October 7, 2013 – Page 2 – NBA Blog

Detroit Pistons may speed up. Or not.

The Palace crowd at the open practice saw Cheeks unleash a quiet wrath early on Saturday, when the players didn’t seem to take a drill too seriously and he made them run wind sprints to get them refocused.

But running as a whole is something Pistons players have privately bemoaned and sometimes publicly hinted at in recent seasons — which Cheeks agrees with in theory, not necessarily in application when having a bigger frontline.

“All players say they want to play fast and want to run, but it’s not that easy to do,” Cheeks said. “Particularly when you have a couple big guys. If you play fast, you have to wait for them.”

Andre Drummond and Josh Smith can fly up and down a floor on a quick turnaround or turnover, and while Greg Monroe isn’t the fastest big man, he’s still mobile enough to beat opposing bigs down the floor for positioning.

Reported by Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News

Phil Jackson gave Nuggets coach Brian Shaw lesson in patience

If you’re wondering if the Phil Jackson pupil has sought the advice of Phil Jackson, the answer is yes.

To a point.

Nuggets coach Brian Shaw has reached out to the former Lakers coach, a man he played for and coached with during his time in Los Angeles, and the best piece of advice he received from Jackson was patience.

“I’m laid back by nature, anyway,” Shaw said. “Phil had a lot of patience and he allowed for the players to kind of figure some things out on their own. I’ve been kind of trying to do the same thing, not spoon feeding them everything, but just enough and see who has the ability to figure out what they need to do.”

Reported by Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post

Timberwolves want Alexey Shved to show his love of the game more

Riffing off a theme, new Timberwolves center Ronny Turiaf spends his days, among many other things, urging teammate Alexey Shved to smile more.

Last season, TNT’s wired microphone caught Ricky Rubio imploring Shved to “Change your face, be happy, enjoy it” coming out of a timeout in a video snippet that careened around the Internet.

Now Turiaf unknowingly has joined the chorus, encouraging the second-year Russian guard to play with more joy and less concern for his errors while coach Rick Adelman just wants Shved to become more “engaged” when he’s playing off the ball.

“If Alexey smiles, everything else takes care of itself,” Turiaf said. “If he doesn’t smile, he’s a different player.”

Much has changed for Shved since a rookie season in which his ball-handling and playmaking tantalized at times. But as plain as day, he also slammed into that rookie wall in the final months during a year when he played more minutes than anyone imagined.

Now he is a year wiser and stronger — “I make muscles,” he says — even if the wiry 6-6 combo guard still weighs the same starting a season when he no longer has fellow countryman Andrei Kirilenko by his side.

Reported by Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Xavier Henry playing through sprained wrist

Nothing appears will stop Xavier Henry from trying to prove he’s worthy of cracking the Lakers’ roster.

The team divulged he suffered a moderately sprained right wrist during the Lakers’ 97-88 preseason loss Sunday to the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center. But both Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni and Henry downplayed the severity of the injury.

D’Antoni revealed Henry had been nursing the injury for “a couple weeks,” apparently hurting the injury during a pick-up game before training cap began eight days ago. Henry said the pain simply worsened because he “fell on it hard” Sunday during an undisclosed play.

“I’m okay,” Henry said.

Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)

Wesley Johnson to get MRI on strained left foot

The Lakers are holding out hope that it’s nothing serious, but forward Wesley Johnson will undergo an MRI Monday after straining his left foot in the Lakers’ 97-88 preseason loss Sunday to the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center.

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said Johnson experienced a “burning sensation” in his foot, but it seems unclear what caused the injury.

“He doesn’t know,” D’Antoni said.

Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)