The Chicago Bulls today signed guard Mike James to a 10-day contract. Per team policy,terms of the contract were not disclosed. James,(6-2,190),will be in uniform tonight when the Bulls take on the Sacramento Kings at the United Center at 7:00 p.m. (CT).James,36,appeared in three games with Chicago earlier this year and averaged 4.0 ppg,3.7 apg and 1.0 rpg in 8.4 mpg,before he was waived on Jan. 28,2012. James joins the Bulls by way of the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA D-League. In seven games with the Bayhawks,he averaged 21.1 ppg,4.6 apg,3.7 rpg,1.14 spg in 37.7 mpg. He shot .457 from the field,.405 from downtown and .771 from the line while in Erie. He is the 25 th GATORADE Call-up of the 2011-12 NBA D-League season.Chicago’s roster now stands at 14.
Category: General NBA insight
General NBA insight
Career of OJ Mayo at a crossroads
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Mayo’s career is at a crossroads. And the Grizzlies — facing high expectations after a playoff run to Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals last season — are right there in terms of evaluating Mayo’s future with the organization. The 6-3 shooting guard brought a household name and bucket loads of points in 2008, going on to average 18 points his first two seasons as a starter.
But those Griz teams weren’t playoff qualifiers.
Mayo, as a reserve, turned in career-low numbers when Memphis broke through with a historic postseason run. Veteran Tony Allen and second-year guard Sam Young emerged while Mayo endured a role reduction.
There are people close to Mayo who believe that a new destination would restore his starter status and change his career outlook.
— Reported by Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal
Evan Turner wants a better jumpshot
Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
One thing is clear: Evan Turner would like the basketball.
The 76ers sophomore guard has spent this summer splitting time among three places, but has also spent a good deal of his summer working with Hall of Famer and Philadelphia University coach Herb Magee, who has been tweaking Turner’s shot.
“I knew I had a hitch in my shot,” said Turner, who was in Chicago. “I just wanted to get it together. I didn’t want to shoot any balls short. I wanted to understand the basic principle of jump-shooting, all of that, what to look for. Coach Magee has been helping me out a lot.”
During his rookie season, Turner averaged 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in 23.0 minutes a game, disappointing numbers for the No. 2 overall selection in the 2010 NBA draft. Crucial in his offseason development was improvement on the perimeter, where he only occasionally looked comfortable.
“I’ve been working on my game a lot, playing a lot of basketball,” Turner said. “I’m pretty happy with the results I’ve been getting, I feel like I’m back to my old self. I feel like my new shot is smoother. I have a lot of confidence in it. It’s going well.”
Andray Blatche looking to make changes
Michael Lee of the Washington Post blog reports:
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After determining that he had yet to truly turn his potential into more than flirtations of production, Blatche has taken some steps toward getting better. He recently hired powerful agent Andy Miller after going without representation for all of what turned out to be a difficult season — even after he had secured a lucrative extension with the Wizards. And he also decided to separate himself from people who weren’t interested in his personal development.
Blatche has been more visible with his community projects this summer. He spent most of his offseason working out in Miami, with the hope that the results will be noticeable in the upcoming season.
“I’m 25 years old,” said Blatche, who celebrated his birthday last month with John Wall, Hamady Ndiaye, Josh Howard and Trevor Booker in South Beach. “I’ve been in the league six years now. I know my goal. I want to be an all-star. And to be an all-star, I have to make changes, and those are the changes that I have to make now.
“I took the time to cut back on some friends and some people, and built myself around better people that know what’s best for me,” he said. “I’m sorry that it took so long for me to realize it, but it’s all about growing and maturing and that’s basically what I’m doing.”
Canada to open 7-team pro basketball league
The AP reports:
A new professional basketball league in Canada plans to open in November with seven teams and a 36-game schedule.
The National Basketball League of Canada announced Thursday that Moncton, New Brunswick, will become the seventh franchise for the 2011-12 season. The city joins teams in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Quebec City; Saint John, New Brunswick; and London and Oshawa in Ontario. Another team will be in Prince Edward Island, although the city is not set.
InsideHoops.com editor says: It would be amazing for basketball, especially for players in the United States and, of course, Canada, for this league to actually take off and become a success. It’s a shame that talented players who fail to make the NBA must leave North America to make real money playing basketball, in Europe and elsewhere. If players could head to Canada and make a six-figure living it would change the game and be great for North America. Maybe someday. For now, they’re just starting out and I will assume that salaries will be on the level of a fun part-time job, and not anything substantial or real anytime soon. We’ll see if that changes or I hear different.
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Jason Terry says Mavericks must keep Tyson Chandler
Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas reports:
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Terry, wearing a No. 31 Rangers jersey and holding a bat signed by Josh Hamilton to be used for an auction supporting Terry’s charity, said his top offseason priority if he were running the team would be to re-sign center Tyson Chandler.
