Inside Hoops – Page 1180 – NBA Blog

DeJuan Blair plans to have fun against Spurs

Here’s the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on DeJuan Blair of the Dallas Mavericks, who may be quite excited to battle his former team:

DeJuan Blair plans to have fun tonight against the Spurs

If there’s ever a player who wears his emotions on his sleeves, it’s DeJuan Blair.

And right now, the Dallas Mavericks’ center is walking around with a lot of pin-up emotions.

Blair is still steamed at the way the San Antonio Spurs treated him last season. Especially since they barely played him at all against Miami during the NBA Finals in a series Blair believes he could have helped the Spurs win if given the chance to play.

Thus, when Blair became a free agent, signed a one-year, $884,293 contract with the Mavs, and then saw that their first game against the Spurs was today, he made a big fat circle around it on his calendar.

Chicago Bulls assign Marquis Teague to D-League

The Chicago Bulls announced today the team has assigned guard Marquis Teague to the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League (D-League).

Teague (6-2, 190) has appeared in 19 games (two starts) for the Bulls this season and averaged 2.4 ppg, 1.5 apg and 1.0 rpg in 12.7 mpg.

Teague was selected by Chicago in the first round (29th overall) of the 2012 NBA Draft, after helping lead the University of Kentucky to the 2012 NCAA Championship.

Brooklyn Nets struggling in dramatic fashion

Here’s the New York Daily News reporting on the Brooklyn Nets, who on Wednesday lost at home to the Chicago Bulls:

The Nets have now dropped four straight games, and the holiday season only grows more desperate from here. After one gimme at home Friday against Milwaukee, they embark on a three-game road trip to Indiana, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. So you can put them down right now for seven losses in eight games and a probable 10-22 mark, as they fade even faster than the Knicks. The Nets are free-falling into such a deep hole right now that Kidd has begun to look and sound as defeated as his team, rarely getting off his chair anymore to rally the disheartened, inert troops.

Kidd has now scolded his players many times for their performances, to no avail. He has benched guys. He has tried to simplify the offense. He’s euphemized all the slumps as “a process.” He has demoted Lawrence Frank, the defensive specialist. He doesn’t appear to have any tricks left. If Mikhail Prokhorov finally threatens to replace his coach, you get the feeling Kidd might quote Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”: “Go ahead and shoot. You’ll be doing me a favor.”

The rout on Wednesday was all too remindful of what happened last spring, when Chicago came to Brooklyn and stole Game 7 in the playoffs. That defeat resulted in the firing of P.J. Carlesimo and the mortgaging of the team’s future for a core of Celtic players who were supposed to transform the Nets into something much tougher and meaner than this.

Omer Asik still trying to recover from knee injury

Here’s the Houston Chronicle with a report on Rockets center Omer Asik, who has been on the trading block for much of this season:

Omer Asik struggles with recovery from knee injury

The Rockets were not only still without center Omer Asik – and will not have him for the immediate future at least – they were also still unsure why he has been unable to make improvement from his injury.

Asik has repeatedly been able to make strides and greatly increase workouts, but each time he seems close to being able to return, the swelling in his knee returns. The Rockets sent him for the more detailed MRI last week, but it showed no damage to the knee. They have sent those test results to another expert, hoping to get a better idea of why the problem remains so persistent.

Asik initially went out after a bruised thigh Dec. 2. Swelling developed in his knee soon after, forcing him to miss the next 11 games, an absence made an even greater issue with backup center Greg Smith also out.

Isaiah Thomas having great season for Sacramento Kings

Here’s the Sacramento Bee reporting on 5-9, 185-pound Kings guard Isaiah Thomas, who is having an impressive season:

Since being drafted at No. 60 in 2011 – a resounding last – Thomas has nudged Tyreke Evans off the ball, outperformed his more celebrated teammate Jimmer Fredette, outplayed veteran Aaron Brooks, beat out Greivis Vasquez, the pass-first point guard who was acquired during the offseason and traded again before the turkey and dressing had cooled.

Finally, or for now at least since there should be nothing final about a team with an 8-19 record, Thomas has his own team to run. And he has shown no signs of slowing down. In his eight games as lead guard, he is averaging 20.9 points, 7.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds, numbers that most diminutive NBA guards of the modern era (Muggsy Bogues, Earl Boykins, Nate Robinson, Keith Jennings, Spud Webb, among them) couldn’t reach with a step ladder.

“I’ve always been the shortest guy out there,” Thomas said the other night, “and always had to make adjustments. You have to use different moves, tactics, either to shoot over the defense or get past people.”

A sampling of the left-hander’s favorite offerings include high-arching floaters, 3-pointers in transition, stepback 19-footers, hesitation dribble-drives that freeze defenders and open the lane for dunks, bank shots, layups and an increasing array of off-balance circus shots he admits stealing from colleagues Steve Nash, Jason Terry and Chris Paul, all of whom beat him by a few inches.

