One night of preseason in the books, and nobody good hurt. I think that qualifies as a success.
Of course, not everyone is healthy. Derrick Rose looked great last night, but there’s still not a definite timetable on Kobe Bryant’s return. Plus, one lottery pick went down to injury yesterday. Check below to find out who that is.
Tomorrow’s slate of preseason games is pretty loaded. Considering it’s my birthday, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Unless the regular season starting counts as one of those other ways. That would be pretty cool.
Now let’s get to that news I mentioned:
Bad news for the Blazers, from Mike Tokito of the Oregonian: “The Trail Blazers’ flurry of injuries turned serious Saturday as rookie CJ McCollum broke his left foot during practice. McCollum, whom the Blazers drafted with the No. 10 pick of June’s draft, fractured the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot. He was running the baseline during a scrimmage when he was bowled over by a teammate. The injury was initially called a sprain, but X-rays revealed the break, the team said. McCollum will need surgery. According to a team release, his prognosis will be made after the procedure, which has not yet been scheduled. The injury is identical to the one McCollum suffered in January, during his senior year at Lehigh. In a game against Virginia Commonwealth, McCollum fractured the exact same fifth metatarsal. McCollum later had surgery, ending his senior year. At the time of the injury, his recovery was estimated at eight to 10 weeks.”-
After his first game back from injury, Derrick Rose said that his vertical has increased from 37 inches pre-surgery to 42 inches.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) October 6, 2013
Derrick Rose is back, but all might not be well in Chicago, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: “As Rose returns to the Bulls after missing a full season, his most important teammate – Luol Deng – is privately disappointed over the franchise’s unwillingness to engage him in serious contract discussions. Deng could leave as a free agent this summer, could be traded before the February deadline – everything is so unsettled over his future. An assistant coach that Rose deeply valued, Ron Adams, was let go over Thibodeau’s wishes this summer because Forman didn’t like Adams’ defiant disposition. Eventually, Rose could be trapped in the middle of the Forman-Thibodeau cold war. As the months passed without Thibodeau signing his name to a four-year contract extension last season, the coach privately feared the consequences of fully committing himself to that inevitable signature, league sources said. If Thibodeau had been convinced that his GM was usurping the coach’s influence without a signed deal, he knew the finalizing of his contract would move him further to the mercy of the GM. The Bulls had a news conference for that four-year, $18 million contract on the eve of training camp in 2012, but it was months and months until Thibodeau signed his name.”-
#Pelicans G Tyreke Evans left ankle X-rays negative. There is no break. MRI will be done later, club says. http://t.co/szI2pLSqFK
— Jimmy Smith (@JimmySmith504) October 6, 2013
George Karl doesn’t have a job any more, one year after leading a largely superstar-less Nuggets to the #3 seed in a brutal Western Conference. Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe talked to him about how he’s handling it: “Thirteen teams made coaching changes in the offseason. Karl, along with Lionel Hollins, who guided the Grizzlies to the Western Conference finals, are unemployed, a testament to the volatile nature of the relationship between coaches and the new generation of club management. “I was amazed at how quickly I accepted what happened,” Karl said, “because I had 8½ great years and last year was probably my most fun coaching any basketball team I’ve ever been associated with. I don’t have a lot of bitterness other than I don’t understand. But not understanding — when you are working in a world of millions, millions, and millions of dollars, there’s a lot of things I don’t understand. There’s a lot of contracts we give players that I don’t understand. There’s a lot of trades that I don’t understand. There are a lot of decisions I don’t understand. I can’t deny there’s an anger and frustration. But there’s much more celebration in my heart than anything else.” “- Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post talked to his replacement, Brian Shaw: “Had things turned out differently two years ago, the Nuggets could be traveling to face Shaw and the Lakers rather than coming to town with him. But not even job endorsements from Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson could land him the Lakers’ job. The plan, apparently, was L.A.-to-Indiana-to-Denver and his first NBA head coaching job. “Regardless of how it ended, I don’t have any regrets,” Shaw said. “Those were some of the best times that I experienced. I will always cherish them.” Asked if there were any hard feelings lingering now, two years after being passed over for the head coaching job with the Lakers after Jackson’s retirement in 2011, Shaw said: “No, no. You know, it’s the nature of the business. I found that out pretty quickly. I preach to our players to get on to the next play; let that last play go, and I try to do the same thing, too. Every decision is not my decision. It’s not going to work out the way I want it to work out. So I’ve just got to move on.””
Ben Watanabe of NESN.com looks at Andre Iguodala’s decision to spurn Texas and Florida’s lack of state income tax and go to the Bay Area: “Iguodala revealed in an interview with ESPN The Magazine that his decision to sign with Golden State was due to more than simply getting the chance to play alongside Stephen Curry. It turns out Iguodala is a lot more shrewd with his money than people might have assumed, and that he is already preparing himself for his post-playing career. “I thought the Bay Area would be a great spot for me,” Iguodala told Sam Alipour. “There are just so many opportunities out here. I’ve got my mind on tech funds and venture capital funds. That’s what I want to get acquainted with. In fact, my financial team has already started laying some of that groundwork.” From the sounds of it, the big, geeky glasses Iguodala wears aren’t just for looks, unlike some of his NBA brethren. He says he has gone to seminars about investing and how to run a team, and hopes to own an NBA and a WNBA franchise. He plans to pick the brain of Warriors owner and successful venture capitalist Joe Lacob, and calls himself the “biggest fan” of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp., based in Santa Clara, Calif. He interned at Bank of America Merrill Lynch during the lockout two years ago. In other words, Iguodala looks at the few hundred thousand extra Howard will get from the Rockets and scoffs. Maybe the tax-free route makes sense for a player whose end game is making as much as possible in his relatively brief playing career and then kicking back for the last 40 years of his life. That’s not for Iguodala. The 29-year-old knows this NBA gig can only last another few years, and nothing is promised after the four-year, $48 million contract that begins this season.”
It’s enormous that you are getting thoughts from this piece of writing as well as from our argument
made at this time.