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You might be thinking: What happened to TrueHoop? Some kind of TrueNap? As it happens, I spent nearly all day Thursday in the car going to and from a meeting, and then this morning -- my first back in the office in weeks -- I have been on the phone like crazy. Apologies for the light posting. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Leaguewide

• Marc J. Spears of The Boston Globe: "Although final medical evaluations have yet to take place, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge does not expect any of his players will need surgery during the offseason. Paul Pierce, MVP of the NBA Finals, suffered a right knee strain during Game 1 against the Lakers, a series that took its toll on some Celtics. Kendrick Perkins missed Game 5 with a left shoulder strain, but started Game 6, and Rajon Rondo was hampered with a bone bruise on his left ankle. Ainge said no players have had X-rays since the Celtics won their 17th NBA championship Tuesday night and that the players probably will be evaluated next week."
• John Tomase of the Boston Herald: "The Phoenix Suns dealt away the draft rights to Rajon Rondo two years ago, and here's what they have to show for it: cash. That's it. Hopefully it was a lot of money, because Rondo may just go down as the steal of the 2006 draft. It's amazing to think that the 22-year-old starting point guard for the world champion Celtics could have been had for so little."
• Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: "It was about a year ago that Rod Thorn dialed Mitch Kupchak and floated Richard Jefferson-for-Lamar Odom. The conversation, we're told, didn't last long. Not interested, Mitch said. Besides, I'm a little busy right now, trying to dodge the molotov cocktails Kobe keeps tossing through my office window. Care to bet the Nets try again? ... if you make the deal for Odom, and take him off the books after '08-09, this is what you're looking at in the summer of '10: A $38.2M payroll for eight guys, including the third-year salaries of the two kids they're drafting next week ($2.4 and 1.4, respectively). (That's assuming Mo Ager doesn't get that fourth-year option he's counting on. Sorry, Mo.) By then, the Nets should know for certain when (if) moving day will come, the salary cap will be in the $59-60M area, and there will be a lot of space to fill -- by LeBron, Bosh, Amare, Yao, or any of the other guys who may be free agents that summer. Of course, all that is predicated on somebody actually putting a damn shovel in the ground in Flatbush, which may not happen in our lifetimes."
• Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "On a quiet day in El Segundo, Kobe Bryant seemed upbeat, even cracking a few jokes, seemingly more reassured now by the Lakers' future than by what the team failed to accomplish a few days ago. 'I'm comfortable with what we have,' he said. 'Whatever Mitch decides to do, he decides to do. It's more of a relaxing summer for me because I know we have an opportunity to win. It's exciting. We know we got close and came up a little bit short. I'm excited about the opportunity to get back next year if we're fortunate enough and have a different result.'"
• Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: "'So that's why I don't really pay too much attention to the media. They blow with the wind. When you win, you're the king of the world. If you don't play a good game, all of a sudden you're soft. I don't think a team that plays in the Finals, and beat Denver, San Antonio, Utah. I don't think you can question whether they're soft. I don't think a soft team could get to the Finals, period. If somebody thinks otherwise, I think you should check yourself.' For the normally polite, intellectual Gasol, that last statement is almost shocking in its feistiness. "
• Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Three weeks on the job, Rick Sund still speaks of the Hawks in the third person ('they') as often as in the first ('we'). During a 75-minute conversation, he even refers to this as 'the city of Seattle.' Wincing, he catches himself. 'City of Atlanta,' he says. 'Sorry.' No apology is required. On the contrary, the new general manager brings precisely what the Hawks have lacked --- the ability to cast an outsider's cold eye on what has been an insulated rebuilding process."

• Michael Cunningham of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Everybody knows New York turns out the best point guards, if only because you can't help but hear about any decent one from that city. New York leads the world in most-hyped point guards, and the rep is well deserved if you go back to the 1950s, '60s and '70s. But for the NBA's post-Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era, I'll take Chicago. Give me Isiah Thomas, Mo Cheeks, Doc Rivers, Quinn Buckner and Tim Hardaway over Kenny Anderson, Stephon Marbury, Mark Jackson, Kenny Smith and Rod Strickland. Dwyane Wade could be on the Chicago list, too. ... Chicago's Derrick Rose is the top point guard in the NBA Draft next week, yet there doesn't seem to be much talk about his city's great tradition at the position. There should be, because the Chicago area has turned out better point guards than New York in the last 25 years or so."
  
