Category: General NBA insight

General NBA insight

Camby gets over pain of trade

Marcus Camby appears to have gotten over the pain that comes from having to make almost $1 million per month in Los Angeles instead of making it in Denver. The Rocky Mountain News (Aaron J. Lopez) reports:

Whatever the reason, former Nuggets center Marcus Camby no longer openly harbors the bitterness that came over him when Denver traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers in a cost-cutting move July 13. Sure, Camby still believes the Nuggets could have handled the situation better, but he appears to have moved on from the days when he felt “blindsided, distraught, disrespected.” “I was upset at the time, how things transpired out there in Denver, but after being out here, that is like a thing of the past right now,” Camby said during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. “I’m enjoying my new situation. I’m enjoying this new chapter of my career. I’m going to try to make the best of the situation, but I think the situation can be a great one and a promising one.”

To be serious, I realize that my opening line is a bit off, in that it wasn’t about the money for Camby. It was personal. He really enjoyed being in Denver. Still, I think he’ll be OK. It’ll be interesting seeing how Camby fits alongside Chris Kaman. And anything Baron Davis does is worth watching.

Video of Rafer Alston being arrested

This is a video clip of when Rafer Alston was arrested for DWI. He’s currently on trial for it.

This took place in Houston.

The video is here.

Rafer should have gone into Skip 2 My Lou streetball mode, taken out a basketball, started dribbling through the legs of the police officer, bounced the ball off the officer’s forehead, unleashed a crossover, yanked the officer’s shirt over his head, dribbled by him, dunked the ball over a nearby tree branch, and then started moonwalking.

–Jeff

Shaq and G-Hill want to buy Magic

The Sacramento Bee (Scott Howard-Cooper) reports: Shaquille O’Neal and Grant Hill want to buy the Orlando Magic. Not right now. Shaq has two seasons on his deal, won’t walk away from $20 million per, may play beyond that contrary to previous reports that 2009-10 is definitely his last, and Hill is in a contract year and interested in returning. He may not be done for a while either. But the Suns teammates are serious about this. At some point, probably soon after they retire, O’Neal and Hill, former Magic players who still make their permanent homes in a mega-money Orlando enclave, will talk with executives to see if the team is available. How serious? They have already talked about it together, a lot. They have already made their feelings known to CEO and president Bob Vander Weide, the son-in-law of owner Rich DeVos. They have, both report independently, already lined up additional investors.

Quotes from six Wizards

HEAD COACH EDDIE JORDAN

On Nick Young: “He had three really good practices.  He was awesome today.  He was probably the best player in practice today.   I would think that if he recovers tonight and tomorrow we think he’s fine, then he’ll play.”

On DerMarr Johnson and Linton Johnson: “We waived forwards DerMarr Johnson and Linton Johnson – both played very well for us and have been NBA players and will continue to be NBA players.  We really appreciate their efforts and their professionalism.”

FORWARD CARON BUTLER

On finishing up the preseason: “(We need to be) very serious.  We have to be professionals and go out to San Antonio and Cleveland and get some momentum.  We need to get some momentum going into the season.  The last few practices have been exceptional.  The younger guys have been playing great and the veteran leadership has been awesome.  It is what it is now – we made our final cuts to the roster and this is the team, so we know our personnel and what to expect going forward.”

On today’s practice: “I think today was great.  Over the last couple of practices, everything is really coming full circle.  We’re getting into the bulk of our offense and we’re playing against a real intense defense.  Guys are really trying to earn minutes.  Everybody is trying to put their best foot forward, trying to earn quality minutes and show the work that they put in all summer.  We’re anxious to play and I think everybody around the league is too.”

FORWARD ANTAWN JAMISON

On preparing for the regular season: “We still have a ways to go, but I think the sense of urgency is definitely there between the coaches and the players.  We know the amount of improvement that we need and what we have to do to get to that point.  There’s no panic button or anything like that, but it’s just time to turn things around.  It’s time to get focused and be mentally prepared for what we need to do.”

