Basketball Blog

The first game of the 2007 Pepsi Pro Summer Leage is in the book, The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls 93-89. The game lasted two hours and 1 minute, and committing a combined 73 fouls. The rules for fouls are a little different in
Orlando than they are in the Las Vegas Summer League, a player cannot foul out, but for every foul a player commits over six, the opposing team gets two shots and the ball.

Bulls Notes:

Joakim Noah didn’t participate in today’s game, and isn’t expected to participate here in Orlando or at the Rocky Mountain Revue next week. Noah apparently is still hurting from a shoulder injury that occurred over four months ago and may not be ready to play again until training camp. Evidently the Bulls knew about this ailment before the draft, but I’m still surprised they passed on Spencer Hawes to take an injured Noah.

Andre Barrett a guard who spent all year on the Bulls roster last year but played in only six games appeared ready to shake off the rust from last season, and was flying all over the court in the first half. Unfortunately for Barrett, his teammates weren’t exactly ready to keep up and he turned the ball over six times to offset his six assists.

Tyrus Thomas showed why he was a lottery pick last year, by scoring 17 points, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking five shots. Thomas has clearly been working on his mid-range jump shot, and took many different shots from around 15-18 foot range. The only sore spot for Thomas was when he injured his finger while blocking a shot in the third quarter. Thomas winced in pain but stayed in the game.

Pacers Notes:

Kareem Rush, former Laker and Bobcat showed why he belongs in the NBA instead of Lithuania, where he spent last season. Rush scored 20 points on 5-6 shooting from three point land, and also had four rebounds.

Desmon Farmer, a 6-5 220 guard from USC who spent last year playing for Seattle SuperSonics and in the d-league had many of the spectators of game one laughing as he continued to shout to his after nearly play. Farmer finished with six points, two assists and two rebounds.

Dan Grunfeld, a 6-6 220 guard from Stanford who played for Pacers summer league team last year crashed the floor as the buzzer sounded at the end of the third quarter while tried to catch a Hail Mary pass. It was a scary moment for Grunfeld who laid on the floor for a few seconds, but returned to play in the fourth quarter. He finished with two points, one assist and one rebound.

This is Woody Wommack, I’m a contributer to insidehoops.com and I’ll be blogging live from Pepsi Pro Summer league here in Orlando, Fla. The teams participating in this years league are the Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, New Jersey Nets and the host team Orlando Magic. Games are just about to get underway and I’ll be back with live updates all week long. The camp runs from July 9-13. Rosters for each team can be seen here. I’ll be back later with my notes from the first game.

From today’s InsideHoops.com NBA rumors, Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes that Kevin Durant refuses to refer to himself as a superstar, savior, or cornerstone.

Sorry Kevin, but even if you won’t refer to yourself as that, all of Seattle is. So accept it, deal with it, and live up to it. Your one year in college made you a superstar. When Ray Allen was sent to the Celtics on Draft day, you were instantly the cornerstone of the Sonics. When Rashard Lewis agreed to sign with the Orlando Magic, you became the savior.

Jeff Green is a nice player. Robert Swift can develop into a good big man. Wally Szczerbiak is grossly overpaid. None of them are superstars. None of them will have their jersey hanging in the rafters when all is said and done. None of them can keep a team in a city. Kevin Durant can. His destiny and path is already set.

We’re a couple days away from players being able to sign contracts, and its time to fuel your paranoia with a nasty reminder: its all hype until you see a signed contract.  Especially with your restricted agents.

There’s always time for another team to slip in with an offer.  Just ask the Jazz.  We understand they’ve got L.L. Cool J’s “I’m the Type of Guy” on their iPod.

Basketball is truly a year round season. With summer league just starting, Team USA playing in August, training camp in September, and the preseason games in October, the start of the regular season seems like an eternity. But that’s not going to stop me from looking forward to next season. So I bring you a list of 30 things I’m looking forward to next season, one for each team:

