Around The World: August 7

08/07/12

Written by: DHawes22

August 7

Trailblazers.tv: Video: August 6 Courtside

Trail Blazers: Terry Stotts Named Trail Blazers Head Coach
"Terry is one of the elite offensive minds in the NBA, has extensive experience with multiple organizations and was instrumental in the Dallas Mavericks winning the 2011 NBA Championship, said Olshey. "He understands the vision for the future of the franchise, appreciates the process involved and will create an environment on the court that will produce championship habits."

Standard-Examiner: Lillard credits time with WSU basketball coach Rahe for leadership skills
“I think I can take Steve Nash,” a joking Lillard said. “I got Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and Tony Parker after that, so I might have some rough nights with them. But Steve Nash, I think I got him.”

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."

Trail Blazers: Transcript: Jared Jeffries on Trail Blazers Courtside
"That's the good thing about my game is that, wherever they need me to go out there, my whole career -- this is my 11th year-- I've had a chance to play to wherever they've needed me to go out there to be competitive. LaMarcus (Aldridge) is an unbelievable player. You have JJ (Hickson) coming back. Meyers Leonard is a guy who I really love in the draft. I felt like he was kid who could really surprise a lot of people at what he does. Very athletic, has a good feel for the game. So I see myself playing a role of helping these guys mature and grow and also being a veteran leader on the court."

Oregon Live: Trail Blazers hire Terry Stotts as head coach
"I had two others jobs prior to going to Dallas," Carlisle said last month. "There are a lot of inexperienced coaches who might lose four or five early games and get paralyzed. Terry wouldn't blink. It pains me to say this, but I think he's 100-percent the right coach for Portland. My biggest concern then would be how do I replace him?"

Oregon Live: Former Trail Blazers center Joel Przybilla has verbal agreement to sign with Milwaukee Bucks
"A 7-foot-1 center, Przybilla played eight seasons with the Blazers, including 27 games last season when he re-signed with the team in February after taking the first part of the season off. He averaged 2.0 points and 5.1 rebounds in 16 minutes a game last season. He ranks fourth in franchise history with 623 blocks."

Hoopsworld: NBA AM: Blazers’ Smith Sees Playoff Berth in 2013
“We’re very excited about the season,” Smith recently told HOOPSWORLD at Adidas Nations. “We’re going to be young but we feel we have a lot of talent that can out every single night and compete. If we do that every single night, we can make a run for the playoffs.”

Racine Jounral-Times: BUCKS BEAT: Bucks get commitment from Przybilla
"We’re excited about this,” Bill Duffy, Przybilla’s agent, said in a telephone interview Monday night. “Joel had a great meeting last week with John Hammond, Scott Skiles and Jeff Weltman and they told him that he not only would bring great value on the court, but that he could help them with his leadership and stability. We think it’s a perfect fit.”

CSNNW: Przybilla Agrees To Sign With The Bucks
"CSNNW.com has learned that the agreement between Przybilla and the Bucks is a one-year, $1.35 million deal."

David Aldridge: Morning Tip
"Olshey is about where he was in 2008 in Los Angeles with Portland. The first step was getting rid of Felton and giving the ball to the talented Lillard, who'll start at the point. Leonard isn't quite ready to take over in the middle, but he's the very definition of potential. Olshey tried to give Leonard some help by dropping a $56 million offer sheet on Roy Hibbert, but the Pacers wasted little time before matching. Until then, Portland could use some help from Freeland, the '06 first-rounder who's been in Europe and who is playing for Great Britain's Olympic team. Batum gets the expectations of his new deal thrust upon him at small forward."

