Odds & Ends: Nolan Smith, Allen, Rondo, Paul
Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com wonders whether Nolan Smith's preseason troubles for the Blazers might be due in part to the pressure of the looming October 31st deadline the team has for picking up the third-year option on his rookie contract. Blazers GM Neil Olshey told Haynes he's going to wait as long as possible to make a decision. Stay up to date on this month's rookie-scale option decisions with the Hoops Rumors Rookie Contract Option Tracker, and check out the latest notes from around the league right here.
- The root of the hard feelings between Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen stemmed from a phone call Allen made to his then-teammate to get him to lobby against a trade that would have sent the pair to the Suns in 2009 for Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa and a 2010 draft pick, Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald reveals.
- Chris Paul was instrumental in recruiting Jamal Crawford and others to the Clippers, and doesn't give the look of someone who wants to leave L.A. as he enters the final season of his deal, Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld writes (Sulia link).
- Marvin Williams is paying early dividends for the Jazz after coming aboard in an offseason trade, as Mike Sorenson of the Deseret News and Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune examine.
- Coach Doug Collins pointed to four Sixers whose minutes he wants to limit during the season, and all of them are offseason acquisitions, as Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com chronicles.
- Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com and Newsday's Al Iannazzone share the opinion that a cyst in Stoudemire's left knee that will keep him out two to three weeks boosts the chances that Knicks non-guaranteed camp invitee Chris Copeland will make the team (Twitter links).
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel thinks Garrett Temple, Josh Harrellson and Dexter Pittman will all be on the Heat roster come opening night.
Odds & Ends: Possible Cavs/Heat Cuts, Olshey
- Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer takes a closer look at the decision the Cavaliers have to make on Sloan and Pargo and lists the pros and cons of keeping both. She also notes that Byron Scott believes one of them currently has an edge over the other, but the coach would not elaborate beyond that.
- Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald took to Twitter to speculate on what he calls the Heat's "no-doubt-about-it cut list," listing Rodney Carney, Jarvis Varnado, Mickell Gladness, and Robert Dozier. He mentions that the last two spots could come down to a competition among Josh Harrellson, Garrett Temple, and Terrel Harris, adding that he would keep the latter two (Twitter link).
- Interestingly enough, although Juwan Howard is not part of Miami's training camp roster, Goodman points out that the former Heat player still has a locker.
- Ben Golliver of the Blazers Edge shared a transcript of Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey's in-game interview with CSNNW on Friday. Some notable comments include Olshey's thoughts on Will Barton's potential, Nicolas Batum and the team moving forward after his contract extension, and landing J.J. Hickson.
- In response to a report that Stephen Curry will sit out the rest of pre-season, Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News tweets that Curry's long-term extension talks with the Warriors are on hold.
Camp Rumors: Curry, Brown, Varnado, Blazers
The first regular season action is just 10 days away, so it's crunch time for players gunning for the last spots on the end of an NBA bench. There's news about several training camp hopefuls this afternoon, and we've rounded it up here.
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gave strong indication before today's preseason game that the competition for the last roster spot in San Antonio is down to Eddy Curry and Derrick Brown, tweets Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Josh Powell and Wesley Witherspoon are also trying to make the team, while it appears DeJuan Blair and Gary Neal, the other Spurs without full guarantees, are safe.
- McDonald also notes, via Twitter, that Popovich said Curry has lost 20 pounds, and that's on top of the 100 pounds he lost while with the Heat last year, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
- Curry said he didn't entertain the idea of returning to the Heat this summer, as Winderman reports in the same piece. "It was frustrating. It was bittersweet," Curry said of his season in Miami, during which he saw little playing time. "Got a ring out of it, but it definitely wasn't the year I was looking forward to and wasn't what I worked for."
- Winderman also writes that a hamstring injury has likely torpedoed any chance Jarvis Varnado had of making the Heat's regular season roster.
- The Trail Blazers are one of three teams left at the 20-player preseason roster limit, and GM Neil Olshey said he's going to wait as long as possible before making cuts, tweets Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge. "Some of it is strategic," according to Olshey, and Golliver interprets that remark to mean the team is trying to funnel some of its camp invitees to its D-League affiliate.
