Thunder assign Steven Hill to D-League

Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti announced today that the team has assigned center Steven Hill to the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League.

Hill (7-0, 245) saw action in one regular season game with the Thunder. The Branson, Missouri native scored two points and grabbed three rebounds in two minutes of action versus the Orlando Magic.

Hill is the first player to be assigned to the 66ers by the Oklahoma City Thunder since the Professional Basketball Club, LLC assumed control of the NBA Development League franchise on July 31, 2008.

Nov 20: Lakers 105, Suns 92

The AP reports: Kobe Bryant scored 24 points and Vladimir Radmanovic made all five of his 3-pointers to lead the Los Angeles Lakers past the Phoenix Suns, 105-92 on Thursday night. Bryant shot only 8-of-23, but the Lakers overwhelmed Phoenix with their depth. Six players reached double figures as Los Angeles improved its record to a league-best 9-1. Radmanovic scored 15, Lamar Odom 13, Jordan Farmar 11, and Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza 10 apiece for Los Angeles. Amare Stoudemire scored 21 for Phoenix on 9-for-21 shooting. Shaquille O’Neal added 15 points and nine rebounds against the Lakers, a team he helped win three NBA titles. The Suns’ Steve Nash was scoreless in the first half and finished with eight points and 10 assists, leaving the court with back spasms with 4:38 to play.

Nov 20: Celtics 98, Pistons 80

The AP reports: Rajon Rondo had 18 points and eight assists, outplaying the recent Pistons acquisition and leading the Boston Celtics to a 98-80 victory over Detroit on Thursday night in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference finals… Allen Iverson had 16 points and four assists for Detroit, which fell to 4-3 since he was acquired from Denver for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess… Kevin Garnett scored 15 in his return from a one-game suspension, and Kendrick Perkins had 10 rebounds before both teams emptied their benches down the stretch… The Celtics scored the first seven points of the second quarter and opened a 40-27 lead with 5:13 left in the half. It was 49-40 at halftime and Boston went on an 18-5 run in the third to turn a 10-point lead into a 75-52 blowout.

InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: For Boston, Rondo shot 7-of-11 and also had 3 steals. Garnett had 3 steals as well. Tony Allen shot 6-of-7 off the bench for 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Ray Allen scored 12. Eddie House shot 4-of-7 off the bench for 11. For Detroit, Iverson shot 5-of-13 for 16 points, just one rebound, and equal assists/turnovers. Rasheed Wallace had a modest 13 points and 6 rebounds. Richard Hamilton was shut down with 12 points and little else. Jason Maxiell had 10 points and 6 rebounds on 9 shots. All Boston did wrong was brick their free throws, shooting 19-of-28.

Age is hitting the West

The Rocky Mountain News (Chris Tomasson) reports: “A lot of the teams out West are maybe aging a little bit,” said Minnesota forward Mark Madsen. “If you look at some of the key players on some of the teams that have been historically dominant, not everyone has 20- to 25-year-olds. They’ve got some guys in their 30s.” Teams showing the most age are San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix, although the Suns’ recent play suggests there’s no immediate plans to move to Sun City, Ariz. Put it all together and a possible West dropoff could help the Nuggets. They’ve been one of the few upper-echelon West teams for which the news in the first month has mostly been positive.

Baron Davis no fan of Elton Brand

Last summer, Elton Brand and Baron Davis talked about playing together on the Clippers. So Davis signed on as a free agent. Brand, however, didn’t re-sign with the team, and jumped ship to the Philadelphia 76ers. Davis still isn’t happy about it. The Los Angeles Times (Lisa Dillman) reports on the two players as their two teams are set to play against each other:

So will they hug, exchange pleasantries or even lock eyes before tonight’s game? “I’ve got nothing to say to him,” Davis said on Wednesday. This was in the visitors’ dressing room at Oklahoma City, not long after the Clippers beat the Thunder by 20 points. The mention of Brand quickly wiped away Davis’ smile, especially because he just had been talking about Oklahoma City’s Earl Watson, saying he regards Watson like “a brother.” Davis hasn’t spoken to Brand, and said he doesn’t plan to do so, because the former Clipper recruited Davis to come join him in Los Angeles and then Brand did a quick cut and run, heading East for a bigger bag of money, a five-year deal worth almost $80 million… Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy has rehashed the turn of events last summer — and is still wanting for answers. “Elton had a great five years here. I loved him,” he said. “There’s a disappointment because you just don’t understand. He and I text messaged and called and never went, either one of us, usually 10 to 15 minutes without calling or returning a text. And then next thing I know it went silent.”

So far, the 76ers are a modest 5-6, the Clippers an awful 2-9. Brand is averaging just 15.8 points on just 43.8% shooting, with 10.5 rebounds, 1.55 blocks and more turnovers than assists. Davis is putting up just 15.5 points (by coincidence, almost the same as Brand) on lousy 36.1% shooting and only 24.6% three-pointers, plus 3.3 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.8 steals. Both players will probably raise their shooting percentages in the coming weeks as they and their new teams adjust to each other.

