Around The World: August 20

08/20/12

Written by: DHawes22

August 20

Trailblazers.tv: Video: Meet BlazerDancer Stephanie

Trailblazers.tv: Video: 'This or That' With Meyers Leonard

Trail Blazers: Head Coach Terry Stotts Adds Three Coaches To His Staff
“Jay, David and Kim bring a wealth of experience as coaches, players and front office personnel,” said Stotts. “I have always had a lot of respect for their basketball knowledge and they will be very valuable additions to our staff.”

Portland Tribune: Damian Lillard trending upward
“I’ve heard stuff about it,” he said, “but that’s not my primary focus. I want to come in to camp and work hard. I want to earn my position on this team. I want to get respect from my teammates, show them I am unselfish and want to win more than anything. I’m going to show them we all want the same things."

CSNNW: Stotts assigns roles to new staff, mum on lead assistant
“He (Canales) will be our defensive coordinator,” Stotts said. “I want to use all of our coaches strengths and give them the freedom to do their jobs.”

Trail Blazers: Blog Contest: Which Ticket Plan Is Right For You?
"Do you prefer the marquee matchups the Big Games Plan entails, the bang for your buck the Value Plan provides, seeing rivalries old and new, rekindled with the Rivals Plan, or maybe your schedule dictates that the Weekend Plan is the option for you? Blog about which ticket plan you would choose and why. If your blog is chosen as the best, you’ll be the new recipient of two, lower-bowl tickets to ANY Trail Blazers home game this season!"

Trail Blazers: Trail Blazers Announce 2012-13 Television Broadcast Schedule
"The team will air 60 games on Comcast SportsNet (CSN) and 17 games on KGW NewsChannel 8. The remaining five games will air exclusively on TNT. In addition, three games are scheduled to be simulcast nationally on ESPN and locally on KGW or Comcast SportsNet."

Trail Blazers: Meet The BlazerDancers: Caroline
"As the 16th dancer announced on the night the team was named, Caroline was incredibly nervous and the shock and excitement at earning the title of BlazerDancer was clear on her face when her solo routine was shown on the jumbotron. Even now, weeks later she’s still in awe. “I don’t know if I’ll actually feel like a BlazerDancer until I’m actually on the court dancing. It’s a surreal feeling,” she said. “I keep looking back and seeing my face on the website and thinking, yeah, it’s true. It’s something I’ve wanted so much. I feel really lucky. I know what it’s like to be on the other side and not make it so many times and to finally make it is exciting."

Blazersedge: Meyers Leonard: Hope for the Future?
"Obviously the way Leonard is coached will make a huge difference. In addition to teaching him the basics and helping him set priorities, somebody will need to get in his ear and tell him how he's going to make a living in this league. He'll need a coach or veteran to sit him down and explain that you don't have to be Dwight Howard to find success. Do a couple basic things well and people will be willing to pay you at least half a million dollars a month for the next decade or more. If you really apply yourself and learn your craft that number will get higher. But it doesn't come from scoring 20 per game or blocking 5 shots. Instead it's about helping your teammates on defense, rebounding, and outrunning your opponent both ways down the floor."

Illini HQ: Leonard: 'Welcome to the NBA'
"We met when I was in Vegas for a camp, got to know each other a little bit. He was actually one of the coaches at the camp," Leonard said. "He just talked about general stuff and got to know me better. One of his main things for me is to become a really, really good defender. That's one thing he's going to look for from me."

Trail Blazers: Weekend Plan: Specially Designed For Families And The Busy Nine-To-Fiver
"Built for the family-oriented fan with a busy work-week, the 12-game Weekend Pack maximizes the thrill-factor while keeping the competitions to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A smattering of Western Conference rivals and Eastern Conference visitors during one-offs and key home stands, you can get your hands on this schedule-friendly pack for as low as $11/game and $52/game in the lower bowl."

Trail Blazers: The Rivals Plan: Two LAs, Oklahoma City And The Return Of Roy
"The smallest of the four big ticket plans, the eight game Rivals Pack packs a big punch. You’ll be in the building and eating a corndog while others are wondering how to get their hands on a way to see the return of Brandon Roy and the sure to sell out L.A. Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder."

Trail Blazers: Why The Value Plan Makes 'Cents' For You
"The Value Pack starts at just $5 a game. That’s 12 games for as low as $60! Talk about some serious bang for your buck. But that’s not even the best part about this ticket plan. Four of the 12 games take place in the month of January. And there is absolutely no better place to be during an Oregon winter’s night than inside the raucous Rose Garden. Not to mention this pack gets you into the arena to see some of the league’s biggest names and brightest young stars such as Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Kyrie Irving, John Wall, and Rudy Gay."

Trail Blazers: Big Games Plan: 12 Of The Biggest Games
"This game has it all. Season opener, at home, against the loathe-inducing Lakers, in Steve Nash's first game in purple and gold and it's on Halloween night! Any game against the Lakers at the Rose Garden is going to be a lively one, but the confluence of circumstances in this particular game sets the stage for one of the all-time season openers in Trail Blazers history."

Oregon Live: New Orleans Hornets renew Monty Williams contract
"I would like to thank Mr. Benson, his family, Mickey and Dell for putting their trust in me and showing me their commitment," Williams said in a statement released by the club. "The love and support the city and its fans have shown me and my family in the time we have been here has been incredible and I look forward to continuing to work to make the city and the Benson family proud of the Hornets."