Atlanta Hawks – They will be rocking new jerseys. While it may not help them win anymore games, they can at least lose in style.
Boston Celtics– Hearing Celtics color commentator Tommy Heinsohn when Ray Allen and Allan Ray are on the floor. Maybe he will resort to calling Ray Allen by his real first name, Walter. “I LOVEEEEEE WALTAAAAAaa.”
Charlotte Bobcats – Raymond Felton alley-oop to Jason Richardson for the windmill slam.
Chicago Bulls – Who will have the better hair? Ben Wallace or Joakim Noah?
Cleveland Cavaliers – The Chosen One. LBJ. King James. LeBron. We are all Witnesses.
Dallas Mavericks – How will the team with the best record last year recover from their upset loss to the Warriors in the playoffs.
Denver Nuggets – A full year of Carmelo and AI.
Detroit Pistons – How many technicals Rasheed Wallace will get? The over/under is 15.
Golden State Warriors – We Believe. Without J-Rich, can their young guys step it up for another cinderella season?
Houston Rockets – Yao Ming with the slower version of the Dream Shake.
Indiana Pacers – Danny Granger blowing up this season.
LA Clippers – Insert Steve Francis/Cat Mobley joke here.
LA Lakers – Kobe Watch 2007.
Memphis Grizzlies – Mike Conley at the point guard spot, with Kyle Lowry feeling he deserves minutes too. Damon Stoudamire may have something to say about this as well.
Miami Heat – Watching D-Wade is great. How quickly will Shaq decline?
Milwaukee Bucks – Will Yi fade in obscurity or can he put Milwaukee on the map?
Minnesota Timberwolves – The state of Kevin Garnett after the TWolves are out of the playoff picture and it’s only midseason.
New Jersey Nets – The performance of Vince Carer in a non-contract year.
New Orleans Hornets – A core group of Chris Paul, Peja Stojakovic, David West, and Tyson Chandler would be fun to watch, if they can stay healthy.
New York Knicks – How Zack Randolph and Eddy Curry will co-exist down in the post.
Orlando Magic – Rashard Lewis teaming up with Dwight Howard.
Philadelphia 76ers – The team believing they can make the playoffs. Then Kyle Kover proceeds to tell them they have all been “Punk’d”.
Phoenix Suns – Grant Hill in the run and gun Phoenix lineup. If he gets the playing time and thinks he’s young again he could be racking up triple doubles.
Portland Trailblazers – The team of the future is full of young and athletic players. Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, Jarrett Jack, LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, Channing Frye, and Martell Webster.
Sacramento Kings – The crazy antics of Ron Artest.
San Antonio Spurs – Can anyone beat the defending champions?
Seattle Sonics – Kevin Durant. Rookie of the Year.
Toronto Raptors – With one season under his belt, will Andrea Bargnani prove he was deserving of the #1 pick in the 2006 NBA Draft?
Utah Jazz – Consistent fundamental basketball at its finest.
Washington Wizards – Gilbert Arenas. The Takeover Reloaded.

What’s harder than watching Summer League basketball? Trying to take any noteworthy notes while doing it. I sit here watching a feed of the Denver Nuggets vs LA Clippers game and decide to take some notes on the game. Why? Because what’s better than random observations from a summer league game? I put it just above watching My Giant staring Gheorghe Mureşan and Billy Crystal. Of course, there might be some die hard Nuggets or Clippers fan that might actually find it useful. So without further adieu:

• The Nuggets starting lineup has players such as Von Wafter, Jelani McCoy, Lamond Murray, and everyone’s favorite European Nikoloz Tskitishvili
• The Clippers had last year’s second round picks Paul Davis and Guillermo Diaz,and this year’s draft picks, Jared Jordan and Al Thornton.
• Having no commentary during the game is strange. Although it’s a lot like being in the actual arena except the arena is half full and dead of life. Is this what a Hawks game is like?
• Al Thornton looks aggressive to start, hitting a jump shot.
• Jelani McCoy dunks it and tries to tear down the rim.
• Jared Jordan does his best MJ impression and scores a layup.
• Von Wafer with a jump shot. He should make the Nuggets roster on his name alone.
• Jelani does his best Shaq impression and dunks it again while trying to tear down the rim. Does he have issues with the rim?
• You know you are watching summer league when you see 5 turnovers in a row and no one cares.
• Rocky, the Nuggets mascot is trying halfcourt behind the head shots during the timeout. He hits the top of the backboard then runs off the court like a little girl.
• Lamond Murray makes a 3, verifying his existence.
• Al Thornton is a scoring machine. Another jumpshot from the baseline.
• Guerrimo Diaz makes a jumpshot. And when I say jumpshot, i mean it. That guy jumps high. Unfortunately that’s about all he does.
• Thornton’s game reminds me of a taller Ruben Patterson except with a jumpshot and minus the nanny. You know he’s going to be a player when he hikes up his shorts and tucks in his shirt.
• Tskitishvili hits nothing but backboard on his 3 point attempt. What was Kiki thinking when he drafted him over Amare?
• The best thing about these feeds is you get to see wha happens during the breaks. Rocky brings some kids to halfcourt and tells them to lie down. He then proceeds to flip over them. He’s bringing out more kids. A total of 6. He lands on his ass but clears the kids. The announcer says “how about it for Rocky… fans?” to which there is no crowd reaction. He then says “you’ll see more of him”. To which moans can be heard throughout the empty arena.
• Paul Davis showing off his midrange game.
• Curtis Sumpter playing pretty well for Denver.
• 66-44 at the half Thorton with 17 and McCoy with 14 at the half. Considering the past summer league games already, this could be the final score.

