ESPN NBA

• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said Derrick Rose sat out the scrimmaging portion of Monday's practice as part of "planned rest." "He did some, the warmup phase," Thibodeau said. "And we went shorter (Monday). We had a teaching segment that of course he participated in and the warmup phase. But the live stuff, we were planning on giving him (Monday) off." Rose, who sat out all last season after left knee surgery, had said he didn't want to miss any practice time or preseason games if the decision was left to him. By all accounts, Rose has looked dominant thus far in practice. "With all our players, usually the third day and fifth practice we’re dealing with heavy legs," Thibodeau said. "We just thought we’d give him (Monday) off. Mentally, he’s sharp so he did his conditioning off the floor. He’ll be ready to go (Tuesday)."
• Nakia Hogan of The Times-Picayune: For most of Eric Gordon's two seasons in New Orleans, the perception was that he didn't want to be with the organization. It also didn't help that last offseason he signed an offer sheet with the Phoenix Suns. But Gordon tried to clear some things up on Monday and said he has never been unhappy with the New Orleans franchise. "The only frustrating part since I have been down here is dealing with the injuries," he said. "That's the main thing. I know what I can do, and this team knows what I can do. Now I am going to finally get a chance to make it consistent." And now that the Pelicans have a new nickname, practice facility and a bevy of new and young talented players, Gordon finally seems happy. "I've always been happy," he said. "It's just with me individually I've always been dealing with injuries and so fort. But when you have a lot of talented guys where you can have a chance to grow together -- because we are all young guys and we have a chance to grow together – anything can happen. And we have the talent to be a playoff team."
• Greg Stoda of the Palm Beach Post: This was a cool LeBron James. This was a LeBron James at ease. This was a LeBron James as comfortable in his own skin as anyone could imagine. If the never-ending conversation regarding his potential free agency bothers him — he becomes eligible July 1 — James did a remarkable job of hiding it as the Heat met the media Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena. His situation will be a season-long topic of speculation as Miami seeks a third consecutive championship. “I’ll tell you right now how I’m going to handle it,” James said, “I’m not going to address it.” And then he talked about owing his team his focus and how his concern is winning another title and how mature the Heat is and how his potential opt-out (and Dwyane Wade’s and Chris Bosh’s, too) won’t be a distraction. Nobody has to explain himself, James implied. They have a professional goal, and the effort to achieve it won’t be sabotaged by after-the-fact business. The locker room won’t fracture. “We’ve got a veteran ballclub that’s heard everything and seen everything,” James said. “I know how delicate a team can be. I know how important chemistry and camaraderie are.” Here’s the thing: They’ll all probably opt-out, because doing so provides the player with flexibility. It’s the prudent move.
• Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times: The pleasantries quickly gave way to a more sobering discussion when Doc Rivers first met with Chris Paul. Topics of conversation did not include Paul's six All-Star game appearances, his unmatched ability to close out games or his status as possibly the best point guard in the NBA. "He pretty much told me I wasn't anything," Paul said Monday during the Clippers' annual media day. "He told me I hadn't done anything, and he was right." Welcome to life with the league's most painfully sincere coach. Hard questions can be asked. Perceptions of one's self can change. Feelings can be hurt. But here's the thing: Championships can be won. "I'm honest," Rivers said in the biggest understatement of the day. For a Clippers franchise that has never gotten to the conference finals, Rivers' candor is as alluring as the new light-blue alternate uniforms the team unveiled. His frankness grabs your attention like an open parking space in a dusty media lot suddenly overrun by reporters drawn to the buzz of the most captivating team in Los Angeles. "He's been straight-up, he's been very real and when he talks you can tell he has the attention of everybody," super-subJamal Crawford said. "Winning that championship, being there contending, he did it as a player and now as a coach. He has everyone's respect." Not that it's always fun to hear what Rivers has to say.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Timberwolves forward Kevin Love reported for duty with his surgically repaired knee and hand reportedly all healed and his body lean. He also made one thing abundantly clear: The past is in the…well, you know. “Last year is last year,” the two-time All-Star forward, uttering a line he used repeatedly during a 12-minute session with reporters at the team’s annual media day. He made it clear he has little interest in discussing a lost season in which he played just 18 games after breaking his shooting hand not once but twice. Love also wasn’t much interested in discussing his relationship with former President of Basketball of Operations David Kahn, who was replaced by Flip Saunders last May. “The past is the past and it’s great to have Flip on board,” Love said. “We’ve had great talks. … We all know what happened last year, and we just want to move forward and take care of unfinished business.” Love looked like he’s in the best shape of his career, even though he said he doesn’t know exactly how much weight he lost from last season.
• Tom Layman of the Boston Herald: The search parties were called off as Gerald Wallace emerged yesterday for the first time wearing Celtics garb with the No. 45 stitched on his jersey. Wallace knew there might have been some misconceptions about his whereabouts after the draft-night trade that brought him, Bogans, Kris Humphries and MarShon Brooks to Boston for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry. But, he said, he had a prior commitment with his basketball camp right when the introductory press conference happened, and like he does every summer, secluded himself in Alabama with his family. “The main thing that a lot of people have taken out of this is that I didn’t want to come, I didn’t want to be here, I didn’t want to be a part of it. That’s so far from the truth,” Wallace said. “I think the main thing is that I’m a veteran of 13 years and I’ve been traded three times in the past three or four years. This trade kind of caught me off-guard. I didn’t see it coming.” Wallace did say, however, that going from a team building toward being a major contender to one that is in rebuilding mode isn’t the easiest thing to accept. … Whether Wallace will be part of the rebuilding process will be figured out down the road. He has a contract that will be tough to move with three years remaining at roughly $10.1 million per, and Danny Ainge, Celtics president of basketball operations, said this is always a quiet time in terms of player movement. Ainge also said he doesn’t know what Wallace’s role will be on this team with an overcrowded roster at basically every position.
• Harvey Araton of The New York Times: It didn’t take long for Steve Mills to address his primary mission in assuming the Knicks’ top executive position last week, courtesy of his former and once again benefactor, James L. Dolan. On N.B.A. media day, Mills explained how the job opportunity appeared suddenly, announced the exercising of an option year for Coach Mike Woodson and then got down to the business of what promises to be a season of breathtaking pandering to Carmelo Anthony. He clearly is one of those superstar players that don’t come around very often, and the things he has done to make this team successful and to represent this city is something that’s very important,” Mills said. “So while it’s premature in the process, we’ve made it clear that we have every intention of making Carmelo a Knick for a long time to come.” Given a chance to declare it a mutual love affair and to say he couldn’t wait to put his Carmelo Hancock on a Knicks contract extension, Anthony politely abstained. “When the time comes, I’ll deal with that,” he said. “I’m not going to go through the season thinking about my contract.”
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: O.J. Mayo wanted to find a place to stay awhile. After spending his first four pro seasons in Memphis, the 6-foot-5 shooting guard was in Dallas just one year. When the Mavericks focused their off-season attentions on Chris Paul and Dwight Howard (failing to land either one), the unrestricted free agent Mayo could take a hint. So on Monday it was Mayo stepping up to a microphone wearing his No. 00 at the Milwaukee Bucks media day at the Cousins Center. Mayo, who was the third overall pick in the 2008 draft by Minnesota and traded to Memphis, knows big things are expected of him on this stop. And he's just fine with that. "I'm going to do whatever I need to do in order for us to be successful," Mayo said. "If I have to be the tough guy, if I have to bite, scratch, whatever we need to do." The Bucks signed Mayo as the replacement for Monta Ellis at shooting guard, agreeing to a three-year, $24 million contract with the former Southern Cal player. … But foremost on his mind is helping the Bucks. He understands his role will be a critical one on a team with a 21-year-old point guard in Brandon Knight and a young front line featuring fourth-year center Larry Sanders and second-year pro John Henson. "Last year (the Bucks) were the eighth seed but at the same time it was a losing season," Mayo said. "Hopefully we can get to a fifth or sixth seed this year and continue growing, show we're making improvements and strides."
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: New Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks mentioned he talked with Jennings on Monday about the expectations for the young point guard. Cheeks was asked what he said, but he deferred and said he was more curious to hear Jennings’ recollection of the conversation. “Everything was just straightforward,” Jennings said. “He said the team goes as far as I go. He’s looking for a guy who can come in here with a positive attitude every day and a guy that’s not too high and not too low, but in the middle. “He said he is going to be on me every day, and he’s going to put a lot of pressure on me.” One of the things that angered fans last season was former coach Lawrence Frank’s limiting of rookie center Andre Drummond’s minutes. Cheeks said he isn’t looking to limit Drummond and expects big things in his second season. “I’m going to put him out on the floor for sure,” Cheeks said.
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: In a bold and franchise-altering day seldom before seen, one thing has become clear. They will forever be the Raptors but they will never be the same. With a new “global ambassador” who appears to have as much passion for the organization as almost anyone employed by it and a new look and colour scheme coming in two years, the Raptors kicked off the official run-up to the 2016 NBA all-star game in decidedly glitzy fashion. Drake, the iconic Toronto music superstar and now the unofficial host of the all-star weekend, will be part of the process of “re-branding” the franchise that has missed the NBA playoffs for the past five years. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke said the process has already begun to change the colour scheme and logo of the team that’s entering its 19th year in the NBA. The name however won’t change, Leiweke said, and it will not be a quick process. Leiweke said the team has already engaged a Toronto firm to help with the process, they will make an effort to somehow involve fans but thanks to marketing and licensing demands, the new look won’t be unveiled until the 2015-16 season. And the NBA will be heavily involved.
• Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said Monday was the only time he’s going to address Corbin’s contract situation with the media this season. “The Miller family is known for their support for players, of coaches, of management. We’re going to stand by our record,” Lindsey said. “I think as you guys have seen with Coach Sloan, the internal promotion what we did last year and support of Ty and the staff with the Raja Bell situation, coaches here are very well-supported. Beyond that, the Miller family and the management team, we’re not going to comment past that point.” The Jazz’s expectations for Corbin this season? “Our expectations,” Miller Sports Properties president Steve Miller said, “are that he shows up, which he will, and that he does the job that we’ve hired him to do, and he will because he’s the consummate professional.” Lindsey said he has a “gentleman’s agreement” with the agents of Hayward and Favors to not discuss their deals in public, either. Utah has until the end of October to extend the players’ contracts. If that doesn’t happen, the Jazz have the option of turning them into restricted free agents next offseason. “As you guys can assume, we’re having active conversations. We’re hopeful,” Lindsey said.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Nuggets center JaVale McGee is working to get better control of his asthma. He is awaiting lung capacity test results taken recently to be able to pinpoint which medication will work best for him this season. "It definitely figures out what medicines I need to take, if I'm taking too much medicine, if I'm not taking enough," McGee said. "So it's definitely a good thing." McGee averaged 18.1 minutes per game last season in a mostly reserve role. Those minutes are expected to jump considerably now that new Nuggets coach Brian Shaw has all but declared him the starting center. "Definitely inhalers," McGee said of required equipment. "And then practicing past my first wind. It's not a huge problem. It's just that once.”
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Fatherhood can impact guys differently. A newborn in the house means many things change. For Dirk Nowitzki, it meant being a “full-on home dad” for the last two months. In case you are wondering, it will not impact his job. Coach Rick Carlisle had the most emphatic answer when asked if daddy Dirk seemed any different to him. “If you’re asking if he’s settling into fatherhood and not as into basketball, I’ll tell you categorically, the answer is [expletive] no,” Carlisle said. “It’s been a tough couple years for him. The ’12 [lockout] season was dicey with the knee thing, and then coming in last year, it seemed like it was OK and then the thing puffed up. So he takes it extremely seriously. … This is serious business, and his effort has been completely matched up with the level of importance.”
• Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle: While most fans have a guess as to who the Rockets’ leaders will be this year, head coach Kevin McHale says it’s just too early to tell who will do the leading and who, in turn, will do the following. “We have only had four practices so far,” McHale said. “Right now they are just trying to get through those.” While most fingers point to James Harden and Dwight Howard, McHale said the leaders won’t emerge for a while. “They all have personalities, and really, I don’t know if you can say, ‘This guy’s a designated leader,’ ” McHale said. “Players are going to follow who players follow, and they follow guys for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes there is the older guy they follow because the guy is full of wisdom and he helps them out all the time. Sometimes it is the high-energy guy they follow because they are just like, ‘That guy plays so hard.’ All that leadership stuff, as it always does, will take care of itself.”
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: If you thought Michael Kidd-Gilchrist didn’t play like a No.2 overall pick last season, then know this: Kidd-Gilchrist didn’t think so, either. The Charlotte Bobcats small forward recalls his rookie season with disappointment – not about the team’s 21-61 record, but rather that he didn’t do more to help. His numbers weren’t bad. He averaged 9.0 points, 5.8 rebounds and just under a shot-block per game. But he’s used to excelling, and this was well short of that in a class that featured rookie of the year Damian Lillard with Portland and stellar big man Anthony Davis with New Orleans. “I was disappointed in myself,” Kidd-Gilchrist said at media day, on the eve of training camp Tuesday morning at UNC Asheville. “It wasn’t the losses. I like all my teammates and we bonded a lot. I was mad at myself. I set goals and I didn’t reach any of the goals that I set. All my life I did that and last year I didn’t reach one goal.’’ Asked for specifics, Kidd-Gilchrist said he set out to be rookie of the year and failed. He set out to make first-team all-rookie, and failed.
• Monte Poole of The Oakland Tribune: Bob Myers has a fabulous job, with a salary that allows him to live anywhere he likes, visit any place he chooses. On this particular day, as soft clouds hover above the Bay Area, the Warriors general manager chooses state prison. He's not alone. Another member of the 1 percent club, Warriors coach Mark Jackson, a former NBA star, also arrives at the joint. These two are voluntarily rubbing shoulders -- literally -- with men serving time at this world-famous lockup on the north shore of San Francisco Bay. Myers and Jackson and Warriors assistant coach Brian Scalabrine, one year removed from playing in the NBA, are joined by other members of the Warriors organization, including assistant general manager Kirk Lacob, the son majority owner Joe Lacob. They all brave the morning commute to come here and play basketball with the inmates. So, naturally, this visit is about much more than hoops. "It's basketball, but, for the most part, this is about impacting lives," Jackson says.

• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Kevin Love is due in town on Friday, Nikola Pekovic is expected to arrive over the weekend. Rick Adelman will arrive next week and Shved, Barea and almost everyone else other than Rubio will be here as well. Saunders praised Shved’s Eurobasket play for a Russian team that got knocked out early. “He played really good,” he said. “What I liked about him is he kept his composure. He was their best player.” He said the same about Barea, whose Puerto Rico team lost to Mexico in the FIBA Americas final. “He had a great tournament. If they had won it, he’d probably be the Player of the Tournament. He looks like he as lost a little weight, playing as much as he has. He just looked in great shape.” Likewise, Saunders said rookie Shabazz Muhammad has lost weight since the Vegas Summer League in July and said it’s the best shape he’s seen him in all year. For what it’s worth, he also said Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng have “made a lot of progress” since summer. They’ve been working out daily with new player development coach Bobby Jackson. Saunders didn’t go to Slovenia for Eurobasket, but scout Zarko Durisic has been there and just got back a few days ago. Look for player liaison Calvin Booth to join assistant coach Jack Sikma in working with the big men during the preseason. There’s still a chance the Wolves could add a player to their training camp roster. Discussions with agents continue.
• Staff of the Chicago Sun-Times: It has been 508 days — give or take a few hours — since Derrick Rose last played in a regulation NBA game. But when asked by a reporter in Manila, Philippines, the other day if he would play for the U.S. team in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, the rehabbing and well-rested Bulls guard responded that he would like to. “If they select me on the team, it will be an honor,” Rose was quoted by ABS-CBNNews.com. “I definitely will be on the team if [coach Mike Krzyzewski] wants me.” The FIBA tournament begins in 345 days.
• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: Gregg Popovich is hoping for something else, and it's that the rebooting of NBA basketball will reboot his brain. No matter what he does, he can't get Game 6 out of his head. Even blows to the head haven't helped. When “Jesse” James Leija puts the Spurs through boxing workouts — and he did again Wednesday — he sometimes puts gloves on Popovich. Leija wears mitts and tells Popovich to hit them. When Popovich drops his hands, Leija slaps Popovich in the face. Popovich tries to hit Leija back and never comes close. “It drives me crazy,” Popovich said, laughing. And when asked if something as aggressive as boxing is a way to release anxiety held over from the 2013 NBA Finals, Popovich doesn't pull punches. “Nothing is a release,” he said. Game 7 is a fog to him. “Was there one?” he asked. Game 6 is another matter. Popovich doesn't second-guess himself. The same coach who often preaches that the game is simple doesn't regret benching his best defender and rebounder when the Spurs needed defense and rebounding. He needed to defend the 3-point line, and other Spurs are better at that than Tim Duncan. This also is how the Spurs played these end-of-game situations about 20 times last season. Still, because it was Duncan, and because Duncan had done so much to get in position to win another title, does Popovich ever wish he'd given Duncan a chance to defend the lead he had helped build?
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: The Washington Wizards spent an entire offseason upgrading and increasing their depth with perimeter talent but remained thin and relatively inexperienced in the front court, with the exception of starters Emeka Okafor and Nene. But with training camp set to start Sept. 28, the Wizards’ most vulnerable area is now much weaker after the team announced Wednesday that Okafor and reserve forward Chris Singleton would both miss significant time because of injuries. Okafor will be out indefinitely after an MRI revealed a herniated disk in his neck, and the team announced that Singleton is expected to miss six to eight weeks after having surgery to repair a broken bone in his left foot. Singleton sustained his injury during a voluntary workout on Tuesday at Verizon Center. Okafor said he began experiencing discomfort in his neck while playing pickup basketball in New York but didn’t believe it was anything more than “stiffness.” … With Okafor down, the Wizards will likely have to move Nene to center and pair him with either Kevin Seraphin, Jan Vesely or veteran Al Harrington. Seraphin was the primary backup to both Okafor and Nene last season and declined playing for the French national team to train primarily in Washington this summer. … Singleton’s injury also came at an inopportune time as he enters a critical season as it relates to his future with the organization. The 6-foot-8 Singleton was already in a difficult position; he was attempting to earn a spot in Coach Randy Wittman’s regular rotation while convincing the Wizards to pick up his option worth about $2.5 million for the 2014-15 season.
• Clay Fowler of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin: Violet Palmer was out of her comfort zone Tuesday afternoon. Being showered with praise and surrounded by well-wishers is, well, the exact opposite of what she’s used to. It won’t be long before the NBA’s only female referee returns to hulking players barking in her face, coaches questioning her every move and thousands of fans raining jeers upon her nightly, but for one day the Cal Poly Pomona graduate was one of 48 former NCAA Division II athletes across the country awarded a spot on its tribute team. “This is so strange,” Palmer quipped. “I’m not used to all this good love. I’m waiting for somebody to boo me.” While Palmer was a student at Cal Poly Pomona from 1982 to 1986, the cheering was abundant. She was a point guard on two national championship teams long before becoming the first female official to reach the highest competitive tier in a major U.S. professional sport. Despite the verbal abuse synonamous with the job on the court, Palmer has become a celebrated figure off of it. The 49-year-old is now a 15-year veteran with NBA Finals experience who also shoulders the responsibility of overseeing college officials for the Pac-12 and West Coast Conferences.
• Michael Pointer of The Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers All-Star forward Paul George said today the team’s fans don’t need to worry about him going anywhere. Indianapolis is his professional home and he plans to be here for a long time. “(A long-term contract) is going to get done,” George told The Indianapolis Star. “There will be a deal signed and sealed on the table before the season. We’re (George and Pacers management) on the same page.” George is entering the final year of his contract and the odds seemed long that he would leave Indiana even before Wednesday’s comments. The Pacers would have the right to match any offer he received next summer and have indicated they would do just that. … “No,” George said when asked if there was any chance he would leave the Pacers. “Honestly, I love it here. I want to be here. It’s a great place. There are no distractions. I can stay focused. It’s all about basketball here. I can stay focused and do my job.”
• Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: Harrison Barnes and all of the Warriors players have something to prove this season: That they can not only repeat last season's trip to the second round of the postseason, but that they can expand on it. And Iguodala is naturally the guy who is supposed to trigger that improvement. The way to push it all forward is if Barnes and others go as hard as possible in these workouts, and if Iguodala pushes it, too. Of course, Iguodala is a different player from Barnes -- they're versatile in different ways. And there's a strong chance that they could find themselves on the floor together for long periods this season, with Barnes shifting over to the power-forward spot or with Iguodala playing one of the two guard positions. In fact, Iguodala said he is already focusing on facilitating the offense, figuring out where the Warriors' top scorers want the ball and when they want it. By the way, Iguodala, Thompson and Barnes all playing together -- with Bogut defending the paint -- would be the Warriors' most dangerous defensive unit, no question. They're going at each other now to sharpen themselves for the nights when they'll be up against Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Tony Parker and all the other top players. It's how an up-and-coming team keeps going up, keeps itself on edge, and storms into training camp at the highest speed possible.
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: In July, the Spurs signed a free-agent forward named Jeff Pendergraph to a two-year contract. No player by that name will ever appear in a Spurs uniform. Last month, Pendergraph walked into a courthouse in downtown Phoenix, his wife Raneem and newborn daughter Naomi in tow. He walked out with a new name — Jeff Ayres. Ayres is the family name of his biological father, James. It replaces the surname of a stepfather who hasn't been in the picture since the player formerly known as Jeff Pendergraph was in high school. For the 26-year-old veteran of three NBA seasons, the journey from Pendergraph to Ayres was in some ways as simple as filling out a thick stack of paperwork and filing it with an Arizona judge. It also was a complicated decision with a complex back story, one that tests the traditional definitions of blood and family. “I didn't know who my dad was until I was a senior in high school,” Jeff Ayres said Wednesday, during a break from pickup games at the Spurs' practice gym. … Jeff and James Ayres have a relationship now. They are bonded by a last name, related both legally and biologically. The two won't be attending any father-son picnics anytime soon, but it's a start. They exchange text messages weekly. And last month, when the player still known as Pendergraph arrived at that Phoenix courthouse to rename himself, James Ayres drove from California to accompany him. So, what's in a name? A new Spurs forward named Jeff Ayres thinks he knows. “It's nothing personal,” he said. “It's just family.”
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Chandler Parsons might be entrenched as the Rockets’ small forward, fashion model and up-and-coming celebrity, but the position gets complicated behind him. Actually, even Parsons’ role will be interesting with the addition of Dwight Howard placing even more emphasis on Parsons’ catch-and-shoot 3-point touch. The greater questions will be determining who can best take on Carlos Delfino’s vital and underrated role as a shooter behind Parsons and as a three that can slide over to be a floor-spacing four. Francisco Garcia is coming off a strong playoff series, but is not an option as a four and could be picking up playing time as a guard, anyway. Omri Casspi might be the best bet for the Delfino role, but will have to find at least the shooting touch he showed as a rookie. Ronnie Brewer is a strong defender, but also has to show he can knock down shots to grab one of the final roster spots. There is a sense that the Rockets are too high on rookie Robert Covington to let him go, even if he might not be ready yet in a win-now season. With five small forwards heading to camp, there will be a battle for playing time and the final roster spot. Yet, while all that plays out at the position, the most important key could be whether Parsons continues his development enough to go from star on the pages of “Seventeen” to “Sports Illustrated.”
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: Tristan Thompson didn't set out to make NBA history this summer. "History in the making? No, no, no,'' the Cavaliers' personable third-year power forward said, laughing. It just worked out that way. When Thompson decided to switch his shooting hand from his left to his right, becoming what is believed to be the first player in NBA history to change his dominant hand in the middle of his career, he thought it was just another step in improving his game. … After working with former Cavs coach John Lucas, and then shooting coach Dave Love, Thompson has come to believe that perhaps he was right-handed all along. "I wouldn't say it's easy, but I think the transition is going more smoothly than one might assume, which probably means I was always right-handed and just never knew, probably because I lived in Canada,'' he said, which isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. "I started playing basketball at such a late age,'' said Thompson, who didn't take basketball seriously until he was 12 or 13. "In America, you start playing when you're 5 years old.'' He reasons that had he started playing five or six years earlier, he likely would have been encouraged to try shooting with his right hand sooner.
• John Reid of The Times-Picayune: Though his contract is resolved, Brian Roberts is bracing for a more intense battle in training camp, which begins Oct. 1. He could be in a fight for playing time with Austin Rivers at backup point guard. Though Rivers played significant minutes at shooting guard last season, starter Eric Gordon and newly acquired Tyreke Evans could get the majority of playing time at the position. The Pelicans made Evans their top target in free agency because of his versatility. He can play point guard, shooting guard and small forward. "They have a lot of versatility at the guard position and they can go some different ways,'' Roberts said. "It depends on what (coach) Monty (Williams) wants. I’m just going to be ready for whatever he asks me to do.'' Roberts is hoping to evolve as a better overall player, especially defensively. Roberts has participated extensively in the Pelicans' volunteer workouts to prepare for training camp.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: The Lakers haven’t exactly upgraded their talent. But they’ve made a push to upgrade their uniforms. The Lakers released a video Wednesday on their Instagram account of Kobe Bryant wearing the team’s black alternative uniform, something the team will showcase this season for an unspecified amount of select game. The black uniform, dubbed “Hollywood Nights” features a black jersey and the Lakers’ traditional purple and gold as trimming. “This has been a few years in the process of introducing a black Lakers uniform,” Lakers president Jeanie Buss said on the team’s Web site. “In no way are we ever going to replace the purple and gold traditional uniform that has seen so many championships won. But I think the gold is going to pop out in a black uniform. Having the purple letters says it all. It’s all Lakers.” The Lakers will also wear white short-sleeve jerseys at select games during the 2013-14 season, including the team’s Christmas Day game at Staples Center against the Miami Heat.

• Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune: There never has been much doubt about Rick Adelman returning as Timberwolves coach, but it wasn’t for sure until he brought his coaching staff out to his home in Portland, Ore., last week and laid out the plans for this season. Wolves owner Glen Taylor confirmed Adelman’s return Sunday. “Yes, he did [say he’s coming back],” Taylor said. On the subject of the remodeling of Target Center and how the $100 million in expenses will be paid for, Taylor reported some progress after a long delay and how much each of the three partners will contribute. “We have an agreement with the city, and now they are working with the management team AEG to get an agreement there,” Taylor said. “We’re just sort of waiting on the city to work it out with them. Then it’s my understanding that once they get that done, they’re going to bring it to the City Council. “We have obligated ourselves to pay for $44 million to fix Target Center. The city will put in $50 million. We have to get $6 million from AEG.”
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: How will Russell Westbrook return? An unfortunate knee injury to Westbrook devastated a state and derailed the Thunder's season. How Westbrook bounces back from that setback will now determine how far the Thunder can go. For five seasons we've watched Westbrook display one of the most fearless styles of play on the planet. His relentless attack has always put pressure on defenses and given the Thunder a go-to option whenever all else fails. But will Westbrook still have that same gear with a reconstructed knee? Will he still have that same mentality? Westbrook is expected to make a full recovery from the torn meniscus he suffered on April 24. But he may not be 100 percent to start the season. As a result, we may see a different player initially than the Tasmanian devil we've grown accustomed to. After an offseason of rehab, Westbrook's confidence and rhythm will be worth monitoring just as much as his motor and athleticism.
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: The upcoming syllabus looks daunting. When camp convenes on the Salve Regina University campus, Brad Stevens will welcome a squad that bears almost no resemblance to the one that won an NBA title in 2008 and was playing in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals just 15 months ago. His lone All-Star player, Rajon Rondo, is still recovering from torn anterior cruciate ligament surgery and appears unlikely to be ready for the season opener. One of his most promising young players, Jared Sullinger, was recently arrested on domestic assault charges. His most experienced players — Keith Bogans, Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace — are new to the team after being cast off by the Brooklyn Nets in the Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce blockbuster, and are all unlikely to be a part of a rebuilding squad’s long-term plans. His most natural healthy center and point guard, Vitor Faverani and Phil Pressey, respectively, are rookies. But he has four shooting guards and four power forwards who will all be looking for minutes. His first-round draft choice, Kelly Olynyk, is already dealing with a case of plantar fasciitis, while one of last year’s first-round picks, Fab Melo, was let go last month in a salary dump to get under the luxury-tax threshold. Other than that, transitioning from being a mid-major college darling to the leader of a marquee major-market franchise should be a piece of cake. But Stevens said Friday he doesn’t expect this to be easy, that he does expect this season to be a proving ground for everyone on the parquet and new to the Boston bench, and that he’ll continue to put in the time and effort to get it right.
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: Hey, Mary: If this coming season turns into another parade of injuries for the Cavaliers, and they fail to make the playoffs, will Chris Grant finally be dismissed after four long seasons of misery at the Q? Hey, Chris: I don't think Chris Grant is in any danger of losing his job. By and large, his draft choices have performed well and he has pulled off some trades that significantly improved the team, like sending Mo Williams and Jamario Moon to the Clippers for a No. 1 pick that became Kyrie Irving, an All-Star in his second season. The Cavs were the only team in the league to have three players taking part in the USA Basketball minicamp -- Irving, Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller. A fourth -- Tristan Thompson -- is playing for Canada's national team, and a fifth -- Sergey Karasev -- is playing for Russia's national team. I like the gamble he took on Andrew Bynum because if he's healthy he's a steal, and if he's not the Cavs are only on the hook for this season. I'm not sure how you can blame the general manager for three straight season-ending injuries suffered by Anderson Varejao. If you say the Cavs should have traded him when he was healthy, I'd counter by saying they wouldn't have gotten back a player who brought the same energy and defense. The J.J. Hickson trade for Omri Casspi didn't work out, but overall I think most general managers would like to have Grant's batting average in trades. When you consider the state of the franchise when he took over for Danny Ferry after the departure of Mike Brown and LeBron James and where he has it today, there's no reason his job should be on the line.
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: Masai Ujiri has turned to his native Africa to try to fill his squad’s final roster spot. The Raptors president/general manager confirmed Sunday that Angolan guard Carlos Morais has been invited to training camp, along with Julyan Stone and Chris Wright. Morais, a 27-year-old, 6-foot-3 guard has been playing professionally since he was a teenager and has been a major reason why Angola has emerged as the class of the continent since 2005. Morais was named MVP of the recent Afrobasket tournament after leading Angola to gold with averages of 15.9 points and 4.6 assists per game. Angola also won the tournament in 2009, 2007 and 2005 and finished second in 2011, when Morais averaged 17.7 points per game. Morais also averaged 14.8 points at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, including a game-high 24 points against the United States. Morais is considered a scoring guard, a quality outside shooter and a strong athlete, but has mostly played in Angola. He will be in camp on a non-guaranteed contract, like Stone and Wright, who will fight for the final roster spot that was created with the waiving of veteran swingman Quentin Richardson last month.
• Ben Standig of CSN Washington: For all the colorful players that have come through Washington in recent years, none wears the title of knucklehead better than JaVale McGee does. There are scores of YouTube videos depicting the big man's ill-advised forays with the basketball and his own random comments about who knows what. NBA analysts have also piled on. Everything together has led to, well, JaVale, you tell us. “People around the NBA really think that I’m dumb or stupid,” McGee told NBA.com. “But people that know me know that I’m actually very intelligent. It doesn’t affect me at all.” Intelligence can come out in many different ways. Apparently former Denver coach George Karl didn't recognize it from a basketball standpoint seeing as he played the ex-Wizard only 18.1 minutes per game last season even after the Nuggets signed the agile 7-foot center to $44 million extension. According to reports, Karl's limited use of McGee had at least some part in management firing the longtime coach, who was named 2013 NBA Coach of the Year. In 79 games, McGee averaged 9.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and was among the league leaders with 2.0 blocks.
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: Stephen Jackson’s previous appearance on ESPN’s Highly Questionable went so well. they couldn’t resist bringing him back last week for an encore performance. This time, completely unprompted, he got to tell Dan Le Batard and Bomani Jones the tale of how he ended up with his hand around the throat of former NBA All-Star Steve Francis during a recent club run-in. Jackson explained: “We wasn’t never cool. I don’t hang with him. I don’t call him. We’ve never been in the same circles. It was too packed for me to get to the stage. So I go in the DJ booth…and as soon as I start rapping, he jumps on the back of the DJ booth. “I don’t know why he jumped up there. He bumped me two times with his midsection. I felt his belt on my neck. So the third time he does it…I turn around and I ask him to get down. He said something crazy, one thing led to another, my hand end up on his throat and next thing he in cuffs.” … It’s a mildly amusing story, and as ever, it’s difficult to ever get totally down on Jackson. At the same time, it’s also more than a little pathetic that two gifted ballers — at least in their prime — who might otherwise be playing out the stretch of their careers are getting into an altercation at a nightclub instead of preparing for training camp. This much is probably safe to say: If Jackson has any hope of getting another shot to make an NBA roster, moments like this probably aren’t going to help. It’s also a sad reminder of just how far Francis has fallen.
• Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: Once a skinny kid in a purple uniform, Tracy McGrady now can sound like a jaded curmudgeon lamenting the state of the next generation. “You’ve got some guys in the league now who are just knuckleheads,” McGrady said. “What turns me off is guys doing the wrong thing. Just the legal part of it, hanging out, getting these DUIs, marijuana — all that crazy stuff, just doing the wrong thing, setting a bad example for the young guys ... I don’t quite understand it. I take a guy like (Michael) Beasley. Had all the potential in the world but he’s not level-headed. He just doesn’t get it. And a very talented player. But where else are you going to make this type of money doing something you love to do every day, take care of your family and play basketball. I mean, are you serious? You get millions of dollars for it and you mess these opportunities up? I don’t get it.” McGrady has been cast as a villain in these parts. But his career, in which he never found himself in the headlines for bad behaviour, is worth respecting.

• Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press: Timberwolves President Flip Saunders has been watching point guard Ricky Rubio lead Spain in the European Championships on TV. "What I like about him is, his game continues to get better and better right now in the heat of the tournament," Saunders said. Saunders is heading to California to check in with forward Derrick Williams, whom he wants to lose some weight. Williams finished last season at 260 pounds.
• Ben Standigof CSN Washington: The Wizards front office is less empty now. Washington hired former Raptors executive as Marc Eversley as Vice President of Scouting. Eversley enters the front office along with former Oklahoma City Thunder scout Frank Ross. Going the other way, former director of player personnel Pat Connelly, ex-VP of player personnel Milt Newton and Mike Wilson, who headed the organization's college scouting. Toronto had a front office overall starting at the top. The hiring of former Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri spelled the end for Eversley, the Raptors VP for college scouting. Eversley originally joined the Raptors as director of basketball operations after more than 10 years with Nike.
• Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald: The Heat’s signing of Michael Beasley to a non-guaranteed deal was low risk. But the broadcaster who analyzed his work for the Phoenix Suns last season isn’t optimistic about Beasley’s future and wonders why the Heat would inject a “knucklehead” into a locker-room filled with serious, respected professionals. “If he stops smoking marijuana and stops ‘hanging out,’ the talent is there. But I don’t see it [happening] after all these chances,” Suns radio analyst and former NBA center Tim Kempton told us. “It’s difficult to believe he will change his stripes at this point. “People have gone out of their way to make Michael Beasley successful, but he hasn’t accepted it. He spent time in Los Angeles with [former Lakers guard] Norm Nixon. You would think that would have helped him. The Suns had a life coach that traveled with us the entire season. But he slipped three times when he was here” -- an arrest on suspicion of drug possession, an ongoing investigation into a sexual assault allegation, and charges of vehicular violations, including driving with a suspended license. On the court, Kempton said Beasley could exasperate teammates and coaches – both Alvin Gentry, before his dismissal, and interim coachLindsey Hunter.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: Will Jordan Hill’s outside jumper improve? He mostly focused on that area this offseason in hopes of becoming more of a complete player and possibly becoming a stretch forward in Mike D’Antoni’s system. There’s plenty of debate on whether it’s actually good for D’Antoni to feature Hill more as a jump shooter than a low-post player (it isn’t a good idea). But it definitely won’t hurt if Hill adds more to his game simply so he can become more dangerous offensively. Hill said he’s addressed that this offseason at his Atlanta residence by taking at least 1,000 shots per day, focusing on his ball handling and receiving pointers from reserve shooting guard Jodie Meeks. Hill took steps prior to last season to improve his shot, but it hasn’t translated. … It’s unrealistic to expect Hill suddenly to become an elite outside shooter. But if his shooting accuracy improves, that will yield plenty of trickle-down affects. Hill will have an expanded role and become more of a dependable insurance policy for Pau Gasol and Chris Kaman. It’ll also help stretch the floor, giving easier looks to Gasol and Kaman in the post, Bryant on the wing and the post and the team’s outside shooters on the perimeter.
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: Basketball was not Carrick Felix's first love. Believe it or not, the Cavaliers rookie swingman initially wanted to make his living on a skateboard. "I wanted to be the next Tony Hawk,'' he said, referring to the most famous skateboarder in the world. From the age of 7, when a neighbor kid on a skateboard landed in Felix's front yard outside Phoenix, until his junior year in high school, Felix was on his board all day every day. "i was always outside practicing from 7 o'clock in the morning to 12 o'clock at night,'' he admitted. But by 11th grade he started to focus on basketball, eventually earning a scholarship to Arizona State. He found that some skateboard skills involving balance and footwork actually transferred quite naturally to basketball. Then in his sophomore year with the Aztecs, his coaches suggest he put the board away. "The skateboard is off limits,'' Felix said, laughing. "I still have it in my room. I never get on it [but] it's always fun to look at.''
• Tom Moore of The Intelligencer: The 76ers are finalizing a contract with free agent point guard Darius Morris. An NBA source said the two sides were close Thursday night. The deal is believed to be for the third-year NBA minimum of $884,293, with part of it guaranteed. Also Thursday evening, Stephen Pina, agent for former Temple standout shooting guard Khalif Wyatt, confirmed Wyatt has "agreed to terms" with the Sixers. Wyatt is an undrafted free agent from Norristown. Morris, 22, expects to play a bigger role with the Sixers than he did as a Laker during his first two NBA seasons after being taken 41st in the 2011 NBA Draft. He could be the primary backup to rookie first-rounder Michael Carter-Williams.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: As Russell Westbrook continues to embrace his inner fashion bug, the Thunder point guard is forcing the fashion industry to pay attention to his unique style. The New York Times caught up with Westbrook during his recent trip to New York City for his first New York Fashion Week. … Westbrook attended multiple fashion shows over the weekend and rubbed elbows with some of the industry’s biggest names. He called the shows “amazing” and said escaping from his routine basketball circle was “refreshing.” As he opened up about his fashion tastes, Westbrook said he’s always been into fashion but didn’t always have the means to be as big into it as he is now. “It was basically what I could afford,” Westbrook said of his fashion choices growing up in the Los Angeles area. “Trying to find the best bargain, I kind of shopped all over the place.” That all began to change, Westbrook said, when he was drafted fourth overall in 2008. He kept things simple as a rookie, but saw an opening.
• Michael Kaskey-Blomain of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Some athletes are content to share their good fortunes with their immediate inner circle, while others look to give back to their community at large; consider Tyreke Evans among the latter type. Evans has a long history of charity work, which includes poker games, camps, and clinics. Most recently, he has spent the past week in his hometown of Chester, working with VSP vision to provide free eye care and glasses to children and families in need. The complimentary eye care comes just in time for the students to head back to school. As if Tyreke isn't busy enough preparing for his first season as a Pelican and helping his hometown, he took some time out to talk to me about the importance of giving back and his expectations for the upcoming season. Q: How did your partnership with VSP Vision begin? A: "This is the fourth year I've worked with VSP. I got connected with them through a diabetes event and have been working with them every year since. We have always had a great relationship and I look forward to continuing to work with them in the future."
• Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal: The Cavs have asked the league’s approval to place season-ticket holders’ names on the apron of the court, a league source confirmed, speaking on condition of anonymity because the idea has not yet been approved by the league. Sports Business Daily was the first to report the idea. The Milwaukee Bucks are also seeking approval to place names on the court, according to the report, but the Bucks’ idea is to put the names on the playing court. The Cavs’ names will be on the apron. Final details have not been determined, according to the report, including which ticket holders would be selected. Any changes to the court design must pass league approval. League executives are reviewing the proposal to ensure it won’t clutter the court or distort how the game is viewed on television, according to the report. The Cavs previously allowed stakeholders and their entire staff to sign the four corners of the court during the playoffs a few years ago.

• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: The agent for Luol Deng said Tuesday that the two-time All-Star forward would “certainly visit free agency” next summer after being informed by Bulls management that contract extension talks will be tabled until after the 2013-14 season. “Luol has taken the position that he will definitely go through the free-agent process,” said Herb Rudoy, Deng's Chicago-based agent. CSNChicago.com reported early Tuesday that Deng’s contract extension talks had stalled. They never really began, two sources said, with the sides only talking in generalities and never even exchanging financial parameters. Rudoy said Tuesday that general manager Gar Forman informed him last week that no further talks will take place this offseason or during training camp. Forman declined to comment. The general manager said consistently over the summer that the Bulls would like to keep Deng long term. Forman also indicated this summer that an extension for Deng this offseason would be unlikely. … Currently, there are no indications the Bulls plan to deal Deng. But with Mike Dunleavy signed through next season and the emergence of Jimmy Butler, that stance could change closer to February’s trade deadline.
• Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: NBA training camps will begin in three weeks, so it isn’t a surprise to see a lot of activity in the Pistons practice facility, especially with the many new faces who’ll suit up this coming season. New addition Josh Smith was in attendance, along with the three selections from this past June’s draft, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchell and Peyton Siva. Incumbent guard Rodney Stuckey went through one-on-one drills with Caldwell-Pope and Siva, as Kyle Singler worked on his spot shooting with assistant coach John Loyer on the other end of the floor. But the man who’s been organizing and trying to galvanize the team with summer activities is the Pistons’ youngest member, and perhaps the most important: 20-year-old, second-year center Andre Drummond. “I think this season will be different for us. I think guys see it,” Drummond said. “We added a lot of pieces and a lot of guys are amped and ready to go, as soon as possible.”
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: His expression was straight forward. His wording precise. His point emphatic. Warriors budding star Harrison Barnes said he isn't concerned about whether he starts. He isn't even consumed by being on the court at the end of games. "Winning the game matters more to me," Barnes said. Barnes, who started all 93 games he played last season including playoffs, is the center of a major question as the Warriors close in on training camp at the end of this month. With the acquisition of swingman Andre Iguodala, Golden State now has six players with starting credentials, meaning someone has to come off the bench. Barnes, after his workout at the team facility on Tuesday, didn't mince his words and gave no breath to controversy. He doesn't care. Whatever Mark Jackson decides, he's game. "I can imagine much worse problems," Barnes said. "I feel confident about this team and where we can go. Regardless if I'm starting or coming off the bench, I think we have a chance to make a serious playoff push."
• Al Iannazzone of Newsday: Carmelo Anthony believes the Knicks and much-improved Brooklyn Nets will become "the best rivalry in basketball" and they will be competing for fans as well. The Brooklyn-born Anthony is a fan of the moves the Nets made this offseason, which should help their Q-rating in New York and in the borough he was born in. "We all know from the Jackie Robinson days, that was the last time we actually had something to believe in," Anthony said at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit. "Now, with the young kids that are coming up these days, that's their team. They grow up under the Brooklyn Nets and that's their team. It's going to be a funny thing to see the kids growing up there, how they convert from Knicks fans to Nets fans. The household might be Knicks fans and the kids might be Nets fans, so it's a rivalry everywhere, in the households, on the basketball courts, in the streets, in the boroughs. It's everywhere, and it makes it fun for the game." Anthony led the Knicks to 54 wins and the Atlantic Division title last season. But they lost their top leaders in the locker room, Jason Kidd and Rasheed Wallace, and have other concerns, including Anthony's potentially troublesome shoulder, Amar'e Stoudemire's knees and J.R. Smith, who was suspended five games for violating the league's anti-drug policy.
• Brian Steinberg of Variety: Showtime is developing a one-hour scripted series that takes a peek behind the scenes of a professional basketball team, with NBA coaching great Phil Jackson and current Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis on board as exec producers. The series will focus on the family that owns the team, according to details provided by the CBS Corp. pay-cable service. ... Jeanie Buss, the senior vice president of the Los Angeles Lakers and Linda Rambis will executive produce via production company Street Reason Entertainment. Rambis is married to the Lakers coach. Brett Tomberlin of IDW and Ubiquity Studios will also executive produce, with Brian Gilbert and Andrew Trapani of Nine/8 Entertainment. In an interview, Buss said her experiences working with the Lakers as well as managing events, would inform the stories told in the potential series. “We’ve seen so much, the things that go on behind the scenes,” she said. “We go to events and people ask us a lot of questions about what they don’t see. They know the game. They see the game, but they don’t really know what leads up to getting the team on the court.” Most people “don’t know what makes a championship season or what it’s like to go through a losing season.”
• Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press: Wolves coach Rick Adelman has been meeting with his staff in Portland this week, and talked by telephone with president of basketball operations Flip Saunders for an hour Monday night. "He's excited about everything we're doing right now," Saunders said. "I'm very confident that Rick is going to be back." Adelman missed a few weeks last season to be with his wife, Mary Kay, who was experiencing seizures.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: The Mavericks’ pursuit of finding big-man help on the cheap has led them to Fab Melo, a first-round draft pick of Boston’s in 2012. Melo was taken 22nd and spent most of last season in the NBA Development League. He led the D-League at 3.1 blocks per game, and also averaged 9.8 points and 6 rebounds in 33 games. He played just six games for the Celtics, amassing only 36 total minutes played. President Donnie Nelson confirmed that Melo, a Syracuse product, had agreed to attend training camp, which opens Sept. 30. Melo clearly was a disappointment to the Celtics, who traded him to Memphis in the summer. The Grizzlies quickly waived the 7-foot, 255-pounder. The Mavericks remain thin in the front court. Samuel Dalembert will be the penciled-in starter when training camp opens, but behind him, they have only DeJuan Blair and Brandan Wright.
• Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: Consider: Emeka Okafor, David Andersen, D.J. Mbenga, Aaron Gray, Gustavo Ayon, Chris Kaman, Darryl Watkins, Robin Lopez. Since Monty Williams arrived in New Orleans in 2010, the center position on his teams hasn't been manned by players for whom opponents needed to game-plan, rather a somewhat itinerant collection of big bodies who were proficient at some aspect of the game but lacking well-rounded serviceability. With the NBA marginalizing the center position – last year the league henceforth eliminated the "center" designation on the All-Star ballot because there has been some difficulty distinguishing a true center worthy of consideration – the spot once occupied by the game's legends has deteriorated into blurred mediocrity. … With forward/backup center Jason Smith coming off surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, the Pelicans needed an extra body inside and signed two-year veteran Greg Stiemsma to a free-agent deal this summer, apparently hoping that a player with just 22 NBA starts in his career can possibly step into a full-time starting role. The bar Stiemsma must clear, mind you, hasn't been set that high. And as Stiemsma met the New Orleans media for the first time on Tuesday, along with fellow free-agent acquisition guard Anthony Morrow, the 6-foot-11, 260-pound post man walked a delicate line avoiding the temptation to burden himself with inflated expectations.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: The Miami Heat on Tuesday announced the signing of two players who ultimately could turn into short-term rentals. Center Justin Hamilton and power forward Eric Griffin, whose additions previously had been confirmed, became the 15th and 16th players under contract to the Heat in advance of the Oct. 1 start of training camp at AmericanAirlines Arena. With 13 other players already under guaranteed contract, and with the Heat potentially to carry as few as 13 this season due to their position against the onerous luxury tax, Hamilton, Griffin and center Jarvis Varnado, the other player on the current roster without a guaranteed contract, face long roster odds. By signing with the Heat, Hamilton, acquired out of LSU in the second-round of the 2012 NBA Draft, and Griffin, who went undrafted out of Campbell University in 2012, become eligible to be sent to the Heat's NBA Development League team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, should they be cut at the end of training camp.
• Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: There is a history here, a Warriors-centric history with the potential for a terribly awkward dynamic: Ranadive is a former Warriors minority owner. Mullin is a former Warriors executive vice president. D'Alessandro is a former Warriors assistant general manager who was hired by Mullin, his fellow St. John's alum and friend for about 25 years. That theory about three people in the bed? Too many chefs in the kitchen? Three being a crowd? I don't think so. I think this works. In this ongoing Kings craziness – a good craziness – square pegs fit in round holes. Mullin is a gentleman and D'Alessandro is a scholar, and in today's NBA, their skill sets are complementary. D'Alessandro is an attorney, a well-regarded front-office executive and a former player agent. Mullin is a basketball legend who can gain access to any gym in the world and has been itching for another front-office position. … Asked if he intended to maintain a high profile or more of a behind-the-scenes presence, Mullin nodded and smiled. "Whatever Vivek wants," he said, "but you can't have too many voices."

• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Last year, the Suns became one of 15 NBA teams to embrace the analytics era by investing in SportVu Player Tracking technology to acquire a higher level of player performance analysis. Good for them. This year, the NBA reached a multi-year agreement with STATS Inc., which owns the SportVU technology, to put six cameras in every arena and become the first American pro league to quantify and analyze each in-game player movement. Good for you. The Suns were commended for getting out in front of the analytics wave, but the movement has gone mainstream. The Suns kept all the data gathered last year to themselves, but this league move is the best thing for hoop junkies since NBA League Pass. The NBA already headed this way by adding advanced stats to nba.com last year. Now, they will post unprecedented data from SportVu on its site (wonder how many points per touch Eric Bledsoe is getting?) and for use in broadcasts (“Eddie, Marcin Gortat has run the equivalent of a 5K tonight”). The Suns do not lose out because they shelled out about $100,000 for it last year, and the NBA is footing the bill for the other teams this year.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Shane Battier isn't sure he's the retiring type, but considering the Miami Heat forward turned 35 Monday, he appreciates the end could be near. … Monday, before a motivational appearance with the students at St. Mark's Episcopal School, he said with his three-year contract expiring at season's end, it only makes sense to take stock. "I'm realistic to where I am at this point in my life," he said, after playing most of last season as a reserve and seeing limited action for an extended stretch of the playoffs. "I'd like to finish my contract strong with the Miami Heat, and then we'll see where we go." Battier, though, said there would not be any sort of retirement tour, with possibilities still remaining in 2014 free agency. "This door is always open," he said. "This is not a farewell tour, no. But if it is, it is. And I'll enjoy this year and try to make the most of it."
• Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman: Recently, Olajuwon spoke of both occurrences in an interview with Nike Kicks, lauding Kobe, LeBron and a few other stars who flew out to Houston for dedicated workout sessions with him. It’s in the embedded video at the bottom of this post, starting at around 5:40, and includes some interesting anecdotal quotes from Olajuwon. But toward the end of the interview, he was also asked which players, of those who haven’t trained with him yet, would benefit most from his tutelage. His answer: Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant. Why Durant? “(He’s) very skilled, but doesn’t take advantage of his height in the post,” Olajuwon said. “He’s much taller than most of the guys who guard him. He’s got all the outside game, but now he needs to take them in the post. In other words, there’s something for everybody.” Overall, Durant’s actually been pretty efficient with his back to the basket, scoring 1.04 points per post-up last season (stat via mysynergysports.com), seventh highest in the NBA. But it still feels like an underutilized part of his game, particularly (as Olajuwon said) when he has smaller players defending him. Only 10.4 percent of his offensive moves were out of the post last season. Will he do it more in the future? We’ll see. Will he work with Olajuwon to improve? Couldn’t hurt. But it’s not exactly the most pressing issue facing the 24-year-old or his team.
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: There are some things Kobe Bryant can’t do. He may be fluent in English, Italian and Spanish, but Bryant noticeably struggles saying his name in Mandarin. Bryant can do everything with a basketball, except spinning one. That’s because of the fractured index finger he suffered three years ago, an injury that still hasn’t fully healed. It might be surprising to see Bryant struggle with something after mostly seeing him dominate on the court. But it’s also insightful to see him at his most vulnerable. Bryant hardly frets much about his struggles speaking Mandarin, and steal tries to speak with great enthusiasm. When the CCTV host Sa Beining asks Bryant to spin a basketball, the Lakers star didn’t seem bashful one bit in admitting he can’t do it. To which Beining offered a rightfully collective shrug. “You guys probably think Kobe can do everything, but even Kobe is human,” Beining said in Mandarin. “But so what? He’s still Kobe. Not being able to spin the ball doesn’t make him a less effective basketball player. Kobe Bryant has an indomitable spirit.”
• J. Michael of CSN Washington: Will Nene be eased back into the picture or will he be pushed full-speed ahead? The 7-footer spent the summer rehabilitating from various injuries, both shoulders, both knees and his left foot, as he split his off-season between homes in Denver and Brazil. In April, I asked Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld the same question about easing back Nene and he said that they'd consider it. Wittman: "He got in town Aug. 30. He's been on the floor. He feels good. He's had a whole summer where he didn't have to worry about the pounding and the stuff he did last summer having the injuries he did and having to play on the (Brazil) national team and never gave his body a chance to recover. He's feeling good. He looks good. I'm pretty pleased with that. I anticipate him being ready to go. When did we play our last game? Five months ago? He's done a lot of good work this summer, not only from a rest standpoint but from physical therapy. He's built his strength back up. I anticipate we'll head into the season with no restrictions." Of course, the Wizards' medical staff will be consulted on these matters but it's a good sign if Nene passes the eye test with Wittman.
• John Ried of The Times-Picayune: Pelicans veteran forward/center Jason Smith said last week that he doesn't feel pain in his surgically repaired right shoulder that forced him to miss the final 24 games last season. But he still hasn't been cleared to participate in contact work yet during volunteer workouts. Smith is hoping to be cleared just before the Pelicans open training camp. “That's best guess right now because you never know if things will flare up when you hit somebody,'' Smith said. “You put in the time to rest and recover and you put in the work to strengthened it and get back in shape. That's all I can do right now is try to get in the best shape that I can.'' Smith suffered a torn labrum during a Dec. 12 game last season against the Oklahoma City Thunder when he blocked an attempted dunk by forward Kevin Durant.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As I wrote last week, David Lighty and Eric Dawson will be non-roster training camp invites. Andonis Thomas is likely to be another invite, although nothing is official at this point. Thomas has been working out in Atlanta this offseason. He was part of the Hawks summer league roster. The 6-foot-7 small forward, an undrafted free agent out of Memphis, appeared in three summer league games. He averaged 1.3 points and 0.3 rebounds in 9.7 minutes. The Hawks have 14 players on their current roster with Lighty and Dawson coming to training camp. The Hawks will most likely add two more players and as many as four come the start of camp. Another guard and small forward could be added. I expect the Hawks to keep just 14 on the roster for the regular season. General manager Danny Ferry likes to have the flexibility of the additional roster spot. The status of Lou Williams, rehabbing from a torn ACL, is still a factor in determining the roster.
• Staff of the Pioneer Press: The Minnesota Timberwolves made official Monday the promotion of David Adelman to assistant coach and the hiring of Bobby Jackson to replace Adelman as player development coach. The son of Timberwolves head coach Rick Adelman had served in the player development role for two seasons. Jackson, a former University of Minnesota standout, was an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings the last two seasons. "David is a bright young coach and has demonstrated the past two years that he is ready to take on additional responsibilities," Timberwolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders said in a statement. "In Bobby Jackson, we are bringing a Minnesota basketball icon back to our state. Bobby has the respect of players around our league and did a great job working with the young Kings players this past season. Both Rick Adelman and I are very familiar with Bobby and are excited to have him on our coaching staff."
• Bernie Augustine of the New York Daily News: Before Kent Bazemore was “Bazemoring” on the sidelines of Warriors playoff games — and in the latest version of NBA 2K14 — he was packing his bags and getting ready to play basketball professionally in the Ukraine. How quickly things can change. “I would have been living a totally different life, having a totally different experience,” he said recently. … “It takes a strong type of individual to not play but still have that type of enthusiasm,” former Warriors guard Jarret Jack said last season. “He does what he can to contribute to the team, and it’s appreciated.” Soon his celebrations became YouTube fixtures, fodder for blog posts, and features in highlight-reel shows. “It’s definitely spontaneous. I can’t even remember the first pose — the three fingers in the air — I can’t even tell you when I did it, where I did it or how it came to me. It’s just something I started doing and people ran with it,” he said, adding that he doesn’t have names for his signature moves. … “The NBA 2K franchise is all about authenticity, and we strive to include details that accurately represent all aspects of the game,” Rob Jones, NBA 2K’s producer, said. “Our goal is to make the NBA 2K14 experience as close to real life as possible, and Bazemore brings unique moves both on and off the court that serve to amplify the experience for players.” There was so much hype about Bazemore’s inclusion in the game, that his celebrations were featured in the trailer for the game, which will be released on October 1.
• Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee: For weeks, Chris Hansen has been vilified by Sacramento Kings fans for financing a signature-gathering campaign to force a public vote on the city’s arena subsidy. Now the man who tried to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle is trying to make amends. On the same day Hansen and two political operatives agreed to pay a $50,000 fine to state election officials for failing to properly report the source of funding behind the ballot measure effort, Hansen announced Monday that he would “take steps to prevent” the signatures his money financed from being used. In a statement released on his website, Hansen also said a Los Angeles law firm funneled his money to the signature campaign “without my knowledge or consent.” That firm, Loeb & Loeb, paid a Tulare-based company $80,000 in June to dispatch campaign workers in Sacramento to collect petitions, according to state election regulators.
• Lynn Thompson of The Seattle Times: The State Court of Appeals today rejected a challenge to the Sodo arena brought by Longshore workers. The court upheld a trial court decision from February that found that the agreement between the city of Seattle, King County and Chris Hansen to build a new $490 million arena did not violate state environmental laws. “The memorandum does not predetermine where an arena will be built or even that an arena will be built at all,” the Division One Appeals Court three-justice panel wrote in its opinion. “Whether the city and county will agree to Hansen’s proposal is a decision expressly reserved until after environmental review is complete. Because there has not yet been a government ‘action’ as that term is defined by SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act), the courts are not a forum for the union’s opposition to Hansen’s proposal.”
• Brad Rock of the Deseret News: In the early 1970s, downtown Salt Lake was a rough place to be — downtown meaning the paint. That’s where Zelmo Beaty set up shop. The former Utah Stars center considered it his property, on both ends of the court. A good rule of thumb: Crowd him at your own risk. “If you started to encroach into some of his territory in the paint — which he considered all his territory — you might get an elbow,” former Dallas Chaparrals and Utah Stars coach Tom Nissalke said. Beaty, who passed away Aug. 27, played until he was 35, averaging 11.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in his final season, despite having had numerous knee surgeries. He worked in four markets, but especially during the four years he was in Utah, everything was Big Z’s space. He not only owned the paint, but the city and state, too. He led the Stars to the 1971 ABA championship. After jumping from the NBA to the league with the colorful basketball, he was an immediate hit. He was intimidating, effective, dedicated and best of all he had an unforgettable name.

