Monday Bolts – 9.12.11
Shaquille O’Neal advised Danny Ainge not to trade Perk: “At 39, I wasn’t mentally on the down slope. But I used to feel really terrible after scoring eight points. This ain’t me, the Diesel scoring eight points. My mind was on winning the whole thing, and we had a chance to get the second spot (in the Eastern Conference), and we ended up getting the fourth spot. I even told (Boston General Manager) Danny Ainge not to do the Kendrick Perkins deal with Oklahoma City. I told them I might not be ready, and I’m definitely not coming back. Those guys did what they’ve got to do. I wasn’t surprised; I’ve seen it before. They say all that blah, blah, but you know it’s always going to be something different.” Also, he’s terrible at remember how many stars are in the league.
Derek Fisher told players to get ready for a season, via SI.com: “On the heels of Roger Mason’s now-infamous tweet in which the NBPA vice president wrote, “Looking like a season. How u,” but later claimed his account was hacked, one league source claims that union president Derek Fisher text-messaged numerous players last week indicating that some progress had been made and imploring them to be physically prepared just in case the season started on time.”
Susan Bible of HoopsWorld writes that KD needs a backup: “At his core, Battier is a teacher. Think of what he can bring to every member of this young roster. To top it off, he’s a Presti-kind-of-guy, i.e. a level-headed teammate who possesses strong character. Other unrestricted free agent swingmen OKC may consider include Grant Hill, Caron Butler or Mike Dunleavy. However, Hill probably wants to live out his last year or two with Phoenix. Dallas will try like crazy to keep Butler, and Dunleavy’s injury history is a concern.”
Darnell Mayberry on Serge Ibaka’s hands: “In what is by far the most competitive games being held during this NBA lockout, Ibaka is showing that one of his biggest weaknesses — his hands — still needs lots of work. For all of Ibaka’s incredible improvement in his first two seasons, a pair of hands that at times seem made of stone continue to hinder his development. Ibaka often struggled with simple catches last season, and Sunday’s bobble in Spain’s 96-69 route of France proved the Thunder’s starting power forward still has a ways to go.”
This article has Eric Maynor playing in the Impact League. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
David Berri on Huffington Post: “One might suspect that the NBA has been impacted by the recent recession. But the NBA claims it is not just the recession. The NBA claims the league has lost money in every year of the just expired CBA. One should note why this claim is necessary. If the NBA only lost money in the past few seasons then the players could argue that these losses were due to a temporary economic condition (the recession — despite what some people in the media seems to suggest — is not permanent). And therefore, the league does not need a permanent change to the percentage of revenues going to the players. By claiming the losses have existed since 2005, though, the NBA runs into another problem. Are we to believe that the NBA signed an agreement that immediately led to losses? Certainly it is possible that in 2005 the NBA did not know revenues and costs in 2010-11. But shouldn’t the NBA have known what revenues and costs were likely to be in 2005-06 and 2006-07? It is not unreasonable to expect that the NBA should be able to project revenues and costs for one or two years. And therefore — if the NBA’s claims are to be believed — we must believe that the NBA made an agreement knowing the league would lose money. Oddly enough, at the time the CBA was renewed in 2005, the NBA did not announce that losses were going to soon follow.”
Shane Battier talks about taking charges. I’d love to hear Nick Collison do the same.