News From Around The World: October 11

10/11/12

Written by: DHawes22

October 11

Trail Blazers TV: Damian Lillard Post-Game Interview

Trail Blazers TV: Meyers Leonard Alley-Oop

Trail Blazers TV: Sportlandia: Adam Morrison Interview

Trail Blazers: Wear Rip City: Lillard Wears Top Ten's In Preseason Debut
"In his first official, albeit preseason, game, Lillard took to the court in a the adidas Top Ten 2000's in a red and black colorway. Lillard had been wearing adidas Rose 773's through training camp, but I guess he wanted to take it back to the old school, as the kids say these days, for his first NBA game. After finishing the night with 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists to help the Trail Blazers to a 93-75 win, Lillard might want to stick with the Top Ten's until further notice."

Trail Blazers: New Country, New Language, New City, Same Game For Victor Claver
“Rudy and Sergio were talking to me about, well, everything,” Claver says. “More than anything they talked about the (Rose Garden), which they liked a lot and the atmosphere with the fans.”

Trail Blazers: Trail Blazers Outrun Lakers 93-75 In Preseason Debut
"He carried that confidence into the second half, doing seemingly anything and everything he wanted: driving, dishing, hitting his step-back and knocking down open threes created by Portland’s ball movement. Lillard finished the game with 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds and only two turnovers while shooting over 50% from the field in 24 minutes."

Trail Blazers: Solid Start In SoCal
"Lillard admitted to me after the game in our TV interview he was nervous in his first preseason game, going up against Steve Nash. I liked that. He's got a great sense of humility and sky-high confidence at the same time. So, just speaking individually about him, it was a very good night. Yes, it was just one preseason game, but I couldn't help but think afterward that he is what we thought he was."

Trail Blazers: After relying on his right, LaMarcus Aldridge now says 'I love going left'
"What I've learned is I never used to want to go left," said Aldridge. "But as I've learned to put the ball down more, I love going left now, like off the dribble to the left. I don't know why, but I went from right, right, right to going left, like my little setback jumper. That's like my go-to move off the dribble."

Oregon Live: Trail Blazers rewind: A look at their exhibition win over the Los Angeles Lakers
“He has an ability to find his shot,” Stotts said. “He knows where shots are going to come; everybody knows Adam can make shots. I thought the way he worked defensively, he’s taking a lot of pride the way he’s competing defensively and that’s important for him. Obviously he’s made a living by putting the ball in the basket, but I think he’s concentrating on the other things as well.”

Oregon Live: NBA High-5: Early indications on how LaMarcus Aldridge's game will evolve with Blazers
"So it seems we will see less of the straight, slower post-up iso game we've seen out of Aldridge the last two seasons. That created a lot of standing around by the other players, and at times, Aldridge held the ball for a long time, waiting to see if a double-team would come."

Oregon Live: Damian Lillard shines after slow start, leads Trail Blazers to 93-75 win over Los Angeles Lakers
“That’s why he’s going to be one of the favorites for Rookie of the Year,” Batum said of Lillard. “He ran the show. He put us all in good spots ... he got the ball to lots of guys and he took good shots. He did it all.”

Columbian: Blazers top Lakers in preseason opener
"We still have a lot of work to do," Stotts said. "I thought Damian had a good first outing. He showed good signs, and the movement on our offense was pretty good. Defensively, we can get a lot better."

Columbian: Blazers happy to see different faces
"Yeah, finally. Like a normal game, a normal NBA game," forward Nicolas Batum said, his eyes widening with the thought of the Trail Blazers' preseason debut in Ontario, Calif. "You get tired playing the same guy everyday. So I want to be in a real game and play somebody else."

Portland Tribune: Numbers game: 50, 40, 90
“In the NBA, that’s huge. You play so many games. You don’t play once a week. You have to be there every night. It’s going to be even bigger for me this year, I know that.”

Sports Illustrated: SI.com's Preseason All-NBA Teams
"Aldridge emerged as the leader in Portland last season, and with Brandon Roy now in Minnesota, the seventh-year forward should continue in that role in 2012-13. He posted a career-best 22.7 Player Efficiency Rating last year."

CSNNW: Blazers impressive in win over Lakers
"Nicolas Batum chipped in 12 points and suffered a blow to the knee. Midway in the second quarter, he attempted to take a charge on Jodie Meeks and the two banged knees. Batum began to cringe and limp, but stayed in the game. "It's just a little sore," Batum said. "I'll be fine."

