping ‘five feet’ off the floor. ‘They are on him,’ Camby said, smiling. ‘That’s good. It’s good he has that work ethic . . . and he’s very humble.’”
Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee: “After two years of being pummeled around the basket, often elevating and landing on someone’s foot, frequently twisting the ankle he now tapes, Martin is embracing change. And he’s right. And smart. He needs to adjust, or he can count on a shortened career. ‘I love contact,’ Martin said the other day, ‘but in a perfect world, I’ll be going to the foul line maybe seven, eight times this year instead of 10. I have to take more jumpers and (shots off) curls so I don’t take such a beating.’ There is an impressive precedent here. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen experienced similar epiphanies in their mid-20s. So did Doug Christie, whose wiry physique most closely resembles that of his former teammate. All three were superb athletes who improved their jump shots and, as they aged and physically matured, more selectively slashed to the rim. ‘Kevin wants to be stronger, not at the start of the move but at the finish, so when he absorbs the contact, he lands with better balance,’ added David Thorpe, Martin’s offseason trainer. ‘That doesn’t mean he won’t get hurt, but it improves his chances of landing with some stability.’”
Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press: “D’Antoni doesn’t know yet how well Milicic fits, but he’s hoping the center’s more stable personal life will help him relax better on the court. Milicic’s wife gave birth to their first child, a son, over the summer. ‘You have trials and tribulations all along and I don’t think we can draw a comparison to how he was three years ago,’ D’Antoni said. ‘He’s now married with a child, 24 years old and comfortable living in America. During those other years, might have been uncomfortable, you never know what happens. But we think we’ve got him at a good spot and we think that he’s intriguing at least and hopefully he’ll be a contributor.’ Milicic is excited about the chance to play in D’Antoni’s offensive system, but realizes the team needs him more for his defensive abilities. With 6-foot-9 David Lee as an undersized center, the Knicks were worst in the league last season with 204 blocked shots — NBA leader Dwight Howard had more by himself. ‘If I can help this team with rebounding and blocking shots, I’ll do that,’ Milicic said. ‘I’m going to try to score I don’t know how many points, but I’m going to do the stuff that will help this team because this team, we have a lot of players that can score here. Scoring is not a problem with this team. All the little stuff is going to help this team win.’”
Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: “With Carlos Boozer back on the team — making the Jazz loaded with two talented power forwards — coach Jerry Sloan and his staff came up with a way to help the organization get its money’s worth after agreeing to pay Millsap $32 million over the next four years. The plan? Use Millsap as a small forward, so he can share court time with the Jazz’s two-time All-Star power forward. Though Millsap only saw 18 minutes of action in Utah’s 103-87 win over Denver on Thursday, a good chunk of that time was in the 3 spot. It was a bit strange for Millsap to bounce between the two positions, though. At times, the 6-8, 246-pound Millsap was guarding the slippery smooth Carmelo Anthony (6-8, 230) as a small forward. At others, he ended up banging bodies with the beefy Birdman, a.k.a. 6-10, 228-pound Chris Andersen. That, Millsap insisted, was part of the fun of it. ‘It’s different,’ he admitted. ‘Coach likes me to mix it up a little bit. He likes to see what I can do. Whoever’s steps in front of me I’m going to try to guard with the best of my abilities.’ The results were somewhat mixed during his mostly quiet seven-point, three-rebound night. Millsap did get burned Anthony for an easy bucket, but he also stepped out and hit a top-of-the-key jumper.”
Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: “Has Andrew Bynum outgrown Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? For four years the relationship between the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and Bynum seemed to be a productive one. Abdul-Jabbar took Bynum under his considerable wing, taught him post skills and footwork, while Bynum listened and grew into one of the brightest young centers in the NBA. But that relationship now seems to be running its course, at least as far as Bynum is concerned. Sources close to the team said that Abdul-Jabbar will be playing a lesser role with both the Lakers and Bynum this season. With his round-the-clock tutoring of Bynum not needed as much, sources said Abdul-Jabbar would likely spend less time with the team and more time back in his hometown of New York City. All of which seems to be a considerable letdown for the former Lakers captain, who has worked closely with Bynum since the Lakers drafted him out of high school in 2005. Abdul-Jabbar expressed disappointment in Bynum and the situation, saying that `I think there are things that have to do with basketball that he could learn but he’s getting on in years.’”
