Jan Vesley has not given up on his career and believes he has something to prove: “Feeling buried for much of his time in Washington, Vesely has yet to provide anything on the court close to the amount of excitement he generated on draft night in 2011, when the Wizards took him with the sixth overall pick. His future in the NBA — let alone in Washington — became even more murky last week when the Wizards let the Halloween deadline pass without picking up his fourth-year option worth $4.2 million. Yet Vesely is still trying to stay upbeat amid the uncertainty, even with his career in the same holding pattern.”
“The toughest part is I’m not playing. I don’t get a chance,” Vesely said when asked about adjusting to the NBA after arriving from Partizan-Belgrade in Serbia. “Of course, I have something to prove. I have to stay ready, wait for my chance and if I have my chance, to grab it.”
Greg Oden is doing everything he can to get back to the court, despite setbacks: “With Chris Bosh remaining behind in South Florida and missing Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre following the Monday birth of his daughter, the Heat nonetheless held to their plan of keeping Oden behind on one-game trips. “We’re training him right now,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’ll be with us on all multi-game trips.” The Heat do not have a multi-game trip until the end of the month, with games in Cleveland and Toronto, with Thanksgiving in the middle. Before then, there are single-game trips to Charlotte and Orlando. Oden has not played in an NBA regular-season game since Dec. 2009. He appeared for four minutes in one exhibition game last month in New Orleans, but remains on a deliberate rehab schedule as he works his way back for several major knee procedures.”
Take if from a pro, a statement about statement games: “The Miami Heat make a statement every time their bus pulls into an arena. Teams measure themselves against the best and get up for the Heat game like it’s the playoffs. On back-to-back nights they go into Philadelphia and Brooklyn. The first night they are playing the Sixers, who are projected to win less than 20 games. So the Sixers win handily, led by their first round pick Michael Carter-Williams just missing a quadruple-double in his first game. I don’t know if the Sixers changed any pundits’ minds, but MCW sure made a statement. In one game he became a player to watch. (And watch for him atop our Rookie Rankings later this week). Two nights later, the Nets-Heat was an actual statement game. The Nets revamped their entire roster and hired a new coach to challenge the Heat for Eastern Conference supremacy. This was the first opportunity to take measure of the results. Could the new -look Nets with their new-look coach beat the Heat? On this night they proved that they could, winning a close game by making big plays in crunch time.”
LaMarcus Aldridge is happy in Portland, claims he is not going anywhere: “He’s the two-time All-Star who reportedly wanted out of this sleepy little city during the summer, and now he’s the veteran leader of this team that is promising enough that he talks about it with a pleasant grin fixed on his face. So – in the name of knowing whether he’s the next star who plans to force his way to a larger market – is he happy or not? “I’m happy here right now,” Aldridge told USA TODAY Sports while sitting on a bench inside the team’s practice facility. “I feel like we have a team that can win, that can make noise, and I feel like if we buy in then anything is possible. So I’m happy, and it’s still my team and I’m playing well. “I feel like the team has jelled around me. I feel like coach (Terry Stotts) has trusted me more this year to where I’m getting different opportunities that I didn’t get last year, so I think everything is going great right now.””
Grantland’s Zach Lowe takes a look inside the science behind NBA contract extensions: “The debate over extending a player or watching him enter restricted free agency has always been about these kinds of calculated risks. Every franchise handles the decision in its own way, and each player brings a particular set of circumstances — an agent who demands nothing short of the max, the player’s total self-confidence that he’s about to become an All-Star, or a need for long-term security that trumps said confidence. But the circumstances of that debate are much different now, under the league’s (still kind of) new restrictive collective bargaining agreement. The league is brimming with cap room every summer now. Teams have spent more carefully, and more frugally, since the lockout.”
Larry Sanders is not ok with his new role in Milwaukee: “Through Milwaukee’s first three games, his production is down significantly: 2.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 17.3 minutes, compared to last season’s 9.8, 9.5, 2.8 and 27.3. After taking an average of 8.5 shots and making about half (50.6) in 2012-13, he has shot 4-for-16 so far, in a mixed bag of jump hooks, short jumpers and layups. Sanders has been the opposite of smooth, offensively, looking at times like he’s wrestling a lawn chair. And in his view, he hasn’t broken enough of a sweat to do much better. He played 21:37 in the Bucks’ 97-90 loss to Toronto Saturday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, contributing four points, four boards and one block.”
“I feel like I’m capable of being in the game at the end and helping my team win, coming up with blocks and rebounds,” Sanders told NBA.com before exiting the locker room swiftly. “I haven’t been able to get my rhythm out there. I understand foul trouble situations, but tonight I wasn’t in foul trouble.
“Last year I finished so many games. I feel like that’s when I lock in the most. But I haven’t been able to get in the game to finish. That carries over to the next game. When you sit the last three quarters of each game, I can’t have no carryover. And it’s hard for me. I’m still a young player. It’s only my eighth year playing basketball.”
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.