2014 NBA Off-Season; Paul George suffers a double-compund-fracture, likely out for season. Speedy re

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I get the vibe Phoenix will not be as good as they were last season. Bledsoe won't be happy if he returns on anything less than the max, Dragic/Green/Morris' are in contract years and Frye is gone. Makes for a potentially poisonous locker room.
 
PMatic said:
I get the vibe Phoenix will not be as good as they were last season. Bledsoe won't be happy if he returns on anything less than the max, Dragic/Green/Morris' are in contract years and Frye is gone. Makes for a potentially poisonous locker room.
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Been saying the same thing for a few months. They should definitely see some regression.
 
I hope Gerald Green balls out this year and gets a nice deal somewhere.

I need at least 18 per from him
 
VICTOR PAGE said:
I hope Gerald Green balls out this year and gets a nice deal somewhere.

I need at least 18 per from him
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I like Gerald Greene since he came into the league, but he never really learned how to play the NBA game consistently well. He obviously has the talent to be a 15+ ppg guy, but he's still kind of raw and has a lot of work to do. He's also the type of player that needs a specific coach he can relate to to get him going. He's better suited to stay in Phoenix and work with Hornacek .

I'm pulling for the guy.
 
He was pretty consistent last year on 16 ppg while shooting 40% from deep. I think he's already turned the corner. The test for him will be is this his ceiling...or is he capable of taking it up another level.

I'm sure Indiana wishes they could have that trade back. For as bad as he supposedly was on D...there was no reason for Sam Young to be playing meaningful minutes in the playoffs over Green...when they needed scoring in the worst way.
 
The Indy system never fit Green (and Plumlee).

I'm sure they wish they had been more patient building their bench.
 
It's crazy that Green is only 28 and dude has been everywhere.


Was so happy to see him balling out for PHX last year though, always had faith in him and he's been one of my favorites since HS.


He got shafted in the Dunk Contest as well but that's none of my business.
 
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awwsome said:
It's crazy that Green is only 28 and dude has been everywhere.


Was so happy to see him balling out for PHX last year though, always had faith in him and he's been one of my favorites since HS.


He got shafted in the Dunk Contest as well but that's none of my business.
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The man blew out a candle on a cupcake while dunking the ball! How does that NOT get you a win?

I agree that the Indiana system didn't fit Gerald Greene at all. He's better off in the situation he's in now. it's a good thing that he's had some good experiences playing around in the league and overseas. He's gotten some good perspective over the years and can turn the corner.
 
nickmaz96 said:
@BleacherReport: The Cavs are letting the court-storming LeBron James fan back into the arena for games http://t.co/u3tAZIuLvL
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:lol:

They probably feel like he had something to do with LeBron coming back. This is hilarious

awwsome said:
Cleveland might be the happiest city in the country on the low since Bron came back and they got Manziel.
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Not after that Browns game yesterday :lol:
 
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trueprada said:
Danny Ainge on Trading Rajon Rondo: ‘I Really Don’t Know’

http://www.slamonline.com/nba/danny-ainge-trading-rajon-rondo-really-dont-know/
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LATEST NEWS, TWITTER / SEP 22, 2014 / 10:00 AM
DANNY AINGE SAYS, “I’M NOT TRYING TO TRADE RONDO,” BUT “NOBODY IS UNTRADEABLE”
BY SPENCER LUND

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0


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208



Rajon RondoRajon Rondo (Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports)
The future of Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo is in flux. He claims he never asked to be traded out of Boston, but plugged-in Boston scribe Jackie MacMullen believes otherwise. When Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette asked Celtics GM Danny Ainge about it on Sunday, Ainge talked in circles, claiming he didn’t want to trade Rondo, but “the possibility of a trade is not out of the question.”

During a recent interview with SB Nation, the Sporting News’ Sean Deveney mentioned the Thunder as a possible Rondo landing spot, but the reference did not come from any sources and was pure speculation, even if a Westbrook-Rondo backcourt might be one of the more intriguing pairings in recent history.

The Celtics are young and in the middle of a multi-year rebuild. Rondo, a perennial All-Star with a championship ring and a smattering of all-world playoff performances under his belt, would seem to be at odds with Boston’s current trajectory.