On his health heading into the season: “I feel great.  I’m ready for the season start.  I’m looking forward to getting out there and playing.  We know that we need to go out there and start it off right.”

GUARD/FORWARD NICK YOUNG

On how he’s feeling heading into the season: “I feel good.  I’ve had a lot of rest, so I was energized out there.  My shot was falling, so that’s always a confidence booster.  (I feel the intensity picking up) especially from the veterans like Caron, Antawn and DeShawn – they’ve been going hard.”

GUARD JUAN DIXON

On how his familiarity with the team has been beneficial to him: “Just knowing the system (has helped me).  Coach (Eddie Jordan) has a lot of confidence in me – he knows that I’m going to go out and execute plays and be in the right position on the floor.  My job is to do what they ask of me.  Whatever my role is, that’s what I’m going to go out there and do.”

FORWARD/CENTER ANDRAY BLATCHE

On what he wants to accomplish before the season starts: “It’s time for us to get more serious.  We’ve got to start trying to develop a flow together with the rotation guys.  Even though it’s preseason, (we need to) try and get some wins and compete.  The season is right around the corner – it starts on Wednesday.  It’s time for us to get serious and focus.”

Marbury to start tonight

The New York Daily News (Frank Isola) reports: Stephon Marbury will start tonight against the Celtics which tells you a little about Marbury and a lot about Jamal Crawford. I’ve heard for a few days that the coaching staff is not happy with Crawford’s defense nor is Crawford happy that he is averaging just seven shots per game in the preseason. Marbury has equipped himself well thus far and since trading him (he makes $21.9 million this season) is next to impossible, Mike D’Antoni may be reaching the conclusion that Marbury is the better option in the backcourt to play with Chris Duhon.

The New York post (Marc Berman) reports: Mike D’Antoni confirmed today that Stephon Marbury will start at shooting guard instead of Jamal Crawford when the Knicks play their second-to-last preseason game at the Garden against the Celtics tonight.

InsideHoops.com editor says: I’ve been saying for two months now that if there’s one season Stephon Marbury could redeem himself and rise up as a semi-star again, this one, under Mike D’Antoni, would be it. I know most (almost all) the local beat writers/columnists who cover the Knicks have said the team has to part ways with him, and I know the reasoning behind it, and understand it. Addition by subtraction and all that. Get rid of the bad attitude and the guy that pisses some teammates off. I’d totally buy into that, normally. But I still feel that Marbury could have his best season in years this year if he’s given the chance, and if that happens, the bad attitude and off-court issues would diminish — not totally, but to a bearable level. His contract is up after the season so what does it matter? I see no reason to buy him out. If the team wants to throw money away, buy out other players whose contracts don’t expire this summer. And it doesn’t make sense to bench him as long as he’s on the roster, unless it actually helps the team on the court to do so. I wanna see what he can do under D’Antoni’s offense and I bet it’ll be better than expected.

Tyson Chandler gets harrassed in Barcelona

I spent some time in Barcelona this summer. It was my second time there. And I can tell you that Barcelona is a fantastic, wonderful place, but only if you don’t spend too much time in the heart of the city, where tourists flock. The most famous street in downtown Barcelona is Las Ramblas, and it’s flooded with street performers, locals, but also hoards of pickpockets and nutjobs. And it’s directly next to an extremely bad neighborhood called La Raval, a neighborhood where not a lot of actual Spanish people live.

I quickly learned that the best way to enjoy Barcelona is to stick to the residental neighborhoods. They have less nightlife than the busy areas, but are still as alive as you’d want them to be, and far more fascinating than the crowded tourist spots.

