Basketball

Should the Jazz be looking at resigning their 3 highest priced Free Agents? It’s just like shopping for a car. What’s the price/year, how many years and are they willing to accept a role? Mo, Paul and Al start out being priced out of the “Jazz” market, when you consider the new CBA, and what the Core4 are going to get paid in a year or two, but what if their price really drops? Would Paul really come off the bench, where he belongs? Are any of them a key for the future? There are some of the Jazz Free Agents, who will probably be reasonably priced and willing to accept a role. J. D. (the Junkyard Dog) and Randy Foye are the only Jazz Free Agents, I can see, who would be worth bring back. Along with the Core4, Pogo, Marvin, 3 draft picks and 2 non guaranteed contracts, that gives the Jazz the minimum roster of 13 and maximum flexibility to spring on an opportunity. I just can’t take another year of “being competitive”, with players not figuring into the long term plans. As Dennis has touched on, can we finally say REBUILDING? It’s time to start, play and develop the kids. It’s time to see if Ty can develop some defensive structure. It’s time to play “Money Ball” with Ty and not give him a choice of a high priced, vet to start in front of the kids. If the Jazz don’t make the playoffs next year, is it any worse than not making the playoffs, with a bunch of overpaid vets, sucking the time away from the Core4? Besides, next year the draft is loaded with some difference makers! It’s also time for Ty to develop into a coach the Jazz should keep or be replaced. He’s had oodles of on the job training and enough years of sole responsibility to make a better showing than he has. The league has gone away from the automatic extensions for coaches, to letting them play out their final year, then make a decision. I can see no sense in giving Ty and extension or a new contract, until he makes a better showing. It doesn’t matter whether the team makes the playoffs or not. Did he make the best decisions? Did he get the best defensive effort out of his players? A lot of the media rationalize his vet favoritism, game time decisions, substitutions and restricted time for the Core4. This is the year to see if he can be a coach or a dressing room manager. It’s time to stop being a “players coach” and start coaching. If a player misses a defensive assignment, pull him out, explain and put him back in. Get his attention! All the teams with a chance at a championship play defense! It’s half the game. Ty has a summer to develop and a season to implement a defensive scheme. So, cut the high priced 3 loose, add to and develop the youth, put Ty on notice and see where you end up next year in the draft, with cap space. Your mileage may vary. Jazzaholic

