Magic GM Rob Hennigan will not rule out Dwight Howard being on Orlando's roster come opening night, says Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Robbins also thinks that Howard starting the season with the team could open up the possibility of the disgruntled center expanding his list of trade destinations or other teams improving their offers at that point. Here's more of what we've heard this evening…
- Mark Deeks of ShamSports examines the Gilbert Arenas provision and demonstrates how the Knicks and Bulls could have avoided facing hefty offer sheets to Landry Fields and Omer Asik this summer by signing them to three-year deals in 2010.
- Royce Young of DailyThunder.com says that fans shouldn't jump to conclusions about James Harden's recent comments about considering the Suns if he were a free agent. Harden, who attended Arizona State University before joining the NBA, is still eligible to sign an extension with the Thunder before October 31st and could thus avoid free agency next summer.
- Forward Omri Casspi is very happy to be a part of the Cavaliers and thinks the team has a very bright future, writes Stephen Brotherston of HoopsWorld.
- Frank Isola of the New York Daily News says that Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, and Jose Calderon all gave a "thumbs up" to recently-signed Knicks guard Pablo Prigioni (Twitter link).
- Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports discusses the challenge that NBA stars face amidst the NBA owners and FIBA working together to potentially re-direct its stars out of the Olympics and into a rebranded world championship tournament similar to the World Cup of soccer. The new Olympic format would involve a "23-and-under" competition, which would essentially prevent many NBA stars from being able to participate. Wojnarowski adds that the inefficacy of NBPA executive director Billy Hunter has only made the efforts to preserve the current Olympic format a more difficult task.
- Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW wonders if the Mavericks are improved after their additions this summer (Subscribers only). In a separate piece, Sefko explains why he thinks the team projects to win 47 games and finish sixth place in the Western Conference.
- Sean Deveney of the Sporting News writes that despite being teased by his Team USA teammates, Carmelo Anthony continues to reiterate his support for Jeremy Lin.