Tag Archives: basketball
Reuters
Luol Deng is playing through a torn ligament in his left wrist — surgery now would mean missing the Bulls playoff run and he wants to be part of (and is essential to) what could be a special run.
But he also has plans to play for Great Britain this summer as they host the 2012 London Olympics. He grew up in England and is the best player in that nation. It’s another great honor he doesn’t want to miss.
But now we are into August or later and surgery on the wrist would take a couple months to fully heal. Which makes things sticky for Bulls management, as Mark Schanowski discusses at CSNChicago.com.
There’s also the question of whether surgery will be absolutely necessary. Some ligaments will heal on their own over time, and doctors really aren’t sure how Luol’s wrist will look after going through the NBA playoffs and the Olympics. But if Deng does need surgery sometime in September, he could easily miss the first two months of the next NBA season, something that has to be troubling to Bulls’ management.
Playing through the wrist injury Deng has looked himself some games, other he seems to only want to use his right hand. He’s not the same player every night.
The Bulls are going into these playoffs with that Deng and Derrick Rose trying to get healthy. How far they go may depend on how good those two feel.
But the thought of starting next season already on the injury roller coaster has to make Bulls fans roll their eyes.
Getty Images
Know this about Mike Krzyzewski — he likes to be in control of things. He may not be obsessive and overbearing about it like some coaches, but he likes things done his way.
And when it comes to college basketball and the one-and-done rule, he has no control. Nobody does. John Calipari may have figured out how to best use the system, but even he says he doesn’t like it.
Coach K was on The Sports Animal in Oklahoma City and had this to say about the state of the game (via Sports Radio Interviews).
“First of all college basketball doesn’t control college basketball. The NBA controls college basketball. They are the ones along with the players union that sets the rule. College basketball just reacts to what the NBA does to include the early entry date. College basketball put out April 10th. Well that date doesn’t mean anything. April 29th is when guys have a chance to put their names in the NBA draft. I think one of the main things that has to happen is college basketball has to have a relationship with the NBA. There should be someone in charge of college basketball who on a day-to-day basis sets an agenda for our great sport. We don’t have anything like that. As a resolve we don’t have a voice with the NBA or the players union and that’s just kind of sad.”
For the record, he’s not wrong here. College presidents and colleges would come down on the same side here as the NBA owners — they all want to extend this to two or three and done. That’s good for the coaches, good for the universities’ pocketbooks, good for the NBA owners and teams that get longer to scout and evaluate young players.
But for me, it comes back to this — if you are good enough to be in the NBA at age 18, why shouldn’t you be allowed to? Because NBA owners and their scouts sometimes make bad choices on high school players? Because other kids get bad advice and come out when they shouldn’t? So the truly talented and ready should be punished because other people screwed up? Nice system there.
Nobody likes one-and-done. I still like the college baseball system (you can be drafted out of high school — and I think you shouldn’t lose your elegibility if you work out for teams and test the waters — but if you go to college you are there three years). But that is not perfect and the NBA owners don’t like it.
The age limit got pushed aside during the NBA’s lockout, a committee is supposed to take it up later. But in the end they will probably just leave it at one year as the compromise nobody likes.
Especially Coach K.
AP
Not even the most die-hard Kentucky fan — say, Ashley Judd — really thought Anthony Davis or the rest of the top players on Kentucky were coming back for another year.
That will become reality Tuesday when Davis (the lock No. 1 overall pick and likely franchise player) as well as Terrence Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Doran Lamb and Marquis Teague of Kentucky all will hold a joint press conference, at which each and each one is expected to declare for the NBA draft, as reported on NBC’s CollegeBasketballTalk.
Yes, Kidd-Gilchrist has repeatedly denied he was turning pro, but it would be a shock if the lock top five pick did not jump into the draft.
There’s a reason that these guys are all turning pro (and a reason Kentucky won the national title). DraftExpress in their current mock draft has Davis going No. 1, Kidd-Gilchrist No. 3, Jones No. 11, Teague No. 18 and Lamb early in the second round.
None of this is a surprise, this is how the John Calipari system works (see John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, and we could go on and on). But this group is fully committed if they declare — the new (and silly) NCAA rule says that the last day to withdraw your name from consideration for the draft was April 10. The NBA says players have to April 29 to declare, but now once you are in you are in, there is no time to “test the waters.” (How is this the NCAA is looking after the student athletes? Oh, we’ll save that rant for another day.)
From our friends at CollegeBasketballTalk:
Connecticut’s had 13 players leave early for the NBA during Jim Calhoun’s coaching tenure. Sophomore Jeremy Lamb will be the 14th.
The lanky wing announced his decision Tuesday, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise. He could’ve come out last season after the Huskies’ run to the national title and been a first-round pick. Lamb might be a lottery selection this season.
“It was a difficult decision, but after much prayer and discussion with my parents, I feel that it’s in the best interest of me and my family to declare myself eligible for the upcoming NBA Draft and pursue my dream of playing professional basketball,” Lamb said in a statement.
The 6-5 sophomore is currently projected as the 12th overall pick by DraftExpress, and ESPN.com’s Chad Ford has Lamb at the #12 spot on his NBA draft big board. Lamb’s shooting stroke, smooth game, and insane 7-foot wingspan are what will make him a likely lottery pick on draft night.
