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As the NBA regular season rapidly approaches, teams continue to trim their rosters, to get down to the 15-player maximum.
The Golden State Warriors today waived guards Carlon Brown and Tarence Kinsey, as well as forwards Lance Goulbourne and Rick Jackson.
The Warriors now have 15 players under contract.
NBA preseason ends Friday, OCtober 26. The regular season begins Tuesday, October 30.
Most NBA centers aren’t very good at basketball when compared to their more talented counterparts at the power forward position.
The league, while not exactly wording it the way I did above, has taken note of this and taken action.
For the first time, the NBA All-Star Ballot will feature two position choices, guards and frontcourt, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations Stu Jackson announced today.
Fans will select two guards and three frontcourt players when choosing the starters for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game. Previously, the ballot featured three positions with fans picking two guards, two forwards and a center.
“The NBA’s competition committee and the league office agreed that having the center position as the only specific position singled out on the ballot was outdated and not representative of today’s game or players,” Jackson said. “Our players have become more versatile each season, and this ballot will more accurately reflect that versatility.”
The 2013 NBA All-Star Ballot will be unveiled on Tuesday, Nov. 13 during a special event in Houston.
Read NBA fan reaction and share your opinion in this basketball forum topic.
The following is a press release from Court Grip
Today, Mission Athletecare and OptoSource released findings and related video from a three month analysis that showed a 24% average improvement on basketball player’s quickness and improved balance and stability when using Court Grip, a product developed by MISSION Athletecare designed to increase traction on hardwood courts.
OptoSource, a recognized leader in sports performance tracking, utilizes state-of-the-art LED sensors to track and measure athlete’s speed, agility and quickness to determine their efficiency of motion.
“I noticed a few players were using Court Grip while working out this past June, and while you can definitely hear the product working (when players sneakers squeak on the floor), we wanted to use our proprietary tracking techniques and OptoJump technology to see if we can quantify the actual performance benefits of the product. Candidly, the results were surprising. I didn’t anticipate seeing an average of 24% improvement in lateral quickness – that far surpassed my expectations.” said OptoSource Founder Doug Fidellow.
OptoSource’s independent study was divided into 2 key areas. First, there was extensive analysis and testing of basketball players at the high school and college level – with and without Court Grip. Second, OptoSource traveled to Wisconsin to test with Milwaukee Bucks star point guard Brandon Jennings, and to analyze the difference in his performance with and without Court Grip.
After 3 months of testing over 24 subjects, the OptoSource study showed an average of 24% increase in quickness when going in and out of cuts for players at all levels when using Court Grip – and in some cases higher. It also showed quantifiable improvements in balance and stability on change of direction movements on players who used the traction enhancing technology.
Side-by-side analysis of Brandon Jennings’s signature move, the step back jump shot, with and without Court Grip, also revealed a significant decrease in average court contact time when using the product. “I used Court Grip all of last year, and I could feel the difference in my game, but actually seeing the data from the study, the visible improvements that Court Grip made to my form, stability and performance was really amazing,” said Milwaukee Bucks star, Brandon Jennings.
“Our players who use Court Grip experienced improved reaction time and ability to move in and out of their cuts quicker. It is the most beneficial product we have seen in the past few years” says Wally Blase, Head Athletic Trainer for the Atlanta Hawks.
Co-developed and co-created with 2-Time NBA Champion and Miami Heat All-Star Dwyane Wade, Mission Athletecare launched Court Grip last season, with support from company partners Steve Nash, Dwight Howard and Brandon Jennings as well as the NBA and the NBA Trainers Association. Due to record-breaking adoption of the product, all major sports retailers are featuring Court Grip this basketball season.
A video sharing more on this is here.
The Milwaukee Bucks have exercised the third-year contract option on Tobias Harris (6-8, 226), and the fourth-year contract option on Larry Sanders (6-11, 235) and Ekpe Udoh (6-10, 245), General Manager John Hammond announced today.
Harris, 20, appeared in 42 games (nine starts) last year during his rookie season and averaged 5.0 points with 2.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 11.4 minutes per contest. He made his debut in the Bucks starting lineup on March 3 at Orlando, and Milwaukee went 5-2 during his first stint as a starter. Harris posted his first double-double with 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds vs. Philadelphia on April 25, and scored in double figures seven times overall during his rookie campaign, with a high of 19 points coming vs. Chicago on Feb. 4. In the 2012 NBA Summer League, Harris led the Bucks with 20.8 points per game as was named to the Summer League All-Star Team.
Sanders, 23, played in 52 games last season and led the team in blocks with 76 total (1.5 per game). He also averaged 3.6 points and 3.1 rebounds in 12.4 minutes per game. Sanders posted 23 multi-block games on the season, third most in the NBA by a reserve. He recorded a career-high four steals and a season-high five blocks vs. Philadelphia on April 25, becoming the first Bucks player in 25 years to reach both those numbers in a single game. In his two NBA seasons, Sanders has played in 112 games (12 starts), averaging 4.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.32 blocks in 13.5 minutes per game.
