October 21, 2011 – NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog

Warriors assistant coach Michael Malone talks defense

Here is Golden State Warriors assistant Michael Malone talking about the team’s defensive goals to CSN Bay Area:

“We’re going to be a defensive team. The Golden State Warriors are going to defend every night. We’re going to rebound. We’re still going to look to run but run with discipline — not just running and taking bad shots.

The last thing is taking care of the basketball. If we can do those four things every night, we feel we’ll have a chance to be a successful team. But it starts with the defense, finishing off that possession with a rebound — which they did a very poor job of last year – and then we still want to look to attack.

There’s a common misperception that you cannot be a good defensive team and still be a good running team. We don’t want to take away from our guys’ creativity and their ability to get out and run. They do that very well here.

The difference is we want to run off misses and rebounds instead of taking the ball out of the net and looking to run all the time. So, defend, rebound, run with discipline and value the basketball. Those are the four things we’re going to harp on day in and day out.”

— Reported by Matt Steinmetz of CSN Bay Area

Michael Beasley slims down, takes up ballet

Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley has kept busy during an extended, locked-out NBA summer when he played ball everywhere from China to Manhattan’s famed asphalt playgrounds.

He has also taken up ballet to transform his body and hired a public- relations agency to improve his image.

“I want everyone to know that I’m not this monster that they perceive,” he said. “I’m a really nice guy.” …

He has played with childhood pal Durant and Wall in exhibition games across the country and also has incorporated elements of yoga, karate and, yes, ballet into summer workouts intended to make his body stronger, more limber and help ensure a long, productive career. He has dropped about 15 pounds after playing last season at 240 pounds.

— Reported by Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Driver of Derrick Rose car arrested for DUI

Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose strolled out of an LAPD station at 3:00 AM today … after his BFF was arrested for DUI … and Derrick was a passenger in the car.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ …. the 2011 NBA MVP was a passenger in a black BMW being driven by his close friend and personal assistant Randall Hampton … when cops stopped the car on a routine traffic violation at around 2:00 AM Friday morning.

When cops spoke to Hampton — who played junior college basketball with Rose in Texas — officers claim they detected the odor of alcohol.

— Reported by TMZ

Mike Brown will use Lakers assistants differently than Phil Jackson did

Brown plans to handle his coaching staff differently than former coach Phil Jackson. Jackson assigned specific scouting responsibilities to his four assistants, Brian Shaw, Jim Cleamons, Frank Hamblen and Chuck Person. Brown said at a recent appearance for the release of the video game NBA2K12 that he plans to have all of his assistants, including Person, John Kuester, Quin Snyder and Ettore Messina, coach in all phases of the game.

“Our guys need to hear my voice quite a bit,” Brown said. “I’ll lead the charge in a lot of areas on both ends of the floor. But I’m not one to have my coaches sit back and do nothing. They have to get out there and work. I don’t care what side of the ball we’re on. I don’t care what we’re teaching at that particular time. They’re all coaches. None of them are specialists. They can all coach at both ends of the floor.”

— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times Blog

Carmelo Anthony has huge exhibition basketball game plans for the NYC area

Carmelo Anthony’s plans for his barnstorming all-star game in the New York area keeps getting bigger.

During an appearance in Greenwich Village on Thursday, the Knicks forward said he’d like to house the all-star charity event at an 18,000-seat arena, with Izod Center in the Meadowlands being considered.

Anthony said the event, which he hopes will include at least nine All-Stars, will take place around Thanksgiving, unless the NBA lockout is settled.

Fellow Knicks star Amar’e Stoudemire, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul are all committed. Even if Anthony has to go across the Hudson River, he’ll do it. The Garden, as an NBA tenant, is off limits, as is the Nets’ Prudential Center because of the lockout.

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post Blog

Mayor Kevin Johnson says Sacramento arena effort will proceed as planned

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Thursday his effort to build a sports and entertainment complex downtown will move forward despite today’s announcement that the National Basketball Association and its players’ union have broken off contract talks.

The league earlier this month canceled the first two weeks of the season. Further cancellations are expected as a result of today’s negotiations breakdown.

Johnson issued a statement reiterating his intention to build an arena for sports, concerts and other events, regardless of whether the Sacramento Kings play in it this year, or at any time.

— Reported by Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee

Deron Williams catches heat in Turkey for wearing wrong backpack colors

Deron Williams, from Turkey: “Rivalries are big over here. If you know anything about European soccer, you know that fans take their rivalries very seriously. It’s the same in basketball. I had no clue, and my backpack almost got me in trouble. I have this backpack that I made on Nike ID a while back and it’s black, red and yellow. Black and red are my favorite colors, and yellow is in there for the black and gold to represent the Steelers. But apparently black, red and yellow are the colors of one of our biggest rivals, Galatasaray. I’ve been hearing about it since the day I got over here; as soon as I got to the airport. Right then, like five people told me I had on the wrong color.”

More D-Will: “I still wear the backpack because it’s my backpack. I like it and I haven’t had a chance to get a new one. Every day they tell me to take it off; that I have to get a new one. Our other big rival in the Turkish League is Fenerbahce and we play them coming up in a few weeks here. They’re the two-time defending Turkish Cup champions and last year they beat Besiktas in the finals, so that’s a big game. I’m told the fans always get amped up for those games. We don’t play Galatasaray until December. If I’m still here, I might have to bring a new backpack that day.”

— Reported by Jared Zwerling of ESPN New York

David West cleared to return from knee injury

After six months of rehabilitation on his surgically repaired left knee, New Orleans Hornets forward David West has been fully cleared to return to basketball, his agent told Yahoo! Sports.

West, who will be one of the top free agents once the NBA negotiates a new labor agreement with the players, was given complete clearance after an exam with Dr. David Altchek at the Hospital for Special Surgeries on Thursday…

West, 31, opted out of the final year and $7.5 million on his contract in New Orleans to become an unrestricted free agent.

— Reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports

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