Ball Don't Lie: Michael Beasley holds an anonymous estate sale to dump his very strange stuff
"Look at Niesen's photo gallery (or Jake Nyberg's Twitter-based run). It's not so much that Beasley took his modern-as-tomorrow entertainment systems and "Scarface" posters down to Phoenix and left the estate sale to deal with his flotsam and jetsam, it's that he had all this Your Aunt-styled clutter to begin with. And, again, instead of dumping it all in a truck or piling it in the back of a U-Haul dragged by his PT Cruiser (we're guessing, after looking at the remnants of this sale), Beasley decided to add to his bank account 15 bucks at a time by selling off every last throw pillow."

Ball Don't Lie: Dwyane Wade says LeBron James is playing at Michael Jordan’s level
"Wade is close to both men — in addition to playing with James, he also works as one of the primary endorsers of Jordan Brand (though that reportedly could change soon). And while Wade certainly has every incentive to make his teammate look as good as possible, what he's saying here really isn't so crazy. HIs qualifier that James has a long way to go to equal Jordan's career is the key point here, and the one that typically ends all comparisons of the two players. The larger point — that James is currently playing at a level we typically associate with Jordan — has some value."

The Basketball Jones: LeBron James got some signs in his hometown
"But really, I think this kind of proves that people in LeBron’s hometown aren’t quite as mad as everyone thought they might be. Sure, there were definitely some people who were heated, but the vitriol never approached Cleveland levels. Even if he did leave the Cavaliers (I checked and it’s true that he did), they still love the fact that there’s an NBA champion with three MVPs and two gold medals who grew up there."

The Basketball Jones: James Harden seems to be enjoying his summer
"If J.R. Smith says a party was good, I have a feeling the party was REALLY good. I don’t know why, but something about him seems like he would be the right guy to decide on the party of the year. Just a hunch."

The Basketball Jones: That’s Why I’m Cashing Out: Coming to grips with post-Dwight Lakers fandom
"f the Miami Heat weren’t obviously the DJ Khaled of NBA franchises (obnoxious, garish and propelled by a deal with the devil), the Lakers would be the next logical candidate. Their acquisition of Dwight Howard was less surprise than eventuality. Los Angeles is more gravitational vortex than metropolis — should you possess any trace of narcissism, you will wind up with a studio apartment in Studio City faster than you can say Vivid Video. But All-NBA centers are built to buck the odds. They carry girls on shoulders at the Playboy mansion and star in straight-to-DVD films. On closer inspection, things may be closer than they appear."

DIME: Stan Van Gundy Blasts Orlando Again
"He said later in the interview that the team culture changed when Martins took over for Bob Vander Weide last offseason. (Vander Weide had his own drama-filled exit after calling Howard last offseason at 1 a.m. to consider staying. Vander Weide admitted to having a couple glasses of wine before calling.) “When Bob left, it really became Alex over everything,” Van Gundy said Monday."

DIME: If James Harden Wants Out, Phoenix Is Interested
"It’s not a perfectly black-and-white question for Harden to judge him on wins vs. stardom, though. Suitors must contend with the fact Harden has been able to become a national brand in Oklahoma and make an Olympic team despite being Sixth Man Of The Year. We can bemoan his play in London and Miami but it remains that he was in those situations to begin with, and given every opportunity to shine in the latter. His fame and profile clearly have not been dampened much as a player who comes off the bench because he is given rope to close out so many games."

DIME: Jason Terry Says Boston Will Win The NBA Championship
"Because of injuries (Derrick Rose) and trades (Dwight Howard), the East is a wasteland outside of Miami and Boston. Unless the guys from Celtic Pride return to kidnap Dwyane Wade and Paul Pierce, one of those teams is going to win the Eastern Conference (the Bulls might have a shot depending on how Rose looks when he returns). Terry’s banking on the Celtics winning both the conference finals and NBA Finals without the benefits of homecourt advantage (probably), and without the best player in either series (definitely). That’s almost impossible to do. But the last time he guaranteed a title, I picked the Heat and laughed at him, so what do I know?"

SLAM via NBA: Golden State Warriors Undecided on Stephen Curry’s Future
“’I've talked to Bob,’ Curry said after the Wednesday burn that lasted about 90 minutes, in addition to his therapy. ‘He’s expressed that they want me as a part of the future. Obviously it’s a business decision, an investment, and they have to protect themselves as well. I don’t know what that’ll mean and exactly what they’ll offer. But hopefully they see how hard I’ve been working in the summer to get back and that I have a different optimism than I’ve had going into each year. I’m ready to go. They’ve seen me work out a little bit now. Knowing that we went into the ankle in April and saw there was no structural damage, no red flags that say, ‘Hey, he’s not going to be the same player ever again’ — all those things kind of add up to me being a good investment piece for the future.’"

ESPN: Andrew Bogut encouraged by ankle
"The immediate goal with all of this is to make sure I'm ready for the first game. Whether that means playing only half the preseason games, it's just about being smart with my ankle. There's no point in trying to get ready for Oct. 1 when an extra week could significantly help. It's just a matter of monitoring it very smartly and not doing anything stupid."

Sports Illustrated: Investment in Serge Ibaka, NBA title chase worth the tax cost for Thunder
"Still, you own a team to chase titles, and the Thunder might be willing to swallow hard and pay the tax for two seasons of title-chasing — a precious commodity, really. The use of the amnesty provision on Perkins would be a game-changer, tax-wise, and it will be interesting to see if Perry Jones develops fast enough to at least make Oklahoma City think about going to battle with a three-man big rotation of Jones, Collison and Ibaka, plus flotsam on the bench. It’s a risk, especially with the the Lakers bulking up, but the notion that Perkins is a Dwight Howard stopper became a bit outdated by the end of the 2010-11 season. But Perkins is a valuable post defender who provides depth and the ability for Scott Brooks to play several different sorts of lineups."