Toronto Raptors Blog – Page 53 – NBA Blog

NBA Rookie Transition Program postponed

The NBA Rookie Transition Program, scheduled for August 9-11, has been postponed. The program, which provides first-year players with the skills and information necessary for a successful transition to the NBA, is run jointly by the NBA and the Players Association.

“Without a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union, we will be unable to hold RTP as originally scheduled,” NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said. “This is an important educational program for our incoming players, and it will be rescheduled once the parties agree on a CBA.”

Billy Hunter tells InsideHoops that NBA lockout meetings may not resume until August

By Jeff Lenchiner

Wednesday evening in New York City I paid a visit to Dyckman Park for some streetball action. It was a big matchup of some top teams that has been anticipated for weeks, so the park was packed. Included in the crowd were rapper Jadakiss, Denver Nuggets forward Al Harrington, and the head of the NBA Players Union, Billy Hunter, among others.

Before the game, Hunter, bravely attempting to communicate as some top-notch rap music blasted from the park’s booming speakers at full volume, gave InsideHoops.com a very quick update on the current NBA lockout situation:

InsideHoops.com: What’s the latest?

Billy Hunter: We’re trying to find some way to re-open the negotiations. We’re not making very much progress. It looks like we’re going to be where we are, I would assume probably [until] August before we actually end up getting back together.

InsideHoops.com: How long might the lockout last?

Hunter: It’s unpredictable. It’s hard to say how long it’s going to go.

It sounds like NBA fans should not hold their breath waiting for positive developments just yet.

Union plans player meetings as NBA lockout drags on with no progress

Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated reports:

There will be labor-related meetings in the near future.

They just aren’t the kind that typically lead to collective bargaining progress.

According to sources close to the situation, the National Basketball Players Association is planning a series of player sessions in as many as six cities over “the next month or so,” as a way to help with its planning during the lockout and update players on the state of negotiations with the NBA. Unless things unexpectedly change, there won’t be much to report on that front.

While mid-level staffers from both sides met on Friday to finalize the numbers related to basketball-related income (BRI) for the 2010-11 season, no negotiating sessions involving commissioner David Stern or NBPA executive director Billy Hunter have been scheduled. Sources said the BRI numbers were not finalized Friday and more similar sessions are forthcoming to that end, but the union is focused on fortifying from within rather than exchanging proposals with the owners, who are pushing for a hard salary cap as part of a drastic overhaul to the current system.

InsideHoops.com editor says: Basically, the two sides are considering their various options and possible proposal changes, amongst themselves. There’s no way of knowing if either side plans to make any changes the next time they make offers to each other, when they do eventually meet again. I’m just guessing here but it sounds like the earliest the NBA lockout could even possibly end is early August. But that’s not expected, because it sounds like both sides remain pretty far apart.

Raptors hire Johnny Davis, Eric Hughes, Micah Nori, Scott Roth, Tom Sterner as assistant coaches

The Toronto Raptors announced Wednesday the club has hired Johnny Davis, Eric Hughes, Micah Nori, Scott Roth and Tom Sterner as assistant coaches on new head coach Dwane Casey’s staff. Hughes, Nori and Roth were retained by Casey from Jay Triano’s coaching staff.

“I am excited to announce the hiring of what I believe is a strong, well-balanced and experienced coaching staff,” said Casey. “We have a good mixture of former players, head coaching experience and on-court teachers who have a wealth of technical knowledge.

“Since we have such a young team I thought it was necessary to hire a group of coaches who can effectively mentor, communicate, motivate and teach on-and-off the floor.”

Davis completed his 35th season in the NBA in 2010-11. He has been a player, assistant coach, front office executive and two-time head coach.

Last season marked Davis’ fourth with the Memphis Grizzlies and his 19th in an NBA assistant coaching capacity. In addition to Memphis, Davis has been an assistant coach with Atlanta, the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland, New Jersey, Orlando, Minnesota and Indiana. In 2005-06, he served on Casey’s staff in Minnesota.

Davis was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996-97 and the Orlando Magic for parts of two seasons (2003-05) compiling a 73-146 mark (.333). He was honoured as Eastern Conference Coach of the Month in November 2005 while with the Magic. He also served two games as the Grizzlies’ interim head coach.

The 22nd overall pick in the second round of the 1976 NBA Draft, Davis played with Portland, Indiana, Atlanta and Cleveland in his 10 seasons. He was a member of Portland’s 1977 NBA Championship team.

