Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: “This is a treacherous time for the 24-year-old Paul, a crossroads for a career that’s at the mercy of circumstances beyond his control. At a time when his twentysomething all-world peers – LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony – play for committed organizations with serious owners, the faulty infrastructure of Shinn’s flimsy franchise has undermined Paul’s championship ambitions. ‘I’m envious,’ Paul said. ‘I’m very envious. Those guys have been where I want to get to. This is my fifth year in the league, and I’m not trying to wait until I’m an old veteran in this league to win a championship. We’re trying to win now.’ They’re trying, but Paul knows that his general manager, Jeff Bower, has to trim $3 million off the payroll to dodge the luxury tax. The Hornets can’t win a playoff series as constructed, and deep down Paul understands his greatness is born of his passing and playmaking, born of elevating those around him. He can score, but that’ll never be the way the Hornets win with him. ‘I’m a point guard,’ he said. ‘I can’t score the ball like Carmelo, LeBron and D-Wade. At the end of the day, it’s always going to be a team thing with us, with me getting guys involved.’”
Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe: “The Celtics had to sign Rondo long-term, didn’t they? He’s far too good to be allowed to slip away, and what was their alternative? They have nice backup guards, but no true backup point guard. If one of their veteran big men went down for a while, they could do some clever rotating and get by, at least during the regular season. But if Rondo were incapacitated, they would be in very serious trouble. He may not be their best player, but he’s their most indispensable, which is simply a function of the way Danny Ainge has constructed his team. When I say Rondo’s not going to be Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker, or Derrick Rose, and they’re not going to be him, I’m talking style and package of skills, not overall effectiveness. There are different job requirements and different ways of getting the job done. Rondo may never shoot like Paul, but Paul will never rebound like Rondo, and that capability is part of what makes Rondo such a special player. Sure, nobody asks Rajon Rondo to rebound like a power forward, but some nights he does just that and it is a major reason why the Celtics will win a particular game. Unless he one day no longer wishes to do it, he will be the best rebounding point guard in the post-Jason Kidd era, and, if we’re talking inch-for-inch, the best ever.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “Suns center Channing Frye is about to feel the backhanded compliment that comes with award talk. After averaging 4.2 points per game last season and having only one season – as a rookie in 2005-06 – in which he averaged double figures in scoring, Frye is bound to wind up in Most Improved Player conversations as a Suns starter who figures to triple his scoring average from last season. But like Boris Diaw felt as a member of the Suns four years ago when he won it, or Hedo Turkoglu two years ago, a Most Improved Player candidate usually does not discover some off-season secret about his game. Often, he just gets more of an opportunity. Portland did not have a place for a long-range shooting center. Frye fits Phoenix fine, perching on the weak side with his feet set as the Steve Nash-Amaré Stoudemire pick-and-roll game sucks defenders in. ‘In hockey, he’d have a ton of assists,’ Suns coach Alvin Gentry said of Stoudemire. ‘Most coaches’ philosophy is that, ‘I got to take this dunk away, and I’ll see if I can get back to the 3-point shooter.’ We’re just playing Channing to his strengths.’ Frye made six 3-pointers in each of the past two games. That total of 12 is more than he had made in a season.”
Chris Tomasson of FanHouse: “‘In a word, wow,’ Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said Monday about Anthony’s start, which earned him NBA honors for Western Conference Player of the Week. With Anthony surging and the Nuggets out of the gates quickly, there’s no hurry for any moves to be made. Warkentien told FanHouse it’s ‘highly unlikely” Denver will use its $7.4 million trade exception that expires Tuesday. The Nuggets, though, have two other significant trade exceptions on the books. They have a $3.2 million one for the Chucky Atkins trade that expires Jan. 7, 2010 and a $3.7 million one for the Steven Hunter deal that is good until Aug. 7, 2010. The way Anthony is playing, the Nuggets are doing just fine. ‘Melo’s awareness to how he’s being covered is the best it’s ever been,’ said Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team begins a six-game East Coast trip Tuesday at Indiana. ‘It’s his ability to move around and be placed in different positions and his effective efficiency. His efficiency is pretty incredible right now. From post ups to jump shots to penetrations, good passing decisions. We need him.’”
