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News From Around The World: October 9

10/10/12

Written by: DHawes22 / avg. rating: 5.0

October 9

Trail Blazers TV: October 8th Trail Blazers Courtside

Trail Blazers TV: Training Camp Day Five

Trail Blazers TV: Sportlandia: Jared Jeffries Interview

Trail Blazers: Morrison Trying To 'Feel His Way' Into Roster Spot
"Morrison has played with many coaches and in many different systems. LaMarcus Aldridge said on the same day that Terry Stotts’ offense was the most complicated he had been a part of. Morrison has found similarities to previous experiences. “It’s similar to the triangle in the sense that there are no real play calls, it’s all reads. It’s just playing off instinct,” Morrison assesses. “In the triangle it was if one thing happens you do this, and it’s the same thing in the pistol action and motion, so that part is nice.”

Trail Blazers: Lillard Or Davis: Who's The ROY Front-Runner?
"While Mannix envisions Davis as being the best player out of this draft, he uses the argument that the Rookie of the Year winner tends to put up the best stats. And it's no secret that Portland will be looking to push the tempo this year and improve upon their 97.2 points per game scored in 2011-12, which ranked them just 16 out of 30 teams. With Lillard having the ball in his hands on nearly every possession, especially for an uptempo team, not only could he put up monster numbers scoring the rock, but double-digit assists could be a regular ordeal when feeding fast-break finishers like LaMarcus Aldridge, JJ Hickson, and Nicolas Batum."

Trail Blazers: Trail Blazers Training Camp: Notes And Quotes From Days Five And Six
"Lillard on the pick and roll: “I’m trying to see everything on the floor. I think the better I get to know the plays and get to know where guys need to be on the floor, my thought process will work, what play I need to make, where the ball needs to be. For us to be effective I think the better I get at that the easier it’ll be when people key in on me.”

Oregon Live: Dwight Howard will sit out preseason game against Trail Blazers
"Howard won't play in the Lakers' next preseason game Wednesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers in Ontario, Calif. Howard was cleared Tuesday for limited participation in full-court scrimmages with contact. He had participated in every other aspect of the Lakers' practices during training camp except full-court contact."

Oregon Live: NBA High-5: By keeping Roy Hibbert, Pacers keep bright outlook that might have been Blazers'
"If they had gotten Hibbert -- a 7-foot-2 All-Star center -- the outlook for 2012-13 might be very different for the Blazers, and their subsequent deals might have been framed differently, perhaps even exceeding the salary cap to maximize a playoff run. That brighter outlook might have been like the one we're seeing in Indiana, where optimism is high for the Pacers. ESPN's John Hollinger (in an Insider piece), for example, picks the Pacers to finish second in the Eastern Conference with a 52-30 record."

Grantland: The NBA's New Power
"You can see the vision here: LaMarcus Aldridge as the top-20 overall centerpiece, with Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews working the wing and Damian Lillard orchestrating. In the big picture, it's unclear if the talent mix and the developmental timing will work well enough to keep Aldridge happy over the last three years of his deal. Batum or Lillard will have to make a leap, and fast, for that to happen, since Matthews — a solid player — appears to have hit something of a developmental ceiling."

Columbian: Blazers' Smith seeks early start
"If I'm on the floor with Nolan, we're interchangeable," Lillard said. "He can bring the ball up, and I can play off the ball, and we can both switch it up that way. I have a great relationship with Nolan. A lot people were putting us up against each other. 'Who's going to compete for the point guard spot?' We blocked that out, and that's who I bonded with the most. We worked out, we still do, every morning together."

Blazersedge: Spanish F Victor Claver "Ready For Everything" In Rookie Season With Blazers
"Versatility," he said. "I'm not a specialist in anything but I can do a lot of things. I think that's important. That's one thing that helps a star like LaMarcus [Aldridge], or Damian [Lillard] or Wesley Matthews. They are going to get a lot of shots in the game. They need some people who support them."

Rip City Project: A Couple Tidbits Before the Blazers’ First Pre-Season Game
“I think our defense this year is all about fighting and wanting to play defense,” Nolan Smith told Freeman. “At the same time, we’re keeping it simple. Coach wants to put it on each player to lock up, keep your man in front, guard your man and play hard. It’s all about just wanting to do it. So far, our guys have been wanting to play defense.”