NBA: Power Rankings
"Damian Lillard will be given the keys to the car right away, and that will make the Blazers fun to watch. But if they defend like they did after Nate McMillan was fired and Gerald Wallace was traded, they won't be very good. And matching Nicolas Batum's offer sheet really minimized their future flexibility. "

ESPN: The top 10 of Olympics group play
"The lanky forward has had a big offseason, inking a four-year contract north of $40 million with the Portland Trail Blazers Portland after being the chew toy in a tug-of-war between Portland and the Minnesota Timberwolves. After he sputtered in France's opening loss to Team USA, Batum has emerged as one of the more effective transition wings in the tournament. The defense has been decent, if unexceptional, but Batum has slithered his way to a number of rebounds in traffic. There won't be a more interesting player to watch during the quarterfinals and beyond, because for all that production (16.8 points per game on 60.4 percent shooting), our overall evaluation of Batum will be his capacity to take control of the game on at least one side of the ball. "

Hoopshype: Trail Blazers Show Interest In Vernon Macklin
"Agent Greg Nunn tells HoopsHype his client Vernon Macklin, who played with Detroit last season, has drawn interest from Nets, Suns, Bucks, Blazers and Lakers. Macklin, a 6-foot-10 power forward, has two offers on the table from Turkey and Greece too, according to Nunn."

Ball Don't Lie: Danny Granger doesn’t think anyone can top his Indiana Pacers in the East. Except for the Miami Heat, of course
"For now, though, this is Indiana. George Hill is the full time starter at guard, Roy Hibbert is around and happy with his new contract, and D.J. Augustin is a one-year rental at backup point guard. Larry Bird is gone, for a year at least, and Frank Vogel will get his first real training camp with a roster that you and I both know he wants to talk and talk and talk to. The guy's been waiting his entire life to be a head coach, and then he had to wait another 20 months before being afforded a training camp that wasn't lockout-addled. Get ready to take a knee, Pacers."

Ball Don't Lie: Dwight Howard cancels appearance at his own Orlando youth basketball camp
"While I wouldn't presume to hold up Bianchi as the official mouthpiece of all Orlando sports fans, you can certainly understand how — after all the hits Magic fans have taken during Howard's endless and endlessly awkward attempt to skip town — it's easy to see bowing out of a camp that bears his name and denying kids the thrill of meeting an NBA All-Star as just another indicator of how little he wants to be in Orlando, another signpost to remind them how little he cares about them. For today, at least, the public faces on this phenomenally failed crash-and-burn exit strategy belong neither to Howard, nor the exiled GM-and-coach tandem of Otis Smith and Stan Van Gundy, nor Orlando's ownership and present management Magic management. They're the faces of disappointed Central Florida children and the parents who have to decide whether to ask for their $200 back or get their kids psyched up to play knockout with Andrew Nicholson. (No offense, Andrew.)"

Ball Don't Lie Players That We Want Want: Andrew Bogut
"The 2009-10 season. A PER of nearly 21, for a player that doesn't do the sorts of things that show up in a PER-building box score. A defensive rating of 98, second in the NBA that year. The sturdiest and saltiest anchor on the league's second-ranked defense; yes, Brandon Jennings' age-inappropriate active defense and Scott Skiles' schemes may have aided him, but Bogut was the beast that kept those scores low. Movement, and timing and precision unseen in the 2011-12-termed NBA save for perhaps Tyson Chandler, the league's rightful Defensive Player of the Year. No gaudy per-game averages (though nearly 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks work just fine for us), but enough between the lines action to keep us all warm and giggly."

Ball Don't Lie: J.R. Smith thinks the Knicks have the talent to win the championship
"Smith does have a direct connection to the Knicks, though, and that means we have to look at his opinion a little differently. Players on playoff teams should think they can win the title — if they don't it's effectively a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's not to say that Smith answered the question in an ideal manner — he could have said the Knicks are one of several teams with a shot, so as to provide a saner context for these comments — but the fact that he views this roster as a championship outfit is acceptable. Plus, Smith also said that the Knicks only look that way on paper. In reality, he was saying that the Knicks need to follow through on their potential to be worth anything, which is almost hilariously conservative for a player as unpredictable as Smith."