T-Wolves Rumors: Webster, Rubio, Ownership
Few NBA owners are as accessible and candid as Glen Taylor, and the Timberwolves owner was more than willing to discuss a few topics related to his team with Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 this week. Here are the highlights from Taylor, via Wolfson's weekly Scoops piece:
- Taylor expects to get closure on the Martell Webster compensation case sometime in December. The T-Wolves are hoping for financial or draft pick reimbursement, as they believe the Trail Blazers traded Webster to Minnesota as damaged goods in June 2010. Earlier this year, the NBA awarded the Celtics a second-round pick from the Thunder for a similar situation involving Jeff Green.
- The T-Wolves aren't active on the trade market on the moment, but that could change by February's deadline.
- Taylor isn't opposed to making Ricky Rubio the Timberwolves' designated player with a five-year extension when he's eligible, though GM David Kahn recently said Rubio is likely to receive the same four-year offer that Kevin Love did.
- A month ago, we heard that Taylor was considering prospective owners for the Wolves, but there are no new developments on that front. Taylor stressed that he expects to continue as the club's majority owner for at least a couple more years.
- Taylor is willing to take on salary or add payroll if Kahn and coach Rick Adelman "sell him" on a free agent.
Northwest Rumors: Aldridge, Lillard, Wolves
LaMarcus Aldridge didn't hold back in his comments on 1080 AM The Fan in Portland, declaring himself the best power forward in the game, as Ben Golliver documents on Blazer's Edge. He's indicated a willingness to be patient through the Blazers' rebuilding process before, but he doesn't think he'll have much of a wait, a belief he apparently shares with the front office. "I have really good talks with the management, with [GM] Neil [Olshey]," Aldridge said today. "We don't feel like this process is going to be that long. We feel like one year for guys to get better, for myself to also get better. We feel like we should have enough next year to be one of those top teams again. We can always add some good guys through free agency next year." While we wait to see if the Blazers can bounce back so quickly, here's more from Portland and elsewhere in the Northwest.
- Blazers rookie point guard Damian Lillard is trying to find the right balance between passing and looking for his own shot, as The Oregonian's Joe Freeman documents.
- Though Kevin Love could be back in five weeks, sooner than originally expected, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports, his broken hand will shine a spotlight on coach Rick Adelman's influence on building the Wolves roster, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
- Adelman said the specter of injuries helped shape the team's offseason plans, as Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune notes. "That's one reason we made a lot of changes," Adelman said. "Because we didn't do that last year, that last month [of the season], we got hammered."
Western Notes: Fredette, Blazers, Douglas-Roberts
Ben Golliver of SI.com identifies five players on Western Conference contenders who'll be "X-factors" for their teams, meaning their performance this season will go a long way in determining whether their teams will be playing in June. Three of the X-factors are offseason acquisitions: Dwight Howard of the Lakers, Andre Iguodala of the Nuggets and Lamar Odom of the Clippers. A fourth, the Thunder's James Harden, is entering the final season of his contract, while the Spurs have their X-factor, Kawhi Leonard, locked up until 2015 and already talking about staying with the team for a lot longer than that. There's more on others from around the West tonight, and we've got it rounded up here.
- While some Kings teammates say Jimmer Fredette has been the best player in camp, the team has other options at guard that could keep Fredette out of the rotation, as Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com notes. Still, Howard-Cooper makes the case that the Kings still need the 10th overall pick in the 2011 draft to play up to his potential.
- Luke Babbitt and Nolan Smith still have multiple seasons left on their rookie-scale contracts, but if the Blazers don't think they'll develop, Dwight Jaynes of CSNNW.com thinks they could trade one or both of them for draft picks and cap space. Such moves could also allow the team to keep Coby Karl and Adam Morrison, both of whom have impressed Jaynes.
- Blazer's Edge checks in with two-pronged preview of the Blazers, as Tom Ziller looks at what's ahead while Mike Prada gives the team a C for its work this past offseason.
- Chris Douglas-Roberts, in camp with the Lakers on a non-guaranteed deal, talks about his teammates, the challenge of making the regular season roster, and what went wrong during his first stint in the NBA as part of a Q&A with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com.
- Free agent signee Jamal Crawford is showing off his ability to score in crunch time for the Clippers, as Eric Patten of Clippers.com observes.