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2010 was a rough year as a Spurs fan. Well, it was the most painful regular season I have had to endure in my 14 years as a Spurs lover. Keith Bogans was a Spur (what?), Tony was unhealthy when Manu happened to be healthy, Blair/Bonner were our centers and Richard Jefferson happened. I hated it. I remember seriously wanting to tank that season and get a lottery pick. I wanted death for the Spurs. I was so miserable with our borderline flirtation with mediocrity. All season I was disgusted, and when San Antonio got the 7th seed I felt like I was a bankrupt millionaire who had stayed in the Waldorf and was now being forced into a Motel 6. The Seventh Seed? Plus, we were going to get beat by the Mavs AGAIN...I was disgusted. I wanted the team to be blown up. I was a fan headcase. I wanted a final death for the Spurs, not another first round loss and another season with no title. Finality, closure, death...lottery picks, Duncan retires, seeya, sayanora. But death, the lottery, trading Tony, sacrificing Richard Jefferson on the altar as atonement (still not a bad option) would have led to one option...the end of this era we love so much. It would have meant that we missed out on the Spurs getting revenge on the Mavericks that year. I was always the fan who would have preferred my teams, mainly the Spurs, lose early than lose in the finals (which is stupid). Mainly because I fear failure, I fear the possibility of it. I would rather slink away quietly than go down with my guns blazing. (Yes I know, I do not play for the Spurs). However, going down quietly leads to no possibilities, no adventure, no risk...just closure. And I hate that. I want the possibilities. I want the risk now; who cares if the Spurs fail? I just want to see what happens. Imagine all the emotion and enjoyment we'd have missed out on had the Spurs tanked it in 2010 or 2011. A dwarf named Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones taught me a lot..."Death is so Final, whereas Life is full of possibilities." So I commend the Spurs. I commend them for fighting, for Grinding (Sorry Grizzlies), for enduring through injuries, and for getting up after failures to the Suns, Grizzlies and Thunder. Because of the Spurs' heart and continual desire for one more ring, we fans are looking down a basketball road that's full of possibilities. Not one that ended early and quietly. I remember Mike Breen saying on Sunday during game one that Pop's competitiveness has actually increased over the past few years. They want it, even if they fail. They are fighting so hard and up 2-0 on the Grizzlies, a team that had their way with the Spurs two years ago. This fire is so clearly evident in that ridiculous sequence of missed shots by the Grizzlies last night, where the Spurs would not let them have anything. Why did this sequence remind me of a Tables, Ladders, Chairs match in WWE? The Spurs just wouldn't let the Grizzlies have that basket and they haven't let them have much this series. In Game 1, the Spurs denied the Grizzlies all game long and carved them to pieces. In Game 2, when the Grizzlies got close like they did in that sequence above, the Spurs continued to deny them. This series has been either a seventh grade 100 meter dash (where the most athletic kid has annihilated the rest of the pack) or it's been a street fight. The Spurs seem to have control, but up 2-0 against a team who has recently come back from that deficit, brings us to a road of many possibilities. 96.5 percent of teams win the series when up 2-0, and Pop is 19-2 when his teams have had that series lead. Here's how this series could play out (from most likely to least likely) on the Road of Possibilities. The Spurs Continue to Run Away with it and win this series in 4 or 5 games: -The Grizzlies' second half surge might actually be their worst nightmare, because now the Spurs have three days to scheme against what Memphis did that was worked. After two straight blowouts, would there have been for PATFO

Now that the Los Angeles Clippers have refused to offer coach Vinny Del Negro a new contract, a source said Wednesday that the Dallas Mavericks believe they have a better chance of acquiring Dwight Howard than acquiring Chris Paul.

Carmelo Anthony played in the postseason with a partially torn left shoulder, according to multiple reports last night.

Through the first half tonight, the Indiana Pacers front line of Roy Hibbert (11 points, 4 rebounds) and David West (18 points, 3 rebounds) are beasting the Miami Heat. In the first half though, LeBron James got Hibbert with an impressive block at the rim that was almost identical to the huge one that Roy [...]The post Video: LeBron James Swats a Roy Hibbert Dunk at the Rim appeared first on Dime Magazine (dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers.