Gilbert Arenas hopes for NBA comeback

Here’s TMZ reporting on a former beloved NBA player who really should keep the sneakers hung up in the closet at this point. It’s unlikely that any team would sign Gilbert Arenas at this point, but here’s the story:

Gilbert Arenas has had a change of heart … telling TMZ Sports he’s abandoned his plans to retire from pro basketball … and he’s currently training to RETURN TO THE NBA!!

It was just last month, Agent Zero told us he was walking away from the sport forever … happily … ’cause he’s still got another $38 million coming his way from the $111 million contract he signed with the Washington Wizards back in the day.

Dirk Nowitzki, still an NBA star

Here’s the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, who is still a force in basketball:

The greatness that is Dirk Nowitzki struck again Monday night at the Toyota Center.

Nowitzki poured in a game-high 31 points and converted 11-of-18 shots while leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 111-104 victory over the Houston Rockets. Afterward, leave it to forward Vince Carter to explain why Nowitzki will go down in history as one of the greatest to ever play in the NBA.

“He’s very confident and he understands who he is and how he can dominate the game,” Carter said. “And that’s a dangerous player to me is a guy who knows, ‘Hey, I might not take you off the dribble, but at the same time, I’m going to score all day.’

“He has you at his mercy, and I think he also does a great job of just letting [the game] come to him.”

Kevin Garnett discusses Nets struggles

The Brooklyn Nets are 9-18 and have had a very tough season. In their defense, injuries have played a big factor in their struggles. Still, the team is under-performing. Here’s the New York Daily News reporting:

Kevin Garnett discusses Brooklyn Nets struggles

A day after Jason Kidd blasted the Nets as being comfortable with losing, Kevin Garnett acknowledged they were a team without an identity – another depressing admission about a third into the season — but stopped short of seconding his coach.

“I wouldn’t agree with that. Personally, I can only control myself and I’d never step on the floor if I never was going to accept anything less than (wanting to win),” Garnett said ahead of Brooklyn’s Christmas noon showdown against the Bulls at Barclays Center. “I’m not built like that, and I don’t think my teammates are built like that. Obviously we’re going through a tough time. That’s (Kidd’s) assessment. I don’t think it’s true.”

Garnett, 37, again reiterated that his lack of production this season is a result of his reduced role, not a personal struggle or a decline in his game.

Still, he admitted — somewhat stubbornly — that might have to change with the season-ending injury to Brook Lopez. Garnett is averaging just 6.7 points while shooting 37.5% in 22 minutes per game – career lows, by far, if sustained.

Former UNLV star proposes new sports arena on the Las Vegas strip

Here’s the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporting on an interesting possibility:

Former UNLV and NBA basketball player Jackie Robinson is proposing a $1.3 billion, privately funded 22,000-seat arena and resort on the Strip. The $1.3 billion includes $690 million for the arena.

Robinson is calling it, for now, the All Net Arena and Resort, because he does not have an official name for the venue. He said he plans to pursue an arena naming rights deal. His company is All Net Arena LLC, he said.

Robinson wants to build between the under-construction SLS Las Vegas hotel-casino and the halted Fontainebleau project. He hopes to break ground in the spring and open the arena in December 2016.

Robinson said he is financing the arena-resort through a $250 million equity raise, federal tax credits, a construction loan and the federal “EB-5 visa” program, which allows foreign investors to get visas if they invest $500,000 in projects. He said he is working with the Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency to recruit foreign investors from India and China.

Rasual Butler happy to be with Indiana Pacers

Here’s the Indianapolis Star on veteran Rasual Butler enjoying himself as a member of the Indiana Pacers. Butler plays just 5.8 minutes per game, but he’s a part of a winning team with legit championship aspirations.

Butler has recaptured his NBA career just by staying ready.

During 2011-12, he was waived by the Toronto Raptors and remained without an NBA job for the entire next season. Butler had bounced around five teams in 10 years, thought of as just a spot-up shooter and possibly, one close advocate believes, considered a veteran who wasn’t worth the trouble.

Forget one foot, Butler had nine toes out of the very exclusive club that no basketball player ever wants to be escorted away from. But he remained humble, hungry and, most of all, ready. After a year spent remaking his body then accepting the lowly assignments of Development League standout and Summer League old head, Butler has returned to the NBA.

“You don’t get too many of those,” says Geo Aispuro, the basketball trainer who worked out with Butler for nearly a year so he could return to the NBA. “You get a lot of guys that drop out but you just never get those guys that drop out and get back into the league.”

Butler has this old soul about him. He speaks like a late-night DJ spinning jazz records and even breaks up the uncensored jocularity in the Pacers’ locker room whenever he feels the ribbing could go too far. Butler carries the sophistication of well-traveled diplomat and shares wisdom like the neighborhood lifer. But really, he’s just a man who’s seen his share of twists and turns and now feels grateful for this time of stability.