Sobering thoughts as camp opens for the Cavaliers. The Cleveland roster is not great, agreed? I know, I know, I know, they just made the NBA Finals. But is anyone expecting them to make it back without help? James himself -- an extremely politic man -- is unabashed about his disappointment. And when you factor in the free agents they still need to sign (Varejao, Pavlovic) the cap situation is not great in the years to come. Cavalier fans will point out that the team has three years to straighten things out before James is a free agent. I would point out that if he can be a free agent in the summer of 2010, you need to to wow him with a great roster by the summer of 2009. Because if you're going to get anything in return for him -- and you can't let a player like that walk for nothing -- you'll have to trade him before he's a free agent. So that's two or two-and-a-half seasons to wow James before the trading deadline in February 2010. And this is one of them. And the roster so far is no better than last year. One other point: I have been caught in the trap of thinking that only teams with massive cap room will be able to vie for his services in 2010. That'll be a select group, no doubt. But consider this: he makes his main money from endorsements, right? If his NBA salary is not the nut he's counting on, and he's really all about titles, isn't it at least possible that he would sign for the mid-level exception on the team of his choice? (As Brian Windhorst explains, the full mid-level exception is now considered a pretty big contract.)
Dwyane Wade is not ready to go after his May surgeries. Ira Winderman quotes Pat Riley: "The timetable is mid-November. That's it. If it's mid-November, that's what it is. We don't know. If something happens if he's not ready in six months, then we will re-address that. He's not behind. Everybody says he's behind. The guy has been working very hard on his shoulder and his knee. Now he's working on his conditioning. We're very, very patient with him, obviously, because he's our franchise player. When you go through a rehab process, it's based on exactly how you feel as you move on down that road." Also, Riley is tired of talking about Shaquille O'Neal's weight, which he estimates at 370 pounds.
Full-time NBA writers are hardcore road warriors with a social sphere all their own. It's not super glamorous, but it is, at the least, kind of fraternal. This past season, whenever I pretended to be part of that group at the occasional All-Star Game and the like, everyone had glowing things to say about "the Canadians." That's a revolving posse of Toronto-based NBAwriters who are just good people who everyone seems to like hanging out with. One of the constant members, and someone who has been a good friend to TrueHoop, is Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail. The big news here is that Grange just launched a blog of his own, called From Deep. I'll be reading with high expectations.
Another one of those Canadians, Dave Feschuk, writes about time in Treviso with the Raptors: "The setting is ideal. The Benetton sports campus, the training ground of the basketball powerhouse built by Maurizio Gherardini in the 15 years before he became Toronto's assistant general manager last year, is a gorgeous monument to sport. There's a field house with three NBA-worthy practice courts where the Raptors put in one of their two workouts yesterday. There are fields and courts for the resident elite rugby and volleyball teams. And, of course, there's a top-notch restaurant where the pasta and grilled fish comes to you slowly, course by course. 'Now you see what I left,' said Gherardini yesterday. '(In Toronto) when I look out my office on a sunny day, I see railway tracks and grey buildings. Here, when I look out my office on a sunny day, I see beautiful girls playing beach volleyball. You see what I gave up.'"
Brian Scalabrine wants you to know that he rode his bike over Chinook Pass listening to Rage Against the Machine and Metallica. He says the ride was up to 8,000 feet, but for the record, that pass is normally said to be at 5,000 and change. The same blogger, from "Perk is a Beast" interviews Kendrick Perkins, who says that one of the things he learned from Al Jefferson was that you don't have to have a left hand to score in the NBA.
Before the draft I talked to some people who know Mike Conley, Jr. and Greg Oden, and the word was that if you wanted to make them smile, ask them about dancing, and the movie "Stomp the Yard." True enough, they loved all that talk. Greg had those little dance moves he was doing for the TV cameras all the time. And they said they spent a lot of time in their dorm room perfecting moves. Here's someone's home video of Greg Oden doing a little dancing at home. And I don't want to hear any of that "this is how he hurt his knee" crap. Dancing is a good thing for NBA players to do. It's exercise, it's fun, and it has nothing to do with guns and drugs, you know?
I have to be honest, I don't like the idea of benching a young player for taking a good shot. Even All-Stars miss the majority of their shots, and high-scoring teams (Phoenix and Golden State) are led by coaches who encourage their players to let it fly when the time is right. Shooting is about good form and all that, but also confidence. That's something a coach can feed, or drain. I don't want to read too much into it, but this Nate McMillan quote, as told to the Oregonian's Jason Quick, worries me just a little: "If I give you that shot to finish the game, you better take advantage of it. If I give you that shot, and you blow it, you miss it or you turn it over, then we are going to somebody else. And with this team, we are able to do that. So, it's the players who are going to decide who gets the chances."
I'm certainly excited about this NBA season, but it's hard to argue with ESPN's Marc Stein when he says: "The NBA and its public have never endured a more depressing summer. Never, ever. Tim Donaghy, Eddie Griffin, Greg Oden, Seattle and its Sonics, Isiah Thomas and the Knicks in court ... it's too often been horribly bad or sad news."
The University of Memphis basketball team is gearing up for a season of Derrick Rose and very high expectations. Terrible way to get the school year started: a Memphis football player shot dead in his dorm room.
Al Jefferson has taken over Kevin Garnett's locker in Minnesota, but as long-time Minnesota writer and current SI.com contributor Steve Aschburner writes, the team is playing down the notion that he's as good: "'I don't believe in the comparison thing,' Wittman said. 'Al Jefferson and Kevin Garnett are two totally different type players. ... We're not going to have one guy who averages 25, 12 and five.'"
The Clippers gave up on Jared Jordan, trading him to the Knicks for cash. The Knicks now have 19 real deal players counting Jordan, and only 15 roster spots, so I'd say he's facing a stiff challenge in New York, too. There are a bunch of teams that will be making painful cuts in the weeks to come. (Detroit, for instance.) Teams with open roster spots are waiting ...
Gilbert Arenas: "... listen here. On November 2nd, we're going to go into that building, we're opening up Boston. Right now I'm telling the Boston fans: You guys are going to lose. It's not going to be a victory for Boston. You might as well just cheer for me, because Boston isn't winning in Boston for the season opener. I'm sorry." He also talks about making the ESPN commercials last week. And he's running with a parachute behind him. My advice: be careful with parachutes and the like even on the ground.
The Sixers think they can win. Andre Miller doesn't know how to lose, and Andre Iguodala is due to be spectacular. So they won't be awful.
FIBA lookalikes. One dude looks a little like a GEICO Caveman.
Mark Cuban says that guy who giggles across the dance floor is the real him: "For the past eight years since I bought the Mavs, I have kept my private life 100 pct private. In the sports world I expected everyone to characterize me as 'the guy who yells at the refs.' I really didn't care what they thought. It isn't the real me. But it served its purpose. Every interview I ever did. Every description of me. Every reference to me. Every picture of me always had me yelling in one way or another. My friends, my family, the people I work with, all know that it's not me. That's not to say I didn't get emotional at Mavs games. I do. That's where I release. But even there, if I stand up and act like a fan, it's a picture that lives and is used forever. Doing Dancing With The Stars has allowed me to show the real me."
The Nets needed more relief for Jason Kidd even before Marcus Williams broke a bone in his foot. Granted, Williams is not out that long, but you have to think the Nets would be among those shopping for a point guard.
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