Except, coming off ACL surgery that forced him to sit out the second half of the 2012-13 season and all but 30 games during 2013-14 season, means Rondo’s trade value is the lowest it’s been since he was considered the young, weak spot on Boston’s championship-winning 2008 team.

That doesn’t mean Ainge won’t listen to another team’s pitch, though, because that’s the business he’s in as an NBA GM. Here’s Bill Doyle with the latest from Ainge on the Rondo situation:



We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: aside from the top 10 or 20 players in the league, no one individual is totally free from the exigencies of the market. As evidenced by the Kevin Love brouhaha this summer, even those top 10-20 players can be moved if it’s in the team’s best interests and a star tells them he’s not likely to re-sign.

Ainge, like every other GM, is never going to come out and say he’s trying to trade a player because that would weaken any leverage he might have if he really was shopping someone. If a trade didn’t materialize, then he’d have someone on his team who didn’t feel wanted, and with a player like Rondo — who values trust and the bond of the team — it could blow up in his face.

Even interested teams are waiting to see if Rondo is fully recovered from the ACL tear that limited him to 68 combined games over the last two years. Rondo is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, and if the Celtics haven’t worked out an extension by the October 31 deadline, he’ll have to be dealt by the February trade deadline or the C’s risk losing him for nothing in free agency next summer.

That’s a long shot, since Ainge has patiently sifted through offers that haven’t seen the light of day. Like Deveney’s OKC hypothesis, most of the Rondo rumors we’re likely to hear about leading up to that February deadline will be spurious. The sort of opaque language Ainge used when talking with Doyle is part of that: why would Ainge show his hand if he doesn’t have to?

This much we do know: Rondo is Ainge’s biggest trade asset for draft picks or young players as Ainge attempts to complete the overhaul of the team that competed for a championship from 2007-08 season through 2012-13.

With the three-headed nucleus of those championship-contending teams — Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen — long gone, Rondo is the final piece Ainge would have to move, but don’t expect the cagey GM to just jump on any deal unloading the All-Star for 35 cents on the dollar. First, he’s going to see how Rondo holds up in regular season play. If Rondo dazzles like the Rondo of old, and Ainge gets the right deal for his rebuild, we’ll see Rondo in another uniform.

If not, perhaps they’ll roll the dice on Rondo’s free agency next summer, or try and work a sign-and-trade since they’ll have his Bird Rights. One thing is clear, though, don’t expect this story to die out when the season starts. Depending on his play, Ainge could pull the trigger well before the February deadline.

Will Rondo get traded before the 2014-15 season ends?

Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
 
Update OP:

Former NBA player Darko Milicic is retiring to become a kickboxer
Darko Milicic, the second pick in the 2003 NBA draft, is apparently giving up on basketball to be a kickboxer.

According to a report on NBASerbia.com, Milicic will sign a contract Wednesday to become a professional kickboxer in his native Serbia. The story, headlined "Darko Milicic put an end: Goodbye NBA career, good afternoon kick-boxing!" according to Google Translate, says Milicic's first fight will also be announced Wednesday.

He hasn't played in the NBA in almost two years, but he's only 29.

http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/09/22/darko-milicic-retiring-kickboxing-serbia-nba
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SenorRoboto2k5 said:
Update OP:

Former NBA player Darko Milicic is retiring to become a kickboxer
Darko Milicic, the second pick in the 2003 NBA draft, is apparently giving up on basketball to be a kickboxer.

According to a report on NBASerbia.com, Milicic will sign a contract Wednesday to become a professional kickboxer in his native Serbia. The story, headlined "Darko Milicic put an end: Goodbye NBA career, good afternoon kick-boxing!" according to Google Translate, says Milicic's first fight will also be announced Wednesday.

He hasn't played in the NBA in almost two years, but he's only 29.

http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/09/22/darko-milicic-retiring-kickboxing-serbia-nba
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his prefight speeches :smokin
 
View media item 1191245
It's Never Been Better To Be Blake Griffin

What's it like to be at the center of a racial scandal that threatens the future of the NBA? To be on TV commercials every five seconds? To rain dunked basketballs upon your peers and co-workers? To navigate life as a wealthy and single man of faith in the most godless city in America? The Los Angeles Clippers superstar tells all

Blake Griffin's new Los Angeles home, not far from the ocean, is big and white and mostly still empty, though he moved almost a year ago. There are empty boxes of Jordans in the garage, a mouth guard out on a marble countertop, and twin servings of sea bass on the dining-room table where we first sit down to talk. The house, he says, was mostly finished when he found it, though he's had a few alterations made. "Downstairs there was gonna be a wine cellar, but we made it into a big trophy-case room." He pauses for a moment, and together we contemplate wine and winning. "There's a metaphor there somewhere," he says.