CSNNW: What I took away from the Blazers win over the Lakers
"I have to say it again, I think Damian Lillard is the truth. He was a little hesitant to start the game off, but picked up his play to finish with a solid stat-line of 14 points, 7 assist, 5 rebounds, and 2 turnovers in 24 minutes of play."

Rip City Project: Preseason Game 1 Recap: Blazers 93, Lakers 75
"What we can talk about though, and what might have an impact for Portland in 2012-13, was the demeanor with which the team played Wednesday night. They played like a bunch of guys with something to prove. And that’s what they are. Damian Lillard needs to prove he could be a franchise level player. Nicolas Batum needs to prove he’s worth his enormous new contract. Nolan Smith, Joel Freeland, Ronnie Price, Jared Jeffries, and Luke Babbitt need to prove they con be contributors. Adam Morrison, Sasha Pavlovic, and to a lesser extent Victor Claver need to prove they belong on an NBA team."

Blazersedge: Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard Make Impressive Debuts versus the Lakers
"Portland provided a laser-sharp look at their new offense during the first half of this game, good and bad alike. The very first play of the game saw LaMarcus Aldridge convert a shot from the left post, almost an admission that the Blazers know where their bread and butter lies. After that, though, Portland spread the court wide with shooters and concentrated on moving the ball. We saw a couple of nice attacks at the rim, one on a give and go from Nicolas Batum to Wesley Matthews and back, the second on a pretty pick and roll dunk for Meyers Leonard that's sure to be repeated in highlights all night. That kind of spread-motion play, coupled with some nice offensive rebounding, created the only consistent inside looks the Blazers got in the halfcourt."

Ball Don't Lie: Glen Davis wrote a celebration song, ‘Big Baby Gon’ Turn It Up’ (VIDEO)
"If that 12-second clip is any indication, Davis will dominate the airwaves of Orlando's Amway Center this season. As Robbins says, it is indeed "kind of catchy," which in music parlance is right above "slightly listenable." Based on the songs that have become jock jams in the past, that means it has just as good a chance as any competitor of becoming a sensation."

Ball Don't Lie via ESPN New York: Deron Williams gave Nets GM Billy King advice on Dwight Howard, which likely didn’t mean much
"One thing Deron did say to me, he said, 'Please, just don't wait on Dwight [Howard]. We can't wait and not have a team,'" King said during the premiere of NBA TV's "The Association: Brooklyn Nets," which will air on Oct. 16. "The team of Brooklyn is bigger than one person. I owed it to the organization, I owed it to our fans, I owed it to Deron and the players that we have to build for Brooklyn, and we went forward and built our team."

Ball Don't Lie: DeAndre Jordan, airballed free throw-wise, is already in midseason form (VIDEO)
"This is where we remind you that Jordan really has worked on his free-throw shooting, improving from the dreadful 38.5 percent and 37.5 percent finishes of his first two NBA seasons to 45.2 percent in Year 3 and 52.5 percent last year. He's still a far cry from last year's league-average free-throw mark of 75.4 percent, but he's trending in the right direction, and with a couple more years of continued work and development, he could reach the brass ring of foul-line decency."

Ball Don't Lie: LeBron James might be adding the skyhook to his offensive repertoire
"It's worth noting that Hakeem, master of the jump hook, rarely used the skyhook. McAdoo, though he once led the NBA in scoring, didn't go to the shot all that much either. Really, over the last 35 years or so, it's been limited to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and those of us who love ticking off defenders that are much younger than us in one-on-one pickup games we're probably going to lose anyway."

Ball Don't Lie: Stan Van Gundy rips ESPN for allegedly pulling offer of TV gig, letting NBA ‘run [their] business’
"So it was kind of a bummer (if not a shock) to read Wednesday that an ESPN spokesman had told Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead that SVG and the Worldwide Leader "differed on potential assignments and we moved in another direction." While failing to come to terms with ESPN doesn't preclude Van Gundy from finding other TV work, the EJ-Kenny-Charles-Shaq squad at TNT doesn't seem to have much room for new blood and saddling up with Rick Kamla nightly on NBA TV doesn't seem like something the ex-coach would be too interested in (though I know Eric Freeman would love it). Less than three weeks left before Opening Night, this could mean no big-time national gig for Stan heading into the regular season, which would be disappointing for anyone interested in seeing and hearing more SVG (READ: any right-thinking individual)."

