Month: October 2008

Heat waive Matt Walsh

The Miami HEAT announced today that they have requested waivers on Matt Walsh.

The 6’6”, 205-pound forward, was signed by the HEAT as a free agent on September 26, 2008. Last season, he appeared in 18 games with Ricoh Manresa of the Spanish ACB League and averaged 11.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.30 steals last season. He then joined TEC Spirou Charleroi of the Belgian League and appeared in 14 games averaging 12.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

He previously signed with the HEAT as an undrafted free agent on August 15, 2005, playing in two games totaling three minutes while finishing with two points as he connected on his only field goal attempt before being waived on November 18, 2005.

Heat sign Shaun Livingston and waive Tre Kelley

The Miami HEAT announced today that they have signed free agent guard Shaun Livingston and requested waivers on guard Tre Kelley. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Heat have bench-quality point guards, so they’re giving Livingston a shot. Before his injury, it seemed like Shaun would keep developing into a capable starter. He was playing under 30 minutes a game, scoring under 10 points but putting up nice, well-rounded numbers. He wasn’t a sure future star, but the possibility existed. Right now, though, until proven otherwise, Shaun is a bench project as he works his way back. Here’s more on him:

Livingston, a 6’7”, 185-pound guard, appeared in 145 games (60 starts) with the Los Angeles Clippers and averaged 7.4 points, 4.8 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 0.94 steals in 27.2 minutes while shooting 44.0 percent from the field and 71.0 percent from the foul line. In his last season (2006-07) with the Clippers, he led the team in assists per game (5.1) and set career highs in games started (31), minutes per game (29.9), field goals made (208), field goal attempts (449), field goal percentage (.463), free throws made (82), free throws attempted (116), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.54), rebounds per game (3.4), steals per game (1.09), and blocks per game (0.54).

“Shaun Livingston was one of the best young players to come into the draft in a long, long time. We feel very fortunate to be able to sign him and help us rebuild our program,” said HEAT President Pat Riley.

Livingston, the fourth overall selection in the 2004 NBA Draft, was named the Western Conference got milk? Rookie of the Month for April of 2005 after averaging 11.0 points, 7.4 assists, 1.40 steals and 35.9 minutes in 10 games.

Kelley was signed by the HEAT on September 26, 2008 as a free agent.

Nuggets sign Juwan Howard

The Denver Nuggets have signed F Juwan Howard to their training camp roster, team Vice President of Basketball Operations Mark Warkentien announced today. Both local newspapers covering the Nuggets have said this will be a nonguaranteed deal.

Howard, a 14-year NBA veteran, played in 50 games for the Dallas Mavericks last season. In 1,001 career regular season games, he has averaged 15.3 ppg and 6.8 rpg and was an All-Star with Washington in 1996.

Howard, 6-9, 250, played in 105 games for the Nuggets from 2002-03, averaging 18.3 ppg and 7.7 rpg. Originally drafted by Washington with the fifth overall pick of the 1995 NBA Draft, he has also played for Orlando and Houston.

The addition of Howard brings Denver’s training camp roster to 19 players.

Mavericks name Paul Westphal VP of basketball operations

The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have named Paul Westphal executive vice president of basketball operations. He will work directly with President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Donnie Nelson and assist in all areas of management as well as scouting.

Westphal, a 12-year NBA veteran, brings 25 years of coaching experience to his new role. Westphal owns a .627 winning percentage as an NBA coach and led the Phoenix Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals. In 1995, he became the second-fastest coach in NBA history to reach 150 wins. The Suns surpassed the 55-win mark in each of his three seasons in Phoenix. Last season, Westphal served as an assistant coach for the Mavericks.

As a player, Westphal was the 10th overall selection by the Boston Celtics in the 1972 NBA Draft. His career included stints in Boston, Phoenix, New York and Seattle. He was a member of the 1974 NBA Champion Boston Celtics and played in the 1976 Finals as a member of the Suns.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are to add Westy to our management team,” Nelson said. “The Mavericks have gained a valuable asset. As a player and coach, Paul has pretty much seen and done it all. He has a wealth of experience and expertise. Now he has the opportunity to apply that knowledge on the management side of the ball and the Mavericks are a much better team for it.”