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: “The problem of allowing opposing players into the paint starts at point guard. The past two losses have seen opposing No. 1s – Memphis’ middle-of-the-road Mike Conley and Orlando’s all-star Jameer Nelson – zip past Jose Calderon with too much ease. It’s a familiar plotline for Raptor fans, who watched Calderon cede similar ground last season, when a six-centimeter tear in his hamstring limited his mobility. The Spaniard claims to be back to full health now, which could be worrisome, or perhaps an off-season of rest is the easy explanation for his early-going rust. Maybe he’ll be back in form in no time, as early as Wednesday’s home game against the Detroit Pistons. Don’t get it wrong: It’s not all Calderon’s fault. Defense, at the NBA level, is a team scheme. But there are degrees of getting beat. ‘It’s tough for anybody to do something perfect all the time,’ said Jarrett Jack, the Raptors’ backup point guard. ‘You might not get beat to where they lay it in the basket. You might just get beat to where the guy gets past you for a dribble until somebody can step up and we force them to swing it to the weak side.’ Calderon, to this eye, has been getting beat for lay-ins too often, although he says his defense has been ‘better than (his) offense’ this season, which gives you an idea of what he thinks about his shooting stroke.”
Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia News: “All transitions in life should go as smoothly as it has for 76ers guard Lou Williams in going from offensive spark off the bench to starting floor general. Last year, Williams’ role was to come off the bench and score, plain and simple. Now, with new coach Eddie Jordan and the departure of starting lead guard Andre Miller, Williams was handed the keys to start the newly implemented Princeton offense. So far, so good as the Sixers, who host the Boston Celtics at the Wachovia Center tonight, have won two of their first three games. The numbers posted by the fifth-year guard suggest that the offense and his offense are a perfect fit. Williams leads the team in scoring at 20.3 points per game, has made 63.6 percent of his shots and has averaged 35.3 minutes a game. He played a career-high 42 minutes at New York on Saturday and pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds. But those aren’t the numbers the affable Williams wants to discuss. ‘I just concentrate on my turnovers, I’m not really worried about anything else,’ he said, following yesterday’s practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. His concentration on not throwing the ball away has been rock solid. In his 106 minutes of play, he has just two giveaways and has dealt 15 assists.”
Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: “Mo Williams doesn’t know what he was missing. When jokingly asked whether Soulja Boy would be in attendance for Tuesday’s renewal of the sometimes-heated rivalry against the Washington Wizards, Williams smiled and said, ‘I wasn’t here during the Soulja Boy era, so I don’t know.’ … There have been a lot of changes. Arenas is back, although Antawn Jamison is out with a shoulder injury and Caron Butler is probable with a knee injury. Former Cuyahoga Heights star Flip Saunders is Washington’s new coach, and former Cavs coach Randy Wittman is his top assistant. Mike Miller has taken over as the starting shooting guard in place of Stevenson. So when the teams renew acquaintances, it likely won’t be quite as heated as it has been. ‘It doesn’t feel the same as it was in the playoffs a few years ago,’ admitted Cavs coach Mike Brown. ‘I think they would say it’s a rivalry,’ Williams said of the Wizards. ‘I think it’s a big game, obviously, for us, without question. We know they’re a very good team. They’ve got Gil back at 100 percent. He’s playing well. They have a talented ball club. We look at it as a big game. Probably there’s a little more edge to it than a regular game. They’re going to be more intense. We’re going to be more intense because we want to win. But rivalry? I would say Boston is more of a rival, in my opinion.’”