The Basketball Jones: Gregg Popovich can’t decide if Nando De Colo is the new Manu Ginobili or not
"There you have it — Nando De Colo is NOT another Manu Ginobili. He is just a miniature version of Manu Ginobili who has been cloned from the full-sized Manu Ginobili, at least if you are keeping with the inscrutable science from “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”

The Basketball Jones: Brook and Robin Lopez write comic books together
"Yeah, of course this is happening. There are only so many hours in a day that a person can play basketball, and when you’re as big of comic book freaks as these guys are, it’s only natural that you’d start writing your own comic books. They couldn’t really help it, could they? No way."

DIME: The Mavericks could have a huge problem
"The same right knee that hindered Nowitzki’s conditioning last year and put him about two months behind schedule is now sore and swollen again, the Dallas Morning News reported. If it continues to swell up, arthroscopic surgery is a possibility and (silver lining alert) it usually only knocks a player out for a maximum of four weeks to clean up the causes of the swelling. That is two-to-four weeks this Mavericks team does not have, however, even though this is just October. The lineup has been constructed in such a way — with eight players’ contracts expiring after this season and free agents Chris Kaman, Elton Brand and Darren Collison on one-year deals — that Dirk is the keystone holding the patchwork team together. Only three players remain from the 2011 title team and this team needs every second together for continuity’s sake. Nowitzki sounded as in-the-dark about his knee’s progress as anyone else."

SLAM: Top 50: Kevin Garnett, no. 32
"So this is what it’s come to for Garnett now, a man who’s transcended his game to be an elite defender, even if his scoring ability has declined recent years. Yes, that finishing ability around the rim is virtually non-existent, and yes, he shoots that 20-foot jumper like it’s going out of style, but while some see as a futile exercise, I see as KG conserving his energy until when the game truly is worth a damn."

SLAM: Top 50: Manu Ginobili, no. 31
"But the number one reason that Manu makes opposing coaches weep for their mommies come Playoff time, is that he’s that special “once a decade” kind of clutch. He’s not clutch like Kobe or Melo in isolation, down one with the clock counting down. He’s clutch the way Reggie Miller was clutch. He’s clutch the way only possibly Kevin Durant today is clutch. If you are up 11 with three minutes left, you don’t feel safe as long as Manu is on the court. He’ll hit a three, steal the ball, get an and one and then you’re up five with an all-of-a-sudden terrifying two minutes, 56 seconds to play."

ESPN: The Steve Nash Effect
"With nary another All-Star on the roster, Nash shot 53 percent from the floor as a 37-year-old point guard. Think about that. We might witness that kind of percentage from a lumbering 7-footer at that age, but not from players who are 180 pounds soaking wet with more than 40,000 minutes on their NBA odometer. Nash was virtually automatic from every spot on the floor, nailing 39 percent from downtown and 89 percent from the free throw line. His true shooting percentage (TS%), a metric that groups field goals, 3-point shots and free throws together, stood at 62.5 last season. When is the last time we saw a guard his age top a 62.5 true shooting percentage? "

Grantland: The Harden Dilemma
"Presti knows that. So does Harden. And that's made their October dance particularly fascinating. Presti's public rhetoric has been particularly pointed: We love James, we'd love to bring him back, but we're a small-market team and it would be really hard for us to pay the luxury tax. Hmmmmmm. They're already paying Durant and Westbrook "max" money, and they're already shelling out $12 million a year for Serge Ibaka. Paying Harden means paying the tax. Period. Especially when those Durant/Westbrook deals start bumping up — for the 2014-15 season, one year after the tax penalties become more prohibitive, they're going to be making $35.7 million combined.3 Throw in Ibaka's salary ($12.25 million) and Harden's hypothetical max deal ($14.3 million) and suddenly we just crept over $62 million for four guys."

Sports Illustrated: SI.com's Preseason All-NBA Teams
"Aldridge emerged as the leader in Portland last season, and with Brandon Roy now in Minnesota, the seventh-year forward should continue in that role in 2012-13. He posted a career-best 22.7 Player Efficiency Rating last year."

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."