Blazersedge: Blazers G Will Barton Remains Sidelined With Right Hamstring Strain
"Will did not practice, he won't make the trip," Stotts said. "He's going to stay here to get rehab on his hamstring."

Ball Don't Lie: Kobe Bryant considering retirement after contract ends: ’3 more years seems like a really long time’
"The 18-season mark represents rarefied air among elite NBA players, especially, as Kobe notes, among guards — while a handful of Hall of Fame big men (Moses Malone, Robert Parish, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon) played 18 or more seasons, only two backcourt players enshrined in Springfield have done so: John Stockton, inducted in 2009 following a 19-year career with the Utah Jazz, and Reggie Miller, inducted last month after an 18-year run (mostly off screens) with the Indiana Pacers."

Ball Don't Lie: DeMarcus Cousins plans to become a leader by yelling less
"This is a useful point not just for Cousins, but for virtually any leader in the NBA. The assumption is that leaders will demand much of their teammates by challenging them, which more often than not means yelling. Kevin Garnett has done that particularly well, and his many years of success ensures that other players will pay attention. But that approach doesn't work for everyone, particularly if that player is a young man who hasn't yet built up a career of accomplishments."

Ball Don't Lie: Matt Bonner doesn’t box with the rest of the Spurs bigs because he is already deadly enough
"It's weird that Bonner's street-fighting youth is absent from his NBA.com bio, especially since that includes other, seemingly less pertinent information like that he "is an X-Files enthusiast [and] an avid cribbage player." But then, I guess the league doesn't necessarily always love to promote its players' rough-and-tumble backgrounds. It's better to emphasize sunnier stuff, like Bonner's vaunted love of sandwiches."

Ball Don't Lie via Orlando Sentinel: J.J. Redick gets angry about the NBA’s market disparity, an Orlando columnist gets angry about everything else
"There's like five teams that matter in this league," Redick said last week during media day. "If you're in a small market ... right now it's the Oklahoma City Thunder ... but if you're in small market, you don't matter. That's frustrating. You want to compete, you want to get your recognition, you want people to respect you. So in a sense, that's frustrating."

Ball Don't Lie via CSNNE: David Stern claims owners are divided on jersey advertisements
"It is clear that Stern's opposition to having ads on jerseys has more to do with tradition than anything else. "Of all the leagues in the world, the NBA is the only one that has its own logo on it," Stern said. "No information of the manufacturer and no sponsor, and that is something that I have worked hard to preserve for many decades. But I understand that the team may have to come to consider it. So we're going to let the Board of Governors decide what to do."

The Basketball Jones: Video: Manute Bol’s son is very tall, good at basketball
"I promise you aren’t going to see a whole bunch of seventh grade basketball highlight videos here on TBJ, but I also promise you that when a 7-foot-7 NBA legend (RIP) has a 6-foot-5 son in seventh grade who is good enough to have a basketball highlight video you will see it. That’s the case here as Manute Bol’s son, Bol Bol, is apparently also giant and also good at basketball."

The Basketball Jones: The Fantasy Jump Off: Top 100 fantasy players, tiers 6-10
"Batum is multi-talented, as last season’s 13.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.8 treys, 45.1 FG%, 83.6 FT% and one of each in steals and blocks clearly shows. If you remember the days when Shawn Marion justified the first overall pick, you see the upside with Batum, but with lesser boards. There’s a real good chance of Batum improving, and with Damian Lillard passing the rock, Batum could jump a tier or two by the end of the season."

The Basketball Jones: Al Jefferson Has An All Jefferson-sized Bed
"And since Big Al isn’t that comically tall (6-foot-10 according to official listings but way shorter at the draft combine) or wide, you pretty much just have to deduce that this means that Al Jefferson isn’t much of a cuddler. Either that or he’s started stockpiling supplies for the most epic bedroom fort imaginable. If that’s the case, Troy and Abed are going to be very jealous."

