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Joakim Noah an All-Star candidate?

John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

If someone had told you in training camp that the Bulls player with the best chance of making the All-Star team this season was Joakim Noah, your most likely response would have been laughter.

How much of a long shot was Noah? He wasn’t even among the five Bulls listed on the official NBA ballot.

But two months into the season, no one is laughing when the subject of Noah possibly being an All-Star is brought up now. The 6-11 center has been one of the few bright spots for the Bulls, averaging 10.5 points and 12.4 rebounds (third-best in the NBA).

”He’s been strong,” Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. ”He’s one of the top rebounders in the league with his energy and his length. He’s around that basket, and he’s been pretty consistent the whole year.”

Eddy Curry frustrated by lack of minutes

New York Knicks center Eddy Curry has had a rough time over the last few seasons, playing just 59 games in 2007-08, a mere three in 2008-09, and just seven this season. He also became a big fatso, before slimming down recently.

But despite getting into relatively decent shape, Curry still sits on the bench twiddling his thumbs. And apparently he’s getting frustrated.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

Curry made a point to say he’s spoken with Donnie Walsh but not D’Antoni. In fact, Curry refused to use D’Antoni’s name.

“It’s frustrating, because I worked so hard to get back and to be ready to go and now it’s just like go every game trying to figure out if I’m going to play or not, sitting over there waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Curry said. “It’s tough to deal with, especially at this stage of my career, at this age. I ain’t that old, but I’ve been here for a while.”

The Knicks have played well recently and as long as that continues it’s possible both Curry and Nate Robinson will see little time on the court.

Andrew Bynum has faded since Pau Gasol return

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports:

Andrew Bynum was the top center in the Western Conference the first month of the season as he effortlessly absorbed Pau Gasol’s points and rebounds while the Lakers’ power forward missed 11 games.

Then Gasol returned from a hamstring injury and Bynum disappeared.

There’s not a lot to criticize on a team tied with Boston for the NBA’s best record (23-5), but Bynum continues to take steps back.

His numbers without Gasol: 20.3 points and 11.8 rebounds a game. His numbers since Gasol’s return: 12.9 points and 6.1 rebounds a game.

Dwyane Wade shooting is off

Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald reports:

Everyone who has seen [Dwyane] Wade play more than once is trying to figure out why, exactly, a player in his prime with an improving team around him is having the worst shooting season of his life.

The scientists are coming from his own front office (that would be Riley) and national and local experts alike, all of them attempting to devise the perfect theory for the most unusual development in what has been an otherwise predictable season.

Everyone seemed to have settled on the conditioning theory, because it seems to make the most sense.

This season, Wade is not coming off an Olympic run, and he is not coming off a summer where he built his legs back up from scratch, and he is not playing with as much to prove as he did last season, when he led the league in scoring and was third in MVP voting.

Jonathan Bender looks good in return to NBA

The New York Knicks recently signed forward Jonathan Bender, who had fallen out of the NBA due to injury problems and was not expected to be heard from again.

But in Bender’s first game as a Knick he looked like a perfectly solid backup, playing 14 minutes and finishing with nine points, two rebounds and an assist.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

On his first possession, with the Clippers on a 16-0 run, Bender snaked in from the perimeter on a drive and made a nifty layup over Marcus Camby.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Walsh who, while with the Pacers, made a trade for Bender soon after he was drafted with the fifth overall pick by the Raptors out of high school as an 18-year-old. “After that I said, ‘OK, that’s what I remember.’ “On his next touch, Bender drilled a left-corner 3-pointer. He also made an emphatic block of a Baron Davis’ floater — the cleanest block by a Knick this season. And he committed a flagrant foul on Eric Gordon, battering him to the floor as Gordon drove for a layup. The tough display was a rarity for a Knicks big man.

Bender said that would not have been a flagrant foul four years ago.

“Definitely not,” Bender said. “When Gordon goes to the rack, he bumps into you. I just put my arm out.”

One game doesn’t mean much, but Bender does look like an NBA player again, and that’s a success story all by itself.

