Ian Thomsen of SI.com: “The most ominous glimpse of what is to come this season took place in a blink — a pass to LeBron James that he instantly volleyballed to the far side of the basket while Shaquille O’Neal spun out of the post and behind his defender to bank in the alley-oop layup. ‘That was just two basketball players making a read,” said James after he made his debut with his large and elder sidekick. ‘For the first game I thought we played pretty well as a team, and me and Shaq definitely played pretty well together. It shouldn’t be hard for the both of us — we both know how to play and we both know how to win.’ Win they did Tuesday, 92-87 over the visiting Charlotte Bobcats, though neither LeBron nor Shaq played past halftime. The preseason opener was an exposition of the Cavs’ improved depth, even though Delonte West — last year’s starter at shooting guard — was held out out of the game at the last minute by GM Danny Ferry as he struggles to deal with the issues following his Sept. 17 arrest on weapons charges. ‘If Delonte doesn’t play, they’ve got Anthony Parker,” said Bobcats coach Larry Brown with envy. ‘If Shaq doesn’t play, they’ve got [former All-Star center Zydrunas] Ilgauskas. If LeBron doesn’t play, you’ve got God.’”
Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: “Kevin Durant’s evolving maturity and leadership was on full display Tuesday, 10 minutes after the conclusion of an Oklahoma City Thunder practice and roughly two hours before the team boarded a flight to Memphis for its preseason opener against the Grizzlies. It started with a scene that we’ve quickly grown accustomed to seeing inside the team’s training center on N. Lincoln Blvd. No. 35, in his sweat-drenched blue mesh jersey, lingered on the far end of the practice court with assistant coach Brian Keefe. The two worked their way around the arc, starting in the far right corner before slowly working their way to the opposite side. Durant took passes and drilled on jab steps and step ins, set shots and pull-ups, fadeaways and free throws. Twenty minutes later, he walked over to a group of media members before he could catch his breath. That’s when he followed up on his actions by saying all the right things. He sounded like a veteran, confident, poised, focused and prepared to embark on his third NBA season. At one point he even stopped and chuckled when he caught himself referring to rookie big men Serge Ibaka and Byron Mullens, both one year younger than he, as ‘The young guys.’”
Scott Bordow of the East Valley Tribune: “Phoenix tried to jettison Stoudemire in the offseason. Had the Golden State Warriors agreed to move Stephen Curry, Stoudemire would be in the Bay Area right now, quoting Sun Tzu and telling all about his Twitter account. But when the trade fell through and Phoenix couldn’t find another deal that made sense, it swallowed hard and welcomed Stoudemire back. Then came the real shocker: Coach Alvin Gentry made Stoudemire a tri-captain along with Nash and Hill. ‘I think he’s at the stage of his career, if he’s going to be around here, he needs to have some responsibility as far as leadership,’ Gentry said. ‘Make no mistake about it, it’s Steve’s team, but we have to have other leaders, also.’ Usually, a captaincy is a reward. But in Stoudemire’s case, it’s an enticement. Simply put, the Suns hope it will help him grow up. ‘That’s a big part of why Alvin made him a captain,’ Kerr said.”
A. Sherrod Blakely of MLive.com: “Pistons coach John Kuester can understand why pitting an undersized scoring point guard (Bynum) and an undersized shooting guard (Gordon) raises concerns about how well the two will defend. ‘One of the things that teams are going to have to do is match up with them also,’ Kuester said. ‘That’s one of the things I look at and see, two guys that can put a tremendous amount of pressure on people.’ For years, Bynum has dealt with being doubted because of his size. ‘It’s not going to be an issue,’ Bynum said. ‘We’re going to go at guys from start to finish, that’s our attitude. It’s not how big you (are). Everybody knows that.’ He recalled how Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas were considered an undersized backcourt tandem and yet still flourished. ‘It’s what beats in your chest, and a lot of guys don’t have that,’ said Bynum, who led all Detroit scorers with 15 points in the Pistons’ 87-83 preseason win against Miami on Monday. ‘You could be 7-feet tall, but if they don’t have any heart, it doesn’t really matter.’”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “As of Tuesday morning, McMillan envisioned a starting unit that stayed intact from last season’s 54-win season: Steve Blake at point guard, Brandon Roy at shooting guard, Nicolas Batum at small forward, LaMarcus Aldridge at power forward and Joel Przybilla at center. The second unit would be the one that has spent the first week of the exhibition season practicing against the starters: Andre Miller at point guard, Rudy Fernandez at shooting guard, Martell Webster at small forward, Travis Outlaw at power forward and Greg Oden at center. This has drawn great interest from inside the Blazers’ locker room, and of course in every sports pub throughout the state. Miller, the big-time free agent acquisition, coming off the bench? Oden, the No. 1 overall pick, the manchild with unlimited potential, not starting? Is the Blazers’ coach losing it? Not yet. But check back at the end of the exhibition season, when McMillan has to evaluate all the different combinations and make it work with all the different personalities, all the different agendas and all the different styles of this roster.”
