The Minnesota Timberwolves will pick up its team-option on Derrick Williams: “The biggest issue for Williams has been fit with this team. He actually played well last season in Kevin Love’s absence, averaging 12.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in 24.3 minutes per game. He shot 43.0 percent from the field and 33.2 percent from 3-point range. He started 56 of the 78 games he played in due to Love breaking his hand twice and the copious amounts of injuries the Wolves suffered. However, finding a way to make him successful at the small forward position has been difficult and getting him to fit into Rick Adelman’s offensive and defensive schemes hasn’t been easy either. In an effort to be more useful on both ends of the floor and more versatile, Williams dropped a considerable amount of weight this offseason and had jaw surgery to improve his bite and his breathing. Williams is the lightest he’s been since before he attended the University of Arizona.”
The NBA has suspended Hasheem Thabeet for head-butting Greg Stiemsma: “Thabeet and Stiemsma were each issued technical fouls for their roles in the second-quarter skirmish, which seemed to stem from Thabeet not particularly appreciating Stiemsma’s screen-setting. While we’re not necessarily looking to blame the head-buttee, it’s perhaps worth noting that Stiemsma was involved in a somewhat similar altercation last season, while a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, with Matt Barnes of the Los Angeles Clippers. At the time, Barnes claimed Stiemsma “hit [him] with a couple of dirty picks early on and I told him to watch it, then he laughed and he hit me with another one,” which prompted Barnes to hit Stiemsma in the throat with a forearm, which led to his ejection and a one-game suspension. As the old saying goes, once is chance, twice is a coincidence and three times is a trend; we’ll have to keep an eye on whether Stiemsma just happens to find himself on the business end of another blowout at some point this season.”
Deron Williams is now participating in five-on-five drills: “This development does make it much more plausible for DWill to be on the floor next Wednesday when the Nets open up their season in Cleveland. Williams played about 15-20 minutes in the 5-on-5 drills and said, “I didn’t feel in sync at all because I haven’t played basketball.” He added, “It felt good to be back out there.” “He looked great,” Jason Kidd said about Williams’ play today, but he also noted that there was some rust on the point guard, saying, “The process is to do a little bit more each day, and today he got in some contact stuff and he looked good.” Williams was much more optimistic about his injury today than the past several, notes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post, adding that tomorrow’s shootaround will be the true test to see how his ankle is holding up. In another tweet, Bontemps added to the positive news.
Russell Westbrook is participating in practice and reportedly dunking: “For the first time since training camp started, the Thunder had its full complement of players for at least a portion of Monday’s practice. Kendrick Perkins, returning from a dislocated left ring finger, was back and is expected to play Tuesday against Phoenix. But the headliner was All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook, who participated in on-court drills with the team for the first time since he had arthroscopic surgery earlier this month. “There were bits and pieces where Russell participated in practice, so that was good,” coach Scott Brooks said. “It was good to get everybody out there, working together.” In recent weeks, Westbrook has been seen on the court during the portion of practice open to the media, going through light workouts with the Thunder training staff. But on Monday, he apparently amped it up. And even in that brief setting, Reggie Jackson, the man who is replacing Westbrook in the starting lineup, seemed to be impressed.”
“Oh, man. Russell today…” Jackson said when asked how Westbrook looked, cracking a sly smile. “It’s actually funny. My brother and his brother talk a little before games. His brother told mine that Russell’s probably bouncing better than ever. I had to see it to believe it. One of the dunks (today), he went up and looked like the old Russell, plus some, head at the rim. We’ll be happy when he gets back fully healthy, but it’s good to see him with a smile on his face, being about the team, bouncing back and happy to be back on the court.”
Who is the NBA’s best shooting guard? Hint, it’s not Kobe Bryant: “For the first time in the 12-year history of the NBA.com survey, the Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant (20%) was not selected by GMs as the best player at his position, as the Houston Rockets’ James Harden (56.7%) was selected as the best shooting guard in the NBA. NBA.com once again surveyed the general managers of all 30 teams on the upcoming 2013-14 NBA season, gathering their responses on the best teams, players, coaches, fans, offseason moves and more. Other top honors included Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo (80%) as the top vote-getter for the NBA Rookie of the Year, the Chicago Bulls (43.3%) as the top defensive team, and San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker (53.3%) as the league’s best international player.”
