Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has signed guard/forward James White to a second 10-day contract. He was signed to his original 10-day contract by the Rockets on Mar. 3. White joined Houston from the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA D-League, becoming the 12th GATORADE Call-Up of the season.
White (6-7, 200, Cincinnati), who has been on Houston’s inactive list since his Call-Up, was averaging 25.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.18 steals in 34 games (33 starts) for the Arsenal this season. At the time of his Call-Up, White was tied for first in the D-League in points per game and was ranked tied for 12th in the league in field goal percentage. White posted 30 or more points in 12 contests with the Arsenal in 2008-09, including a season-high 47-point performance against Houston’s D-League affiliate Rio Grande Valley Vipers (1/20/09).
Discuss the team and this news on the InsideHoops Houston Rockets forum.
The San Francisco Chronicle (Janny Hu) reports on Stephen Jackson of the Golden State Warriors, who added 10 pounds of muscle and is 6’8″ and 235 pounds: Jackson says his new-and-improved physique is behind his sustained surge, and he’s giving credit to the Warriors’ strength and conditioning gurus Mark Grabow and John Murray. It was Murray who pointed out that Jackson’s lack of strength was causing him to get pushed around without getting his share of foul calls, so the nine-year veteran hit the weight room to bulk up. Jackson now lifts for 30 to 40 minutes after every Warriors shootaround to jump start his game-day routine. He’s also using meal-replacement shakes to boost nutrition. “This is the most I’ve lifted and the most I’ve been in the weight room my whole career, and it’s starting to pay off,” said Jackson, who usually plays at 222 or 223 pounds.
The Toronto Star (Doug Smith) reports on the Raptors and their losing ways: “Right now, I think we’re in the process of `just do something,'” said Chris Bosh. “We as a team, we always talk about it, we talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it. Do we practise? Yeah, we practise great, nobody can get a shot off in practice. But in the games, for whatever reason, it’s different. “Are we going to keep talking about it, or are we going to do it? We’re past talking about it, it’s all about action. “I can sit up here and deliver a positive message every day, I can tell you what I’m going to do every day. But until you see me to do it, it’s a whole different story.”
The Boston Globe (Marc. J. Spears) reports: It started as a gentlemen’s bet before the season between two ultracompetitive Celtics, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. The issue was free throws. As long as Pierce can stay within 6 percentage points of Allen’s free throw accuracy, he wins. No money was involved. Just pride. At .838, Pierce is just .06 shy of surpassing his career-best mark. But even with that average, he is getting trounced by Allen, who is not only doing the best free throw shooting of his career but seems poised to surpass a longstanding Celtics record and challenge the NBA standard, too. “That dude’s having a super career year, Ray Allen,” Pierce said. “He’s never shot over 92 percent. I thought I’d get within like 6 or 8 percent of him, but he is just running away with it. That’s little stuff we do to push each other. Dang, he’s got his career year. I didn’t know he was shooting 95. He’s killing me.”
The Deseret News (Tim Buckley) reports: When the season started, the plan was to bring versatile Andrei Kirilenko off the bench but perhaps play him what amounts to starter minutes. But it hasn’t exactly gone that way in the 12 games Kirilenko has played since returning from January ankle surgery. Before surgery, partly because various teammates were injured, Kirilenko played 30 minutes or more in 22 of 38 games — including one regulation-length game with 42, and 50 in a double-overtime loss at Houston. Since then, he hasn’t played more than 26 minutes. He’s often used almost exclusively now in the second and fourth quarters, and isn’t subbing in for center Mehmet Okur like at times previously. Sloan said the forward from Russia no longer is on restricted minutes, and the coach believes he’s fully healthy.
The New York Post (Marc Berman) reports: A Cavaliers source admitted Larry Hughes played in a depression-like state his last 2 ½ seasons in Cleveland. His stay was a disappointment, considering the Cavs signed him to a five-year, $70 million deal to be James’ running mate. “Just watching him play in Chicago early this season, you could see the difference, he looked like he was having fun,” the Cavs’ source said. But it didn’t work in Chicago either, as Hughes fell out of favor with new coach Vinny Del Negro and didn’t play the last five weeks before the Feb. 19 trade to the Knicks.