Udoh, 25, appeared in 61 games (11 starts) split between Golden State and Milwaukee last season, averaging 5.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.67 blocks (11th in the NBA) in 21.2 minutes per contest. In the 11 games he started, five with Milwaukee, Udoh averaged 10.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.82 blocks. He posted 33 multi-block games during his second year in the NBA, a league-high 26 of them coming in a reserve role. Over his two seasons in the NBA, Udoh has played in a total of 119 games (29 starts), averaging 4.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.58 blocks in 19.5 minutes per game.
Under the terms of the NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement, the first two years of a first round draft pick’s contract are guaranteed, while the third and fourth year of the contract are the team’s option.
Harris was picked by the Bobcats with the 19th overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft, and his draft rights, along with Stephen Jackson and Shaun Livingston, were traded to the Bucks in exchange for Corey Maggette in a three-team deal involving Sacramento on June 23, 2011. Sanders was selected by Milwaukee with the 15th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, and Udoh came to the Bucks on March 14, 2012, with Monta Ellis and Kwame Brown in a trade for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.
The NBA is finally doing something about the Duncan Dilemma.
The league will announce Wednesday a change to its All-Star ballot that will, for the first time, allow fans to vote for three undefined “frontcourt” players instead of having to vote for two forwards and a center. With more and more teams playing smaller than in the past, the definition of “center” was becoming increasingly difficult — not to mention finding enough quality big men for whom to vote.
For years, for example, the Spurs have listed Tim Duncan as a power forward, even though everyone on earth knew he was their starting center. And so when it came to All-Star balloting, Duncan would take up a forward spot in a very crowded field of Western Conference stars instead of his logical spot in the middle. This was good for Duncan, who surely would have made his 13 All-Star teams anyway, but it often cost another forward a shot.
— Reported by David Aldridge of TNT/NBA.com
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Rockets rookie Royce White says he enjoys the open the road, and he’ll get a chance to see some of it this week as he travels by recreational vehicle to the team’s exhibition games in New Orleans and Orlando.
White, who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder that can manifest itself in discomfort regarding airplane travel, said Tuesday he has an RV lined up for his trip to the two cities and that the Rockets have agreed to pick up his travel costs for the year.
“Since it’s a medical thing and it’s also kind of a team thing, the Rockets were stellar in saying we’ll pick (the costs) up,” he said.
— Reported by David Barron of the Houston Chronicle (Blog)
Rookies Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller moved into the Cavaliers starting lineup on Tuesday night against Indiana at The Q, joining Kyrie Irving, Alonzo Gee and Anderson Varejao, who moves to power forward.
Cavs coach Byron Scott is still searching for a starting lineup and opted to take a look at this bigger group against the big Pacers. The move leaves rookie center Zeller paired up against All-Star Roy Hibbert.
Scott said regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, he still is undecided on his starters.
— Reported by Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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There’s still no telling when Rasheed Wallace will suit up for the Knicks, but he’s expected to take a big step toward getting on the floor Friday when he scrimmages with the rest of the team.
Wallace participated in all team drills and a few individual drills on Tuesday, doing his most extensive work since joining the Knicks.
Mike Woodson said afterward Wallace will not play in the Knicks’ preseason finale against the Nets on Wednesday, but he should start scrimmaging on Friday.
“We’re going to start to get some contact in … and try to test him a little bit there and see where he is,” Woodson said. “And then (we’ll) go from there.”
— Reported by Ian Begley of ESPN New York
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Three weeks, six exhibition games and more than a dozen practices have cemented J.J. Hickson’s stranglehold on the Trail Blazers’ starting center job.
Coach Terry Stotts on Tuesday said Hickson will be his starting center Halloween night, when the Blazers open the regular season against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“He’s earned it,” Stotts said. “He’s played well.”
Heading into training camp, Stotts said the undersized Hickson would be the favorite to man the middle because of his experience in the NBA and his 19-game history with the Blazers last season. But Stotts wouldn’t simply hand Hickson the starting spot, he’d have to beat out rookies Meyers Leonard and Joel Freeland for the gig.
— Reported by Joe Freeman of the Oregonian
Read NBA fan opinion or share your views in this basketball forum topic.
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Lakers guard Kobe Bryant missed his second consecutive practice because of a bruised and sore right foot.
The Lakers are listing Bryant as day-to-day, making it unclear whether he will play in the team’s preseason game Wednesday against the Clippers. Bryant originally injured his foot during a collision in the third quarter of the Lakers’ 99-92 preseason loss Sunday to the Sacramento Kings.
— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)