Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com that he plans to play Derrick Rose in three consecutive days of international pool play, an encouraging sign of his confidence in the point guard’s conditioning and progress. Here’s more from around the East:
- Jared Dudley tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he’s ready to prove himself on the Bucks, after being traded there from the Clippers last week. “Going from a contender to a team that’s rebuilding, to me that really doesn’t matter,” Dudley said. “As a professional, you’ve got to come in with the right mind-set and play in the right way.”
- Dudley also tells Gardner that his play suffered last season while he played through knee injuries. “We had so many injuries. J.J. [Redick] was out; Matt Barnes was out. Basically [coach Doc Rivers] wanted me to fight through it,” said Dudley. “I told him I could, I just wouldn’t be 100%. I think what I did was give him a body to hold the minutes down until those guys got back. For me personally, I might have suffered. But from the team standpoint we were able to get that three spot (playoff seeding) we needed to have. When you look back, would I have done it different? Maybe. But that was just me trying to give my body for a new team and a new coach.”
- Michael Kaskey-Blomain of The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t believe Henry Sims will become a starting-caliber center, but thinks starting Sims on the 2014/15 Sixers could help him develop into a quality rotation player, while also aiding in the development of Nerlens Noel, who would spend more time at power forward as a result.