Sterner has been an NBA assistant coach for 13 seasons, working for Dallas, Orlando and Golden State. He served two seasons with Casey as an assistant coach on Rick Carlisle’s staff in Dallas (2008-10). He spent last season as an advance scout with Philadelphia.

The majority of Sterner’s tenure as an assistant coach was in Orlando where he was on the bench for 11 campaigns. He helped the Magic to the 1995 NBA Finals and served as an assistant coach for the Eastern Conference during the 1995 All-Star Game.

Sterner was the top assistant coach for Golden State from 2002-04. In 2002-03, he led the team’s offense that ranked second in the league in scoring, averaging 102.4 points per game. The following season he changed his focus to defense where the Warriors became the NBA’s most improved defensive squad, allowing 9.6 fewer points per game than the previous season.

Roth completed his first season with the Raptors after being named an assistant coach August 16. He has been as a player, scout and coach overseas and in North America for more than 25 years.

Roth was as an assistant coach with Golden State in 2009-10. Prior to joining the Warriors’ staff he was the head coach of the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League in 2008-09 and guided the team to its first post-season appearance with a 26-24 record.

Roth has also worked as an assistant coach with Dallas (1996-2000) and Vancouver/Memphis (2000-02), and four seasons as scout and advisor for Milwaukee.

Nori concluded his second season as an assistant coach for the Raptors in 2010-11 and his 14th overall with the organization. In addition to his duties as an assistant coach, Nori heads the advance scouting operations for the club. He was promoted July 1, 2009 after serving as the team’s Director of NBA Scouting.

Nori had been the team’s advance scout since 2000 where he was responsible for scouting upcoming opponents and preparing reports for both the coaching staff and players. Prior to becoming the team’s advance scout, he served as assistant to the coaching staff from 1998-2000.

Hughes joined the Raptors in 2007 and was promoted to Assistant Coach/Basketball Development on July 1, 2009. He will continue in that role under Casey.

Previous to joining the Raptors, Hughes had worked as the director of summer player development for Goodwin Sports Management, creating workout programs and training NBA players. He had also been the head coach at Spokane Community College in Spokane, Washington during that time, compiling an 88-61 (.590) mark in his five seasons.

Hughes has served as the head coach for the Raptors’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League the past three summers. His 2010 team finished 5-0 and led the league in scoring.

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Sonny Weems signs in Lithuania

Euroleague.net reports:

Zalgiris Kaunas added some athleticism on the wings with the signing of Sonny Weems to a one-year deal. Weems (1.98 meters, 25 years old) will make his European basketball debut this season with the Lithuanian champs. He arrives from Toronto of the NBA, where he averaged 9.2 points and 2.6 rebounds last season over 59 games as a part-time starter. It was Weems’s third season in the NBA, where he has also played for Denver.

InsideHoops.com editor says: A couple of bench-level NBA players in need of a better basketball job are slowly heading to Europe. The NBA lockout may cause a few players at the end of team benches to perhaps head to Europe a bit quicker than they might under normal circumstances, only because there is a limit on how many well-paying hoops jobs exist over there. The only big lockout-related surprise so far is that Nets guard Deron Williams is poised to temporarily take his talents to Turkey, but he’ll return to the NBA when the lockout is resolved. I do not expect many star or starter-level NBA players to follow D-Will’s lead. A couple might, but most likely won’t.

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NBA says NYTimes.com blog was based on inaccurate info

The following is an official release from the NBA:

The information from Forbes that serves as the basis for this article is inaccurate and we do not know how they do their calculations. Forbes does not have the financial data for our teams and the magazine’s estimates do not reflect reality.

Precisely to avoid this issue, the NBA and its teams shared their complete league and team audited financials as well as our state and Federal tax returns with the Players Union. Those financials demonstrate the substantial and indisputable losses the league has incurred over the past several years.

The analysis that was posted this afternoon has several significant factual inaccuracies, including:

“(The NBA) is a fundamentally healthy and profitable business”

• The league lost money every year of the just expiring CBA. During these years, the league has never had positive Net Income, EBITDA or Operating Income.

“Many of the purported losses result from an unusual accounting treatment related to depreciation and amortization when a team is sold.”

• We use the conventional and generally accepted accounting (GAAP) approach and include in our financial reporting the depreciation of the capital expenditures made in the normal course of business by the teams as they are a substantial and necessary cost of doing business.

We do not include purchase price amortization from when a team is sold or under any circumstances in any of our reported losses. Put simply, none of the league losses are related to team purchase or sale accounting.

