Tania Ganguli has the morning practice report. Ganguli reported that the scrimmage went better and she has a little bit of news about Vince Carter playing Point Guard.
Vince Carter played at point guard, small forward and shooting guard today. He likes running the team (and his mouth) and said he felt comfortable operating the offense.
You can see her full report here.
Josh Robbins has the late afternoon practice report and reported that Van Gundy won’t decide on lineups until the last week of the preseason.
Van Gundy said it’s too early to start evaluating players to determine who will be in the starting lineup in the season opener on Oct. 28. The reasoning is simple: The new players — and there are a lot of new players — are starting at a knowledge deficit.
“The guys who are more familiar with what we’re doing, it’s easier for them to play right now than the guys who are trying to learn a new system,” Van Gundy said. “As far as competition for jobs, this is too early. I think as we get into the last week or so of [the preseason], those last three exhibitions and the last week of practice, that’s when decisions will be made. People should be pretty comfortable with what we’re doing. Right now, it’s about getting everybody feeling good about what they’re doing and playing together and learning our system.”
You can see all of Robbins’ report here.
The NBA has implemented a new rule that some are already referring to as the “LeBron rule.” Earlier today, the Boston Herald reported the league will no longer have players shake hands because of the H1N1 flu outbreak.
The NBA, fearful of the damage an H1N1 flu outbreak could wreak on the league, has passed down an anti-handshake directive.
Players and coaches have been asked to greet each other via more sanitary means of contact, like fist pounding, or maybe chest bumps.
One can only imagine what Utah’s Jerry Sloan thinks about this.
“No handshaking,” Doc Rivers said. “I think it’s a good thing. A fist pound is just great.”
Now LeBron has a better excuse for being a sore loser.
Ben Q. Rock of Third Quarter Collapse talked to Otis Smith about Orlando’s no headband rule.
Tim Povtak talks about how Dwight Howard has become even bigger and expects to be better.
Howard has come to training camp with another 10 pounds of muscle on his well-muscled frame, up to 275 pounds. He also believes his 59 percent free throw percentage — his only serious flaw — will rise to 70 percent after a summer of sharpening his shot.
He expects to be both more powerful — and more accurate.
I’ll have more information from media day up all week. Expect to see a transcript of Mickael Pietrus’ comments later tonight.
Don’t forget to check out my NCAA Football blog here.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)
FanSided
Magic Basketball Online
Loading ...
