Bits n Pieces
Has the NBA landscape changed permanently? Should the credit or blame depending on your perspective be heaped on LeBron James and Chris Bosh? These two left their respective teams to hook up with the Heat and Dwayne Wade. The first year this combo played they were good enough to earn a trip to the NBA finals, they lost to the Mavs. Of course we know 2012 turned out completely different as the crew from South Florida won its first championship. Not willing to rest on their laurels the Heat began retooling their bench over the summer signing sharpshooter Ray Allen from the Celtics and forward Rashard Lewis. Will this trend continue in the future for the Heat and other teams, rather than drafting and developing talent NBA teams will simply comb the free agent market to build or re-stock their team?

　
Scout.com list him number 9 in the nation, Rivals has him at #25 and ESPN has him at #11. Although these numbers have been in flux they reflect the latest available. This Class of 2013 prospect Kuran Iverson, how about the name Iverson? Sound familiar to you, this Iverson is a second cousin to Allen former NBA player. Kuran is still in high school but there are other differences between him and his more famous cousin. Kuran is a small forward at 6-8 but only 185 pounds, his cousin was a shooting guard barely 6 feet tall and no more than 150 pounds. Kuran’s made no decision on his college choice for next fall; we know for sure he'll be a regular in the weight room. At 6-8 (or 6-9) depending on the publication Kuran probably needs to add a minimum of 30 pounds.

　
There is no doubt the Lakers will be a superior team offensively in the upcoming season. Will they be able to dispose of the Heat or even the Thunder to win a championship, its way too early yet for that answer? Adding Steve Nash to the mix the Lakers offense shouldn't bog down like it did at times last season. I have no concerns about Nash's offensive skills my concern is his defense. Throughout his career Nash has never been a defensive standout, at 38 he's even more of a liability. Mike Brown's key mission; design a defense that allows Nash to "guard" Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker and other speedy point guards. I might be proven wrong but I think watching Nash play the point will be beneficial for 2nd year man Darrius Morris.  Morris has size (6-5) and can pass the rock; he set a single-season assist record while at Michigan. For a rookie NBA player the two most difficult positions on the court are center and point guard. Given time the tutelage of Nash and his adjustment I believe Morris's talent will be revealed to all.

Maybe it's only me; I don't ever remember summer NBA news dominated the sports headlines in this manner. All the continuing stories smack dab in the middle of baseball season and with NFL football training camps opening. NBA player movement continues to be one of the leading nightly news stories, certainly the saga of Dwight Howard is the principle reason but there are other reasons. The Olympics team has allowed us to focus on the U.S. entry comprised of NBA players, but that's not all several of the world's nations have NBA players on their rosters. In addition we might forget there was no NBA Summer League basketball last July due to the Lock-out; this also meant no Board of Governors meetings. NBA news will slow but there are a number of quality free agents yet to sign contracts. This has not been a normal NBA summer.

This is old but still funny! For any youngster reading this and fail to recognize the guy at the end of the commercial he’s Yogi Berra, former Yankee great and Hall of Fame catcher. You know what to do, cut n paste.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vnz9VAmS_A

　
The NIT and Madison Square Garden are historically intertwined, in all likelihood the NIT Tournament will never move to Barclays Center or anywhere else for that matter. 1. "The NCAA, the NIT and the Madison Square Garden Co. announced a three-year agreement to keep the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals and title game at the New York arena along with the season-ending tournament in April." The nation's second oldest basketball tournament (1938) was played a year prior to the first NCAA Basketball Tournament; in 1985 an annual pre-
season tournament was held for the first time. The NCAA Tournament began in 1938 and continued to expand the number of participating teams every few years. Schools once considered automatic locks for the NIT began to politic for the prestige of the NCAA tourney. In the eyes of the public the NIT post-season tourney began to lack the luster of the NCAA tourney with it's smaller and less attractive number of schools.  (1. Associated Press)