The Houston Rockets signed Ronnie Brewer, according to The AP: “The Rockets signed free agent swingman Ronnie Brewer on Wednesday, addressing another area that needed fortifying as they gear up to challenge San Antonio and Oklahoma City for Western Conference supremacy. Brewer’s scoring numbers have steadily declined since his early years with the Utah Jazz, but the 6-foot-7 veteran gives the Rockets another high-energy, defensive specialist to throw at some of the bigger guards and high-scoring small forwards in the West. Brewer averaged just 3.0 points and 2.3 rebounds in just over 14 minutes a game for the Knicks and Thunder last season. He started 34 games for the Knicks, but a horrible shooting slump ultimately led to him being traded to Oklahoma City in February to help the Knicks clear room for Kenyon Martin.”
Frank Vogel discussed the offseason acquisitions of the Indiana Pacers, from Scott Agness of Pacers.com: “Yeah, it was a big time trade. All of our players were just so excited. They know what it’s like to play against Luis Scola. He’s going to find a way to out-fox you. He’s got all the tricks, all the savvy, all the fakes and [he’s] one of the most deceptive players in the game. To bring somebody like that in here, who also plays with the energy of a Tyler Hansbrough or somebody like that, is really going to bolster are bench. “Solomon Hill looks to be ready to go right now, ready to contribute right away. C.J. Watson we think is an upgrade at backup point guard. Obviously the guy that was killing us in the Knicks series, Chris Copeland, bombing them threes. You can never have enough shooting, especially with a guy as tall as he is. Oh, and by the way, there’s a guy named Danny Granger that is coming back to our team, too.”
- Bobby Jackson will join the Minnesota Timberwolves as a player development coach, from Jerry Zgoda of Star Tribune: “The Wolves are in contract discussions to bring former Gophers star Bobby Jackson back to Minnesota and back to the franchise as a player development coach to replace David Adelman, according to a league source. Jackson starred for two seasons for that Gophers team that reached the 1997 Final Four — or didn’t, if you’re the NCAA — and played in the NBA for both Flip Saunders with the Wolves and Rick Adelman in Sacramento and Houston. My colleague Sid Hartman phoned in the Jackson news to the sports desk late last night, too late for it to get into the paper, and a source confirmed it this morning.”
Charles Barkley blasted the Philadelphia 76ers as an organization for the way they handled this past summer, from CBS Philly: “I’m disappointed because I thought they treated those assistant coaches bad. They should have fired them at the beginning of the summer and gave them an opportunity to get another job, I do. I mean, I don’t understand why you would hold them, let them work the team out all summer, now it’s too late for them to get a job, and if I’m the [Brett] Brown guy I wouldn’t want somebody else’s assistant coaches. He may not even know those guys, and exactly what he did. He fired them right away, and I felt bad for Aaron [McKie] and Michael [Curry] because right now they’re stuck in no where because all the good jobs are gone now. And also, I had a problem with—if I’m a coach I would want to have some say in the draft, I would want to have some say in the draft. These are all Sam Hinkle’s people who they drafted this year. He traded one of the better point guards in the NBA, yeah I have a problem with the way the Sixers are running their organization right now.”
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.