Reuters
UPDATE 9:55 pm: Hedo Turkoglu will need surgery for a broken bone in his cheek he got from an inadvertent elbow from Carmelo Anthony Thursday night, the team announced.
He will have the surgery on Saturday and will be re-evaluated right before the playoffs start. Again, we’d say this could have a big impact on their playoff chances if other issues were not having a much bigger impact on their playoff chances.
4:11 pm: Because the Magic really needed another thing to go wrong right now…
Hedo Turkoglu is out for the Magic on Saturday for sure and maybe much longer based on this tweet from Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel:
Magic small forward Hedo Turkoglu tells Sentinel he might need surgery to repair fractures in right cheekbone.
Ouch.
Turkoglu was banged around pretty good Thursday, pretty much like the Magic team at the hands of the Knicks. Turkoglu fell early on his elbow and later needed stitches to close a cut under his eye.
Turns out, may be a little more than that.
Hard to imagine he misses a lot of games whether he needs surgery or not, but Hedo may want to call Kobe Bryant and Richard Hamilton to discuss mask makers and styles.
Oh, good gravy.
It’s the extension that sells this one. Grabs it at the furthest point of the cockback, and then the total follow through in one motion.
That is not basketball. That is violent art with some props.
Reuters
There will not be sponsors names across the chest of NBA teams next season. The NBA will not look like the English Premiere League.
But come the 2013-14 season… maybe.
At their meetings this week in New York, NBA owners had what Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver called a “robust” discussion about the idea of putting some kind of advertising on NBA jerseys.
“We told our owners that it was not something we were considering doing for next season, but that it was something we should at least discuss doing for the season after next,” Silver said.
That discussion included mock-ups of potential looks.
“We presented to our owners some mocked up jerseys, mannequins, not models, that showed various iterations of logos, sizes of logos, placements of logos,” Silver said. “We showed them some of the traditional soccer jerseys used in Europe and we showed them some of the valuations that soccer jerseys are currently getting and some estimates of ranges of values for logo rights on NBA jerseys.”
In the end, those valuations are what will matter — money talks. And if there is enough money in it NBA owners will toss tradition out the window in a New York minute.
The first steps here do not have to be what was seen in the WNBA, where corporate logos replaced team logos across the front of the jersey. It could be as simple as all 30 NBA teams having a McDonald’s “golden arches” on their shoulder above the logo. Or maybe uniform manufacturer adidas would pay to put their logo on the uniforms in a less obtrusive way.
But make no mistake, steps towards ads on jerseys are starting. The owners, like fans in general, are split on the issue.
“I would say we had a full and robust discussion and a range of opinions from one end of the spectrum, which was, let’s not do anything like that, to why aren’t we considering it for next season,” Silver said. You can bet the “why not next year” guy was Mark Cuban.
“We told them there was additional discussions we need to have with our apparel manufacturer, adidas. We wanted to have additional discussions with our television partners, as well as our major marketing partners to get their reaction to it and we will continue to talk to the teams about it, as well.”
But the day is coming people. It will eventually happen.
Reuters
UPDATE 9:55 pm: Hedo Turkoglu will need surgery for a broken bone in his cheek he got from an inadvertent elbow from Carmelo Anthony Thursday night, the team announced.
He will have the surgery on Saturday and will be re-evaluated right before the playoffs start. Again, we’d say this could have a big impact on their playoff chances if other issues were not having a much bigger impact on their playoff chances.
4:11 pm: Because the Magic really needed another thing to go wrong right now…
Hedo Turkoglu is out for the Magic on Saturday for sure and maybe much longer based on this tweet from Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel:
Magic small forward Hedo Turkoglu tells Sentinel he might need surgery to repair fractures in right cheekbone.
Ouch.
Turkoglu was banged around pretty good Thursday, pretty much like the Magic team at the hands of the Knicks. Turkoglu fell early on his elbow and later needed stitches to close a cut under his eye.
Turns out, may be a little more than that.
Hard to imagine he misses a lot of games whether he needs surgery or not, but Hedo may want to call Kobe Bryant and Richard Hamilton to discuss mask makers and styles.
Anthony Davis is reaping the rewards of being the best player in college basketball and leading his team to a national title. (Sure Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague had something to do with it, too, but it’s Davis’ boat).
Among that, the chance to go on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show and talk about the unibrow and how it’s his brand and he’s not going to shave it. Some NBA veterans are going to have fun with that one next year, rookie. Just warning you now.
We’ve seen a lot of him but here is a chance to get a feel for Davis the person. Which if you’re drafting him to be the face of the franchise matters.
Hat tip to IamaGM.com.
Reuters
When he played at the start of the season and was healthy, Andrea Bargnani looked like an All-Star and former No. 1 pick… then he got a calf injury that kept him out for most of the season. He returned and struggled but had started to find his stroke again at points (he dropped 30 on the Bobcats April 3).
But his calf had given him problems again lately, he had missed the last two games, and now the Raptors have decided to shut him down for the season, the team announced. It was not work the risk to aggravate the injury when the Raptors are not going to the playoffs. There was no reason to push through it.
For the season, Bargnani averaged 19.5 points in the 31 games he played, shooting 43.2 percent overall and 29 percent from three. Bargnani will be back with the Raptors, he has three years remaining on his current deal.