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: "The whole issue of 'promises' from team to player is the one that shrouds the final week in mystery most times. Sometimes those promises are hollow, which may leave a player to plummet from where he was expected to be taken far down, past teams he didn't visit for a workout. Sometimes those promises are made by one team simply to block another from seeing someone up close. Even some players realize how legitimate they sometimes are. 'You can (believe them), but on the other hand, I wouldn't take a guarantee,' said Donte Greene. 'I would take it like, `Okay, thanks,' and keep going on with my workouts. I've known a couple guys who've had guarantees and have been sitting in Madison Square Garden (on draft night) looking (ridiculous) because they didn't get picked. Guarantees? I'm not too big on guarantees.'"
• Greg Couch of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Derrick Rose is already a legend to the kids on Chicago's streets, having grown up here. He is already labeled the next Chris Paul, a star point guard in a league where point guards are the new, stylish must-have. He is already the Bulls' next great leader. Someone asked him for his thoughts on the No. 23 jersey, and he said that number was retired, that he'd find another one. Oh, he had better be good, because if the Bulls take him, they'll be starting all over, but expectations will be immediate. Vinny Del Negro takes his first coaching job at any level. A new point guard, after just one year of college, runs the team. Meanwhile, Beasley will be out there, somewhere, scoring 20 to 25 points a game from every spot on the court, grabbing double-digit rebounds."
• Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald: "'I thought LeBron James was the luckiest person in the world to get to play in his home city,' Derrick Rose told a mass of reporters outside the Berto Center on Thursday. 'Now I have that chance. I'm just hoping that they pick me.'"
• Alan Hahn of Newsday: "Antoine Agudio took a car service to yesterday's workout with the Knicks here at the MSG Training Center because, the Long Island native said, 'I didn't know how to get to Westchester.' He does believe he is on the right path to the NBA, however, despite his unheralded draft status. That's because he thinks he has what NBA teams need. 'Most teams are lacking shooters, and that's what I do. I shoot the ball very well, I think,' said Agudio, who finished this past season as Hofstra's all-time leading scorer."
• Stan Olson of The Charlotte Observer: "Charlotte picks ninth in the June 26 draft. On Thursday, coach Larry Brown and other team officials were again sorting through the available talent, a group of six that included fast-rising point guard Russell Westbrook of UCLA. But even Westbrook, who likely won't fall to the Bobcats (a check of four mock drafts had him taken at Nos. 6, 7, 7 and 11) would not be an immediate answer. 'All these kids that are coming into the NBA at this stage of their careers are looking at being backups,' Brown said. 'Unless they're going to go to a terrible team, it's generally understood that the first or second player in the draft might start.' And that's it. It's also something Westbrook understands. 'You're not going to come in and just be given playing time,' he said, still sweating from the intense workout. 'You've got to come in and work for it and try to get on the floor as much as possible.'"
• Jeff Rabjohns of The Indianapolis Star: "Former Butler point guard Mike Green stepped off the floor at Conseco Fieldhouse on Thursday, after his 14th workout for an NBA team. At this point, he's convinced he can play in the NBA. 'I never doubted it before, but once I got in the workouts with certain guys, it made it truer, not to me but to people watching,' Green said. 'I feel I can hold my own against anybody.' The 6-1 point guard isn't projected to be selected in the two-round draft Thursday, but if he isn't, it won't be for a lack of effort."
• Kerry Eggers of The Portland Tribune: "The Trail Blazers aren't in the market for a center or a power forward, so it would seem as if Thursday's workout session with Nevada center JaVale McGee and Alabama power forward Richard Hendrix was pretty much a waste of time. Not so, Portland coach Nate McMillan said. 'When you're in our situation (the 13th pick of next Thursday's NBA draft), you take the best talent available, no matter what the position,' McMillan said. 'That's what we'll do.' And Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard has hinted that if the Blazers use their pick, they might dabble in the 'futures' market, meaning a player such as McGee could get some consideration."
• Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun: "The Raptors also were hoping to work out 7-foot power forward JaVale McGee, but, according to Kelly, the Nevada star couldn't make it to Toronto because of passport issues, although there have been reports that his mother will not allow her son to work out for teams that pick lower than 12th in the draft."
• Joe Juliano of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "NBA scouts had only one season to see Marreese Speights as a regular in the lineup, but Sixers assistant general manager Tony DiLeo said that being on the same team as Horford and Joakim Noah, another Gator on an NBA roster, for his first season benefited him. 'He can score around the basket with both hands,' DiLeo said. 'He can step outside and shoot the jump shot. He's a work in progress, but a talented player.'"
• Mark Kram of the Philadelphia Daily News: "While no one cay say at this point whether any of them will end up wearing a Sixers uniform, DiLeo expects whomever the team selects to be 'a work-in-progress.' 'We have no problem with a project -- someone that we feel could use a year or 2,' said DiLeo, who added that the decision to select high school star Lou Williams had been guided by the same principle. 'We like our team. We think our players are going to get better over the years. We have cap room to go out and get a free agent. And there is the possibility of a trade. So the player [we take] does not have to come in and be the savior.'"
• Martin Frank of the News Journal: "The 76ers recently went to New Jersey, with permission from the Nets and the agents of the players, to watch Ohio State center Kosta Koufus, LSU forward Anthony Randolph, N.C. State forward J.J. Hickson and Syracuse forward Donte Green. The Nets pick 10th and 21st. Hickson and Green later worked out for the 76ers in Philadelphia. DiLeo also said the team had a private workout with Texas A&M center DeAndre Jordan. All of those players are projected to be drafted in the middle of the first round. Randolph was projected to go as high as No. 6, but it appears that his stock is falling."
• Chip Alexander of The News & Observer: "N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe, taking advantage of his NBA networking, now has a better feel for where forward J.J. Hickson would be chosen in the upcoming NBA Draft. Lowe's assessment: between the 10th and 20th picks. 'Initially they said 20 to 30,' Lowe, a former NBA head coach and assistant, said Thursday. 'Now, I'm hearing 10 to 20. So he certainly has helped himself quite a bit.'"