The point of my mentioning this is, Tyson Chandler himself recently learned that the tourist heart of Barcelona has problems. Here’s Chandler, via his NBA.com blog:

So after we left the restaurant, I took off, walking faster to get ahead of them and take pictures. I’m taking pictures and all of a sudden, I hear somebody start cursing at me. I’m looking through my camera lens at the time, so I can’t see anything but the pictures I’m taking. I come from up under, and this dude walks up to me, cursing me out.

I put my camera down and I’m like, “Am I not supposed to be taking pictures here?” He starts yelling in Spanish and I can’t understand him obviously. He looked homeless to me, and I’m saying, “Oh, I’m not supposed to be taking pictures here. I’m sorry.”

He’s just screaming at me and I put the camera away and walk away. But then he’s still going off and I see like 10 more homeless people up against the wall with dogs and stuff. It looked to me like the other 10 people were asking him what he was doing, but they were speaking Spanish, so I don’t know what they were saying.

The guy’s walking toward me and I’m putting my hand out like, “Stay back.” I walk backwards and start to turn around, but then, in the corner of my eye, I see him reach back to throw something. I kinda ducked and all these coins hit me.

He threw a bunch of coins at me.

At this point, I wanted to just go at it. This dude just hit me all over my back with coins, and he’s still screaming at me. But I told him, “Listen, you had better stay back.”

And I look at my wife and that’s the only thing that could calm me down. I see my pregnant wife and realize that I can’t have a situation go down like that. My teammates were in shock, because they saw what happened. I didn’t want anything else to happen so I tried to calm myself down. I started walking away from him and he kept his distance.

I personally know three girls (separate people who don’t know each other) who had their cameras stolen by pickpockets in Barcelona this summer.

I loved the place, as soon as I learned to hang out about a 20+ minute walk away from La Ramblas.

–Jeff

Larry Brown digs Jared Dudley

The Charlotte Observer (Rick Bonnell) reports: Larry Brown, the Charlotte Bobcats’ Hall of Fame coach, calls Jared Dudley the most pleasant surprise of this preseason. The only surprise to me is how long it took Brown to fall in love with Dudley’s approach. Brown said Dudley had a terrible performance in summer league. I concur. He was self-conscious initially, trying to do everything just-so, then hurt his back. But trying too hard is not the worst offense, right? Dudley started training camp third-team, mostly playing with guys who’ll migrate to various D-League addresses soon enough. But he never complained, always tried, and now he’s, at worst, in a tie with Adam Morrison for the second-best small forward on this team. That’s how it’s always been. On Tuesday, the Bobcats will play the Los Angeles Lakers in San Diego, Dudley’s hometown. About 300 friends and family will attend, cheering wildly. But that’s as well as he’ll be remembered along the West Coast.

Jamison will be OK

The AP reports: Wizards all-star forward Antawn Jamison practised Monday without a protective sleeve on his banged-up right knee and expects to be at 100 per cent for the start of the regular season next week. “No pain at all. No stiffness or anything like that,” Jamison said after practice. “I feel pretty good.” He bruised the knee and left in the first quarter of Washington’s first exhibition game, at Dallas on Oct. 7.

Bobcats owner not selling team

The AP reports: The first black majority owner of a major professional sports team is not interested in selling, even as he loses millions in a bad economy. Bob Johnson said Monday he remains committed to the Charlotte Bobcats, who have struggled to win and attract fans since he paid $300 million for the expansion franchise four years ago. Johnson laid off nearly 40 employees in the past month to save money, and three top executives have left the organization. But in an interview with The Associated Press, Johnson said he has no intention of unloading the team, and will spend what it takes to get the Bobcats to the playoffs for the first time.

Darius Miles says he’s now a role player

I was with Darius Miles a few days ago in New Jersey, before a recent Nets-Celtics preseason game, and talked with Miles for a quick 90 seconds.

So, I label it a “mini-interview.”

And in our very brief conversation, Darius said he’s not a main option anymore and now more of a role player.

See his exact quotes here.

As for his time with the Celtics, that ended today as the team waived him.