Ramblings

With training camps opening up I thought I'd take a look around the League, as always I'll start with the Bulls.

Everything coming out of Bulls camp right now is beyond positive. The team is already meshing together, the coach is an actual coach (unlike what they have currently have in Clipperland), and Loul Deng looks great. Not 12 million a year great, but still great. For more check out Sam Smith at Bulls.com and Doug Thonus at Bulls Confidential.

NBATV is doing a behind the scenes look at several team practices. The one that I saw was the Miami Heat intra-squad scrimmage. Watching the Heat play made me sick, every time LeBron touched the ball I was hoping he would trip. Of course he's the best player in the world, so he never did. The Heat moved very well without the ball, there was lots of backdoor cutting, lots of ball movement and several times the D trapped the ball after they crossed half court. Sadly I was very impressed, but it was the starters on one team and the backups on the other team for most of the scrimmage, so this is what you would expect. The one thing I did see that made me happy (as a Bulls fan that is) was Chris Bosh was relegated to watching Wade and James on offense. My hope for the Heat this year is Bosh starts complaining about his role, he is clearly number 3 in the pecking order and I am hoping he gets pissed off and spends a lot of time complaining.

I'm glad 'Melo didn't get traded yet. I love talking about trades, I love reading about trades, and I love it when players have to stay in a town they don't want to play in. Basically everything that is going on in Denver is a lot of fun for me. As for where 'Melo ends up this season I believe one of three things will happen. The Nuggets will acquiesce and trade him to the Knicks for junk before October 31st and he'll sign an extension. The Nuggets will acquiesce and trade him to the Bulls for junk before October 31st and he'll sign an extension. Or the Nuggets will roll the dice and tell 'Melo they are refusing to trade him and if he wants an extension he'll have to sign with THEM. Believe it or not, I think the Nuggets take a stand and do the last one and I think 'Melo caves. He has said all along he wants the long term security over everything else. If he doesn't take the Nuggets 3 year 65 million dollar offer and they refuse to trade him before the season starts he stands to lose more money than I can even comprehend. If the lockout happens and the owners 'win' the contract negotiations, 'Melo's next deal could be some thirty million less than the deal the Nuggets are offering.

Speaking of contract extensions, I don't expect very many of the players up for extensions from the 2007 rookie class to get them. There is just no reason for the owners to offer big deals to players they will have under contract for at least 2 more seasons unless the team feels it will be a slight discount over what they could get on the open market in a few years. Houston has already said they aren't doing any extensions this year. This means Al Horford, Jokim Noah, Jeff Green, Aaron Brooks etc...probably won't get extensions. What I'm saying is Noah should take that 5 year 57 million offer from the Bulls and giggle all the way to the bank. I haven't heard of any other offers to players and I don't expect many.