Summer League Blazers Buzz

is the contract. If this was a 4 million a year offer, we’d all be much happier.

if Bickerstaff and Ociepa’s specialties are to help bring along a young coach, what would their roles be when it comes to a veteran coach?

~ Kassandra

Given the animosity towards LeGarie felt by many within the organization, I imagine this is a little bit like attending an amazing barbecue at your ex-wife’s new husband’s mansion.

HA! Perfect. I wonder how long it will be before PA&Co hire another one of LeGarie’s clients?

Who else just pictured someone in a dark suit in the 206 googling “veteran presence + coaching staff” and then trying to purchase the first names that came up?

DON’T SAY GOOGLE. SAY BING. – The Big Boss

“Juwan Howard: bienvenidos a Miami. He was assumed gone.”

I had hoped they’d keep the wise old guy around and then move him into the front office upon his retirement. He was great for the ‘Zers last season, if not for numbers, for imparting his work ethic and enthusiasm to the young guys! Hey, his numbers weren’t bad either!

Juwan, go get your ring and then come back to lend a hand in P-town!!

How can he both be in charge of a part of NBA operations and represent GMs and coaches as an agent? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?

he played the team’s biggest free agency chip prior to putting a new executive in place, just weeks after saying adamantly to anyone that would listen that he has no desire to be the head of Portland’s basketball operations.

former Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard made the rounds of media row, doling out handshakes and asking for assessments of Portland’s rookies.

i predict that if ibekwe comes out tonite anthing like the last game things are going to go Crazy on BE!
i for one am going to go boba fett
http://www.comicsninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/boba_fett_21.jpg

Bert Kolde is the guy who would be a Seattle cab driver if his childhood best friend wasn’t a billionaire, not LeGarie.

whoops

on the Matthews offer. That wasn’t a simple GM decision; it was a poker move, with some fairly serious future implications.

I do think they accomplished a couple things with the offer, though. With so much up front ($9mil), it makes it tougher for Utah to match, but also makes the contract a lot more tradeable in the coming years if it doesn’t work out.

At any rate, a surprising move without a sitting GM in place. I guess they didn’t really have the option of waiting.

Who else just pictured someone in a dark suit in the 206 googling “veteran presence + coaching staff” and then trying to purchase the first names that came up?

Not I.

I’m on board for missing KP, on board with how badly this whole thing was handled. On board with thinking that Bert Kolde is some kind of creepy corprorate vampire. I think it’s understood that it was not Nate’s decision to let Dean and Joe go. Although there’s no reporting to support the assertion, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the FO gave some suggestions to Nate about the kinds of coaches they think would be appropriate as a replacement.

However, if you want to tell me that Vulcan is micromanaging the asst. coach hiring process, then give me a bone I can chew on. I don’t even have the luxury of arguing about the credibility of “unnamed sources.” No sources. Just watching BE’s own credibility getting spent on derogatory speculation. I guess it’s supposed to be funny?

Will Ben switch allegiance? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say yes.

Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, Raymond Felton and Kyle Korver all were on Portland’s free agent target list, and all signed elsewhere over the weekend. Later, Luke Ridnour, who Nate McMillan has long admired, was taken off the board thanks to another insane offer from David Kahn. Plus, Raja Bell, who Portland also had interest in…

Besides Farmar, it’s good to know that Portland was interested on the players listed here. We’ve been talking about the team needing a backup 2-3 for months and apparently they didn’t feel that they could wait around for the GM to be hired before making someone an offer. Wes Matthews could wind up as “the next Damien Wilkins” or not, but the Blazers front office made a decision to flip Martell on draft day and the coaching staff simply couldn’t afford to start the season with Babbitt and Cunningham as the backup SFs to Batum

So they chose Matthews over Roger Mason Jr and overpaid to make sure they got Wes. You can do that, when Paul Allen is your owner

Rodrigue Beaubois showed flashes of brilliance for the Dallas Mavericks last year.

He burst onto the scene March 27 with a 40-point effort against Golden State, a game in which he seemingly couldn’t miss, making 15-of-22 shots. He also scored 16 points in a playoff game against San Antonio.

The 6-foot-2 guard was back to his dominating ways Monday in the NBA Summer League.