Blazers Links: Lillard, Price, Barton, Hickson
Now that Damian Lillard has gotten a taste of what the NBA is like, the Trail Blazers' rookie point guard told CSNNW.com about his experiences so far and what he's learned after a few preseason games. Here are a few more links out of Portland tonight:
- Mike Tokito of The Oregonian writes that although Will Barton returned to practice, Ronnie Price could possibly sidelined until the season opener after injuring his ankle against Phoenix on Friday. Tokito adds that J.J. Hickson returned to practice, but is still feeling the effects of the bruised left ribs he suffered against the Lakers on Wednesday. Lastly, he said that coach Terry Stotts doesn't anticipate any roster cuts before next Sunday.
- Will Barton spoke with CSNNW.com about his return.
- In this video, Stotts elaborated on possible lineup changes with Barton and Hickson now active.
- During a post-practice interview, Meyers Leonard offered some thoughts on the aspect of his game he deems the strongest, and what he needs to work on.
Northwest Rumors: Aldridge, Morrison, Fournier
The Timberwolves have already made news, cutting ties with a pair of training camp invitees, and there are a few other items of interest out of the Northwest Division this morning.
- LaMarcus Aldridge sees himself as a legitimate No. 1 option, and doesn't think the Blazers need to acquire anyone else to play that role, he told Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.
- Adam Morrison, in camp with the Blazers on a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal, said he had similar offers from other NBA teams but chose the Blazers in part because of their proximity to his home in Spokane, Washington, writes Joe Freeman of the The Oregonian as he details the comeback attempt of the 2006 No. 3 overall pick. Morrison also said the team let him know it would give him a legitimate shot of making the opening-night roster, but Friday's waiver claim of fellow small forward Justin Holiday adds to the competition for a spot.
- Evan Fournier was the lone international product to be taken in the first round of this year's draft, and though the Frenchman didn't figure to make the Nuggets' rotation when training camp began, the 19-year-old is making a push for regular playing time as a shooting guard, according to Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post.
Odds & Ends: Hinrich, Williams, Heat, Hansbrough
While some have said that Kirk Hinrich has lost a step, the guard says that he is as healthy as he has been in years. That could make all the difference this season for the Bulls, who need as much as they can get out of the backcourt while Derrick Rose rehabs his knee injury, writes Joel Brigham of HoopsWorld. The point guard has spent the last few years with the Hawks and Wizards while battling injuries and was brought back to be a stabilizing force in Chicago. Hinrich, who is set to earn $8MM over the next two seasons, may not be the player he was five years ago, but could still prove to a strong pickup for the Bulls. Here's more from around the league..
- Atlanta native Lou Williams says that he always envisioned himself playing for his hometown team, writes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Williams said that there were "three or four teams" in heavy pursuit of him this summer, but he quickly gave the edge to the Hawks once it became clear that they would offer him a fair deal.
- In today's Q-and-A column, a reader asks Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel if the Heat would be better off with a traditional point guard such as Jose Calderon over Mario Chalmers. Winderman doesn't agree, arguing that a typical one-guard isn't needed when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade like to handle the ball as much as they do.
- Undrafted rookie Ben Hansbrough has an uphill battle as he looks to make the Pacers roster, but he is certainly giving the front office something to think about, writes Mark Montieth of Pacers.com. Hansbrough is trying to hook on as a one-guard behind two true point guards in George Hill and D.J. Augustin and combo guard Lance Stephenson.
- Justin Holiday will also have a tough time making the final 15 with the Trail Blazers, but the forward has never been afraid of working hard to reach his goal, writes Wendell Maxey of Ridiculous Upside.
Blazers Claim Justin Holiday
The Blazers announced tonight, via Twitter, that they have claimed Justin Holiday off waivers. He will join the team on Sunday. Justin, the older brother of Jrue Holiday, was released by the Cavs on Wednesday after being signed on October 1.
Holiday, 23, played at Washington and went undrafted despite being ranked as the 57th-best prospect in the class by ESPN.com's Chad Ford. He should still be considered a long shot to make an NBA roster, though it is interesting that he was claimed this late in the preseason. Holiday will wear number 10.