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LAKERS NOTEBOOK: Coach Brown got his foot in NBA…

incophyshooms — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:52:04 +0000

Lakers coach Mike Brown maintains a special fondness for the Denver Nuggets.

After all, they gave him his first job in the NBA.

Actually, his first job wasn’t a job at all.

Brown served as an unpaid intern during the summer of 1992 before he finished his final course work at the University of San Diego.

Then-Nuggets general manager Bernie Bickerstaff then hired him as the team’s video coordinator.

“All I can remember is he offered me 15 grand,” Brown said Saturday. “In my head I was, like, `Sucker, I got you fooled. All you had to do was offer me a couple pairs of sneakers and some sweat suits.’ He paid me 15 grand and I thought I was rich.”

Brown initially turned down the job in order to finish school.

Bickerstaff held the position open for Brown until he completed his final semester Dec. 15 and gave several assistant coaches the tasks of breaking down game film until Brown arrived.

Unlike today’s video coordinators around the league, who don’t work with tape anymore, Brown worked with two clunky decks. If he needed to make a tape of all the Nuggets’ fastbreak baskets, he watched the game tape and put it together.

If he needed to make a tape of all their plays when passing inside to their big men, he had to watch the whole tape over again and put together that tape. It was arduous, time-consuming and thankless work.

Patrick O’Keefe, the Lakers’ video coordinator, works with a laptop

and DVDs.

“It’s so advanced now, I have no clue how it works,” Brown said.

Watching more film than a movie reviewer wasn’t Brown’s only job, however.

“I landscaped our assistant GM’s yard,” he recalled. “I’ll never forget I had a Nissan 4×2 pickup truck. It was maroon. It was one thing to help him landscape his yard, but it was another thing finding out that 4×2 was going to be the stone hauler.

“I did it all, trust me.”

Brown spent five seasons with the Nuggets and eventually graduated to scout before he began his coaching career as an assistant with Bickerstaff for the Washington Wizards. His career in video and landscaping finally paid dividends.

Barnes starts

Devin Ebanks didn’t start for the first time in five games this season. In fact, he didn’t play a minute in the Lakers’ victory over the Nuggets.

Matt Barnes took his place as the Lakers’ starting small forward and had seven points and seven rebounds.

Brown said Barnes would start again in today’s rematch in Denver. He couldn’t say who would end up with the job, but Metta World Peace would not budge from his spot as a key backup on the Lakers’ second unit.

“I thought Matt was going to give us a lift after the way he played (Thursday),” Brown said, referring to Barnes’ defensive work against Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks during the Lakers’ victory.

“Devin didn’t do anything wrong. We wanted to give Matt a shot. I would like to name a starter. Matt started (Saturday) and will start (today). Will that change (for the next game)? It might until I say, `Hey, this is the guy we’re going to go with.”‘

What are your opinions.

Nene looking to sign with a contender

agororigh — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:05:50 +0000

Nene has spent his entire nine-year NBA career playing for the Denver Nuggets, is married to a Colorado native, and plans to retire to the Centennial State when he eventually stops playing pro ball, but none of that is going to help him stick with the team, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears.

“I learned last season that this was a business,” Nene told Spears. “No matter how nice you are to people, no matter how nice people are to you, this is a business. I did my best for the team and they waited and waited to extend me. I was like, ‘Oh, OK, all these years playing good, doing your best and they still test you.’ That’s not about family, love and somebody liking you. It’s a business.”

According to Spears, before the lockout occurred this summer, the Nuggets offered the 6-11 Brazilian a four-year, $50 million contract extension, which he would have taken during the season but “felt disrespected because the Nuggets waited so long.”

So he’s opting to be a free agent and wants to sign with a team that is likely to contend for a title, Spears notes. And there should be plenty of folks interested in signing the man who averaged 14.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and one blocked shot per game last season.

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Source: Yahoo! Sports

Related: Denver Nuggets

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Nene looking to sign on with a contender

Paloanatt — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:33:16 +0000

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Source: Yahoo! Sports

Related: Denver Nuggets

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Sources: Chinese team offers Chandler contract

sycledues — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:19:06 +0000

Updated: November 20, 2011, 3:07 AM ET

One NBA star named Chandler is not enough for the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions in China.