• Bob Wofley of the Journal Sentinel: Caron Butler’s introduction as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday at Racine Park High School was a press conference wrapped in a family reunion inside a high school pep rally. Butler, 33, warned those gathered in the fieldhouse where he played for a year that there might be some water works to go with his words. He made good on his prediction. “I’m a little emotional definitely,” Butler said. “Y’all see me crying at press conferences and at other things all the time – draft night – but it’s a different emotion now because this is a dream come true. This is something that I always dreamed about, thought about. I never thought it would happen. So it’s special. Thank you.” The enthusiastic audience of Park high school students and staff in attendance applauded Butler’s heartfelt comments, like this one, when some words quivered and he teared up. Butler was joined at the press table by coach Larry Drew and general manager John Hammond. Bucks owner Herb Kohl also was in attendance. Hammond said he had Butler penciled in as the Bucks’ starting small forward.
• Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: Gar Forman isn’t into playing -favorites. Sure, the Bulls’ general manager is eager to see what Derrick Rose 2.0 looks like when the MVP point guard takes the court in full five-on-five scrimmages in less than a month, but it’s about the big picture for Forman on what could be a make-or-break season for his current roster. … As Boozer also knows that this group has a shelf life that is on the brink of running out. Deng is a free agent after this season, while Boozer is a prime candidate to be amnestied. It’s basically now or never for the core in the 2013-14 season. But it will all start with Rose. Like he promised at the end of the season, he doesn’t play pick-up games in the summer, and that didn’t change this offseason. So Rose’s first real test will be Oct. 5, in a preseason game in Indiana. “He hasn’t been playing in games [this summer], but that’s not unusual for a lot of players,’’ Forman said. “He’s done his work and has put the time in on making himself better.’’ Now it’s about seeing what Rose will look like post-knee rehab. Less than a month away and counting.
• Marcus Thompson II of The Oakland Tribune: It perhaps took some time, but Stephen Curry seems comfortable in his role as the man. He's long since been anointed by Warriors management. And his playoff performances pushed him up a tier on the star hierarchy. But now his teammates, the youngsters and the newcomers, are looking to him for guidance. His coaches are expecting him to be a vocal leader. The fan base is banking on him carrying the franchise to heights it hasn't sniffed in decades. And the fifth-year guard seems to be embracing it all matter-of-factly. "I'm 25. Still young. But I know the drill. I know the expectations," Curry said in a chat with local media after working out at the team facility Thursday. "For me to have the same coaching staff, the same leadership, for three straight years is big. ... We have the stability for us to make that move (to another level), and I hope to lead that charge." Certainly, Curry's not alone in leading the locker room. David Lee and center Andrew Bogut share the leadership load, and Andre Iguodala figures to eventually emerge as a leader. But not even Curry's reputed humility can help him escape the pedestal on which he is now perched.
• Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com: Even after spending $117 million in free agency in July and August, Minnesota Timberwolves president of operations Flip Saunders will have another sizable monetary decision to make. Before his third year begins -- Oct. 31 is the deadline -- the Wolves need to figure out if they will pay forward Derrick Williams $6.3 million for the 2014-15 season. In a phone conversation earlier this week spanning a few topics, Wolves owner Glen Taylor acknowledged the team isn't quite sure what to do. "We'll evaluate his summer program, and how he looks coming into camp (which starts Oct. 1)," Taylor said. "I heard he is looking good." Exercising Williams' fourth-year option is potentially enough to carry the Wolves over the luxury tax and not allow them to sign a free agent for the mid-level exception, according to Grantland.com's Zach Lowe. Williams is working out in Los Angeles with trainer Gunnar Peterson, who said recently via email that Williams is stronger and more balanced than a year ago.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: The league on Thursday announced plans to install sophisticated tracking cameras, known as the SportVu system, in every arena for the coming season, creating an unprecedented treasure trove of data about virtually every wrinkle of the game. SportVu, developed by Stats LLC, records data points for all 10 players, the three referees and the ball, every 30th of a second, measuring speed, distance, player separation and ball possession. Every step, every dribble, every pass, every shot, every rebound — really, every movement — will be recorded, coded and categorized. … The N.B.A. is the first major professional sports league in the United States to fully adopt the SportVu system. It will have other implications for the league, far beyond the playbook and the box score. Not everyone might welcome the change. General managers will surely exploit the more sophisticated statistics when negotiating contracts with player agents. Not all assists, points and rebounds are created equal — and teams will soon be able to demonstrate that vividly. Referees are also tracked by SportVu, which means the league will have yet another tool to analyze every call, non-call and missed call as it ranks its officials. Those rankings help determine which referees are chosen for playoff assignments and the finals.
• Steve Serby of the New York Post: Former Knick Bernard King took a timeout for some Q&A with Steve Serby before King’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction this weekend. Q: What are you most proud of? A: I’m most proud of the fact my wife and I raised a wonderful daughter. That’s what life is all about. In terms of basketball legacy, we could always point to back-to-back 50-point games, the 42 I averaged in the Piston playoff series, or the great year in ’84-85, or the 60 points (Christmas Eve against Nets). What stands out in my mind was what I was able to do at a time when players were not coming back from ACL injuries. I had my entire knee reconstructed. I was told I would never play again. I told myself, “I’m from Brooklyn. I’m from Fort Greene. I grew up on the toughest playgrounds in the world. In one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country, and I made it all the way to the NBA, and I rose to the top of my profession at that time. You don’t know my heart. If I could do that, this is nothing!” I set about the task of working to make it back at a level I could be satisfied with. I did that. To do that for five hours a day, six days a week for two straight years, and not once wavering, always having faith. … I did it. I became an All-Star again, and that was my goal.
• Staff of The Sacramento Bee: Chris Mullin, 50, a former front-office executive with the Golden State Warriors, will have a variety of basketball operations responsibilities, including advising Ranadive and general manager Pete D'Alessandro on player transactions and scouting. "I couldn't be more excited about joining the Kings and playing a part in making this team a winner again," Mullin said in a statement released by the Kings on Thursday. "I'm especially grateful for the unique opportunity to work in close proximity with a world-class ownership group led by Vivek Ranadive and the talented group of individuals assembled in our front office."
• Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: In a move that could bolster their perimeter defense and add competition in training camp, the Lakers signed free-agent guard Xavier Henry on Thursday to give them 14 players on the roster. Terms of the deal weren’t immediately available. But considering the Lakers’ desire to keep cap flexibility for the 2014 offseason, it’s likely Henry’s contract consists of a one-year deal at the veteran’s minimum. It’s also unclear if his contract is guaranteed. The Lakers recently added small forward Shawne Williams and Elias Harris to partially guaranteed deals. The Lakers are expected to sign second-round draft pick Ryan Kelly, though he’s still rehabbing from foot surgery in April. NBA teams can field a maximum of 15 players on their roster. … The Lakers plan to have anywhere between 18-20 players to fill out their training camp roster, including Marcus Landry, who led the Lakers’ Summer League team in scoring. It’s likely Henry, Kelly, Williams, Landry and Harris will compete for roster spots since the Lakers will keep anywhere between 13-15 players.
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: Two NBA sources have confirmed that Steve Hetzel, former Cavaliers video coordinator, will be hired to coach the Cavs' owned-and-operated NBA Development League team, the Canton Charge. The hire was first reported by the News-Herald. Hetzel, a 2005 graduate of Michigan State where he served as a student manager for the men's basketball team, was named the Cavs' video coordinator in July, 2006. He stayed until 2009, when he left to join former Cavs assistant John Kuester's staff with the Detroit Pistons. After Kuester was fired, Hetzel remained with Lawrence Frank for two seasons. Hetzel replaces D-League coach of the year Alex Jensen, who left the Charge to join Tyrone Corbin's staff in Utah.
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: France atoned for its opening loss to Germany, riding five double-figure scorers to a resounding 88-65 victory over lowly Great Britain on the second day of play at EuroBasket 2013. Nicolas Batum led all scorers with 17 points and Tony Parker added 16 at Les Bleus improved to 1-1 in Group A. The game, as expected, was never close. France led by double-figures after one quarter, and put Great Britain away for good with a 26-11 outburst in the third quarter. France, which also got 11 points from Nando De Colo and four from Boris Diaw, will play group bottom-dweller Israel on Friday. Also at EuroBasket, Italy improved to 2-0 in Group D with a 90-75 spanking of Turkey. Spurs reserve Marco Belinelli had 17 points for the Italians, who will Finland on Saturday. Across the Atlantic at the FIBA Americas championship, Canada destroyed Mexico 89-67 behind another strong performance from Cory Joseph. The young point guard registered 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists — his fourth game of the tournament with at least 17 points, eight boards and four assists.

Is being good at the layup as simple as getting to the rim? There’s rarely a distinction made between a player’s ability to get in layup range versus his ability to actually sink it. Perhaps that’s because “a layup” is also a metaphor for something easy, like a “gimme” putt in golf.

Whoever popularized the metaphor probably never tried to score over NBA giants, I’d hazard.

The layup also gets no respect because it doesn’t demand respect. Unlike the dunk, the layup fails to seize an arena’s attention with a sudden lightning bolt at the hoop. Instead, it takes an indirect route off the backboard before meandering along the rim, waffling on whether to finally be a basket already.

Incredible dunks look super intentional, as though a player’s life depended on forcing the ball through the rim at that moment. Incredible layups look accidental, as though a fouled Dwyane Wade thought “Why not?” while flinging the ball in the backboard’s general direction.

So the layup commutes between “you’re open and should always make it” and “you weren’t looking at the rim, that was total luck.” It’s hard to get recognition for being good at something when both the routine and the spectacular are so easily dismissed.

Well, no one is dismissing the mighty layup in these parts. The shortest bank shot is indeed a skill -- and an important one. Here are some players who, according to Basketball-Reference.com, have mastered the ancient art, along with some guys who could stand to do better.

THE BEST

LeBron James
Made 70 percent of layups, attempted 357

When LeBron stole Game 1 from Indiana with an off-hand layup, there was far less marveling at his steely reserve than there was criticism of Frank Vogel for letting it happen.

An open layup is a high percentage shot for anyone, but it says something that LeBron is comfortable with his off hand in a high-pressure moment like that. His ambidexterity is the foundation of his short-range arsenal.

Not only is LeBron better at getting to the rim than everyone else but he might be more accurate once there than everyone else, as well. Last season, LeBron shot 70 percent on layups. He attempted at least 200 layups more than anyone with a better layup conversion rate.

The aforementioned ambidexterity allows LeBron to explore any angle at any time. A favorite tactic of his is to shield the defender with his back while banking a no-look lefty. It’s a bit like a reverse lay-in that doesn’t finish on the other side of the hoop.

Isaiah Thomas
Made 67 percent of layups, attempted 151

Pound-for-pound (Copyright: Allen Iverson) the best layupper around. At a tiny 5-9 in socks, Thomas shouldn’t be able to hit 67.1 percent on these shots. He has had a lifetime of practice against taller players, though.

Thomas hasn’t mastered any one thing in particular. He just has the full layup repertoire. He’ll switch hands when it suits him. He’ll loft it high off the glass like Steve Nash. He’ll shield off contact with his back while scooping the ball forward. He has the up-and-under down.

Seriously, watch this guy at the rim. Better yet, record this guy at the rim, pause right before the layup happens and appreciate how impossible the feat looks. Water can’t find a way through cracks the way a Thomas layup can.

Tony Parker
Made 67 percent of layups, attempted 331

This is the defining Parker trait and always has been. There’s also a striking quirk to his game. Although Parker can use his left hand if the situation requires, he prefers to use his right, even on the left side of the backboard. I’d say the signature Tony layup is a right-handed scoop on the left side of the rim. That is, if the signature Tony layup isn’t an overhand try in which he’s leaning backward on an invisible recliner.

Marcus Thornton
Made 70 percent of layups, attempted 156

Look, I’d be lying if I said I could fully explain Thornton’s layup skill, but he’s been great two years running (69.3 percent on layups last season). He isn’t especially fluid with his moves, but he’s good with either hand. Thornton also doesn’t force anything around the rim. Most of his lay-ins come off assists.

THE WORST

Brandon Jennings
Made 50 percent of layups, attempted 281

Kevin Costner’s “back, and to the left” line creeps into my head whenever Jennings drives. Detroit’s new starting point guard has a tendency to lean backward off balance while flinging lefty prayers. Hopefully Jennings learned something from former teammate Beno Udrih, who shoots contested layups quite well.

Carmelo Anthony
Made 50 percent of layups, attempted 335

He’s even worse at contested layups when you consider how often he’s rebounding his misses for easy putbacks. But those putbacks might answer the question of why Anthony is so mediocre near the basket. Melo loves chasing his own shot, and the first try might be a careless prelude to the chase. He’s also not especially adept at using his left hand and thus forces a lot of action with his right.

Dion Waiters
Made 50 percent of layups, attempted 245

He’s the right-handed Jennings, although there’s more hope for Waiters going forward, I’d say. He’s stronger than Jennings (eventually my “Strongta Ellis” nickname will get off the ground, I just know it), taller than Jennings and younger than Jennings. I’m banking (OK, I’ll stop) on an improved Waiters near the rim.

Ramon Sessions
Made 49 percent of layups, attempted 290

Sessions was among the worst perimeter player on layups last season, but he hasn’t been this bad in the past. Last season could be a fluke -- or the result of a once-quick point guard slowing down. I’ve noticed he tends to go right when the path is blocked off.

Omer Asik
Made 48 percent of layups, attempted 145

I stayed away from listing big men because so many of their “layups” are really post moves or strained putbacks, but Asik deserves a mention. He converted 94.6 percent of his dunks, nearly 47 better than he managed on layups. From 3-10 feet, he shot 27.4 percent.

Few players better demonstrate the difference between grip and other kinds of fine motor skills. Asik is good at dunking; he has no issue putting his clamps on the rock and tomahawking it through the hoop. Once his hands try a more delicate layup, though, the ball flies off the window as if Asik’s playing handball.

Ricky Rubio
Made 45 percent of layups, attempted 164

I don’t want to judge too harshly, as Rubio was coming back from an ACL tear. This is his second season of poor finishing, though (48.4 percent on layups in his rookie year). It’s curious that Rubio struggles like this because he’s so well coordinated and so well aware of angles when it comes to passing. Perhaps the problem is his running balance. On drives, Rubio often staggers as if he’s in an invisible potato sack race.