SLAM via Hoopshype: Dirk Nowitzki Thinks the Mavericks are in for a ‘Tough Year’
"‘Well, the summer started very frustrating. We went after Deron [Williams] and he decided to stay in New Jersey. Then we were thinking maybe Dwight [Howard] might come to Dallas and he went to Los Angeles. And then Jet [Jason Terry] and J-Kidd decided to leave, which really hurt me because they are great friends of mine. So the summer started pretty frustrating but then I think we turned it around a little bit. We made some nice moves. I like [Chris] Kaman, I like [Darren] Collison and [OJ] Mayo in the backcourt, I like Elton Brand as a backup for me or Chris … That makes us competitive, but it’s going to be a tough year. Oklahoma and L.A. are definitely the heavy favorites in the West.’”

SLAM: Top 50: Roy Hibbert, no. 35
"How many legitimate 7-footers in the League can get up and down the floor, block shots, average nearly 13 points and 9 rebounds, and only take 10 shots per game? Hibbert is a rare commodity in today’s day and age. Many post players want to drift out to the perimeter, but Hibbert knows how he makes his money. (How many people knew Hibbert signed a max deal this summer?) He stays in the paint, backs down opponents, uses his long arms and solid footwork to get proper angles and has developed a very solid baby hook on the low block."

SLAM: Top 50: Zach Randolph, no. 36
"He’s 6-9, 260 pounds with the strength of a defensive lineman and footwork of a ballerina. A bizarrely perfect blend of fat and fluidity. Lethal back to the basket and face-up abilities, with an explosive first step and feathery touch out to 18 feet. Lefty. Unorthodox and undersized body that on the surface comes across as a disadvantage, yet he has full sovereignty on where, and how, he operates on the court. One of probably 10 or 12 NBA players who can go into Unstoppable Mode, scoring at will, and physically and mentally wearing opponents into submission. Not a franchise centerpiece, but probably can suffice as the second best player on a Championship team."

DIME: Video: Harrison Barnes Dunks All Over Al Jefferson
"Golden State was paced by David Lee‘s big night in this one, but still, we must give the rookie some shine. After being a big part of a major NBA 2K13 announcement not too long ago, this is the second-coolest thing Harrison Barnes has done since becoming a Warrior. With a game suited for the NBA, we’re expecting to see some big nights from the UNC product this year. "

ESPN: Jackson: James still lacks MJ's titles
"He's got all the physical attributes," Jackson said. "He is a player that can play four positions. Except for perhaps the center spot, which he hasn't (been) given a shot at yet, he can play those other four positions quite well. This is unique; Michael could play three and was very good at all three of those, but as a power player that LeBron can become, I think he has an opportunity to explore and advance some of the status that he has already gained."

Trail Blazers: Weekend Plan: Specially Designed For Families And The Busy Nine-To-Fiver
"Built for the family-oriented fan with a busy work-week, the 12-game Weekend Pack maximizes the thrill-factor while keeping the competitions to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A smattering of Western Conference rivals and Eastern Conference visitors during one-offs and key home stands, you can get your hands on this schedule-friendly pack for as low as $11/game and $52/game in the lower bowl."

Trail Blazers: The Rivals Plan: Two LAs, Oklahoma City And The Return Of Roy
"The smallest of the four big ticket plans, the eight game Rivals Pack packs a big punch. You’ll be in the building and eating a corndog while others are wondering how to get their hands on a way to see the return of Brandon Roy and the sure to sell out L.A. Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder."

Trail Blazers: Why The Value Plan Makes 'Cents' For You
"The Value Pack starts at just $5 a game. That’s 12 games for as low as $60! Talk about some serious bang for your buck. But that’s not even the best part about this ticket plan. Four of the 12 games take place in the month of January. And there is absolutely no better place to be during an Oregon winter’s night than inside the raucous Rose Garden. Not to mention this pack gets you into the arena to see some of the league’s biggest names and brightest young stars such as Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Kyrie Irving, John Wall, and Rudy Gay."

Trail Blazers: Big Games Plan: 12 Of The Biggest Games
"This game has it all. Season opener, at home, against the loathe-inducing Lakers, in Steve Nash's first game in purple and gold and it's on Halloween night! Any game against the Lakers at the Rose Garden is going to be a lively one, but the confluence of circumstances in this particular game sets the stage for one of the all-time season openers in Trail Blazers history."