Bruce Bowen now a reserve

San Antonio Spurs small forward Bruce Bowen has made a living out of playing amazing defense, angering opponents, and occasionally cheap-shotting them. But, he’s old, and the team’s roster is diluted right now with both Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili out with injuries. So, a change has been made. The San Antonio Express-News (Jeff McDonald) reports:

The Spurs seem to have followed the lead of Bruce Bowen, who started the first four games of the season — and the first 555 of his Spurs’ career — before being transformed into a reserve. He comes off the bench now, without complaint. “It’s a matter of priorities,” Bowen said. “So what if you’re only playing eight minutes? There are a lot of people out there who would love to play in the NBA, for just those eight minutes.” For Bonner, any amount of NBA minutes is a blessing. In the span of three games earlier this month, he played a grand total of 42 seconds. In the past four, he’s gotten an early call from Popovich, and made the most of it, averaging a shade more than nine points and making 7 of 14 3-pointers.

With 5 wins and 6 losses the Spurs currently sit in 9th place in the Western conference, one spot out of the playoffs. Until their backcourt is healthy, the team’s goal should probably be just to hover around making the playoffs, and focus on a second half of the season run for playoff positioning. But even with full health, this team lacks the good role players they had in the past, so going far in the post-season could be a serious challenge.

Wizards change starting lineup

The Washington Wizards are banged and long-term injuries to starters Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood mean some rotation alterations don’t really mean much in the big picture, but with that said, they’ve made some changes. The Washington Post (Ivan Carter) reports:

The final result was familiar — a loss — but the look and feel were different for the Wizards on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, and that is something Coach Eddie Jordan believes his team can build upon. Jordan typically gives his a team a day off after playing on back-to-back nights, but he held a practice yesterday. Jordan said he was leaning toward sticking with a starting lineup that includes Dee Brown at point guard and rookie JaVale McGee at center when the Wizards (1-8) host the Houston Rockets (7-5) tonight at Verizon Center. Brown and McGee started in place of Juan Dixon and Etan Thomas, respectively.

With one win and eight losses the Wizards have been awful this short season. Caron Butler (20.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.67 spg) and Antawn Jamison (18.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.22 spg) have been very good, but they’ve gotten almost no help. Other than Nick Young’s 14.1 ppg no one is scoring 9 points per game. But their problem is defense: Wizards opponents are scoring 101.4 ppg on 47.4% shooting. The Wizards are also bricking their three-pointers in extremely ugly fashion. They’re being out-rebounded and out-assisted. Other than that, everything is great!

Agent to be Kings assistant GM

The Sacramento Bee (Sam Amick) reports:  The Kings will add a piece to their front office next month, when attorney and agent Jason Levien is expected to join the team as assistant general manager. The move, which sources within the organization and close to the team say should be official in the coming weeks, marks a rare addition to the Kings’ management team that Geoff Petrie has headed for 15 years. And with an on-court rebuilding and youth movement already in effect, the franchise also is taking the same approach upstairs.

Vinny Del Negro keeps it positive

The Bulls have been sorta somewhat OK so far this season. With 5 wins and 7 losses they have the potential to improve a bit and eventually become a .500 squad, which by their recent standards would be a big success. The Bulls bright spot in 2008-09 has been the great play of rookie point guard Derrick Rose, who has star quality.

Former Bulls coach Scott Skiles has a reputation of saying whatever is on his mind, which from a media and fan standpoint is terrific, because he creates lots of good conversation thanks to blunt honesty. That’s no longer the case with the team’s new coach, however. The Arlington Heights Daily Herald (Mike McGraw) reports:

Vinny Del Negro has demonstrated one constant, sometimes maddening, behavior so far this season. The first-year Bulls coach absolutely refuses to criticize his players in the media. This is quite a change from Scott Skiles, who was brutally honest when describing the state of the team. One often-repeated story is Skiles’ response when asked what Eddy Curry could do to improve his rebounding numbers. “Jump,” was the reply. Of course, some of Skiles’ comments helped escalate the turmoil last season when the Bulls went in the tank. He probably figured he was on the way out when he offered the “Tyrus Thomas has never run the floor once” rant during last year’s circus road trip… Del Negro will talk about what the team as a whole needs to do better. But when asked about poor individual performances, the coach tends to point the finger at himself.

I remember one day in New York when Eddy Curry was a fairly new member of the Knicks, and local NY reporters were trying to get coach Skiles to say something positive about the big center. Skiles wouldn’t bite. I thought that was terrific. More coaches need to be like him and Warriors coach Don Nelson in the “tell it like it is” department.

–Jeff

Thunder fans are booing

The Oklahoma City Thunder are living up to expectations, and losing. A lot. Here’s Thunder swingman Damien Wilkins talking tot The Oklahoman on hometown fan boos: “I’ve been hearing it. When you’re sitting you’re hearing it all. So I’ve been hearing it. It’s really not a whole lot you can do. You can’t go apologize to all 19,000 people. The only thing you can do is really just give a better effort. It’s embarrassing really. It’s embarrassing for us. It’s embarrassing for I know my family, I can’t speak for everyone else but I’m sure it is. To hear those boos after the excitement that was built up in this season, for us to come out and play like we played recently is just not acceptable. And some how some way we’ve got to turn this thing around.”