His short jumper with .07 seconds to play in overtime lifted the Mavericks past the Milwaukee Bucks, 73-72, and capped a frantic end to a game that included three lead changes in the final 30 seconds.

Beaubois, who averaged 7.1 points and 12 minutes per game during his rookie campaign last year, gave the Mavs a 71-69 advantage with 28 seconds left when he buried a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer.

But Milwaukee’s Deron Washington answered with a 3-pointer to give the Bucks a 72-71 lead with 5.9 seconds to play, setting up the Beaubois game-winner.

It wasn’t the first time Beaubois, who finished with 15 points in 29 minutes, changed the course of the game.

With Dallas trailing by a point with .03 seconds to play in regulation and Beaubois in-bounding the ball, he lobbed a pass to an elevating J.R. Giddens near the rim.

Giddens, with only time for a quick catch and release, soared to grab the ball and banked in a shot at the buzzer to force overtime.

“Giddens can get up,” Beaubois said. “I had confidence the play would work and that he would come down with the pass.”

For Beaubois, the pass to Giddens could be considered more important than the game-winning shot.

Beaubois, who primarily played shooting guard last year, is transitioning to point guard this summer. The Mavs’ blueprint is to have him split time between the two guard spots next year in slowly transitioning to full-time point guard.

Fittingly, he finished with a game-high seven assists.

“I know what it takes to be a good point guard — pass the ball, get others involved and don’t take bad shots,” said Beaubois, who had 28 points on 12-of-20 shooting and four assists Saturday in an 87-78 loss to the Houston Rockets.

“I know it is going to be a challenge. The coaches are pushing me and I’m pushing myself.”

Beaubois will have plenty of opportunities to work on distributing the ball the rest of the summer. The Mavericks have two games left in Las Vegas before Beaubois heads to Turkey in late August to play for France at the FIBA World Championships. He expects to start, with Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs not playing because of injuries.

Part of the maturation process will include the soft-spoken Beaubois becoming more of a vocal leader. Leading by example is one thing, but a point guard typically must be able to direct traffic on the floor through communication.

“I look at every game as an opportunity to get better,” he said. “It’s a different experience (at point guard), but at the same time, it is still basketball.”

Giddens led Dallas with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and Omar Samhan had nine points and nine rebounds.

Cousins has double-double to lift Kings

DeMarcus Cousins, the fifth-overall pick in last month’s draft, had 14 points and 10 rebounds in his professional debut, leading the Sacramento Kings to a 97-68 win against the Detroit Pistons.

Cousins, one of five Kentucky players selected in the first round, connected on 5-of-11 shots in helping the Kings build a 48-31 advantage by halftime. He played 26 minutes.

Omri Casspi led the Kings with 16 points.

Top pick Wall has eight turnovers… again

John Wall had eight turnovers for the second straight day, but that didn’t stop the Washington Wizards’ 19-year-old point guard from putting on another show at the Cox Pavilion.

Wall, the first pick in last month’s draft, had a double-double of 18 points and 10 assists in the Wizards’ 89-64 victory against the Los Angeles Clippers. Wall’s electrifying pace up and down the court gave fans plenty to cheer about.

Wall had 24 points, eight assists and eight turnovers in his debut Sunday, a five-point win against Golden State.

Suns rally against D-League all-stars

The Phoenix Suns used a 21-4 run in the second half to overcome a double-digit deficit against the D-League all-stars in a 96-88 victory.

Scottie Reynolds, the first-team All-American from Villanova who went undrafted, had 17 points for the Suns (1-2). Earl Clark had a team-high 18 points.

Lakers, Timberwolves struggle to score

The New York Knicks limited the Los Angeles Lakers to eight points in the second quarter in a 71-63 victory.

Landry Fields had 17 points for the Knicks, while Derrick Caracter had 16 points and 10 rebounds for Los Angeles.

Minnesota also struggled to score Monday in its 85-61 loss to San Antonio. Alonzo Gee had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Spurs.

By Ray Brewer, http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jul/13/dallas-mavericks-guard-rodrigue-beaubois-shining-n/

i need a game thread

 Does anyone else think that we could fall victim to this same strategy soon with Greg Oden?

Worries me a bit.

good thing theres a couple replays