Michael Lee of the Washington Post: “That pride on the defensive end of the ball could be spotted during the final scrimmage on Saturday, when the black team consisting of Blatche, Jamison, Haywood, Gilbert Arenas and Mike Miller held another squad that featured Caron Butler, Dominic McGuire, DeShawn Stevenson, Randy Foye and JaVale McGee scoreless for more than 14 minutes, until Butler nailed a jumper with 49.5 seconds left to make the score 14-2. But there was a dispute over even that bucket. ‘They had six men on the court,’ Miller explained. ‘Even Gil was mad,’ Jamison said. ‘He said, ‘Don’t give ‘em [anything].’ ‘Things have to be different,’ Jamison said. ‘The days of outscoring teams and making it to the first round, that’s not really what it’s all about. The days of 19 wins have to be over with. The days of losing to Cleveland every year, first-round exits, how much are you going to take? I think the biggest difference is in the past, we would have one scenario we would do and then we would switch it up. It wasn’t consistent. With this from day one, this is what we’re gonna do and we’re not going to change it.’”
Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “Vince Carter executed the beginning of the pick-and-roll perfectly. Carter drove past the defender who had been guarding him, sped into the lane and threw the basketball to Dwight Howard. Problem was, Howard wasn’t expecting the ball. ‘Man, I didn’t know you were going to pass it,’ Howard said. ‘I thought you were going to score.’ That sequence from a recent practice — and described to reporters by Carter — illustrates perhaps the biggest challenge the Orlando Magic face this preseason: The addition of so many new players means the defending Eastern Conference champions must build team chemistry all over again. … Perhaps Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy should wear a white lab coat and a pair of protective goggles tonight instead of a suit. Preseason games tend to be a little bit sloppy, especially in early October. Van Gundy predictably saw plenty of room for improvement in Orlando’s 110-105 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday. ‘We have a long, long, long, long, long way to go,’ Van Gundy said. ‘I thought a lot of guys got into the game and — this is pretty typical — forgot what we were doing. They were just playing for various reasons: wanting to do well, playing hard.’”
Frank Isola of the Daily News: “It’s back to the drawing board for the Eddy Curry Reclamation Project. Knicks president Donnie Walsh revealed Tuesday that Curry won’t be available to even practice with his teammates until the team’s medical staff is confident that he can go through a full workout without getting injured. Yes, while the Knicks are preparing for actual games, Curry is trying to get his body practice-ready. ‘When we feel he can get out there and play without pulling something then we’ll bring him back,’ Walsh said following the team’s practice, minus Curry, in Greenburgh. ‘I don’t know how long it will take. When he got hurt it was like, ‘Geez, every time the guy goes out he’s getting a pulled muscle.’ Once you get in a game you have to be game-ready. And I don’t think he’s going to be game ready for a while. So we’re going to take longer and get him there.’ It appears unlikely that Curry will be available when the Knicks open the regular season on Oct.28 in Miami.”
Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: “The Celts will continue to try to manage Kevin Garnett through his comeback from right knee surgery, though both the club and player reiterated there is no trouble with the repaired area. But Rivers noted he’ll keep KG out if the shin splints and calf problems persist. ‘It probably comes from me more than him,’ the coach said. ‘I mean, if it was left up to Kevin he’d never come out of the practice.’ Garnett put in a regular session yesterday, though he’d been subbed out of the part of the scrimmage open to the media. It wasn’t his best day. ‘He’s been good, (but yesterday) I thought they bothered him more than the other days,’ Rivers said. ‘So he went through the practice, but I don’t think he moved great. ‘I just think it’s from not playing. You take the time off that he took off and then you get on the floor and then you go through a camp that’s live and hard, I think your injury is OK, but the stuff around the injury probably starts to affect you. And that’s what’s happened.’”
Marcus Thompson II of the San Jose Mercury News: “Last season, Biedrins — in the first year of a six-year, $54 million contract — made noticeable strides, averaging 11.9 points, 11.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. He showed an ability to attack the basket off the dribble. He improved his passing enough to become a viable cog in the Warriors offense even out of the high post. He set a career high with 121 assists in a season (he had 88 in 2006-07, when he played some 500 more minutes than he did last season). Still, Biedrins is convinced there is room to improve. One goal is to be better going to his right. A natural lefty, Biedrins said he’s putting in extra work before and after practice with assistant coach Russell Turner developing that part of his game. Also, he’s looking to develop his game out of the key. Known for making viewers cringe with his free throw stroke, Biedrins said he wants to develop a jump shot. ‘That will be my next big goal,’ said Biedrins, who spent the summer playing for the Latvian national team. ‘I’ve really tried to work on that, before practices and after practices. Move out of the painted area.’”
Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: “Already this season, pundits are predicting that Hilton Armstrong’s $2.8 million salary will be the perfect trading-deadline number to erase from New Orleans’ payroll to lessen the expected blow of a luxury-tax bill at the end of the season. Yet Armstrong, in his fourth year and the Hornets’ first-round draft pick in 2006, has never been far from a positive assessment in the last week and half since the team convened for training camp in Lafayette. Almost every day, when someone asked Scott to evaluate the players in camp, Armstrong’s name has been one of the first he has mentioned. Why? ‘Two things, ‘ Scott said. ‘No. 1, his conditioning is fantastic. No. 2, he’s just much more aggressive than he has been in the past. And No. 3 is probably his confidence level. Those three things have been pretty evident when you watch him out here playing. He’s really getting up and down the floor, really sealing people in the post. And when he gets the ball in the post, he’s going up strong. That’s something we hope he’ll do the rest of the season.’”
Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News: “Backing down simply isn’t acceptable in the NBA. A young player must establish himself from the start, basically in each and every game. Reptuations are earned quickly, and unflattering ones don’t go away easily. Weakness is noticed in this league, maybe more than any other sports league. Weaknesses will be exploited. It’s early in the Pistons’ season, but it’s already apparent that no NBA bully is taking the lunch money of rookies Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko. Those were the indications from last week’s training camp , and fortified Monday in the exhibition opener against the Miami Heat. ‘These guys are fearless in the way they play the game,’ coach John Kuester said. ‘They play the game the right way.’ That was apparent by Jerebko and Daye, specifically. Jerebko got into a minor fight 11 minutes and 46 seconds into his first NBA game. Jerebko and Miami’s Jamaal Magloire went up for a rebound, they got tied up, and while falling to the floor, Magloire took a wild swing at Jerebko. The Swedish rookie didn’t back down. He swung back. ‘We’re rookies, but if you get us, we have to get you back,’ Jerebko said.”
Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “David Kahn’s revelation last summer was that the Wolves can become league leaders in making their own players better. They already have interviewed several candidates for a sixth assistant coaching position, devoted solely to working with players on their skills. Former Timberwolves players Darrick Martin and Tony Campbell came to town before the team left for training camp in Mankato. Carr arrived Tuesday after a short crosstown trip from Hopkins, where he operates a basketball training academy for schoolchildren of all ages. The hire is another step in Kahn’s effort to remake a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2004. Now that he has completely reconfigured the roster, hired head coach Kurt Rambis and five assistants, Kahn has the team aimed at hiring a player-development specialist and another person who will work with players and their off-court concerns as well as upgrading the team’s weight and film rooms and players lounge before the Oct. 28 opener. ‘We’ve told the players we want be a first-class organization, do things in a first-class way,’ Rambis said. ‘We’ve told them we want to give them the optimum situation for them to develop their skills. That’s what David and I are trying to establish here.’”
Chris Colston of USA Today: “In an effort to ease his stress, Danny Ainge tries not to get too worked up over the media circus surrounding his team — or the world in general. ‘There’s so much spin and so much dishonesty, it makes me skeptical about the media and what’s said about anything,’ he says. ‘How can I believe anything, from scientific research on medicine to politics to business and our economy? How can you believe anything that’s written? In all the newspapers and websites, I rarely follow much that’s going on because there is so much written about us, and so much speculated about us that is so unfounded, so untrue, that I just assume everything’s untrue. It’s hard to sift through it because so much is false. But at the same time, I understand it generates all sorts of excitement. I have to separate myself from a fan to being a leader of an organization.’ Was it like that, say, 20 years ago? ‘No, I don’t think so,’ Ainge says. ‘Generally, they knew more and they were around the teams more. Now, it could be a web reporter trying to make a name for himself who was at a charity function and heard a friend of a friend say this about a player. The next thing you know, it’s on the ESPN ticker.’”
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “NBA commissioner David Stern said Tuesday that the league continues to project a drop in revenue of between 21/2 percent to 5 percent that could lead to a dramatic dip in the league’s salary cap and luxury tax figures for the 2010-11 season. ‘As far as we can tell from our preseason numbers, that’s exactly where it’s going to come in,’ Stern said after a news conference before the Jazz-Bulls preseason game. The league alerted teams to the possibility of such a drop in basketball-related income, to which the salary cap and luxury tax figures are linked, in a July memo. But Stern said Tuesday there was no reason for a more optimistic projection now three months later. ‘I would love to get it closer to 21/2 percent,’ Stern said, ‘but I don’t think we’re going to because our teams have cut their ticket prices or frozen them, so as a result, even if we have good attendance, we’ll be taking in less revenue at the gate, and that’s an important component. And that’s OK. We’re responding to our fans.’”
(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
