Points in the Paint

» October 13, 2009 4:31 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

According to what the NBA told the Player’s Association, as reported by Liz Mullen and John Lombardo, owners will lose hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. The league agreed to hand over the financial details in order to convince players that the current salary cap system, which guarantees them 57 percent of basketball-related income, isn’t working.

Ira Winderman: “In a move to create the feel of a fuller arena, the balcony seats, the 400 level, were covered by curtains at each end of AmericanAirlines Arena for the Miami Heat’s 95-93 exhibition loss Sunday to the San Antonio Spurs. According to a team spokesman, those curtains will remain in place for about a third of the regular-season schedule, for games when ticket demand is lowest. The Heat will use different capacity totals to determine sellouts for those games.”

CelticsBlog’s Greg Payne on Rajon Rondo: “So far the jump shot doesn’t appear to be that much improved and he still seems to pass up on it at times. If anything, one might assume preseason would be the perfect time for Rondo to hoist the jumpers up there, at least to test out any new methods in real game scenarios. His decision making appears sketchy as well. He seems to be getting too fancy on fast breaks at times and also seems to want to force the ball inside, even when he doesn’t have an ideal angle or passing lane. His passes seem errant and he doesn’t appear very vocal, despite acknowledging on media day that he’s ready to speak up more.”

Ian Thomsen at SI.com reports that Gary Ebert, who represents former Olympiacos player Chris Morris, allegedly received a death threat from someone who claimed to be associated with Olympiakos owner Panagiotis Angelopoulos. Ebert is attempting to collect more than $1.5 million Olympiakos owes in salary and fees.

Dave D’Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: “They have almost a full contingent tonight for the Newark game, so you’ll get a pretty good idea of what kind of team they want to be – think Phoenix with a conscience and a trap. The only issue is how deep and how small the coach is willing to go, mindful that his most athletic and versatile guys are mostly 6-6-and-under types and very young. But make no mistake: He’s serious about this trapping business – maybe not your conventional run-and-jump, but intense ball-pressure from wire-to-wire off foul shots and dead balls. ‘That’ll be who we are,’ L-Frank said. And you can sustain that for 48? ‘I think so, with our numbers. Again, because you’re not doijng it off misses, you’re not doing it off makes. It’s free throws, dead balls, any time there’s an opportunity to pick up, we’ll pick up.’”