Wednesday morning, 22 draft hopefuls got a chance of a lifetime, taking the court at the PNY Center in East Rutherford and hoping they could catch the eye of a NBA executive who would give them their next chance of lifetime, making a team’s roster. And there were plenty of them there to impress. All of the players are fringe prospects, second round picks in next month’s draft, if even that. This workout, organized by the Nets, is one of two for such prospects. The other one will take place next week in Minnesota. The workout was broken down into shooting drills, then a 5-on-5 scrimmage. First up were the guards shooting —and it wasn’t pretty. The first eight shots were off the front rim and it was clear that some if not all of them were nervous going into this. D.J Stephens was the only effective shooter during the drills, despite having weird form, his legs space out when he is lifting on his jumper. Besides the Memphis product, 5’11" (maybe) Phil Pressey was the next best, but he was erratic throughout the drills. When the bigs joined in, it was clear that they were the strongest of the 11 prospects in the first group. Christian Watford was playing with the post players, a bit surprising in that he’s been more of a perimeter player. It didn’t stop the 6’9" Watford from getting an array of hook shots to fall during drills. An improved interior game makes Watford much more intriguing because of that strong outside game. The other big man who impressed was Romeo Osby, out of Oklahoma. Osby is NBA-big a 6’8" power forward who weighs in at 238 pounds. Despite his bulk, Osby showed he can hit mid-range shots, something he needs to prove to solidify his draft stock. Right now, none of the mock drafts have him being selected. After these drills, the most revealing portion of the morning began, the 5-on-5 scrimmages. Right from the tip, the prospects needed to feel themselves out and get into the flow of the game. Some did that better than others. Pressey forced things early, trying to fit passes into spots too small, coming up with three turnovers in three minutes. Pressey was erratic from the get-go and never really got his legs under him, playing too fast and out of control the entire time. Watford and Osby played well during the scrimmage, with Watford working the post and Osby hitting several shots out of it, a must for each of the two if they wanted to be selected. One player who garnered some looks from the assembled scouts and executives was James Ennis, the 6’7" forward from Long Beach State. Ennis hit several mid-range jumpers and had his way with Michael Snaer throughout the scrimmage. Ennis has great size and talent on the ball for the small forward position. Of the 22 players in the gym, he has the highest draft stock, projected as an early second round pick. The player that stole the show from the first session, though, was Stephens. As noted, Stephens was fine in drills, but took over during the scrimmage. At 6’5", he plays much bigger than he is. He rose up above the rim twice to block shots. He also had one play that got everyone’s attention, when he blocked a layup, saved it before going out of bounds, and then jumped into the stands. I spoke with Stephens at the end of the day and he has, "several workouts coming up." Stephens played the post at Memphis, but he knows he has to, "be a guard with a lot of energy," in the NBA. That transition may be one reason he’s not listed in any of the mock drafts. Overall, Snaer greatly disappointed in the scrimmage, just as he had in the shooting drills, scoring rarely and not making much of an impact on the floor. He has an awkward, slow release on his shot, made even more noticeable because he wasn’t a consistent scorer. Pressey, too, also played below his level. It still seems likely that he’ll be picked, specifically on his upside, but he didn’t help his cause with tod

A magnetic resonance imaging scan of Carmelo Anthony's ailing left shoulder revealed a partially torn labrum that could require offseason surgery that would shelve the New York Knicks' All-Star forward for months, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported Wednesday. Knicks fans looking for an explanation for Anthony's decline in shooting percentages from regular season (44.9 percent from the floor, 37.9 percent from 3-point range) to postseason (40.6 and 29.8, respectively) might point toward the bum shoulder, which Isola reports has caused "chronic pain" for the league's leading scorer ever since he initially injured it late in the third quarter of the Knicks' April 14 win over the Indiana Pacers: Anthony re-aggravated the injury early in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Knicks' opening-round series against the Boston Celtics, when Celtics center Kevin Garnett grabbed Anthony's left arm on a screen: (As if Knicks fans needed another reason to curse the name "Kevin Garnett.") Anthony also appeared to further re-aggravate it in the Knicks' Game 6 victory after bumping into Boston guard Avery Bradley: Anthony later said he felt his "shoulder popping out of the socket, which is common for someone suffering from a torn labrum," according to Isola. The Knicks have yet to officially announce the injury or give any medical update on Anthony following the MRI. At the Knicks' exit interviews following the team's six-game second-round loss to the Pacers, Anthony acknowledged that the shoulder gave him trouble throughout the playoffs, according to ESPN New York's Ian Begley: "I don't think it's any major damage," Anthony said Monday after meeting with the Knicks' coaching staff for exit interviews. "But we'll see. We'll find that out shortly." [...] "It was bothering me since it happened," Anthony said. "To be able to play with that and get through the pain, it just came a point where you just try not to think about it. That's where I was at mentally." Isola reports that the Knicks' plan at the moment is to let Anthony rest for the next three to four weeks before re-evaluating, in the hope that the injury will heal on its own. If it doesn't, surgical repair could be considered; if surgery is needed, "it could sideline Anthony from three to five months and could compromise his availability for the start of training camp in October," which is pretty much the exact opposite of what Knicks fans still licking their wounds from an Eastern Conference semifinals exit want to hear. For now, though, all Anthony, the Knicks and their fans can do is wait.

Carmelo Anthony’s shoulder was clearly bothering him through the playoffs, but he fought through it as best he could averaging 28.8 points per game (but on 40.1 percent shooting, down from 44 in the regular season) with 6.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists. He injured it in Game 5 against the Celtics and went on to…