Having already signed Denver Nuggets restricted free agent Wilson Chandler, Zhejiang Guangsha has extended an offer to Dallas Mavericks free-agent center Tyson Chandler, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

Teams in China are permitted, under new league rules enacted for this season, to sign NBA free agents. Chinese teams likewise can’t offer in-season outs to return to the NBA, meaning any player who signs there is obligated to stay there until the end of the Chinese season in March.

Wilson Chandler decided early in the summer that he could live with those terms, but sources told ESPN.com that Tyson Chandler — projected to be one of the top free agents in the NBA along with Nuggets center Nene and New Orleans Hornets forward David West when the 143-day old lockout ends -

That’s all the news for today.

J.R. Smith Closing In On Record Deal To Play In…

OrennyPef — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:26:24 +0000

By Mike Prada

– Editor

Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith is reportedly closing in on a deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the Chinese Basketball Association.

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Sep 8, 2011 – Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith is closing in on a record contract to sign to play in the Chinese Basketball Association next season, according to a report by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski. Smith, a free-agent guard from the Denver Nuggets, is looking at a deal that could pay him $3 million for next season, according to the report.

Smith is a talented, but erratic scorer who has been in and out of Denver coach George Karl’s doghouse in his five-year career with the Nuggets. He is still only 26 years old and has averaged 12.5 points in just 23.9 minutes per game during his NBA career.

He is slated to be an unrestricted free agent. It’s unclear how wed to retaining Smith the Nuggets are; Denver also has a number of other free agents to deal with this summer and was likely going to put Smith on the backburner.

Smith becomes the second free agent to flirt with signing in China. Teammate Wilson Chandler signed there a couple weeks ago.

For more on Smith, visit Denver Stiffs and SB Nation Denver.

Read More: J.R. Smith (F – DEN), Wilson Chandler (G – DEN), George Karl (H – DEN), Denver Nuggets

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Gotta run!.

Denver Nuggets Working Hard to Re-Sign Nene

neceAppoleFAK — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:43:52 +0000

The brass in the Mile High City continues to sound positive about their chances of retaining Nene, who will likely become an unrestricted free agent this summer. From the Denver Post: “Nuggets executives Josh Kroenke and Masai Ujiri, however, reported good news on that front, saying they’ve had good meetings and positive feedback from the Brazilian big man since the end of the season. ‘We’ve been having good talks,’ Ujiri said late Thursday night after all of the draft day picks and trades were made. ‘We’re making good progress, I think. And I think Nene is excited. We’ve met a few times with him and a few times with his agent.’ Nene averaged career highs in points (14.5) and field-goal percentage (.615) last season, and was near career highs in free-throw percentage (.711) and rebounding (7.6). There was a component of appreciation Nene initially said was missing, and that it was as important as dollars and cents. Since then, the Nuggets have bent over backward showing him the love. ‘It’s been great,’ Kroenke said. ‘We had one meeting with Nene, Masai and I did together. Masai has met with his people several times. I’ve had on-going dialogue with his agent. We’re going to continue dialogue into next week. I can’t comment any further at this point in time, but Nene is a player that we want to have here for a long time. He’s been a backbone of ours for the last several years, and he’s a big part of our future.’ Nene is currently in Brazil. He is expected to be in Denver sometime next week.”

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Shaq to retire after 19 years, 4 NBA titles

BDmargorie — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:53:24 +0000

If he goes, O’Neal retires fifth all-time with 28,596 points, 12th with 13,099 rebounds and second only to Artis Gilmore among players with more than 2,000 baskets with a .582 field goal percentage.

O’Neal’s contributions to basketball went far beyond his presence on the court.

One of the most charismatic players in NBA history, O’Neal was a franchise-saver when the Orlando Magic made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 draft. He took them from the lottery to the playoffs in two years, and then led them to the NBA finals in his third year before they were swept by the Houston Rockets.

O’Neal, 39, signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996 and had his greatest success there, winning three titles alongside Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson. But amid tension between O’Neal and Bryant over credit for the team’s success, O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004, fresh off a loss to the Detroit Pistons in the finals.

