– Is Kidd-Gilchrist’s shot fixed? ‘Well, it’s going in a lot more’ (from Rick Bonnell, Charlotte Observer):
” The question comes up weekly, daily, almost hourly whenever the Charlotte Hornets are discussed:
Will small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ever have a reliable jump shot?
Kidd-Gilchrist, a third-season pro who turned 21 last week, would just as soon talk about the great condition he’s in entering training camp or his excitement over new teammates Lance Stephenson and Marvin Williams. But he knew the question was coming Monday and he was ready with an answer.
“Does it feel that different? Well, it’s going in a lot more,” Kidd-Gilchrist said with a big grin. “I believe in the process. I started in April and it feels great.”
– As Trail Blazers’ training camp opens, CJ McCollum and Will Barton begin battle for rotation spot (from Joe Freeman, oregonlive.com):
” There was a heavy dose of kumbaya Monday in Tualatin, where the Trail Blazers opened a weeklong training camp with two workouts at the practice facility.
Wesley Matthews proclaimed that the Blazers’ were so far ahead of where they have been the last couple of seasons, “I feel like we’re in January right now.” LaMarcus Aldridge spent a chunk of his media availability praising the Blazers’ newest additions, Chris Kaman and Steve Blake. And owner Paul Allen, who watched the first practice while sitting courtside next to general manager Neil Olshey, was borderline giddy.
“There’s a great vibe around the team, I think, with the continuity, with the success we had last year,” Allen said after the Blazers’ morning workout. “I think we still feel like we’ve got more to prove.”
But lurking in the background behind all the glee was a fierce battle for playing time by two of the hungrier young players on the Blazers’ roster. The starting lineup is rock-solid. Kaman and Blake have essentially locked up backup roles at center and point guard, respectively. So only two — perhaps three — rotation spots are up for grabs in training camp, most notably at backup shooting guard, where second-year lottery pick CJ McCollum is in a neck-and-neck competition with the self-proclaimed “People’s Champ,” Will Barton.
Make no mistake, it’s a healthy, hearty competition between two players who respect each other. But it’s a competition nonetheless”
Read it here: http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2014/10/as_trail_blazers_training_camp_opens_cj_mccollum_a.html
– Goal in Pistons’ first practice was hustle on defense (from Vince Ellis, Detroit Free Press):
” The reason for focus is simple — Van Gundy has identified that as the No. 1 defensive priority after watching tape of all 82 games last season — a season that ended with a 29-53 record and extended the team’s streak of missing the postseason to five seasons.
“First of all, that’s something any team can do well,” Van Gundy said. “It really doesn’t take anything other than a commitment to do it and great effort.
“I think one of the things you always want to attack as a coach — or as a team — are the things you can control, and that’s something totally you can control on a night-to-night basis.”
Read it here: http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2014/10/01/detroit-pistons-getting-back-defense/16518921/
– The One Thing Holding Andre Drummond Back from Reaching His Full Potential (from Ian Levy, Bleacher Report):
” Andre Drummond is far from a finished product, but there is one hole in his game that dwarfs all others—free-throw shooting.
Drummond made 41.8 percent of his free throws last season. Only one player in NBA history has posted a worse mark in a season with at least 300 free-throw attempts—Wilt Chamberlain.
Drummond‘s free-throw shooting was similarly bad as a rookie
Read and view it here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2214950-the-one-thing-holding-andre-drummond-back-from-reaching-his-full-potential
– KCP gets SVG’s endorsement for his D, willingness to be coached (from Keith Langlois, pistons.com):
“You always look at players first to their strengths, where can a guy be great,” Van Gundy said about his second-year shooting guard, the No. 8 pick in 2013. “I think he can be an elite defender in this league at the two guard and we’ll look for that every night. I think he is a high-energy guy who can get up and down the floor and attack the basket in transition. Those two things have got to be his foundation.” “
Read it here: http://www.nba.com/pistons/features/kcp-gets-svgs-endorsement-his-d-willingness-be-coached
– Thibodeau, criticized for running Bulls into ground, remains defiant (from Joe Cowley, suntimes.com):
” The Bulls’ front office never has admonished coach Tom Thibodeau for the way he paces his team.