The Basketball Jones: Did Kevin Love get lost on Team USA’s London train ride?
"Did Kevin Love accidentally get off at the wrong stop? Was he kidnapped by Albanians? Did he stop to tie his shoe and get separated from the group, Kevin McAllister-style? Odds are Kevin Love is the one who was taking the picture, which would explain why he’s not in it AND make sense because he is the unofficial team photographer. But doesn’t he realize everyone would be OK with him making Anthony Davis take the picture? He’s the only non-NBA guy and the youngest one around, so that should probably be part of his rookie duties. And are these guys really traveling around foggy London town without some sort of chaperone who can tell them where they need to be and maybe snap a picture here and there? The guy’s an All-Star. Let him get in a snap or two.

DIME: James Harden: “I’m Pretty Sure That I’m Going To Be In Oklahoma City”
"Harden’s answer is either some run-of-the-mill good-ole-boy narrative, or just the plain truth. Although it seems unlikely that Sam Presti would tip his hand to either Ibaka or Harden, it’s pretty clear that Harden is the more valuable player of the two. Durant and Westbrook eat up 50 percent of the cap by themselves, and the max money Harden will receive will push that number to 75%. Ibaka might not warrant max dollars, but something in the range of DeAndre Jordan’s four years, $40 million seems likely. That would all but swallow up every dollar of OKC’s cap, and that doesn’t even include the players already under contract (Kendrick Perkins and his $8 million annually, for one).

DIME: The Top 5 Worst NBA Nicknames
"Alright, so I may have blasted Billups for stealing Robert Horry’s thunder, but if you’re going to commit a blatant theft, you might as well do it right. Vinsanity was insane because of his incredible hops and dunks and the like, but nothing will ever match Linsanity. Nothing. Although Vinsanity on its own is impressively underwhelming, as it doesn’t even refer to anything uber-specific: just that something insane was going on with Vince Carter, and it was surprising and impressive and otherworldly."

SLAM via Sat Lake Tribune: Utah Jazz Named Dennis Lindsey Their New GM
"Lindsey previously served as vice president/assistant general manager in San Antonio, joining the Spurs in 2007. He spent 11 years in Houston, including five as vice president of basketball operations/player personnel. Lindsey joined the Rockets in 1996 as a video coordinator/scout, and was in line to become Houston’s next GM before the position went to Daryl Morey in 2007.”

SLAM: Q + A: Julius Erving
"Well, you know, before my teenage years, I wore the Canvas Converse religiously. I had a paper route in order to buy my first pair. It might’ve been $5 for a pair. Maybe $7 when I was in high school, but I think my first pair was like $5. There were only two stores in my village that sold ‘em over in Hempstead, Long Island. So when I got my first pair of Cons, they were special. And I never really looked back. It’s been a lifetime affair of having Converse shoes on my feet and it looks like it’s never gonna end. And I don’t really want it to end. I think it’s been a great match and you know when you’re consistent in wearing a product, it gives you credibility and gives your product credibility. So I want to represent that."

ESPN: Updated: Stein basketball power rankings
"Even with all the injuries, even amid the spells of vulnerability, you'll note that only one team in the tournament got through group play unbeaten. Oh, yeah: Team USA is shooting 54 percent from the floor as a team, 46 percent on 3s and averaging 117.8 points."

ESPN: Olympic hoops quarterfinal preview
"We'll see. France coach Vincent Collet is convinced that Tony Parker has adjusted to the goggles he detests and contends that his point guard is all the way "back on the track." Yet France's chances figure to depend more on how well the French shoot the ball from the perimeter and how Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf and Wizards youngster Kevin Seraphin cope in the paint with the high-low menace of Pau and brother Marc Gasol."

Sports Illustrated: Seven Teams With Intriguing Offseasons
"Rubio and Williams represent the only hope left for that kind of development, and Williams has Love blocking his best NBA position, power forward. If Rubio is great and Minnesota gets help elsewhere, such as the Thunder’s losing James Harden or Serge Ibaka, the Wolves could reach the point of being able to make some serious noise. But those are big “ifs."

Tags: Blazers, NolanSmith, meyersleonard, damianlillard, LaMarcusAldridge, jaredjeffries, NicolasBatum, joelfreeland, jamesharden, JoelPrzybilla, dannygranger, dwighthoward, andrewbogut, terrystotts

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Around The World: August 7

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