A few weeks ago, he was in Croatia. "We went to Dubrovnik, which is—do you watch Game of Thrones at all? That's King's Landing." Griffin binge-watched the show in "like seven days" after his team, the Los Angeles Clippers, were bounced out of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder. He went a little crazy, watching them so fast. "It was dangerous. [laughs] It was bad."

It was also a welcome distraction from a long and difficult spring dominated by the racist meltdown of his team's then owner, Donald Sterling. Sterling's TMZ tirade and the team's subsequent loss to the Thunder were the two discordant notes in an otherwise memorable year for Griffin. He has not missed an All-Star Game in the four seasons he's played. He might already be the most gifted comic actor ever to suit up in an NBA uniform—a commercial-break mainstay who also has the respect of actual professional funny people like Chappelle's Show co-creator Neal Brennan, who sends him scripts to punch up. And last August, he became a father.

Which is partially why he moved, actually—to find a house with a pool for his son to swim in. His backyard is large and quiet, and eventually we end up out there, sitting at a picnic table, enjoying the sun, and reflecting on the luck—both good and bad—that landed him here in the first place.

···
In retrospect, this Clippers thing really worked out for you, locale-wise.
Absolutely. And it's funny, because when the Clippers had the first pick and they announced that they were gonna draft me, everybody was like, "Uh, you probably should ask not to get drafted. Try to go somewhere else." And I was like, "You know what? Let's just see." And honestly, it wasn't even about L.A., because I hadn't been to L.A. at the time. I thought, "Okay, whatever, Beverly Hills Cop." All I wanted to do was play basketball.

Were you aware of Donald Sterling's reputation then?
When the draft lottery came out and the Clippers said they were gonna draft me, I went to Google to find out more about the Clippers, because I didn't know a lot. And I was like, "Okay, team owned by Donald Sterling." So then I typed in "Donald Sterling" in Google, and the first thing that pops up is "Donald Sterling racist." And I was like, "Whoa!" So obviously I explored that, read a whole bunch of articles, read the deposition at one of his court cases. Which was awesome, if you ever have time to read some of the depositions. [laughs]

I've only seen the highlights.
Did you see the one where he's talking about being in the back of the limo? You gotta just type in "Donald Sterling deposition." [Later I do, and this is what comes up, from a 2003 suit, regarding a sexual companion: "Well, I fool around sometimes. I do. When a girl seduces me and tells me how much she wants to suck on me and take my shoes off and licks my feet and touches me. When I'm in a limousine, she takes off all her clothes. The limo driver said, 'What is going on?' And she started sucking me on the way to Mr. Koon's house. And I thank her. I thank her for making me feel good."] I'll let you read it, because I don't want to do it—I don't want to do it injustice. And then, at the very end...just read it. [The response: "Sir, the question was, is this your handwriting?"] So I was aware, but not until right before I got drafted.

After you get drafted, and you're reading this stuff—is there any recourse for a player in your situation?
No. Not at all. I mean, what was I gonna do? And for five years with the team, it was fine. Nothing came out. Nothing happened. I never really saw him that much. I saw him right when I first got drafted. I had to go to a couple of events that he does, which was awful.

What was your impression of him?
The second time I met him... He throws a white party in Malibu every single year, so everyone has to wear white or you can't come. I get there, and this dude is wearing all black. The only person at this party. He throws a white party, he wears all black. And as soon as I get there, he comes to the front, we talk for a second, and he's like, "Come on, I want to introduce you to everyone." Grabs my hand and starts walking me through the party while we're holding hands, and just introduces me to everybody.