Mike Jones of the Washington Times: “The Wizards and Cavaliers established a rivalry – at least, according to one team – with three straight meetings in the playoffs from 2006 to 2008. The Cavaliers won all three series, but the clashes still produced plenty of sparks. Last season, for example, Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson engaged in a feud with James that even prompted rapper Jay-Z to pen a song dissing Stevenson. (The feud still reverberates: In Cleveland last month for a preseason game, Stevenson received a special message from an airport attendant: ‘I hate you.’) Even last season, when the injury-plagued Wizards won just 19 games, the matchups with the Cavaliers still made for competitive basketball. But James says he doesn’t view the Wizards as rivals, but his counterparts beg to differ. ‘He’s the golden child. He’s going to say that. He has a lot of stuff to lose. I don’t. I don’t care,’ Stevenson said. ‘As long as I’m on the court, yeah. As long as I’m on the court, Gilbert’s on the court, Caron, Brendan, Antawn. Until we all go away, it’s going to be a rivalry. You can tell, just the fans. And watch the tipoff – don’t nobody say ‘what’s up’ to each other. No handshakes. Any other team we always give handshakes to everybody.’”
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “Jerry Sloan called out his team in so many ways after the game, I couldn’t even get them all in my game story. ‘In our scouting report this morning, we said, ‘You don’t take these guys lightly because they’re good, they’re playing hard and they have no issues,’ Sloan said. ‘You see them play and watch them play, they’re having fun, and we’re struggling. If we don’t get a call in our direction, we feel like the world’s against us and then we make two or three more mistakes. So we’ve got to fight through that. See who we are.’ Sloan was asked to clarify his remarks about taking the Rockets lightly. ‘Did you just see them run by us?’ Sloan said. ‘How many times did they dribble past whoever theywanted to dribble past? I mean, if you aren’t going to defend, it’s pretty tough to have a chance to win.’ From the beginning, Sloan said, the Jazz cared only about stopping their own man, rather than helping out each other, on defense. ‘That’s not winning basketball, that’s just taking your paycheck and going home,’ Sloan said.”
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “Spurs coach Gregg Popovich announced to his team after its final preseason game that he was implementing a new practice schedule. Until further notice, he told his players, practices would begin at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, rather than 10 or 11 in the morning. That very night, All-Star guard Manu Ginobili did something he hadn’t done in years: sleep for 12 hours straight, uninterrupted. ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ he said. ‘Even the days we have off, I usually wake up at 8 or 9. That day, it just happened. That first day was great. I felt really good, and my legs were fresh.’ If sleeping in is what it takes for Ginobili to return to being the player who energizes the Spurs after a 2008-09 season in which he battled injuries and fatigue, you can be sure Popovich is going to give his new practice regimen a long chance to prove the scientific research that prompted his decision. The study, authored by Cheri Mah, of the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic, revealed that better-rested athletes, including some members of the Stanford men’s basketball team, made significant improvements in observed athletic performance.”
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “Iverson made his first appearance in an NBA game since April 1, and not much had changed in the seven months in between. The Grizzlies brought him off the bench just like the Detroit Pistons tried to do, and Iverson didn’t like it. Not after watching the Grizzlies lose 127-116 in overtime to the lowly Sacramento Kings. Not after he played just 17 minutes – an effective 17 minutes in which he scored 11 points – and not after seeing his new team fall to 1-3 while he sat idly on the sideline. Upon signing with the Grizzlies this summer, Iverson said he would have no problem coming off the bench – provided he was given a chance to compete for the starting job. That, however, was then. This is now. Iverson is a tremendous competitor and fiercely proud. Not even missing Memphis’ first three games – along with the entire preseason – with a hamstring injury seems to have tempered his distaste for bench work. After the game, Iverson had no problem stating matter-of-factly and loudly – just so everyone in the locker room could hear, including starting guards Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo, who was seated next to him – that the Grizzlies would need to make a change if they continue to lose. Specifically, they’d need to start him.”
(Photo by Layne Murdoch NBAE/Getty Images)
