- Darnell Mayberry of NewsOK highlights notable stories from the Thunder's pre-season, including the play of Perry Jones III, Cole Aldrich, and Eric Maynor. In a separate article, Mayberry collaborates with John Rohde to profile seven of the team's new additions brought in from the offseason.
- Aaron J. Lopez takes a look at Nuggets forward Corey Brewer, who four years removed from ACL surgery believes that he is faster and can jump higher today.
- Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times highlights Robert Sacre as the biggest surprise of the Lakers' exhibition season.
- John Reid of NOLA.com examines the battle between Greivis Vasquez and Brian Roberts for minutes at the Hornets point guard rotation.
- Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune talks about the challenge the Timberwolves have faced in terms of trying to integrate all their new pieces amidst some nagging injuries.
- Jeff McDonald of Spurs Nation writes that Patrick Mills could return to practice on Monday after sitting out two games with a sprained right ankle.
- O.J. Mayo's hand is healing
properly after he suffered a laceration last week from a fall during the
Mavericks' visit to Barcelona, writes Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram. Price also tweeted that coach
Rick Carlisle believes Mayo will be fine after a few more days. As for Dirk Nowitzki, Carlisle said that he has been doing well (Price via Twitter).
Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group summarized Warriors GM Bob Myers' meeting with the local media today, and writes that the team has very important decisions to make in the near future. Thompson mentions that Golden State has the ability to significantly be under the salary cap in two years, but will also have to deal with the possible contract extensions of Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut in addition to deciding the futures of players that are still on their rookie-scale deals. "The players can stay as long as they want if we win…but if we don't win, maybe some things do get turned over," said Myers.
With that being said, we have a few more links to share with you tonight out of the Western Conference:
- Andrew Bogut is on schedule to play on opening night and possibly in some pre-season games, although the Australian center has not yet been cleared for five-on-five scrimmages yet, writes Rusty Simmons of SF Gate. GM Bob Myers also talked about Festus Ezeli, adding that he is a "team-first" guy who gives multiple efforts make him a quality prospect. Myers chose to remain neutral on Andris Biedrins not showing up for voluntary pre-training camp workouts, but added that he will have the opportunity to compete in camp and that his role will ultimately be left up to head coach Mark Jackson.
- Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles thinks that the last three roster spots on the Lakers will ultimately be decided between Andrew Goudelock, Darius Morris, Darius Johnson-Odom, and Robert Sacre (Twitter link). In another tweet, Markazi says that Goudelock seems to be the odd man out at this point.
- Hornets rookie Anthony Davis spoke about what he took away from his experiences at the Olympics, teaming with Robin Lopez this season, and head coach Monty Williams' expectations (Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune reports).
- Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com spoke with Nuggets assistant coach Melvin Hunt to evaluate Jordan Hamilton's rookie season and what he was told to work on this summer.
The Lakers have announced that they have signed second-round pick Robert Sacre, reports Mike Trudell of Lakers.com via Twitter. As we detailed earlier this week, Sacre was one of six players taken in the second round that remained unsigned. Sacre averaged 9.0 PPG and 6.2 RPG on the Lakers summer league squad, raising some front office eyebrows in the process.
Dave McMenamin from ESPN Los Angeles tweets that because the Lakers view Earl Clark as more of a small or power forward, that Sacre stands a decent chance at making the opening roster as big man insurance. The 7-foot Canadian center was the 60th and final pick in June's draft, after averaging 11.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in his senior year at Gonzaga. He was the WCC Defensive Player of the Year. The terms of the contract are not yet known.
A handful of players with NBA ties have been invited to a weekend training camp that will take place soon to give Team Canada officials a first glimpse at candidates for their national team, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun reports (Sulia link). Tristan Thompson of the Cavs, Joel Anthony of the Heat, Cory Joseph of the Spurs, Andrew Nicholson of the Magic and Kris Joseph of the Celtics are on the list. Robert Sacre, the 60th pick in this year's draft by the Lakers, remains unsigned, but he's been invited as well. The team has officially named former Raptors head coach and current Blazers assistant Jay Triano as head coach, Wolstat also writes, and Rockets assistant coach Kelvin Sampson will also be an assistant with Team Canada. Lakers guard Steve Nash, serving as Team Canada's GM, said he wouldn't have accepted the position if Triano wasn't coming aboard, too, Wolstat notes. Here's more from around the Association this afternoon:
- The Heat conducted a workout with Josh Harrellson today, as we heard earlier, but the Timberwolves have no interest in the 6'10" University of Kentucky product, as they prefer a center with more length, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News in Minneapolis. Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel notes that Harrellson is just one of several big men the Heat are considering (Sulia link).
- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel looks at the options the Magic have at power forward to replace Ryan Anderson.
- The Bulls, Lakers, Clippers, Timberwolves and Warriors all have some significant injury issues with training camp about a month away, and Sam Amick of SI.com checks in on the status of Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard and others.
- Robin Lopez is recovering from left knee surgery that took place a week after the Hornets acquired him in a sign-and-trade, but he's expected to be ready for training camp, as John Reid of The Times-Picayune reports. Lopez expressed his enthusiasm about coming to New Orleans, saying, "I’m excited to be here. We’ve got a young, energetic group. The good thing is we’ve got some youth that has a little bit of experience as well. Hopefully we can parlay that into something special.’’
- Joe Dumars, Pistons president of basketball operations, traveled overseas with assistant GM George David to watch Jonas Jerebko and Slava Kravtsov in FIBA Eurobasket qualifying, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press writes.
- Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago discusses why the Bulls' title window will shrink over the next two seasons.
- Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer describes the progress that Byron Mullens appears to be making with the Bobcats based on his performances at the Las Vegas Summer League.
- 76ers head coach Doug Collins says he feels "very good" about what the team has accomplished during this offseason, writes John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com.