After 3½ years in Miami, a tenure that included his fourth NBA championship, O’Neal became a veteran-for-hire, moving to Phoenix and then Cleveland and finally Boston. But he couldn’t deliver another title for Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire with the Suns, with LeBron James with the Cavaliers or with the Celtics’ Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

At each stop, he endeared himself to the fans and his new teammates with his effervescent smile and playful attitude, including the habit of adopting a new nickname that he felt embodied his role with his new team. In Phoenix he was the “Big Shaqtus”; in Boston, the “Big Shamroq.”

He also embraced social networking, amassing almost 4 million followers on his Twitter account, where fans could find out his next move or even the “random acts of Shaqness” — like sitting in Harvard Square, pretending to be a statue, or going out in drag on Halloween.

But O’Neal’s off-court persona couldn’t disguise the fact that he was getting old, and while he showed he could still play with younger opponents he couldn’t manage to stay on the court with them. He missed a week in November with a bruised right knee, a week in December with a calf injury and another in January with a sore right hip.

He returned for three games — a total of about 34 minutes — before missing the next 27 games with what the team called a sore right leg. Although the injury was originally expected to keep him out just a few games, his absence stretched to more than two months.

He returned to play in one more regular-season game but lasted just 5 minutes, 29 seconds before reinjuring the leg and limping off the court. He missed Boston’s entire first-round series against the New York Knicks and made two appearances against Miami, a total of 12 minutes, and scored two points.

In all, O’Neal averaged just 9.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 20.3 minutes this season while playing in 37 games — all career lows.

What do you guys think about this.

2011 NBA Mock Draft: Alec Burks Drops Out Of Lottery, Nuggets Select Jeremy Tyler In Latest SB Nation Projections

lovebeautib1 — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:52:32 +0000

Read More: Alec Burks (G – Colorado), Tobias Harris (F – Tennessee), Denver Nuggets, Colorado Buffaloes

Tom Ziller of SB Nation has released his latest 2011 NBA Mock Draft and there are some changes for Colorado Buffaloes guard Alec Burks and for the Denver Nuggets. At No. 22 Ziller has the Nuggets taking center Jeremy Tyler:

22. Denver Nuggets: Jeremy Tyler, C, The Sea

The Nuggets could lose Kenyon Martin and Nene this summer. Is everyone prepared for a Birdman-Mozgov starting frontcourt? I didn’t think so.

His reasoning for taking a big man up front makes sense, but the player maybe not so much. Tyler left high school after his junior year to play professionally overseas. While many thought Europe was his destination, he spent 2009-10 in Israel and then moved to a Japanese league for the last year. He may very well be a first-round pick. Tyler is still quite raw and will need time to adapt in the NBA. If the Nuggets lose both Martin and Nene, Tyler may be asked to do too much early on. But then it may be no different than asking a soon-to-be 19-year-old like Tobias Harris out of Tennessee to do that as well.

DraftExpress pegs Tyler as an early second-round pick in its latest mock, while NBADraft.net has him at No. 28 to the Bulls.

As for Alec Burks, he falls out of the lottery to the Philadelphia 76ers at No. 16, giving the team a replacement for Andre Iguodala. DX and NBADraft.net both have Burks still in the top 10 picks or so.

Thanks for reading! .

Nuggets’ J.R. Smith Cited For Using Scooter Without License

MokVoittepe — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:08:17 +0000

Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith is known to be a bit of a troublemaker, and this has not pleased George Karl all that much. So much that the Nuggets and Smith may walk apart as he is an unrestricted free agent this summer (well, pending a successful resolution to the NBA’s labor situation).

Now there’s one more reason Smith may want to go elsewhere. He was cited for riding a scooter without a license in Miami over the weekend, the Denver Post reports via TMZ. Smith already had his license revoked until 2012 following a reckless driving offense that resulted in one death.

It’s probably time to move on from Smith. The Nuggets could use the No. 22 draft pick to select a shooter like Providence’s Marshon Brooks. The team will also need money to possibly re-sign Nene, and if a new, lower salary cap number is instituted this would be the time to put the money to good use elsewhere.

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