And no player has complained to the media over the years about a heavy workload.
Yet training camp opened Tuesday at the state-of-the-art Advocate Center, and Thibodeau’s status as an elite coach in the league is still in question because of the perception that he runs his players into the ground.
Thibodeau bristles when the subject is brought up.”
– Rose gets shooters, not shot creator (from Steve Aschburner, nba.com):
” Almost from the day Derrick Rose arrived, the Chicago Bulls have sought a second shot-creator to ease his workload and pose as a secondary threat when the defense stymies their explosive point guard.
Six seasons in, they still don’t have one. Call it the curse of Keith Bogans or something.
What the Bulls do have, though, as camp opens on the 2014-15 season is a squadron of shooters unlike any in recent memory at United Center. None of them is likely to put the ball on the floor and make something out of nothing the way Rose and a few other rare talents in the NBA can.
But as far as putting it in the air to great acclaim — spotting up on the perimeter or cutting-and-catching for opportunities near or beyond the arc –the Bulls have upgraded considerably.”
Read it here: http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2014/10/01/rose-gets-shooters-not-shot-creator/
– Suns GM McDonough feels centers’ play has risen (from Paul Coro, azcentral.com):
” Over the summer, conversations about the Suns centered on guards — the one it took nearly three months to bring back, the one they added, the one starring for Slovenia and how they will coexist this season.
All the while, Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough saw something else that makes him not so guarded about his centers. He said the team’s best internal improvement has come at center with Miles Plumlee and Alex Len.
“Miles and Alex, to me, look like different players than what you saw mid-April when our season ended,” McDonough said after watching a month of voluntary Suns pickup games at US Airways Center.”
Read it here: http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2014/10/01/suns-gm-ryan-mcdonough-centers-miles-plumlee-alex-len/16518433/
– Boston Celtics practice notes: Brad Stevens focusing on ‘pace and space,’ (from Jay King, Masslive.com):
” The Boston Celtics held their first two practices Tuesday, giving Stevens an opportunity to unveil some changes he devised. One of them: He plans to deliver information more quickly. “I thought I was too gradual last year,” he said. Another: He increased the focus on “pace and space.”
“There are going to be tweaks and changes, there are going to be certain things that are really stressed over others,” Stevens said. “But the bottom line is that we’re going to start trying to be faster with more emphasis on pace and space. And faster’s maybe not the appropriate term, but the right pace all the time, a very consistent pace all the time that we need to play with
Read it here: http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2014/09/boston_celtics_practice_notes_9.html
– Etorre Messina: An Exquisite International Tongue (from Ken Rodriguez, nba.com/spurs):
” The first thing you should know about Ettore Messina is that he is a man of many tongues. He can speak with Marco Belinelli in Italian, chat with Manu Ginobili in Spanish, joke with Tony Parker in French, banter with Gregg Popovich in Russian and communicate with everyone else in perfect English.
The second thing you should know: Messina owes his globetrotting career as a coach to a man who knew nothing about basketball, his late father, Filippo, a lawyer in Venice, Italy. If not for Filippo Messina, a gentleman with no interest in sports, Ettore would not be a Spurs assistant. If not for the father, the son may have never left Italy.”
Read it here: http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/exquisite-international-tongue
– Transition period begins for Nets overseas import Bogdanovic (from Tim Bontemps, NYPost.com):
” The Nets may have a team full of big names familiar to NBA fans, but perhaps the most intriguing player on the roster is one few people here ever have seen play.