IN THE MIDDLE

Russell Westbrook
Made 58 percent of layups, attempted 478

Westbrook might be the player whose facility at making layups simply means he gets to the rim a bunch. That’s not entirely fair, though, because Westbrook can and does finish with either hand.

You just wouldn’t expect the dynamic point guard to be a whole 12 percent worse on layups than LeBron, given Westbrook’s elite speed and hops. It appears, from the video clips, as if Westbrook flies into the lane with more desire than strategy, willing the ball toward what might be the hoop. That’s nitpicking because, even if Westbrook is only OK at converting layup attempts, it matters more that he is creating so many of them.

• Zach Harper of CBS Sports takes you back in time. Why? Shawn Kemp. That’s why.

• Harrison Barnes talks with Jesse Taylor of WarriorsWorld about the latest "Breaking Bad" episode. Apparently, Barnes got to meet comedian Bill Burr, who plays Kuby on the show. “(Bill Burr) went off on how genius the writers are about everything. They really dig into proving the Internet naysayers wrong. Like the laying on the money scene with him and Huell. They went out, researched and measured exactly how big that pile would be for that exact amount of money. They didn’t just throw a pile of money in a storage room and say it was a certain amount. Also, how much time it would take a guy like Walt to dig a hole by himself to bury all that money.”

• Did Kobe Bryant jump into a pool? Maybe, as @netw3rk says, “He fell into it.”

• We know Kevin Garnett will have limited minutes with the Nets, but how limited? And where should we see the effects of extra rest? Brian Faith of Brooklyn’s Finest analyzes the situation: “Using data from NBA.com/stats, Garnett’s offensive and defensive impact can be measured based on how many days rest he had before playing. Somewhat surprisingly his offense didn’t seem to suffer at all. Garnett actually raised his scoring efficiency in games in which he had zero days rest. In the 17 games he played on zero days rest he shot 55.8% from the field, compared to 47.8% from the field in his other 51 games. Small sample sizes surely play a role, but it’s still a large difference in conversion rate. Garnett was most affected on the defensive end and on the glass in these short rest situations. His individual defensive rating rose slightly to 98.0 with zero days rest, but shot up to an eye-popping 108.6 in the February back-to-backs.”

• Marc Gasol is mean to the British.

• Tiago Splitter’s career, reviewed as though it’s an album.

• In an interview with The Sporting News, Warriors GM Bob Myers reveals that he’s banking on Andrew Bogut’s health: “At this point, you treat him like he is 100 percent healthy, that is what he is saying, that is what the medical staff is saying, so, you don’t treat him any other way. Maybe the question is, do you want to play him 35 minutes? But that is a question for any center. It is not due to anything with his injury. We’re approaching it like he is healthy.”

• Michael Pina of Celtics Hub is all for giving a contract extension to Avery Bradley. I mostly agree, but the caveat I’d add is that Bradley’s intense pressure style D could be unsustainable. It’s hard to envision a guy playing defense like that while staying healthy.

• Basketball writer and current Grantland writer Danny Chau is the future of food bloggery. Get on the bandwagon. Do it now.

• How was your summer, Minnesota Timberwolves?

• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Caron Butler donned a Suns uniform at a public unveiling of the new duds two weeks ago and that looks like it will be the only time he will be seen in it. The Suns have agreed to trade Butler, a Racine, Wis., native, to the Milwaukee Bucks for point guard Ish Smith and center Slava Kravtsov about seven weeks after they acquired Butler and hailed him as a veteran influence for the youthful Suns and part of the future. The Suns gain $5.65 million of cap space for any potential in-season trades but also save that money to make an expected costly waiver of Michael Beasley more palatable. Beasley would be owed $9 million of guaranteed salary. … “Much respect for the organization of the Phx Suns#staytuned,” Butler tweeted Wednesday night. … The Racine Journal Times first reported the trade talks Wednesday night. The deal should be finalized Thursday.
• Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times: But many NBA observers expected Caron Butler’s time in the Valley of the Sun to be short-lived. After all, the Suns are in a full-fledged rebuilding mode and are attempting to stockpile draft picks and young players for the future. The Bucks, meanwhile, are committed to trying to make the playoffs for the second straight season. After a flurry of offseason trades and free-agent signings, they appear set at every position except small forward, which is where Butler plays. Carlos Delfino, whom the Bucks signed as a free-agent in July, had been the projected starting small forward. But Delfino is still recovering from surgery for a fractured bone in his right foot. There are whispers that Delfino will miss the entire preseason and even a portion of the regular season. The Bucks also have two other young small forwards on their roster: Khris Middleton, whom they recently acquired in a trade with Detroit, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom they selected in the first round of the June draft. While the Bucks are excited about the futures of Antetokounmpo and Middleton, neither player is close to being ready to play major minutes next season.
• Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: But here’s the thing: There’s no concrete evidence that summer hoops has a noticeably negative impact. Let’s look at the 52 players who have suited up for Team USA at the Olympics since 1992, excluding Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (retired) and Christian Laettner, Anthony Davis and Emeka Okafor (rookies). Of their combined 67 post-Olympic seasons: 34 played more or the same amount of games the following year. 33 saw their scoring averages increase. 40 improved or maintained their Player Efficiency Rating. Certainly there are players who suffered significant downturns, or fell apart physically. Robinson’s was the most dramatic case, limiting him to just six games. Then there were Alonzo Mourning (69 games missed in 2000-01) and Kevin Love (64 missed last season). Conversely, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, among others, all enjoyed perhaps the best seasons of their careers coming off Olympic play. Wade’s case is particularly noteworthy, with major improvements across the board after both Olympic campaigns — all the more impressive considering his general lack of durability. If anyone should break down after an extra slate of hoops, D-Wade would be among the top candidates. But not only did he survive, he got significantly better, improving his scoring average by 7.9 and 5.6 points, and his PER by 6.5 and 8.9. So what can we take away from all this? There’s no doubt long that as players continue to sandwich summers of international competition between marathon NBA seasons, a portion of them will continue to get hurt and/or worn down. But let’s be clear — this so-called wear and tear is not an automatic consequence of such a choice. As we’ve seen, there’s a strong case that the combination of experience and physical work — the latter of which every player engages in on his own to varying degrees — can actually be beneficial.
• Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press: The Wolves' Kevin Love, in town setting up residence for the coming season, showed up at Target Center this week weighing 240 pounds. "The lightest he's been since he's been a pro," Saunders said of the 6-foot-10 forward, who worked out at Target Center. "He's lost weight in his face, and his body looks leaner with muscle. He's really committed." Love was about 250 pounds last season.
• Jenny Dial of the Houston Chronicle: While things didn’t work out with forward Royce White and the Rockets, the NBA player (traded to Philadelphia in July) will have an everlasting mark in the Bayou City. On Wednesday morning, White announced a partnership with his non-profit organization Anxious Mind’s Inc. and Bee Busy Wellness Center to create the Royce White Institute of Mental Health on the city’s southwest side. The Wellness Center, which is a 17,000-square foot facility that will also have dental and primary care, is located at 6640 W. Bellfort and will open in January 2014. “When I met Royce White a couple of years ago, I knew we would do something special like this,” Bee Busy CEO Normal Mitchell said. “I think it will be a great thing for this community.” White, who has been open about his own struggles with an anxiety disorder, said that he thinks every city should have a center where free mental healthcare is offered. He started the Anxious Mind’s Inc. group while in college at Iowa State, and this is the organization’s first partnership. He said he hopes to see it grow. … He said he is looking forward to his chances of playing with the 76ers. “I was traded to Philadelphia and that’s where my career is taking me next so we’ll see what happens,” White said. “I am hoping I will be able to go there and produce.”
• Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: The Thunder’s roster, like always, it seems, has very little makeover from last season. Kevin Martin out. Draft picks Steven Adams and Andre Roberson in. That’s about it. But John Schuhmann of NBA.com points out that the Thunder is in good company in keeping its roster basically intact. … Basing his list on minutes played, Schuhmann finds that the team most returning the bulk of its roster is the champion Miami Heat. The Heat is bringing back 94.9 percent of its minutes played from last season. The Thunder is second in the league, at 86.5 percent. And the Spurs are fourth, at 82.4 percent. Inexplicably, the woeful Charlotte Bobcats are third, at 85.3 percent.
• Staff of the Toronto Star: Tracy McGrady has thanked the fans of three of the NBA teams he played for, including the Toronto Raptors. McGrady, who announced his retirement earlier in the week, tweeted out Wednesday photos of himself when he played with the Raptors, Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets. “Thank you Toronto. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to begin my career in the NBA. You believed in me and there my journey began. This incredible city will always hold a very special place in my heart.” — Tracy McGrady. The message comes despite the fact that McGrady was the constant target of boobirds at the Air Canada Centre, even after a decade he left for the Magic.
• Staff of The Dallas Morning News: Tracy McGrady will be remembered as a player who went straight from high school to the NBA and became a dominant, two-way superstar. He will always be remembered, too, as a player who struggled with injuries. However, Mavericks fans likely will remember McGrady for different reasons, reasons former 7-6 Dallas center Shawn Bradley would probably like to forget. During the 2005 playoffs, McGrady and the Houston Rockets went up against the Mavericks. A McGrady dunk on Bradley in Game 2 put the poster in posterized. To be fair, Bradley was a shot blocker. He led the NBA in blocks in 1997 and had more than 2,000 in his career. With Dallas in 2000-01, Bradley blocked 228 shots. He finished his career with an average of 2.5 blocks per game. But, despite his height and wingspan, he also had a habit of getting dunked on violently - and often - by NBA stars big and small.
• Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com: Portland Trail Blazers free agent forward Luke Babbitt has agreed to a one-year deal with the Europe club BC Nizhny Novgorod of Russia, a league source informed CSNNW.com. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the fact that no announcement has been made, added that the deal does not contain an NBA out clause. Babbitt's agent Bill Duffy confirmed the deal saying, “My take is Luke needs to play 30 minutes a game and play a more expanded role. We've had recent success with both Danny Green (of the San Antonio Spurs) and Patrick Beverley (of the Houston Rockets) getting an opportunity to develop their games in Europe and returning to the NBA. The NBA is a league of opportunity. We feel strongly this is the best move for Luke at this time.” Portland opted not to exercise the fourth year of his rookie contract before the 2012-13 season began, making him an unrestricted free agent this summer.
• Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun: Meanwhile, this Friday in Caracas, Venezuela, the Canadian men’s basketball team — a team that could turn this country on its ear at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics — plays its first game at the FIBA Americas Championship and hardly anyone seems to be paying attention — even though the event has huge implications. The bottom line is this: If Team Canada fails to finish in the top four in Caracas (and it’s no slam-dunk that they will, even with four NBA guys in the lineup), the program will suffer a significant set-back. With the hiring of NBA star Steve Nash as GM and Jay Triano as head coach last year, Canada Basketball pulled out all the stops in trying to attract the new generation of Canadian hoops talent to play for the national team, something that was never a sure thing in the past. There was a tendency for some of the young black players in Canada to shy away from playing on the national side, for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, that has changed over the past few years (including under former head coach Leo Rautins). However, if Team Canada should fail to finish in the top four in Caracas and fail to qualify for next summer’s World Cup in Spain, who’s to say if the impressive legion of young hoops talent would want to play for Canada down the road?
• Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune: Bobby Jackson, a great basketball player for the Gophers and for several teams in the NBA, is going to join the Timberwolves coaching staff as an assistant, according to President Flip Saunders. Jackson has a lot of familiarity with Rick Adelman, having played five seasons under him with the Sacramento Kings. Jackson started his post-playing career as an ambassador with the Kings and then as a regional scout working in player development. He became an assistant coach with Sacramento in 2009 and served in that role until June 5, when new head coach Michael Malone announced that the team would not retain any of the previous assistant coaches. Then there is the news that Saunders is going to hire Milt Newton to be the team’s general manager. Saunders and Newton agreed on terms of a contract after Newton spent this week visiting the Wolves. The two worked together for 2½ years when Saunders was the head coach of the Washington Wizards and Newton was the team’s vice president of player personnel. Newton held that role in Washington for 10 seasons before joining the Wolves.

• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: In five years when he’s (Tracy McGrady) eligible, is he a Hall of Famer. I don’t know. The raw numbers would suggest he’d have to get serious consideration. The tweeter was full of impressive stats yesterday, the most impressive that he was one of seven players to average 20 points, five rebound and four assists in eight straight seasons; the others were Kobe, LeBron, Jordan, Oscar, Garnett and Bird. Not bad company and if that’s your main criteria, you can’t keep him out, can you? I could, though. I could suggest that while his statistical impact was significant – there can be no argument about that, the raw numbers are shocking – there was just something about his body of work that should give voters cause for concern. Now, I suppose you could go either way on this one, there is a legitimate argument to be made both ways, I think, and since I’m a Hall of Fame hard ass and look at a much bigger global picture, I’m saying no. And I will say this and take whatever shots you’ve got: With respect to an impact on the sport, here in North America and around the world, he couldn’t hold a candle to Vince Carter. If you’re talking impact, there’s no comparison.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: In the wake of Tracy McGrady's retirement announcement earlier this week, let me just say this: T-Mac was undoubtedly a great talent, but he will also go down as one of the great underachievers in NBA history. I covered his entire tenure with the Orlando Magic, and he had the talent and explosiveness to become a greater player than Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, he didn't have the desire. … Here's why I say McGrady was one of the NBA's great underachievers: Because he never, ever won a playoff series until this past season -- his final one -- when he was one of the last players off the bench for the San Antonio Spurs. In a sport where one player can make a huge difference (see LeBron leading the marginally talented Cleveland Cavaliers to the finals and the best record in the NBA for two years running), T-Mac never elevated his team's to anything other than mediocrity. … Will he go down as one of the top three Magic players of all-time behind Dwight and Shaq? Probably -- although Penny Hardaway might argue otherwise. For a lot of reasons, though, he will go down in history for another reason. No player I ever saw had more talent but accomplished less.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra clearly has the football bug. He apparently also carries a message that resonates beyond basketball. Three weeks after attending practice and then addressing the University of Tennessee football team in Knoxville as a favor to friend and Volunteers coach Butch Jones, Spoelstra was in Renton, Wash., on Tuesday, addressing the Seattle Seahawks. "Just having him here in front of the team and just having him in meetings with us and having him out here in practice is an unbelievable experience for everybody," quarterback Russell Wilson said after Tuesday's practice. "For him to be able to talk about how his basketball team was successful and the way that they went about their business in terms of sacrificing . . . just that whole idea of sacrificing everything, the players, LeBron [James] coming to Miami, and Dwyane Wade sacrificing all that, all that type of sacrifice that it takes to be great and to be great so often, is kind of what he talked about for the most part. And having that discipline, as well, too, is something that he talked about, and just working hard, continuing to work hard, continuing to believe in yourselves and ignore the noise.” … Spoelstra is from nearby Portland, Ore., with this his second trip to the Pacific Northwest this offseason. He had visited with Chip Kelly at the University of Oregon in previous seasons, before Kelly became coach of the Philadelphia Eagles this season.
• Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN: Washington Wizards Vice President of player personnel, Milt Newton, will join the Timberwolves as the team's general manager, according to a team source. Newton will be heavily involved in pro scouting. The Wolves also plan on elevating Rob Babcock to a vice president of personnel position. Both men have a prior history with Wolves President of Basketball Operations, Flip Saunders. Saunders still will have final say in all personnel decisions, but will be leaning heavily on Newton and Babcock on all moves. Saunders is also said to be taking an assistant trainer, Koichi Sato, from the Wizards. Sato will focus on strength training with the Wolves.
• Fred Kerber of the New York Post: Play nice, guys. That essentially was the directive given to owners James Dolan of the Knicks and Mikhail Prokhorov of the Nets this past season during a meeting orchestrated by NBA Commissioner David Stern, who wanted to snuff any lingering tension between the two and prevent a full-blown feud, multiple league sources told The Post. “There was such a meeting and the parties both said it was a very cordial and pleasant one,” said one league official with knowledge of the sit-down, which happened early in the season. The official also confirmed Stern assisted in getting the pair together in an attempt to prevent a wave of spitballs going back and forth over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. See? It’s not just players like Paul Pierce and Raymond Felton fueling the feud between the two NBA teams sharing the city. It has been going on for a while, but the Nets no longer are the poor stepchild performing in a New Jersey swamp. Another person with direct knowledge of the sit-down called it “cordial and friendly.”
• Bernie Augustine of the New York Daily News: There’s no time for proofreading in the tattoo parlor. Larry Sanders showed off his newest tattoos on Instagram over the weekend, but the Bucks center was quickly given a spelling lesson by his fans who spied the unfortunate typo in permanent ink. The 24-year-old got fresh ink on both hands, with one reading “Ask” and another “Recieve.” Whoops. “Receive” is the proper spelling of the word, and Sanders was given plenty of reminders about the old “I before E except after C” rule. Oh, that pesky English language. Sanders, for his part was unfazed by the gaffe. Despite calls from his fans to delete the photo of the tattoo — “Please remove the picture. It makes U look like an idiot,” one Instagram user wrote — Sanders kept both photos up on his Instagram stream and followed them up with a photo of himself looking unimpressed with the hullabaloo and a caption that reads, “ummmmmmmm ... ain’t worried bout nuthin.” With a new four year, $44 million contract, he shouldn’t be worried. Turning an “I” into an “E,” and vice-versa, will hardly put a dent in his newly-fattened wallet.
• Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer: Former Atlanta forward Josh Childress will be among 40 or more free agents who will work out here as the Cavaliers continue to do their due diligence in the month leading up to the start of training camp, according to an NBA source. Childress' agent, Chris Emens, told HoopsHype.com his client would work out in Cleveland and San Antonio. Given the Cavs' current roster and salary situation, all the players face long odds of making the team, but some could earn invitations to training camp.
• Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle: Rising costs, rising sea levels, rising community concern. Everything is on the rise when it comes to the Warriors' proposed arena on the San Francisco waterfront. The Warriors insist that the arena will also eventually rise, that it is still on track to meet its projected 2017 opening date. But it continues to face obstacles. "I think the Warriors have underestimated how high the hurdles for a project like this would be," said David Lewis, executive director of Save the Bay, a regional organization that has worked to protect San Francisco Bay for the past 52 years. … "It's very expensive to rehabilitate those piers," said Warriors president Rick Welts. "But we still have the highest level of confidence this project will be done." … Welts said a third round of design will be unveiled in October. … "We are 100 percent focused on Piers 30/32," he said. "We're more convinced than ever that this is the best possible site for this project."
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Alex Len was first on the Suns’ draft board in June but he is not first in the minds of his fellow rookies when it comes to NBA success. Len, this year’s No. 5 overall selection, did not receive much love in the nba.com annual Rookie Survey of the 36 rookies who attended a league photo shoot in New York earlier this month. Len and fellow Suns rookie Archie Goodwin, the No. 29 pick, attended the event in conjunction with the league’s rookie transition program. The NBA rookies gave votes to 10 rookies who they think will win Rookie of the Year but nobody voted for Len or Goodwin. Fourteen rookies got votes for who will have the best career but nobody voted for Len or Goodwin. And even for who is the most overlooked rookie, the rookies overlooked the Suns but voted for 21 other rookies. Perhaps Len’s ankle surgeries curbed optimism. Maybe it is the assumption that Len will be playing backup minutes to Marcin Gortat. Or they just might not think he will be as good as the Suns believe he will be. Goodwin did get a vote for “most athletic” rookie and “best defender.”
• Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune: When Utah Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin reached out to Alex Jensen about joining his staff, a number of qualities drew him to the D-League Coach of the Year and, likewise, Jensen to Corbin. That Jensen was a Centerville native and played a starring role on the University of Utah team that advanced to the 1998 NCAA championship game was low on Corbin’s list. Presumably, too, was this side benefit to five years playing professionally in Turkey: a unique ability to communicate with Jazz center Enes Kanter. "I’ve already sworn at him [in Turkish]," Jensen said, his permanent half-smile twisting into a full one. "Those are the first words you learn." Before being hired earlier this summer as a Jazz player development assistant, Jensen spent two years as the head coach of the Canton Charge and four years before that on Rick Majerus’ staff at Saint Louis University. His arrival completed the shuffle that began when assistant coach Jeff Hornacek left for the top job with the Phoenix Suns. Jensen, 37, will share player development duties with another Ute, second-year staffer Johnnie Bryant. He said he has already worked with about half of the roster, including in Santa Barbara, Calif., and in workouts between Derrick Favors and Karl Malone.
• Michael Pointer of The Indianapolis Star: The Indiana Pacers’ long playoff run this spring is making it easier for the team’s front office to sell tickets. Todd Taylor, the team’s vice president of sales and marketing, said Tuesday that sales of season-ticket packages are up nearly 30 percent from this time last year. Packages are considered anything 11 games or more because they give the buyer a guarantee to purchase playoff tickets, he said. Per club policy, the Pacers do not reveal total number of season tickets. But Taylor said the 30 percent bump includes about 1,200 new ticket holders. “I still think we’re in growth mode,” Taylor said. “I’ve only been here two years, but we’re certainly seeing a greater level of interest. When your team is relevant, and people accept your phone calls, you have a chance.” Taylor said more than 90 percent of season-ticket holders from last season have renewed their tickets.
• Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press: Negotiations for a $100 million renovation of Target Center finally are moving near completion, with the primary tenant Timberwolves agreeing to pay $44.3 million, the City of Minneapolis $50 million and the AEG sports and entertainment firm still negotiating the remaining $5.7 million. Reaching a deal with AEG, which manages concerts in the arena, had slowed talks. The current controversy between the Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority over whether team ownership has the wherewithal to deliver on its $477 million commitment for a $975 million stadium has caused the City of Minneapolis to be more cautious in negotiations with the Timberwolves. The Wolves say they have been forthcoming with whatever financial information the city sought, and there don't seem to be any issues. The Wolves are hopeful a deal will be approved at a Minneapolis City Council meeting next month. Meetings between Minneapolis and the NBA team took place last Friday, with communications continuing through the weekend, and meetings scheduled for this week.

• Howard Beck of The New York Times: Two seasons ago, Chris Paul joined the Los Angeles Clippers and brought instant credibility to a woebegone franchise. Now he will try to do the same for the debilitated N.B.A. players union. Paul was elected president of the players association Wednesday after making a belated decision to run for office. He defeated Roger Mason Jr., who was elected first vice president at the union’s summer meeting in Las Vegas. Paul’s candidacy was a surprise, even to many union leaders. But his election indicated a recognition by the players that their most influential voices are needed in the most prominent roles. Paul, 28, is the first superstar to hold the president’s title since Patrick Ewing in 2001. He replaced Derek Fisher, whose term expired. … The union is trying to regain its footing after nearly two years of controversy and infighting, and a damning audit that charged Billy Hunter, the executive director, with nepotism and mismanagement of resources. Hunter was fired in February.
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich is widely applauded as the best coach in the NBA. He’s been with the Spurs 18 seasons for a reason. Just don’t try to tell DeJuan Blair about Pop’s coaching greatness. The new Mavericks big man once was an up-and-comer with the Spurs before things went sideways, Tiago Splitter arrived and Blair’s stock went down faster than a margarita on the Riverwalk. So what happened? “I don’t know,” Blair said. “Pop stopped [playing] me. I couldn’t tell you what was going through that man’s head at all. Nobody knows but him.” What was perfectly clear, though, was that Blair needed a change of address. “I had to leave and come here where I think they’ll give me confidence and believe in me,” he said. “I didn’t think they believed in me in San Antonio, so that’s pretty good here. I feel supported. That’s how it is.” … The Mavericks signed him specifically to fill the void that Brand left. As Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said, Blair isn’t afraid of contact. “DeJuan, I think he’s a beast, and he put us on our backs a few times and had no problems dunking on us [when with the Spurs],” Cuban said. “And I think he’s ready to turn that around and send it in the other direction. So yeah, I think DeJuan will help us.”
• Jason Quick of The Oregonian: But I also understand I have not been perfect myself. It's a public stage we are on, and there are times I wish I could take back something I said on the radio, or revealed while being interviewed myself. And there are situations I wish I handled better. Two in particular. First, I badly misplayed the Brandon Roy/Andre Miller saga. I blindly took Roy's side that Miller was a poor fit for the team and that he was killing the Blazers offense because both he and Roy needed to handle the ball. The truth of the matter was Roy was being a big baby. Miller, who would later became one of my favorite players I've ever covered, was too professional, too wise to engage in the debate. "It's just basketball," Miller would say. "I don't see what the problem is." Eventually, I came to understand and appreciate the beauty that was Andre Miller. Later, I told him I was embarrassed how I handled the coverage. That I was wrong. We now greet each other warmly when we see each other, a relationship I take great pride in. The second regret is not focusing on Rasheed Wallace's talents as much as his attitude. Part of that was inevitable. He was such a jerk, such a hothead that his attitude often was the story. But so was his talent -- particularly defensively -- and sometimes I think my disgust for his attitude got in the way of recognizing his play.
• Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune: Corey Brewer was a first-round draft choice (seventh overall) of the Timberwolves in 2007 and, after playing with the Mavericks and Nuggets, is back with the Wolves. He was asked if the fans are going to see a different Brewer than they might remember. “I am a whole different player now,” the 6-9 forward said. “I’m better. I got to go to Dallas and win a championship and learn from guys like Shawn Marion, Jason Terry and Jason Kidd, and I was in Denver and we were winning. It was all about winning. … I feel like I was making the open three. I know how to get my shots and I know what to do and what not to do.”
• Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press: Don’t expect to see a lot of center Josh Harrellson when the Detroit Pistons begin the regular season. If things go according to plan, Harrellson will probably only get minutes when foul trouble, injury or suspension strikes center Andre Drummond and power forward Greg Monroe. But things don’t always go according to plan and Harrellson, 24, has two things the Pistons were looking for — he is young and he can shoot the ball. The Pistons announced the signing today — a two-year deal with a partial guarantee for the first season with a team option for the second season. The Pistons were attracted to the 6-feet-10, 275 pounder gives because he provides size in case of an emergency and he is a 32% career three-point shooter.
• Bernie Augustine of the New York Daily News: The pressure of living up to Linsanity nearly crushed Jeremy Lin during his first season in Houston. The former Knicks phenomenon — who captured the world’s attention during a 25-game stretch with New York two seasons ago — told a crowd in Taiwan that he experienced, “emptiness, confusion and misery” in his first season with the Rockets. “I became so obsessed with becoming a great basketball player ... trying to be Linsanity, being this phenomenon that took the NBA by storm,” the 24-year-old said at the Dream Big, Be Yourself youth conference in Taipei. “The coaches were losing faith in me; basketball fans were making fun of me. ... I was supposed to be joyful and free, but what I experienced was the opposite. I had no joy and I felt no freedom.” Following a breakout season with the Knicks, Lin signed a three-year, $25 million deal with Houston last offseason. Lin stated that he preferred to stay with the Knicks, but Garden chairman James Dolan felt deceived by Lin — who restructed his contract with the Rockets to include a $14.9M third year — and the team declined to match the offer the Harvard-bred point guard got from the Rockets. But Lin couldn’t replicate the run he had with the Knicks in Houston, averaging 13.4 ppg and 6.1 apg. Not unlike the end of his run with New York, Lin sat out the final two games of Houston’s first-round playoff loss to Oklahoma City with an injury.
• Marc Berman of the New York Post: Iman Shumpert said whether Knicks owner James Dolan was ticked at him for allegedly balking at playing in the Las Vegas summer league in July isn’t his problem. Shumpert played just one summer-league game before heading to China and Taiwan to help open an Adidas store and serve as NBA ambassador. The controversy arose when an outtake from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith’s interview with Dwight Howard surfaced on YouTube. During an off-air chat, Smith told Howard he heard Dolan was furious at Shumpert for allegedly not wanting to play summer league and he wanted him traded. Smith said later on his radio show he believed Dolan was no longer peeved because Shumpert showed up. “That’s fine, that’s the media,’’ Shumpert said at yesterday’s Delta Open event with U.S. Open’s No. 1 seed Serena Williams at Madison Square Park. “Things get blown up in this day and age, with social media. It’s crazy. That video got out there and stuff happens. I’m happy to be a Knick. I’m worried about business.” Asked if he knows for certain if Dolan is still irritated, Shumpert said, “I don’t know. It doesn’t concern me. I got to make sure we go out and play basketball.’’
• Tom Couzens of The Sacramento Bee: Though there appears to be nothing to the latest rumors, it's unlikely Fredette will get much playing time this coming season – if he's still with the Kings. The Kings acquired Greivis Vasquez to be their starting point guard, likely pushing incumbent Isaiah Thomas to a backup role. Look for rookie Ray McCallum, who impressed coaches this summer in Las Vegas, to be ahead of Fredette at the point, too. Things are just as crowded at shooting guard, with first-round draft pick Ben McLemore expected to start and Marcus Thornton getting plenty of playing time, too. Throw veteran John Salmons into the mix and that means there will be few minutes for Fredette. So where does that leave the guard who made "Jimmermania" a household word and won every major college award as a senior at BYU just two years ago? … Look for the Kings to try to deal Fredette before the February trade deadline, if not sooner, because it's time for Fredette – and Kings fans – to move on.
• Sean Highkin of USA Today: Roy Hibbert has been in San Antonio recently, working out at the Spurs’ facility. Recently, Tim Duncan joined the Indiana Pacers center and brought some boxing coaches with him to help them with their routines. One thing that jumps out: how much taller Hibbert is than Duncan, one of the most dominant big men in NBA history. The Big Fundamental is in the middle, wearing red, and Hibbert (on the left) totally dwarfs him. Hibbert’s size played a major role in the Pacers’ ability to push the Miami Heat to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals — if they had won that game, they would have faced Duncan’s Spurs in the Finals. Instead, they’re teaming up for offseason workouts.
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun: Final auditions are about to get underway for Canada’s senior men’s basketball squad. Training camp has concluded and now, with only a week remaining before Canada’s most important games in two years, players on the bubble will try to prove their worth in Puerto Rico. Canada will play four games at the Tuto Marchand Continental Cup there, starting Thursday, against the hosts, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. The event is the traditional tuneup for the FIBA Americas tourney, which tips from Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 30. Canada and its three opponents in Puerto Rico will be joined by six other teams in Venezuela, with four berths at next year’s FIBA World Cup in Spain up for grabs. Canada has not competed at a major event since finishing sixth of eight teams at the 2011 FIBA Americas. … Steve Nash was beloved by teammates for his unselfishness on and off the court. Nash used to treat his fellow Canadians to dinner regularly when he was still an active player with the program. New leaders Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph appear to be carrying on the tradition. The pair recently bought every member of the squad custom Team Canada Beats By Dre headphones.