Is it true that he would bring women in to the locker room to watch players shower?
He would bring them in the locker room. Guys would be in there. The showers are kind of elsewhere. I don't think they would really go back there. But he would bring people in the locker room while we were just in towels. One year he came in and led a "hip hip hooray" chant and held my arm up in the air. Then he went to another teammate and did the same thing. Guys just started scattering as fast as possible. [laughs]

Would you guys commiserate about working for someone like that?
No, we really didn't. Guys would tell different stories about their interactions with him. And then when all this came out... We heard that it was gonna come out the day before it came out—our coach told us—and this is during the playoffs. We were up in San Francisco, in a team meeting. And because we didn't know exactly what was said, we were just kind of like, "Oh, okay, well, whatever." And then I remember waking up Saturday morning to, like, twenty texts. This is 7 a.m. And then, throughout the day, just bombarded with texts about it. I ended up turning my phone off, because we were trying to focus.

Did you listen to the tape?
Oh yeah. [laughs] I listened to it like the first thing in the morning when I woke up, searched for it and listened to it from beginning to end, and then listened to the second one.

How did you feel, listening?
It was unfortunate. I mean, for me, like I said, the first thing I ever Googled about the man, the first thing that popped up was "racist." So I was aware. I hate to say this, and it might sound ignorant, but I wasn't surprised that all this came up. Not necessarily the manner in which it was said, or the exact things, but like I said: This was my first impression of him.

It can't have been fun to hear, though.
No, it wasn't. It wasn't fun at all. It was shocking. I was lying there in bed and just listening to it, like, "Wow." And even after I listened to it, I didn't realize how big it was gonna become. Not that I didn't think it was bad. You know, if you have no idea—you just kind of maybe know that Donald Sterling owns the team, you know nothing about him, and you hear all these things, you're like, "Wow, that is crazy! That's nuts!" But for me, and for a lot of people within the program, are just kind of like, yeah, he's said some unfortunate things before. He said them again.

You guys had a team meeting that Saturday at which you spoke. What did you say?
A lot of guys spoke. Our coach spoke first. And basically what I said was... We were trying to come up with a plan. Some guys wanted to do something. Some guys didn't want to. I was one of the guys—and I don't know, I might catch flak for this—I was one of the guys who didn't want to do anything. I didn't want to give this one incident the power that it doesn't deserve. You know what I mean? And coincidentally, I had just, for the first time, watched the Jackie Robinson movie and watched how he dealt with it, even though obviously it's a movie. And I've actually read Hank Aaron books and a lot of things. I just felt like the best way to respond to something like that is just to go out and do what we do and not let it affect us. Because we're the ones that get affected, not anybody else. So that's why I took that position. But I completely understood why guys did want to do something. I was just kind of one of the ones that was like, "Let's just play basketball."

Where did the idea to turn your warm-ups inside out before Sunday's game come from?
I'm not exactly sure whose idea it was. We had planned on not really doing anything. And then in the locker room, literally forty minutes before tip-off, I'm putting on my stuff, and I put my stuff on the right way, and then somebody came by and was like, "Hey, everybody's doing the..." And so I kind of looked around and made sure this wasn't like a, you know, "Let Blake put his warm-ups on inside out!" [laughs] And everybody was doing it. I think that that game... And again, I can't stress enough that I completely understood the gesture. I completely do. Guys want to do something. But I think that game, we let people outside of the locker room get into our locker room. Because everybody was getting texts. I was getting texts, like, "What are you guys gonna do?" "Y'all should do this." "Y'all should do that." And I think we let all that just come in and cloud our—our coach calls it our box. Like, "Don't let anybody into your box." You know, just do your same routine. There's gonna be friends, family, especially playoffs; don't let anybody into your box before the game. And I think we let people into our box.

Do you think it ultimately affected you guys in the playoffs?
I want to say no, but at the same time, even not trying to think about something is energy and effort. The one thing I didn't want to do is use that as an excuse. Because every player and every person at some point deals with issues—personal issues, whatever it is, they deal with issues. And that was our issue. And we had a full team of guys who could kind of lean on each other, so we were fortunate in that sense. It's not like it was an individual thing or it affected two people. It affected all of us.
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http://www.gq.com/entertainment/sports/201410/blake-griffin?currentPage=1 (2 more pages)
 
Watching nba tv heat vs warriors. I hated Miami so much but I'm gonna miss rooting against them. Pretty cool looking back at the big 3 era. Countless story lines.
 
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