The 10-man rotation, starring the unsolved mystery of Lorenzen Wright’s murder
A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It’s also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren’t always listed in order of importance. That’s for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C: Sports Illustrated. Jon Wertheim on the still-unsolved mystery of who murdered NBA player Lorenzen Wright five years ago.
PF: ESPN Insider ($). Tom Haberstroh on the breakneck pace at which teams are bombing from 3-point land this preseason, and the record-setting shooting season that’s projected to follow.
SF: SB Nation. Paul Flannery heads to Portland to profile Damian Lillard, “a 25-year-old man, no longer a kid, who is entrusted with the future of a franchise” after the Portland Trail Blazers rebuilt around him as a maximum-salaried superstar this summer.
SG: Silver Screen and Roll. Drew Garrison on the return of Julius Randle, fueled by love of the game that was taken away from him mere minutes into his first professional appearance, and fringed by the kind of nastiness that has Los Angeles Lakers coaches and fans awfully high on the young big man.
PG: Memphis Commercial Appeal. Chris Herrington’s always great Pick and Pop column focuses on the season ahead for Mike Conley, the masked face and beating heart of the Memphis Grizzlies, as he enters his contract season.
6th: Bleacher Report, Denver Post and New Orleans Advocate. Jared Dubin on how the New York Knicks’ approach to defense has changed from Year 1 to Year 2 under Derek Fisher, and Christopher Dempsey and Brett Dawson on the defensive systems that Michael Malone and Alvin Gentry have installed in their first seasons running the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans, respectively. The similarities: more communication, fewer calls to make, pack the paint, take away corner 3s. (Easier said than done, of course.)
7th: Sports Illustrated. Rob Mahoney talks to Jrue Holiday about the mental grind of recovering from the injuries that have plagued him over the past couple of seasons, and how the Pelicans’ preseason preparation has changed now that they’re ramping up to a faster pace under Gentry.
8th: Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Jerry Zgoda talks with Arnie Kander, longtime Detroit Pistons strength and conditioning coach and now vice president of sports performance for the Minnesota Timberwolves, about his unique methods for getting players in proper working order and keeping them that way.
9th: The Nation, The Hook and Bethlehem Shoals. Dave Zirin on the seven things he learned from Thabo Sefolosha taking the New York Police Department to court and getting exonerated; Tom Ziller on how Sefolosha’s decision to stand up for himself ties into the increasing number of pro athletes willing to “speak up when injustice and death befall other Americans”; and Shoals on the chilling difference between “it can happen to any of us” and “it literally did happen to me, even though I am rich and famous.”
10th: ESPN.com. Kevin Arnovitz reports that the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board’s investigation into Sefolosha’s arrest has “regained momentum” since Thabo’s acquittal, so we might not have heard the end of this.
– – – – – – –
Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebook and follow BDL’s Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
