With the opening of NBA training camps, there are a lot of interesting tidbits of news and stories worth reading we don’t get to here at NBC’s PBT. And we’re bloggers — we have an instinctive love of the bullet point. So we’ve combined them into one post that can get you caught up some news and notes around the NBA quickly — ”Transition buckets.” Because they are quick hitters.
• The Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried remains on the trade block in Denver, but he’s looking to have a bounce-back season under new coach Mike Malone. Players love Malone. Former coach Brian Shaw.... let’s let Faried sum up that era, from the Denver Post.
• The woman who was a teenager when she says she was sexually assaulted by former NBA star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson a couple decades ago is speaking out.
• Claims of players losing/gaining weight heading into training camp usually have about as much meaning as a college hookup. However, Raptors’ point guard Kyle Lowry really has slimmed down, and that could make things interesting in Toronto.
• While we’re talking Raptors, they did exercise the third-year options on Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira (both are still under their rookie contracts).
• Doc Rivers was very open about how things went this summer and the lessons he learned, spilling that to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Regrets? He has a few. But too few to mention.
• If you want to see a video of LeBron James working out before training camp opens, follow this link.
• Steve Nash plans to watch a lot of video with Stephen Curry. And it’s not the collected works of Stanley Kubrick.
• Meanwhile, other people were watching video of Nash.
I. Thomas studied Steve Nash film this offseason.
— Jessica Camerato (@JessicaCamerato) September 25, 2015
• Despite all the offseason moves (such as adding DeMarre Carroll), it is the development of Jonas Valanciunas that will be key to the Raptors taking a step forward this season.
• The Birdman Chris Andersen wants to play another 20 years in the league. Or just a couple.
• In case you didn’t know, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a fiction book (along with Anna Waterhouse)called Mycroft Holmes. He is the older brother of Sherlock Holmes, who you may have heard of — Kareem is a huge Holmesian. For those of you who are audio book fans, the book just came out through Audible.
• You had to know the Atlanta Hawks’ Ashley Madison-inspired ad campaign would offend some people, here is the response from one quarter.
