NBA News Blog – Page 1610 – NBA Blog

Martell Webster out 4 weeks

Trail Blazers guard/forward Martell Webster will be sidelined for approximately four weeks after experiencing acute pain in his left foot Sunday at Toronto.

Webster experienced pain Dec. 7 against the Raptors, his first game back after undergoing surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot on Oct. 9. An X-ray taken Monday revealed that the fracture has regressed from an X-ray taken late last month.

“The good news is that Martell is not experiencing pain at the fracture site,” said Kevin Pritchard, Trail Blazers General Manager. “He is, however, experiencing pain in his little toe joint (head of the fifth metatarsal bone). While it’s an unfortunate setback for Martell, we feel putting additional stress on the foot at this time is not conducive for complete healing.”

Webster will be placed in a walking boot for two weeks at which time he’ll be reevaluated and an updated treatment plan will be implemented.

A fourth-year Trail Blazer, Webster initially incurred the injury in an Oct. 7 preseason game vs. Sacramento.

Webster, 22, has career averages of 8.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 0.8 assists while averaging 37.2% (279-for-750) from 3-point range in 219 games (115 starts) with the Trail Blazers.

Report: Patrick Ewing Jr to train with Knicks

The Knicks have two players who may not be with the team in the near future. Point guard Stephon Marbury is the ongoing subject of buyout talks. Shooting guard Cuttino Mobley, who has yet to play for the team, is undergoing heart tests and could retire.

Before being traded, Renaldo Balkman was a useful, energic garbageman off the Knicks bench. Hoping to fill that role has been Patrick Ewing Jr. He appears to literally be waiting around to get signed by New York, and there’s reason for him to believe it’ll happen, eventually. The New York Daily News (Frank Isola) reports:

Patrick Ewing Jr. is expected to begin training with the Knicks’ D-League affiliate in Reno this week, the Daily News has learned, and could eventually re-join the NBA club once the futures of Cuttino Mobley and/or Stephon Marbury are resolved. Ewing, who was released by the Knicks prior to the start of the season, has attended several Knicks games and has been a frequent visitor to the team’s training center in Greenburgh, N.Y.

Ewing seems like a fringe NBA player. He’s gotten a lot of attention considering it’s not clear that he’s actually good enough to stay in the league. Assuming he does eventually join the team, we’ll see if he justifies all this ink.

Pistons sign Antonio McDyess

Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars announced today that the club has signed free agent forward/center Antonio McDyess. Per team policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

McDyess played in the team’s first two regular-season games this season before being sent to Denver along with Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb as part of a trade for Allen Iverson. He was bought out of his contract in Denver and placed on waivers on November 6, 2008. In his two games this season, the former NBA All-Star averaged 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 19.0 minutes off the bench.

The Quitman, Mississippi native has led the Pistons’ bench in scoring in each of his four seasons with the club and finished fourth in the NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2005-06. McDyess was an NBA All-Star in 2001, earned All-NBA Third Team in 1999 and NBA All-Rookie First Team honors in 1996.

36 players in China lied about age

The AP reports: A crackdown on “age shaving” has found 36 players in China’s professional basketball league were older than they originally stated, the official basketball association announced Tuesday. No individual players were named in a report published in the Sports Ministry’s official newspaper, China Sports Daily. Officials have turned over the data to world basketball’s governing body, FIBA, and the Asian Basketball Association in hopes of “winning their understanding,” said Liu Xiaonong, the head of the association’s Communist Party committee. “In the future we will take whatever measures to strictly monitor player registrations,” Liu said.

Rodney Stuckey now a starter

The Detroit Pistons have been pretty unimpressive recently, and head coach Michael Curry is making a change. The Detroit News (Ted Kulfan) reports:

Rodney Stuckey is moving into the Pistons’ starting lineup. After strongly hinting of a change after Sunday’s loss in New York, coach Michael Curry announced the move Monday after practice at the Verizon Center. Stuckey and Allen Iverson will start in the backcourt, with Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince at forward and Rasheed Wallace at center tonight when the Pistons take on the Wizards.

Coming off the bench, young Stuckey hasn’t quite burst into stardom as many hoped he would. That’s not a knock on him, though. We’re only a month and one week into the new season. He’s good, contributing 9.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, but has shot just 41.1% and an awful 22.2% from three-point range.

Stuckey’s future is bright. I’m not sure he’s ready to explode just yet, even with a bigger role. But he has the ability to. You can’t say that for most young point guards.

Australia: Player of Week is Justin Bowen

Gold Coast Blaze import Justin Bowen has taken out the National Basketball League (NBL) Player of the Week award for Round 12 after guiding his team to an upset victory over the Perth Wildcats.

Bowen exploded for a round-high 35 points for the Blaze in their emphatic 129-97 victory over the Perth Wildcats at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Sunday afternoon. The 201cm forward had 20 points in the third period alone, helping the Blaze to a game-winning 45-17 edge in the quarter.