I recently watched "Doin' it in the Park," a love letter to New York City pickup ball in documentary form. The movie is enjoyable because its subjects wax charismatic on NYC's special brand of toughening. Zigzagging on gnarled black top makes you agile, accounting for crooked rims makes you resourceful, the threat of losing and sitting out hours makes you compete harder. Real New Yawk stuff.

It’s a compelling story. But lately, these conditions haven’t produced much in the way of NBA talent. It’s an open mystery why a town like Chicago churns out pro after pro while New York’s “Mecca” status ebbs towards distant memory.

The question on my mind is whether it's not just that city, but also "the park" that's falling behind.

A few of the league’s rising young players hail from a specific kind of background: They had a parent who played professional basketball. Kevin Love, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving all claim fathers who worked hard in passing their old vocation to the next generation.

The other common thread is that all these guys can shoot. In the case of Curry and Thompson, they might comprise the “greatest shooting backcourt in the history of the game." It’s no guarantee that NBA pedigree makes for a sweet jumper (Austin Rivers has certainly struggled), but it’s rare to see the second generation pro baller who flat can’t shoot. You wouldn’t want to leave Mike Dunleavy Jr., Wesley Matthews Jr., Jeffery Taylor, or even John Lucas III open behind the arc. Unfortunately for spacing-starved Memphis, you can let Terry Davis’ son Ed shoot.

Davis is also aberrational in that he’s a high-flying athlete. The NBA sons are a largely ground-bound lot, even if Stephen Curry was recently spotted reverse jamming. Setting aside my suspicion the Warriors hired a convincing Stephen stunt double, the lack of athleticism among second-gen players contradicts an easy “inherited” narrative, pervasive among League Pass announcers when they discuss these familially familiar talents. If it were as simple as “player receive genes,” one generation’s high leapers would raise the next generation’s high leapers.

Instead, junior is a highly skilled shooter, and such a skill can be helped along massively by one’s environment. Sure, Stephen Curry might have come out of the womb with father Dell’s jump shot. But you can also bet your life Dell Curry wouldn’t have just allowed his young son to keep shooting with, say, Rajon Rondo’s elbow-jutted form. NBA dads obviously have a facility with certain basketball abilities, often combined with the means and inclination make it manifest in their kids. They have access to great coaches, great camps, anything you need to turn your child into the optimal basketball robot.

Roughly one year ago, The New Yorker ran a story about a renowned “quarterback guru” and the thousands he charged for turning kids into promising prospects. Quarterbacking may never claim the high bar of entry that, say, becoming a concert violinist requires, but the article’s implication was that money goes a long way in determining a very specific kind of athletic success. The same rules could apply to the jump shot, merely one aspect of the NBA game -- but an increasingly essential one.

Much like swinging a golf club, a jump shot is a deceptively simple motion wherein a lot can go wrong. It follows that shooting skill is probably more easily developed when conditions are ideal (Read: Not in the parks of "Doin’ it in the Park.") It’s better to be in a gym, away from the wind and rain. It’s better to have an involved coach who subjects you to repetitive drills, correcting any mistakes. The guide hand, bent elbow, follow through -- these tend not to be intrinsic behaviors. Guidance begets the guide hand.

Ironic given his pedigree, the aforementioned Ed Davis was present for a dramatic demonstration on the importance of shooting in the modern NBA. His Grizzlies couldn’t shoot, so the Spurs squeezed off the paint until Memphis suffocated. Rule changes have led to a spread-out style, and teams are taking more 3-pointers than ever. Big men are less offensively involved than they used to be. A lack of perimeter shooting can make for a severe offensive disadvantage in a way it just didn't years ago. San Antonio’s sweep was the apotheosis of how spacing is dictating offense. The Grizzlies, rather than standing pat this offseason, giddily snapped up sweet-shooting Mike Miller after he was amnestied. It was a matter of survival.

So, if perimeter shooting is of growing importance in the NBA, there’s a decent chance it’s changing the league’s demographic landscape. The NBA, long known as an inner city beacon of hope, may draw an increasing number of players from the wealthier suburbs where parents spend thousands on obsessive basketball camps. If money talks, it can certainly tell you how to shoot better, in a sport that demands shooting. The park is a great place, but it’s not a given that it can reliably forge ever kind of NBA greatness.

This is mere supposition and could remain so for years given the small sample size we’re discussing and the vagaries of NBA player biographies (many basketball prospects move from school to school, searching for the best-fitting hoops program). I should also mention that a few current excellent shooters speak of humble city beginnings, most notably Kevin Durant. The NBA's just seen a surprising influx of dead-eye shooters born to former professional players. These players, many of whom had hoops in their backyards, year-round access to climate-controlled gyms and shooting coaches are looking at the park and lofting a jumper over it.

• Brad Rock of the Deseret News: I believed this in June and I haven’t changed my mind: The Jazz didn’t have a lot of options. They knew where they were going with the Jefferson-Millsap approach – mid-to-low end of the conference. Better to roll the dice. It’s going to be painful and with what they have now, it won’t be smooth. They’re at least two All-Stars away from being serious, maybe more. In fact, Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko and Devin Harris were All-Stars and even played on the same Jazz teams. They didn’t go far. Neither will this team, as it stands. I know it’s early, but this might be a good time for Jazz fans to temper expectations. Sports Illustrated can see that from a distance. From up close, it might have looked better a couple of months ago than it really was.
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: Injuries almost have turned Malcolm Lee into an NBA stranger. Lee logged barely more games in two years with the Minnesota Timberwolves (35) than he did as a UCLA junior (33). He has undergone two surgeries on each knee and a hip surgery and was acquired in June by the Suns mostly because they had to take on his contract to move up one draft spot for Archie Goodwin. Lee, 23, is trying to make sure you have not seen the last of him. Or that you are about to see the first of him. He has been in Phoenix for the past month, working with Suns athletic trainers with the belief that he will be ready to participate when the team heads to Flagstaff for training camp on Sept. 30. He has a guaranteed $884,000 contract, but the Suns also will have 15 other guaranteed contracts with a maximum of 15 regular-season roster spots. The Suns believe in Lee’s talent, but it is a matter of the 6-foot-5 guard’s health and whether he can recapture his athleticism and show his defensive aptitude.
• Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times: Kobe Bryant continued to push his way back from a torn Achilles tendon, releasing a video of his workout via Instagram on Monday. The clip shows Bryant running on the Alter-G, the weight-bearing treadmill. While he has been walking on the Alter G for some time during his recovery, Bryant has clearly increased his pace. The Lakers All-Star guard was injured April 12 in a win over the Golden State Warriors. He had surgery the following day. While touring China, Bryant said he has "shattered" his recovery timetable, but more recently, Bryant said he's not sure if he'll make it back in time for opening night (Oct. 29). The original timetable for his recovery was six to nine months. Bryant also tweeted that he won't forget about what was said and written since his injury.
• Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Q: Is this job harder than you thought it’d be? Flip Saunders: No. When I coached, I was always pretty active in the personnel side of things. Were there some challenges? Yeah, there were, challenges trying to change the culture — how we operate internally and externally — so all parties understand what you’re trying to do. Q: Anything you understand now about the job that you didn’t four months ago? Flip Saunders: I don’t think so. People talk about the importance of the agents and how they can dictate things; I believe my year with ESPN helped me tremendously in dealing with media and even agents. You understand these people have an agenda and you have to respect what their agenda is. It might not be the same as yours, and you might not like what they’re doing, but it’s not out of spite to you. It’s because they have a job to do. You have to respect that. I understand that more now, and I don’t take it maybe as seriously, to be honest, as I would have in the past. Q Any roster needs you still need to address? Flip Saunders: I don’t think we have any needs. Right now, talking to Rick, we feel comfortable with the roster we have. Not only is it balanced, but we feel we have talent at every position. I’ve talked a lot about this team and there are pretty good players out there we don’t even talk about right now: Derrick Williams, J.J. Barea, Dante Cunningham. When you put all those guys together with who we’ve added, you’ve got to feel comfortable.
• Gary Dzen of The Boston Globe: Based on this team's current roster, do you see them winning more than 30 games? This means last place in the East. Larry, Tallahassee, Fla. Have you seen the Bobcats play, Larry? In all seriousness, 30 is a good number to debate. Fans seem to be all over the place on where this team finishes, but I'm in the camp that the losses of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, as well as Rajon Rondo's recovery from knee surgery, leave the Celtics in a bad spot. Add in a new coach and a repetitive roster I'll go jus over and say the Celtics win 31 games. That leaves them out of the playoffs but maybe ahead of the Bobcats.
• Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com: We're in the midst of what is considered the slow time of the NBA offseason. It's a place in time where Ivan Johnson thought he would have had his next stop locked up already. But he isn't expected to be available past August. A source close to the power forward informed CSNNW.com that Johnson is issuing NBA teams a two-week deadline to come up with a reasonable offer. If no NBA offer presents itself, Johnson will bite on one of his several overseas offers. The source who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of these talks says, “Johnson will be fine either way, as long as he is playing the game of basketball.” The New York Knicks were one of the NBA teams inquiring about Johnson early on, however they have not reached out at the same regularity, another source told CSNNW.com.
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Monday proved to be a day of minor details for the Miami Heat, both halfway around the world and halfway across the country. In Australia, Heat second-round acquisition James Ennis, the swingman out of Long Beach State, was introduced as the newest member of the Perth Wildcats. In Sioux Falls, S.D., Heat scout Pat Delany was introduced as coach and Heat Director of Player Personnel Adam Simon as general manager of the NBA Development League Skyforce, the Heat's minor-league affiliate. In addition, Heat player-development coach/advance scout Octavio De La Grana was confirmed as an assistant coach for Delany. To a degree, the events were related, with Ennis bypassing the opportunity to play for the Heat's D-League affiliate in favor of a more lucrative contract in Australia. Both Ennis and Perth coach Trevor Gleeson downplayed the opt-out in Ennis' Wildcats contract that would allow him to return to the Heat at any point if summoned this season.
• Ben Standig of CSN Washington: As for a return to Washington, it seemed highly unlikely even from the moment the Wizards acquired him (Jason Collins) from the Celtics in a deal for Jordan Crawford. It still does especially since there isn't actually a roster spot to spare after Al Harrington's signing brought the roster to full capacity with 15 members. It still would even if the team opened space by trading one of their frontcourt options elsewhere. Then again, the playoff-pushing Wizards would arguably be better off with a third center, even one with no scoring prowess, rather than a plethora of young forwards whose respective NBA roles remain rather undefined. Teammates last year praised Collins' ability to set screens in the context of helping the team produce points even if said points rarely came directly under the names Collins. Since many assume Nene will miss a chunk of the season at some point for some ailment, why not have another big man option. Until or if the Wizards make another move that opens up a roster spot, there is nothing to ponder. Even then, not so much, or even a little.
• Rustin Dodd of The Wichita Eagle: Thomas Robinson averaged just 4.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 15.9 minutes before the Kings shipped him to Houston in a late February trade. If the situation is Sacramento was untenable, the stint in Houston wasn’t much smoother. The Rockets had a logjam at power forward, and when the franchise had a chance to sign free agent center Dwight Howard this offseason, the team sent Robinson to Portland in a salary-dump move. “Up and down,” Robinson said, “rookie roller coaster.” For now, though, the ride appears to have slowed down a bit, and Robinson will have the opportunity for a fresh start with the Trail Blazers. He’ll join a young core that includes power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and point guard Damian Lillard, the league’s reigning rookie of the year. And most importantly, Robinson says, he finally feels wanted. “They’re constantly behind me,” Robinson said. “I’ve been up and down through my rookie year (with) two teams already. So for them to come in and make me feel like it’s gonna be a home for me is definitely a big deal.”
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban is certainly one of the most influential people in the Dallas area and when it comes to the NBA, he’s got lots of clout, too. On Tuesday, he’ll be unveiled as a mover and shaker in the world of mixed martial arts when USA Today names the “25 Most Powerful People in MMA.” Cuban checked in at 13th, along with Andrew Simon, who is his CEO of Fights at AXS TV. The pair turned then-HDNet into a home for MMA bouts back in the early days of the sport, seeing an opportunity. As two of the pioneers of giving the sport a platform for exposure, Cuban and Simon understood from the start the popularity that MMA would gain and gave the sport instant credibility. “If we weren’t going to be great at it, there was no reason to do it,” Cuban said in the special edition of MMAjunkie.com magazine, which produced a first-time print edition of 70 pages to chronicle the 25 heavyweights of the sport.
• Tony Bizjak and Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento's arena war hit new levels of intensity this week after Seattle financier Chris Hansen was revealed as the secret source of money for a petition drive to put the city's arena plans to a public vote. Seizing on outrage at the news, arena supporters took to the streets Saturday, hanging more than 1,000 fliers on front doors asking residents who signed the petitions to withdraw their signatures. "Don't let Seattle money steal away our chance at 4,000 jobs for Sacramento!" the fliers urged. Arena backers, a group that includes many of the city's prominent business people and politicians, argue the Seattle funding offers proof that the two-month-old petition drive is really an attempt to derail the city's downtown arena plans and push the Kings out of town. Yet Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork, the group behind the ballot measure, insists it is a homegrown effort, aimed at giving voters a voice. Its leaders today vowed to come back fighting - possibly with a local fundraising effort.