Tyson Chandler hasn’t played in nearly three weeks because of a hamstring injury, but the veteran is taking an optimistic view to the time off and he believes his time on the sideline will help him gel with his new team once he is able to return, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic writes.
“Everything happens for a reason sometimes and the injury gave me a different perspective,” Chandler said. “A lot of times, when you’re in the mix, you can’t pinpoint what’s going on because everything is going so fast and you’re out there too. Being out and watching Alex [Len], I see things. I see a lot of areas where we can improve.”
Chandler joined the Suns last summer, signing a four year, $52MM deal to be the team’s starting center. Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- Omri Casspi re-signed with the Kings on a two, year $6MM deal last summer, but the money was not the main reason he returned, as he tell Rob Mahoney of SI.com. “No. 1, I just like Sacramento. It’s the team that drafted me, and I just felt a good energy around the team and the fans and everything that was going on,” Casspi said. “I feel like it’s really a second home for me outside of my country, outside of Israel. And number two, when Coach [George] Karl stayed and signed a long-term deal, I felt like we had the right base to start winning games this year. DeMarcus is our go-to guy and he’s our star. It’s been a drought in Sacramento. I want to be a part of a winning situation and a team that’s building toward an NBA championship. I feel like we’ve got the right pieces, the right coach, and the right system in place. Now it’s about us coming together to start winning games.”
- Sacramento has had more than its share of turnover in the front office in recent years, but Casspi believes the right people are in place now and he is a fan of what the front office did this offseason, as he tells Mahoney in the same piece. “Now we have a new GM in place. We need to get some stability from the top, and I feel like now we have everything in place. Vlade’s running the show and has a good team with him. I feel like he’s doing all he can to make this team successful. You bring in the right pieces, the right players — players that have been in winning situations — and you can have a winning culture. But right now we’re building it, and I think Vlade is the guy that it starts with. He brought in Rajon [Rondo], who won a championship, Kosta [Koufos] being in Memphis a few years and Denver where he won a lot of games, Marco [Belinelli] won in San Antonio. So you bring in the right pieces and you start building a winning culture, a winning mentality. That’s how you really go back to where the Kings need to be.”
- The Lakers are just 3-20 on the season, but Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders believes the win-loss record isn’t the only reason Byron Scott is failing as a coach. Blancarte cites Scott’s choice for the rotation, which has given heavy minutes to veteran players, and his tendency to bench youngsters, like D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle, for mistakes they make in games rather than letting them play through their mistakes as reason for the pessimism.