That would be Bojan Bogdanovic, the 6-foot-8 swingman who the Nets took with the first pick of the second round in 2011 — only for him to spend the next three years playing for Fenerbahce Ulker, one of Europe’s top teams, in the Turkish League. But when the 25-year-old’s contract with the Istanbul club expired this summer, the Nets gave him a three-year deal for roughly $10 million to finally bring him to Brooklyn.
Now the acclimation process has begun, starting with the first few days of training camp and an immediate taste of what NBA life is like.”
Read it here: http://nypost.com/2014/10/01/transition-period-begins-for-nets-overseas-import-bogdanovic/
– Nets’ Mason Plumlee Seeks a Double Bounce in His Offense (from Andrew Keh, NYTimes):
” Two dribbles of a basketball could help determine whether Mason Plumlee becomes the player he would like to be in his second professional season.
Plumlee, 24, is at that intriguing stage of an N.B.A. career, when all of one’s raw talent has been put on display and the only questions that remain involve how it might be shaped and built upon. The months between seasons are when a player adds new facets to his game, and the Nets and their new coach, Lionel Hollins, have challenged Plumlee to become a greater scoring threat.
The two dribbles are essential to that.”
Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/sports/basketball/nets-mason-plumlee-seeks-a-double-bounce-in-his-offense.html
– Could Chris Douglas-Roberts Be Dark-Horse Small Forward Answer for LA Clippers? (from Michael Pina, Bleacher Report):
” Chris Douglas-Roberts and the Los Angeles Clippers sort of need each other.
The player, a 27-year-old journeyman who’s drifted in and out of the NBA since first entering it as a 40th overall draft pick in 2008, is coming off a statistically unimpressive breakout season with the Charlotte Hornets.
Douglas-Roberts did not post career-high per-game numbers last season. He wasn’t the third-, fourth- or fifth-most important player on his own team, and he didn’t score a single point in nine of the 49 games he took the floor.
But the latter half of that campaign was far and away the most significant stretch of Douglas-Roberts’ pertinacious career.
He grew into one of Charlotte’s most efficient players, specializing as a three-point marksman who seamlessly fit in as a noticeable cog for one of the league’s more consistent defensive units. And for this, the Clippers, a team with championship-or-bust expectations, snatched him up on a one-year, league-minimum contract.”
Read it here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2216264-could-chris-douglas-roberts-be-darkhorse-small-forward-solution-for-la-clippers
– Kerr’s Brain Trust: Getting to Know Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams (from Adam Lauridsen, mercurynews.com):
” No one — not even Steve Kerr — knows yet what type of coach Kerr will be. But when you look past Kerr on the Warriors’ bench, there are two known commodities. Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams are among the most respected assistant coaches in the game, and their skills complement each other. At least for the immediate future, Kerr will be spending as much time learning about how to coach basketball as he will teaching others how to play it. The collective decades of experience that Gentry and Adams bring to the bench should provide a rock-solid foundation on which Kerr can build his own style.”
Read it here: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2014/10/01/kerrs-braintrust-getting-to-know-alvin-gentry-and-ron-adams/
– Embiid happy to have mentor on board (from Jake Kaplan, philly.com):
” WHEN WORD leaked this summer of the other players involved in the three-team Kevin Love/Andrew Wiggins trade, Joel Embiid texted his mentor seeking confirmation.
Yes, the reports were indeed true, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute verified.
“It was kind of weird because it’s like, ‘Wow. Really, this is happening?’ But it’s exciting at the same time,” Mbah a Moute said this week before the start of 76ers’ training camp. “I never thought that [Embiid] would be in the NBA this quick, let alone be my teammate. It’s kind of weird and exciting at the same time, but I’m looking forward to it.”
“I don’t want anything given to me. Starting in the NBA, you have to earn that,” Randle told ESPN LA radio during Lakers media day, “You have guys who have earned that here, and that’s something I’m going to have to earn.”
” As J.R. goes, so go the Knicks.