“Chandler is No. 1 for me,” Terry said. “We want to get all our guys back, but especially what Chandler has meant to this organization. It was something we hadn’t had and once we got him, you could see what it did for us. So we got to get him back.”
Terry said he’s spent his offseason with his daughters, including coaching an AAU team and stopping by the ESPY Awards last week.
Terry also spent 48 hours with the Larry O’Brien Trophy and admitted that he slept with it one night.
“At 47 (hours), (Mavs owner Mark) Cuban was in my driveway knocking on the door,” Terry said. “It was fun. That’s where it soaked in what we had accomplished — seeing my daughters and how much it meant to my family. They took tons and tons of pictures.”
Thunder still have hope for center Cole Aldrich
Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman reports:
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The Thunder dealt two first-round picks to trade up to snag Aldrich at No. 11 in the 2010 draft, and the organization hasn’t put Aldrich on any sort of timetable for when he should sprout. If anything, though, Mohammed’s presence should speed Aldrich’s development rather than delay it.
But because Aldrich was limited to 18 games and only 7.9 average minutes in his rookie season, it becomes easy to view Mohammed’s return as a detriment. A better way of looking at Mohammed’s re-signing, however, is to focus on the impact he can have on a young player.
There is no guarantee that Mohammed remains ahead of Aldrich in the rotation. It’s possible Aldrich bumps Mohammed next season and becomes the full-time backup center to Kendrick Perkins. But even if Aldrich doesn’t crack the rotation, he’ll have Perkins and Mohammed, as well as Nick Collison, to learn from in practice.
And Aldrich has proved to be a willing learner.
“He’s a humble guy, he works hard and he can play,” Perkins said. “I think he’s going to provide some good minutes for us next year. He’s just got to be ready. One thing I’ve learned about Coach (Scott) Brooks is he’s not just going to give you minutes. He’s going to have to come in and earn his minutes.”
Aldrich has dedicated this summer to sharpening his skills. He said his main goal is “just to get better.”
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NBA lays off about 114 league employees
The AP reports:
The NBA laid off about 114 people over the last two days, planned cost-cutting moves that a league spokesman said Thursday are “not a direct result of the lockout.”
The laid off employees represent about 11 percent of the league office workforce in New York, New Jersey and internationally.
Spokesman Mike Bass told The Associated Press the layoffs are “not a direct result of the lockout but rather a response to the same underlying issue; that is, the league’s expenses far outpace our revenues.”
“The roughly 11 percent reduction in headcount from the league office is part of larger cost-cutting measures to reduce our costs by $50 million across all areas of our business,” Bass said.
The league said it lost $300 million this season after losing hundreds of millions in each previous year of the collective bargaining agreement that expired at the end of the day June 30.
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Other sports came first for young Derrick Williams
Ray Richardson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on Minnesota Timberwolves rookie forward Derrick Williams:
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Before high school, Williams mostly played soccer, baseball and football in La Mirada’s city parks league. He didn’t take basketball seriously until his freshman year.
And when he did, it showed.
“I used to get calls at home at night from school staff people wondering why the gym lights were on after 9 o’clock and who was in there,” said former La Mirada boys basketball coach Larry Kaupang, who coached Williams during his varsity career. “It was Derrick. He and my assistant, Charlie Torres, used to sneak in there sometimes late at night to put in some work. And Derrick worked at it.”
Only 5-9 in eighth grade, Williams grew to 6-5 by the end of his freshman year. He had become too tall to play guard and needed to get used to playing closer to the basket. He also was playing for La Mirada, a small, unheralded school 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. It took an in-the-right-place moment during Williams’ sophomore year to remove him from relative obscurity.
La Mirada had a game against Compton on Feb. 23, 2007. Compton, a traditional power in the Los Angeles area, featured guard-forward DeMar DeRozan, now a two-year pro with the Toronto Raptors.
Most of the college coaches in attendance were there to see DeRozan, a McDonald’s All-America selection. Williams wasn’t even in the starting lineup. Kaupang put Williams in the game, and he ended up with 23 points, 12 rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists.
Will Mavs search for a backup power forward?
Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas reports:
A summer ago the Dallas Mavericks made hard pushes for free-agent power forwards Al Harrington (chose to sign with the Denver Nuggets) and Udonis Haslem (re-signed with the Miami Heat).
Obviously, a guy named Dirk Nowitzki has the position pretty well locked down, but could the Mavs again be in the market for more of a traditional power forward — perhaps a Carl Landry, Chuck Hayes or short-time Mav Kris Humphries — to back up Dirk? Remember, for much of the season small forward Shawn Marion shifted between the two forward positions.
Or, did the little-used, yet ever-ready Brian Cardinal, also a free agent, secure his return to the team next season and potentially bigger minutes after filling such a vital role in the NBA Finals?
For starters, scratch high-priced free agents like Kenyon Martin and David West off the wish list. The Mavs will not be dipping into the deep end of that pool, and there’s obviously no reason for entrenched starters to join Dallas.
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