Just a couple of notes to pass along, I’ll be out at the Summer Pro League today, with my first post going up very late Saturday night/Sunday morning.
* Andrew Bynum has officially signed with the Lakers, as have most of the first round picks in the NBA. One of the good things about the NBA’s CBA is that you avoid ugly holdouts of first round picks. Sure the top picks are underpaid for their first four years in the league, but no matter where you are picked if you prove yourself you’ll get the big money after that time.
* Now this is a new NBA blog worth reading — Dan Rosenbaum, the best writer on the CBA, salary cap and NBA finances has started his own blog. By the way, he’s really good at game/trend statistical analysis as well. Already he has come up with this interesting calculation:
2005-06
Salary Cap – $51.0 million (range of $50.0 to $52.0 million)
Luxury Tax Threshold – $61.9 million (range of $60.8 to $63.0 million)
Mid-Level Exception – $5.18 million (range of $5.10 to $5.25 million)2006-07
Salary Cap – $49.4 million (range of $47.0 to $52.0 million)
Luxury Tax Threshold – $59.9 million (range of $57.0 to $63.0 million)
Mid-Level Exception – $5.66 million (range of $5.35 to $5.80 million)
Yes, you read that right. Check out the site.
* I’m afraid to even attend a Los Angeles Dodger game for fear of becoming injured.
* Interesting story in the LA Times about how more and more NBA teams are moving their summer league teams to the new Las Vegas league (a place it’s easy to convince players and front office people to spend time). I get that, I love Long Beach but it lacks some of the attractions and distractions found in Vegas. I’m curious what the long-term implications of this are for keeping a good summer league in Southern California. If all the teams are going to Vegas, if that location is going to become a virtual convention for players and general managers, then the Lakers are going to have to move there eventually.
* By the way, in the Clippers first summer league game in Vegas (with Shaun Livingston, Chris Kaman and Q. Ross playing) the Clips fell behind 23-4 to the Celtics and lost 76-59. Yes, summer leagues are about development not wins and losses, but that must have been ugly.
* Some team is going to pick up Eric Musselman as a coach, and some team is going to be glad they did.
* Apparently Larry Hughes is going to Cleveland to play along side LeBron. My gut reaction is, if they wanted an outside shooter and couldn’t get Allen or Redd, they would have been better off with Bobby Simmons of the Clippers. Last year, Hughes took 74% of his shots from outside 15 feet, 48% of those were assisted and he shot just 37.4% (eFG%). Simmons took 81% of his shots from outside 15 feet, 85% were assisted and he shot 46% on those. And Simmons is a better defender.