Over the past two seasons, this statement has proven inescapably, terrifyingly accurate. He may not be the engine that drives the Knicks, but his ebbs and flows as a player have usually mirrored that of the team as a whole.
To understand J.R. is to understand the Knicks, particularly on offense. Carmelo Anthony is going to excel regardless of how much the other four guys are contributing — we learned that lesson all too well last season. J.R., on the other hand, is a player with very clear strengths and weaknesses, and those strengths and weaknesses just so happen to be shared by many of his teammates. They become magnified in J.R. due to his tendency to dominate the ball…and his tendency to blow everything completely out of proportion.
It’s not enough to merely call J.R. a good spot-up shooter who struggles on pull-up jumpers. The man went way beyond “good” last season — he was an elite spot-up shooter. The guard occasionally known as Earl ranked 10th in the NBA in total points and ninth in points per game off catch-and-shoot jumpers. Among the 25 most prolific catch-and-shoot scorers, he ranks second to Kyle Korver in effective field goal percentage.
It’s not enough to merely call J.R. a good spot-up shooter who struggles on pull-up jumpers. The man went way beyond “good” last season — he was an elite spot-up shooter. The guard occasionally known as Earl ranked 10th in the NBA in total points and ninth in points per game off catch-and-shoot jumpers. Among the 25 most prolific catch-and-shoot scorers, he ranks second to Kyle Korver in effective field goal percentage.”
Read it here: http://www.postingandtoasting.com/2014/10/1/6852489/2015-questions-1033-will-the-knicks-embrace-the-spot-up-jr-smith
– Better defense, rebounding a must for Rockets’ power forwards (from Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle):
” After roughly two hours of the first practice of Rockets training camp, the theme was made clear: Defend and rebound.
A few other topics were touched on, but the instructions about defense and rebounding were far more specific than just mentioning they are sort of important. And before long, Rockets coach Kevin McHale’s answer to almost everything included the words defend and rebound.
What must the Rockets do to improve?
“Defend and rebound.”
How can the power forwards, vying for playing time, earn their way to the court?
“Defend and rebound.”
– The Third-Year Decision: What Will These NBA Teams Do With Their Still-Developing Prospects? (from Zach Lowe, Grantland.com):
” These days, fewer and fewer NBA decisions are rubber-stamp jobs. Teams have become more careful on the fringes of the salary cap under the post-lockout collective bargaining agreement. That’s especially true for the teams that need to be choosy in picking up third- and fourth-year post-lockout options on their first-round picks; those fourth-year options carry giant year-over-year raises ranging from 26 percent for the top pick all the way to 80 percent for the bottom six picks. Some teams in the new NBA of flexibility and short contracts have so much cap room they can swallow those options without a care — just in case disappointing Year 4 guy figures it out.
But for teams with less projected cap space and bigger free-agency dreams, every dollar draws scrutiny. These are a few of the thorny fourth-year option cases across the 2012 draft board.”
Read and view it here: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/third-year-prospects-orlando-magic-austin-rivers-new-orleans-pelicans-maurice-harkless-andrew-nicholson/
– Is one trip to the free-throw line enough? (from Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN):
” Around last season’s All-Star break, preliminary chatter began among the league’s basketball operations folks and rule geeks about the prospect of reducing all trips to the free-throw line to a single foul shot. D-League president Dan Reed and Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey were the closest thing to co-sponsors of a bill. Nobody was proposing anything to be fast-tracked, but an imperative to figure out ways to shorten pro basketball games gave the idea some life as something to consider implementing in the D-League.
The concept was this: A player fouled in the act of shooting or in a penalty situation would attempt only a single free throw. If that player was shooting a 2-point shot or in a penalty situation at the time of the foul, the free throw attempt would be worth two points. If that player was fouled in the act of launching a 3-point shot, he’d go to the line for a single shot worth three points”
Read it here: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/70581/hoopidea-is-one-trip-to-the-free-throw-line-enough
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