Jared Jeffries breaks leg

The Bergen Record (Steve Adamek) reports via blog: Jared Jeffries was supposed to have a significant role in Mike D’Antoni’s rotation this season, even playing a little center as the Knicks’ version of Boris Diaw, whom D’Antoni played everywhere in Phoenix. Instead, the player considered a disappointment his first two seasons in New York after Isiah Thomas signed him to a five-year, $30 million mid-level salary cap-exception deal will start his third straight season injured after breaking his leg landing awkwardly late in Thursday’s practice. The team estimates he’ll miss six to eight weeks.

The New York Post (Marc Berman) reports: Jeffries had so impressed the new coaching staff and D’Antoni all but admitted he would be part of their expected nine-man rotation, classifying him as a center. D’Antoni felt he was misused as a small forward. “He’s 6-11, 250 pounds, that spells center to me,” D’Antoni said before the bad news. “He’s big, running the floor, great defensive player. He worked on his shot all summer, came ready to play. The guy does lots of things.”

Brian Cook out of shape

Florida Today (John Denton) reports: Despite losing weight and getting back healthy over the summer, Orlando Magic forward Brian Cook has still managed to work his way into head coach Stan Van Gundy’s doghouse. Three days into training camp and it’s already apparent that Cook’s conditioning isn’t where the Magic would like for it to be. It certainly isn’t a serious situation this early in camp, as Van Gundy pointed out, but it could hurt Cook’s chances of getting significant minutes off the bench as the backup power forward.

Suns offense to change a bit

The Arizona Republic (Paul Coro) reports: The Suns’ offense will be different. Based on what sets coach Terry Porter has implemented in two days, it appears that it will be more motion-oriented and deliberate at times. Porter embraces a transition game to reward stops, but there will be no constant “run-and-gun.” It’s more “cut-and-what?” now as they learn plays. “From what I’ve seen so far it’s very different, but he’s not going to throw everything at us at once,” forward Grant Hill said. “It’ll be interesting to see if we totally get away from some of the old stuff.” Porter has used each session to walk the Suns through plays. Part of the reason Porter was hired was his ability to blend new and old, having spent time as a player and coach under Rick Adelman’s similar style. Under Mike D’Antoni, the Suns averaged 110.1 points last season and led the NBA in field-goal shooting the past three seasons. Alvin Gentry returned to the Suns bench, in part to help maintain some of the offense… Don’t expect Amaré Stoudemire experimenting out there anymore. He wants to post up more.

Donte Green does not know defense

The Sacramento Bee (Melody Gutierrez) reports on Kings rookie Donte Green: “I’ve got my work cut out for me,” Reggie Theus said after Tuesday’s training camp session. “(Greene plays) great offense and has no basic understanding of how to play defense.” Theus said he considers the forward a “project player,” because he has “never really been taught anything about defense at all.” Greene admits his weakness, saying it has been a tough transition from his season at Syracuse, where the Orange played zone defense. “Before that, he was in high school, where they don’t learn anything about defense,” Theus said. “But it’s OK, because he’s got a lot of room to grow.”

Michael Curry bleeds Pistons colors

The Detroit Free Press (Drew Sharp) reports: The Pistons always have been Michael Curry’s second family. It’s basically why he replaced Flip Saunders as head coach. It bothered owner Bill Davidson that Saunders didn’t move his family to Detroit when he succeeded Larry Brown three years ago. Davidson made a point of reminding everybody that Curry doesn’t just work in the area. He lives here. He’s part of the community. He travels with Michigan State’s football team as often as possible to follow his son Deon, a senior wide receiver. That heightened sense of family might not translate into more playoff victories, but it definitely has helped Curry persevere.

Jazz center Kyrylo Fesenko out of shape

The Salt Lake Tribune (Ross Siler) reports: For the second consecutive day, Jazz center Kyrylo Fesenko could be found working out on the court with Jeff Hornacek before the team bus arrived for evening practice at training camp. However encouraging the sight might have been, coach Jerry Sloan made clear Wednesday that Fesenko’s conditioning still leaves much to be desired for a player entering his second season. Sloan said Fesenko has yet to “realize the importance of being in great shape, because when you aren’t in great shape, you have a tendency to always be behind, whether it’s offensively or defensively or reacting, and those things really hurt you.”

InsideHoops.com editor says: Fesenko’s first name has two Y’s, in seemingly random places. That’s bound to cause conditioning problems.