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And that’s where the notes stopped. I tried, I really did but there simply wasn’t anything interesting to point out. And that ends my 1 day career as a summer league game note taker. The cliff notes:

Al Thornton will be able to contribute to the Clippers this year, Paul Davis has skills but won’t see the light of day behind Brand and Kamen, Tskitshvili is still terrible, Lamond Murray is barely alive, and Jelani McCoy still hasn’t developed anything beyond a dunk.

By InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner

Only Knicks fans and arena enthusiasts will care about this — and I have no idea if there is such a thing as an ”arena enthusiast” but I’m sure at least one exists out there — but Madison Square Garden, home to the Knicks, the WNBA’s Liberty and the St. Johns Red Storm for part of their season, has new and improved scoreboards.

Both the giant circular video scoreboard high above centercourt and the screens all around the sides of the arena interior have been upgraded. Flashier. Brighter. Sharper resolution.

I’m not sure it was put to good use today, however, as I attended one of the 4-6 WNBA games I usually hit each summer. The area where the player stats are displayed, which if I remember correctly used to just be numbers and letters, now had a very slick Liberty graphic as the background, with white letters for the stats. While it looked hot and ready for MTV, it was slightly harder to read the actual information. That’s just a color scheme issue, though. Easily fixable I assume. Aside from that, they looked high-tech and pretty slick. The actual physical structure is the same.

There’s your one and possibly only scoreboard-related update of the summer.

On Saturday   the Indiana Pacers waived Kenyon Gamble and David Logan from their   Rookie/Free Agent Camp roster. That roster now stands at 13.

Neither guy had much of a shot, an InsideHoops.com source says.

The Miami Heat announced today that they have added Orien Greene to their 2007 Summer League roster and have released guards Vincent Grier, Dontell Jefferson, Dewarick Spencer and Levi Stukes and forward Ekene Ibekwe.

InsideHoops.com has not heard buzz suggesting that any of the five released players are in demand right now for NBA job openings.

Over the course of his two-year NBA career, Greene has appeared in 121 games (five starts) for the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers and has averaged 2.6 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 12.3 minutes per game.
 
 Greene (6-4, 208-pounds) appeared in 41 games for the Indiana Pacers during the 2006-07 season after signing as a free agent and averaged 1.5 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 6.2 minutes per game. He was originally drafted by the Boston Celtics with the 53rd overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. Greene appeared in 80 games (five starts) for Boston during his rookie season and averaged 3.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 15.4 minutes. Greene finished the 2005-06 season third on the Celtics in steals (77) and fourth in assists (129).
 
 The HEAT will begin play in the Pepsi Pro Summer League at the RDV Sportsplex in Maitland, FL against Charlotte tomorrow in the second game of a tripleheader. The start time is estimated as 5:00 p.m.

So Mo Williams spent a day getting wined and dined by Pat Riley down in sunny Florida, and we’re left to worry that he will bolt for income tax-free, Dwyane Wade-inhabited Miami. After Wisconsin’s 6.75% income taxes reduce Mo’s reported 5 year $40 million contract offer to $37.3 million, Miami’s full mid-level exception offer of around $35 million isn’t looking like such a drastic difference. Plus, the Heat are simply a better team than the Bucks are.

But for how long? Shaq is already 35 years old, and played only 99 games (out of a possible 164) over the past two seasons. His rebounding has declined in each of the past three seasons, and he just shot a career low .422 from the foul line. Let’s not confuse the Shaq that Mo would be joining with the one who dominated the Western Conference from ’96-’07. Nothing needs to be said about what Dwyane Wade is capable of – even without Shaq – but Mo would be joining what is nearly a one-man team.

The Bucks meanwhile are bursting at the seems with high-potential big men (Bogut, Villanueva, Yi) and polished perimeter scorers (Redd, Bell), who will provide Mo with the opportunity to average 2 or 3 more assists a game than he would in Miami. And if any one of those young big men become a legit allstar-level player? The future in Milwaukee will be looking awfully bright.

I don’t think Mo will accept a smaller contract to play in Miami, but if that turns out to be what he really wants, let him go. Don’t ruin the Bucks financial future by making a counter-offer along the lines of what Kirk Hinrich earned in Chicago. Mo’s an exciting player who can score, pass, and rebound solidly. On the other hand, his horrid defense means that he will never be the ideal partner for Michael Redd, or any other non-superstar. Eight million a year is a contract that we can reasonably expect him to grow into, but ten million a year is approaching all-star territory, and Mo is simply not that kind of player.

Losing Mo for nothing would be a fitting end to a season that included 184 games missed by starters, a lottery disaster, and a draft pick that doesn’t want to play for us. But we still need to make sane financial decisions and think about the future when the present doesn’t include the possibility of a championship.