Part of Rudy Gay’s shooting woes from last season stemmed from poor eye vision, from Adam Figman of SLAMOnline: “He recently had an operation to correct the vision in one of his eyes, an issue that was first reported back in March in the National Post. “I did have vision problems,” Gay confesses, sitting up on the trainer’s table after Gray finishes stretching out his muscles. “Actually, it was terrible. I could hardly get my license.” The National Post reported that he refused to wear the contact lenses he desperately needed, which was correct: “I have a stigma about that stuff—I can’t put anything up my nose and I can’t touch my eyes. I think that just comes from me growing up seeing people on drugs—I got over my stigma of needles, but I couldn’t do any of that other stuff. I couldn’t wear contacts. I wore glasses, sometimes.” Gay finally had the operation to clear up his sight early this summer. “It wasn’t even a regular operation,” he explains. “It was some kind of crazy operation that took a lot more time to heal than I thought. It sucked. They had to patch it up [after], and I had to take eye drops, all stuff that I hated. But I had to do it.”
Delonte West wants to return to the league and said he cried watching games this past season, from Tzvi Twersky of SLAMOnline: “I had tears in my eyes watching games this past year—not because I’m bipolar, but because I’m sitting at home and miss the game” West says. “When my agent calls, I’m going to be on the next flight. Not to be cocky, but some teams that are trying to win are one guard away, one guy that can make a couple great plays away from going to the Finals. “Well, I’m right here,” he continues. “Y’all know it and I know it.”… “I watched the NBA all last year,” says West. “What I ended up saying to myself is, Let me stop playing around; let me get back on the path that I was on; let me get into my groove.”
Paul Pierce expects to be a “glorified role player” with the Nets, from Gary Washburn of Boston Globe: ““There will definitely be less pressure on me on this ball club than there was in Boston,” Pierce said. “In Boston, I was the No. 1 primary option. Here we have so many options. We have young All-Stars on this team. My job is to be more of a glorified role player, as Doc [Rivers] used to always say, with the guys we have. “With my abilities to do so many things, there’s going to be nights where I’m not going to score a bunch of points. I can do other things to help this club win. With the combination of these guys, we’re going to take pressure off each other.”
Tyreke Evans says he is okay with the possibility of coming off the bench, from Sean Deveney of Sporting News: “I haven’t talked to the coaches or anything like that but that’s what they’ve been saying,” Evans told Sporting News in a phone interview. “When the season starts, I don’t know how things will go. Whatever role I am playing, I am definitely looking forward to it. I am going to go out there and play hard and try to win games.” Asked if he would have no problem coming off the bench for the Pelicans, Evans said, “Yeah, definitely. I have never been worried about where I am playing. I am just happy to be in the situation and that everything has been worked out.”
Mike Miller continues to draw plenty of interest from a number of teams, now including the Denver Nuggets. Stein has details: “The Denver Nuggets have emerged as a new suitor at the forefront of the free-agent pursuit of Mike Miller, according to sources close to the process. Sources told ESPN.com that the Nuggets are now getting strong consideration from Miller along with the early frontrunners in the race to sign him: Oklahoma City and Memphis. Miller, according to sources, met face-to-face Friday with new Grizzlies owner Robert Pera and CEO Jason Levien after an earlier sitdown with Thunder general manager Sam Presti. Sources said that Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant and Grizzlies All-Star Marc Gasol have both taken an active role in recruiting Miller, who has received interest from a number of contenders after being released earlier this week by the Miami Heat via the amnesty provision.”
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.