Nets struggles continues

Fred Kerber of the New York Post reports:

All the tortures of a season of misery returned for the Nets. There was the mandatory lousy shooting (.378), a requisite injury as Chris Douglas-Roberts sprained his right ankle with 4:47 left, and the near-obligatory loss, though one far easier to accept with the effort but a loss all the same, the Nets’ seventh straight.

“We have to try to find a way to bring it every night. It’s as simple as that. For whatever reason, we aren’t,” said Douglas-Roberts, (20 points), who went for X-rays (negative) and was able to walk afterwards, which he found encouraging. “We don’t have the luxury to turn it on and off.”

Especially against the likes of the Lakers, who got a big night from Kobe Bryant, celebrating his waiting-to-be-signed extension with 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists amid chants of “MVP” from a storm-thwarted announced crowd of 17,190. Pau Gasol (whose own three-year deal should be done before Bryant’s) had a 14-point, 14-rebound double-double.

Gilbert Arenas not yet living up to giant contract

Michael Lee of the Washington Post reports (via blog):

Gilbert Arenas had to understand when he signed the deal that he would be viewed as the $111-million guy — if he was unable to produce. No one talks about Kobe Bryant’s salary or LeBron James’s salary or Dwight Howard’s salary because they are getting things done for their organizations.

Right now, Arenas is struggling to regain the form that earned him the salary, but when you put your name on the dotted line, criticism comes with the territory. The bigger the money, the bigger the profile, the bigger the scrutiny. You either live up to the deal and nobody mentions it, or you don’t.

When Arenas made three all-star appearances and a playoff series victory from 2004-07, most viewed the six-year, $65-million contract he signed as a bargain. But with the team going 26-79 since he started his latest deal (with Arenas playing just two games last season), the contract is going to be figuratively tattooed on his forehead.

John Salmons must keep Bulls offense moving

Dan Cahill of the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

John Salmons must keep Bulls offense in motion

After he was acquired from Sacramento last year, [John] Salmons came to Chicago and drilled every shot he took, or so it seemed. This year, Salmons jump shot has betrayed him, especially late in games.

When Salmons touches the ball on offensive, everything stops. Rose stops moving, Deng watches, Noah gets in position for a miss and the fourth player ties his shoe (or, watches someone on the other team tie their shoe). After seven or eight seconds of dribbling nowhere, Salmons will fire a bad shot or throw a bailout pass to one of his teammates, who has to hoist a desperation shot as the clock winds down.

Last night’s game was a perfect example. After Salmons went out of the game with two quick fouls, the Bulls offense moved better than it had all season. Rose was able to find wide-open teammates off the dribble-drive. When Salmons returned, so did stagnation.

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Celtics love the pick-and-roll

Frank Dell’Apa of the Boston Globe reports:

The pick-and-roll is among the most basic of basketball maneuvers. But it is also difficult to defend, especially when Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce are executing the play.

“It’s a tough pick-and-roll,’’ Pierce said, “because you’ve got a big guy [who’s] able to knock down shots. I’m able to knock down shots or drive off the pick and they got to make a decision whether to trap or switch. Then, if you trap you’ve got to rotate to Kevin, so it puts teams in a predicament down the stretch. It’s been a bread and butter play for us.’’

The play – also known as a pick-and-pop, Garnett becoming a perimeter threat – led to the Celtics’ final 7 points in a 110-105 win over the Grizzlies last night.

Rodney Stuckey playing great

Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News reports:

The story after Saturday’s victory over Golden State was the return of Richard Hamilton.

But it’s one of the mainstays this season, Rodney Stuckey, who’s been a headliner lately.

While winning their last five games, the Pistons are seeing Stuckey at his best — he’s averaging 25 points in the winning streak and dominating at both ends of the court.

“Looking at our team I’m not sure if there were many players that had a better week than (Rodney) Stuckey did,” said coach John Kuester, who has been trumpeting Stuckey’s talent and potential from the start of training camp.

Said veteran point guard Chucky Atkins: “Rodney Stuckey is a guy who’s hard to stop, the way he’s attacking the basket and continuing to put pressure on the defense. We need that. He’s a guy that defenses are going to have to deal with from now on, throughout the rest of the season.”