NBA News Blog – Page 1619 – NBA Blog

Greg Oden still hurting

So far, Greg Oden’s NBA career has consisted of weight-gain and injuries. He’ll be OK eventually. And this will be ancient history someday. Hopefully. But for now, things are questionable.

The Oregonian (Jason Quick) reports: It’s not exactly encouraging news on the Greg Oden injury front. As of Wednesday night, Oden was definitely being ruled out for tonight’s game against Houston, Saturday’s game against Minnesota, and now his status for the team’s upcoming trip east is tenuous at best because of his sprained right foot. “He’s not pain free,” coach Nate McMillan said. “He still feels something.” Today marks Day 9 since Oden suffered the injury on opening night against the Lakers. The team figured his rehab would take 2-to-4 weeks, and a popular prognosis being sold by some people was that Oden’s recovery would be closer to the two weeks than the four.

Amare drops 49 on Pacers

The AP reports: Amare Stoudemire scored 49 points, falling a point short of his career high in the Phoenix Suns’ 113-103 victory over Indiana on Wednesday night. Stoudemire was 17-for-21 from the field, made 15 free throws without a miss and had 11 rebounds, six assists and five steals. He just missed his career high of 50 points, set against Portland on Jan. 2, 2005.

Redd has minor ankle sprain

Bucks shooting guard Michael Redd missed Wednesday’s game. But he’ll be back soon. The AP reports: Michael Redd, expected to return Friday night at Boston, was injured Sunday against New York when he landed awkwardly chasing a loose ball in Milwaukee’s 94-86 victory.

Matt Barnes out with family issue

The Arizona Republic (Paul Coro) reports: Suns center Shaquille O’Neal is back in the starting lineup for tonight’s game because starting forward Matt Barnes left the team moments ago for a family emergency in the Bay Area.

Obama played basketball on election day

The AP reports: Barack Obama unwound with a couple hours of basketball Tuesday as he awaited Election Day results that he hoped would give him not only the White House, but by a margin that would help to unite red and blue America… Later, Obama spent two hours at the Attack Athletic Center on the city’s west side to play basketball with friends and staff. He made the game a voting-day ritual early in the primary campaign after he won in Iowa and South Carolina on days when he’d played basketball. He’d lost in New Hampshire and Nevada, on days when he didn’t play. As Obama played basketball, a crowd of about 75 people gathered in a park across the street in hopes of catching a glimpse when he emerged.

Thunder sign Steven Hill

Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti announced today that the team has signed center Steven Hill.

Hill (7-0, 245) saw action in three preseason games with the Portland Trailblazers, recording averages of 1.0 points, 0.7 rebounds, 0.67 blocks and 9.0 minutes.

The Missouri native played four seasons at the University of Arkansas where he averaged 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.11 blocks as a senior. Hill was named Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a junior.

The Thunder roster now stands at 15.

Iverson officially a Piston

The trade that sends Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons is now official. Click that link.

In return for Iverson, the Denver Nuggets get Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb.

Also, hit the insidehoops front page for more opinions on the trade and updated NBA depth charts.

Nuggets waive Juwan Howard

The Denver Nuggets have waived F Juwan Howard, team Vice President of Basketball Operations Mark Warkentien announced today.

Howard appeared in all three games for the Nuggets this season, averaging 0.7 ppg and 1.3 rpg in 7.3 minutes.

The Nuggets are reportedly about to trade Allen Iverson to the Pistons for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess.

Thunder waive John Lucas

Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti announced today that the team has waived point guard John Lucas III.

Lucas averaged 5.0 points and 2.7 assists in three preseason contests. He was inactive for all three of the Thunder regular season games.

The Thunder roster now stands at 14.

Iverson to be traded for Billups

The Denver Nuggets don’t appear to be championship-bound with a core of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. The team is good, but may never be great. With Melo the younger player, the Nuggets are giving up on the combo and sending Iverson to Detroit. In return, the Pistons will send point guard Chauncey Billups and power forward/center Antonio McDyess to Denver.

InsideHoops.com first got wind this deal, which has been reported as a rumor in the past, would actually happen from Marc Spears’ Boston Globe blog.

Looking at the trade for the Pistons: Detroit gets a big-time scorer in Iverson who is a natural shooting guard but can pretend to be a point guard. Chances are, Iverson will start at PG, with Richard Hamilton staying at shooting guard, and young talented point guard Rodney Stuckey continuing to come off the bench. Hamilton is too undersized to play small forward for more than a few minutes. Billups is a better floor general than Iverson, but Iverson’s the quicker player and better scorer. As for Antonio McDyess, he was coming off the bench but still important for Detroit. Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell will have to step up more with Dice gone. And Kwame Brown becomes more important.

Detroit also gets tons of extra salary cap space in the deal.

Looking at the trade for the Nuggets: Gone is Iverson and in comes Billups, who is better than Iverson at running an total team offense. Billups is also a stronger, more physical defender. Billups doesn’t draw defensive attention like Iverson does, but he can do a better job setting up JR Smith, Carmelo Anthony (who can also create his own offense anytime he wants), Kenyon Martin and Nene.

Also, Billups is a Denver guy.