The former Illinois-Chicago University standout also racked up five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals. He shot the ball at an amazing 71% from the field (12-of-17), 75% from the three-point line (3-of-4) and was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line.

The win was just the third for the cellar-dwelling Blaze this season, who improved to 3-13 with the victory, and came against a much higher-seeded opponent in the Wildcats (currently 9-9; fifth).

Bowen edged out Adelaide’s Luke Schenscher for the weekly honours. Schenscher was remarkable for the 36ers as they recorded an upset 102-94 win over the third-seeded Melbourne Tigers. The redhead had 17 points and an astonishing 22 rebounds, despite matching up against reigning league Most Valuable Player and fellow seven-footer Chris Anstey.

Others in consideration for Player of the Week included Kirk Penney (New Zealand), Luke Whitehead (Gold Coast), Chris Anstey (Melbourne), James Harvey (Gold Coast), Shawn Redhage (Perth), Julius Hodge (Adelaide), Alex Loughton (Perth), Matthew Knight (Sydney), Mark Worthington (South), Brad Hill (Adelaide), David Gruber (Sydney), Joe Ingles (South) Rod Grizzard (Melbourne), Brad Williamson (Townsville), Larry Abney (Cairns) and Glen Saville (Wollongong).

Australia: Cairns Taipans in trouble

The National Basketball League (NBL) released the following statement from interim Chief Executive Officer Scott Derwin in response to the announcement by the Cairns Taipans that the club had been placed into voluntary administration.

“I received a call from Cairns Taipans majority owner, John O’Brien late last night informing us that he had placed the club into voluntary administration,” said Derwin.

“The decision to hand the club over to administrators has come as a shock to the League as it had received no previous indication from the Taipans that the club was experiencing extreme financial difficulties.

“There was also no prior indication from the club that it intended to take this course of action when the recent issues surrounding the Sydney Spirit were being addressed, which is disappointing.”

“The League understands that John O’Brien is acting in a responsible and ethical manner by appointing an administrator, choosing not to run the risk of trading while insolvent,” said Mr Derwin. “We are confident the appropriate administrator has been appointed to make sound business decisions regarding the financial viability of the club.

“I will be meeting with the administrator today to determine the extent of the club’s financial situation and to explore all possible options for the Taipans to continue to play in the NBL. However, it is the administrators, which will ultimately decide the future of the club.

“We remain hopeful that a way can be found for the club to play out the rest of the season.”

Derwin stated that the recent issues surrounding the financial viability of some NBL clubs highlighted why basketball in Australia was undergoing significant reform. “Basketball now has a unified national governing body to run the sport with a revised management structure focused on delivering strong commercial and community benefits for the sport.

“The need for greater accountability and commercial viability will see the introduction of a more stringent criteria for the ‘New NBL’, in terms of ownership guidelines and financial guarantees, when it is launched next season.”

Derrick Rose OK after rolling on knife

Chicago Bulls rookie point guard Derrick Rose is having a great rookie season and appears good at everything, including injuring himself while lying around at home eating fruit. The Chicago Tribune (K.C. Johnson) reports:

Rose missed Monday’s practice after he needed 10 stitches to close a gash suffered when he said he rolled onto a knife while eating an apple in bed. “It was a silly incident,” Rose said. “I was cutting up some food and I laid on a knife getting lazy in bed. I went to go get a bottle of water, came back, forgot the knife was there, then sat down and sliced my arm. “I panicked when it first happened and called my trainer. It was painful but I should be alright.”

Rose told the Tribune he’ll have stitches in his arm for 10-14 days.

Along with OJ Mayo of the Memphis Grizzlies, Rose is one of two early-season InsideHoops.com favorites to win the Rookie of the Year award.

Malik Allen is day-to-day

Milwaukee Bucks forward Malik Allen left yesterday’s game against the Lakers with a sprained rib and did not return. He is listed as day-to-day.

Allen this season in 11.6 minutes per game is averaging just 3.0 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.

The Bucks have 9 wins and 13 losses this season and are currently in 12th place out of 15 Eastern conference teams.

McHale replaces Wittman as Wolves coach

Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor seems religiously devoted to Kevin McHale. This trend continues today as the Timberwolves have fired coach Randy Wittman. Who will take over? An experienced, proven coach? Nope. McHale!

Click that link for the full story.

As for Wittman and the Wolves, I can’t say that I have a firm grasp of how good a coach Wittman is. He hasn’t had much success in the brief stretches of time he’s spent running a team.

But the Wolves roster is so limited, it’s hard for any coach to succeed with it. I’d say they’re doing about as well as could be expected, so even if Wittman isn’t one of the league’s better head coaches, it’s doubtful anyone else could have done much better.

Maybe a little. A few more wins, perhaps.

But there isn’t much to work with on the roster.

Al Jefferson is playing well. Mike Miller should be shooting more. Kevin Love hasn’t had the instant impact Minnesota was hoping for. Other than that the team is mostly bench guys.

How many wins should such a roster have?