“Another trick…moving income from the team’s balance sheet to that of a related business like a cable network…”

• All revenues included in Basketball Related Income (“BRI”) and reported in our financial statements have been audited by an accounting firm jointly engaged by the players’ union and the league. They include basketball revenues reported on related entities’ books.

“Ticket revenues… are up 22% compared to 1999-2000 season”

• Ticket revenues have increased 12% over the 10 year period, not the 22% reported.

“17 teams lost money according to Forbes … Most of these losses were small…”

• Forbes’ claim is inaccurate. In 2009-10, 23 teams had net income losses. The losses were in no way “small” as 11 teams lost more than $20M each on a net income basis.

“The profits made by the Knicks, Bulls and Lakers alone would be enough to cover the losses of all 17 unprofitable teams.”

• The Knicks, Bulls and Lakers combined net income for 2009-10 does not cover the losses of the 23 unprofitable teams. Our net loss for that year, including the gains from the seven profitable teams, was -$340 million.

“Forbes’s estimates — a $183 million profit for the NBA in 2009-10, and those issued by the league, which claim a $370M loss…”

• Forbes’s data is inaccurate. Our losses for 2009-10 were -$340 million, not -$370 million as the article states.

“The leaked financial statements for one team, the New Orleans Hornets, closely matched the Forbes data…”

• This is not an accurate statement as operating income in the latest Forbes data (2009-10) is $5M greater than what is reported in the Hornets audited financials.

Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

Raptors rookie Jonas Valanciunas is rocking the FIBA U19 tournament

TheScore (blog) reports:

Four games into the 2011 FIBA Men’s Under-19 World Championship, there should be little question who the tournament MVP has been so far. That would be the Raptors’ draft pick, Jonas Valanciunas, who is ranked fourth in scoring with 19.3 points per game, second in rebounds with 13 per game, and first in blocks with 3.5 per game. Earlier today, he led Lithuania to a 71-54 win over Serbia with an impressive performance of 18 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks and just two fouls in 34 minutes.

I feel it’s important to mention the fouls because he fouled out of two of his four tournament games, including Saturday’s match against Canada when he picked up five fouls in just 14 minutes. Like many young big men who are aggressive defensively and on the boards, foul trouble is something that could be a significant barrier to Valanciunas’ ability to contribute consistently early in his NBA career.

NBA lockout impacts Chris Bosh wedding list

Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

While Chris Bosh’s recent “Hangover” style bachelor party has been well chronicled across the web, his South Florida wedding later this month became a bit more complicated by the lockout.

Under lockout rules, the NBA has banned contact between players and team officials or coaches. Bosh, however, already has several such Miami Heat members on his invitation list.

While the Heat declined comment Friday, citing league guidelines, the team apparently has already cleared the appearances of management and the coaching staff at the power forward’s nuptials through the NBA.

InsideHoops.com editor says: I never understood why players who are signed to contracts can’t talk to team officials during a lockout. They are already signed. They can’t do anything. Free agents are another story.

Toronto Raptors extend qualifying offer to Sonny Weems

The Toronto Raptors announced Monday they have extended a qualifying offer to restricted free agent guard-forward Sonny Weems. Per team policy, financial details were not disclosed.

In accordance with the league’s collective bargaining agreement, in order for a team to retain its rights of first refusal with respect to a restricted free agent it must tender the player a qualifying offer prior to June 30. A restricted free agent may sign an offer sheet with any team, but is subject to a right of first refusal in favour of the NBA team for which the player last played.

Weems averaged career highs in points (9.2) and minutes (23.9) in 59 games in 2010-11. In a career-best 28 starts, he posted averages of 10.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 29.8 minutes. He scored in double figures 27 times last season.

Weems has appeared in 140 games with Denver and Toronto in his three NBA campaigns, averaging 7.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 20.3 minutes. He joined the Raptors in a trade from Milwaukee on August 18, 2009.

Raptors guard Leandro Barbosa exercises 2011-12 option

The Toronto Raptors announced Saturday guard Leandro Barbosa has exercised his contract option year for the 2011-12 NBA season.

Barbosa, 6-foot-3, 175 pounds, averaged 13.3 points, 2.1 assists and 24.1 minutes in 58 games in the 2010-11 season, his first with the Raptors. He led the team in bench points on 36 occasions. He also ranked second on the team in 3FGM (72) and third in scoring.

The 28-year-old native of Sao Paulo, Brazil has averaged 12.7 points, 2.3 assists and 25.0 minutes in 524 regular season games in his eight-year NBA career. He was voted 2006-07 NBA Sixth Man of the Year.