They’ve been rolling out the asterisks for Greg Oden ever since that un-supertar-ish first summer league game, but it turns out the one about his tonsils is legit. Oden is scheduled for surgery this week to get them taken out, which will put him on the shelf for two weeks – and means he’ll miss the anticipated July 15 summer game against Kevin Durant and Seattle. A writer at the Oregonian said he looked at Oden’s tonsils himself and describes them as so swollen, the only visibly passageway was “smaller than a green grape.” Oden said the tonsil problem has made it hard for him to breathe during games … Today is the first legal signing day for free agents, so Vince Carter and Chauncey Billups can officially re-up with their teams, and Rashard Lewis can officially join his new squad. Although there’s still a chance the Magic work out some kind of sign-and-trade with the Sonics, which would land the Sonics expiring contracts like Carlos Arroyo, Pat Garrity and/or Keyon Dooling. Plus, the League set the salary cap (about $55 million), which means Rashard’s max deal is worth $90 million over five years, and if Orlando and Seattle do a sign-and-trade, will jump to a 6-year, $118 million deal … Word out of Charlotte is Gerald Wallace is close to agreeing on a deal with the Bobcats, but the Mavs, Pistons, Lakers and Heat have all been interested … Miami also has Mo Williams and Steve Blake on the list, with Mo coming out as the favorite. Only problem is, Milwaukee can sign Mo to a lot more money (he’s reportedly looking for $10 million a year), while the Heat just have the mid-level exception ($5.5 million). But with a greater chance to win a ‘chip in Miami, maybe Mo will go that way … The Grizzlies apparently really like Darko and Anderson Varejao … Chris Webber, meanwhile, is said to only be willing to sign with the Pistons or Mavs … New Jersey papers are saying the Nets offered Mikki Moore a 3-year, $10 million deal, but he turned it down and has been meeting with the Grizzlies and Bulls since. Now it’s become a very public negotiation (that’s never good), as Nets GM Rod Thorn told the Newark Star-Ledger, “We have a different idea of where the marketplace is, basically. So he’s running around looking for what he’s looking for. And if he finds it, I’m sure he’ll take it.” Hopefully things don’t get Jeff McInnis bad … As for Smush Parker? A European newspaper says Greek pro team Olympiakos is interested. Before making it in the NBA, Smush was a huge star in Greece … Yi Jianlian played his worst game of the summer so far last night, going 0-for-6 from the floor (3 pts), turning the ball over 5 times and committing 9 fouls against the Knicks. “He was getting abused by Randolph Morris,” Cass noted. “What’s going to happen when he has to guard actual NBA players?” … Rodney Carney’s an actual NBA player, and he dropped 30 on the Lakers last night, while Louis Williams served L.A. with 29. Why is it Philly always seems to have a guy who just kills it in summer league, than never sees it translate to actual games? John Salmons used to be a beast over the summer … Is Tyrus Thomas developing an offensive game? He dropped 24 points (plus 8 boards and 4 blocks) on the Bobcats yesterday … There’s been a lot of rumors about Ron Artest possibly getting traded to the Knicks, but Ron-Ron told the New York Post he doesn’t wanna go anywhere. “I really want to finish my career in Sacramento,” he said, adding that he wants to be Sac’s “franchise player.” We’re not even gonna say Ron wasn’t the best player on the Kings last year, but we can’t think of a franchise bold enough to put him at the forefront as their No. 1 guy … Quote of the day? It’s either Channing Frye on what he’ll bring to the Blazers: “A little personality, a little leadership, a little shooting, a little defense – I’m a buffet of goodness.” Or it’s Jazz rookie Kyrylo Fesenko on why he’s looking for a cheap ($3,000 or $4,000) car: “I’m not a really good driver. I need something cheap that if I get some problems, it wasn’t so bad on my soul.” … Or maybe this is the funniest item from Tuesday: According to the St. Petersburg Times, Matt Geiger wants to build a heliport at his $20 million mansion, but he needs to convince the neighbors in his upscale ‘hood to go for it … We’re out like expensive whips …
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July 11th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Kdot says:
how the f does matt geiger own a 20 million dollar mansion? i wish i was 7 feet tall
July 11th, 2007 at 3:09 am
Ian says:
matt f(&&^ who made over 20 millions??????
July 11th, 2007 at 3:25 am
hollywood movies says:
I’ll vote for Channing Frye’s quote….”…a little defense…”
July 11th, 2007 at 4:58 am
JT$ says:
What happened to Smush? Wasn’t he the only player on the Lakers to start 82 games 2 seasons ago? Did he get waived? At least he still has his Smushcalade
July 11th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Celts Fan says:
Matt Geiger has $20M because he probably took a good chunk of his $$$ and invested it in stocks and bonds instead of bling and cars…
July 11th, 2007 at 8:54 am
d1n says:
check Geiger’s career salary ($35M) nice Philly contract, got injured, figured out what to do with the money (college Georgia Institute of Technology)…..
July 11th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Hassan says:
Does any one feel that Orlando is GROSSLY overpaying for Rashad Lewis. I mean $118 mil is a franchise tag. Meaning here comes championship to Orlando. Quite frankly, I dont think he can lift the team on his own. He couldnt do it in seattle when he had free agency as an incentive. I hope Otis Smith knows what he is doing because between Lewis and Howard and Milicic (agent) refusal to play for Magic, he might have turned this promising franchise south.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Celts Fan says:
Are they overpaying? Yes. Does his addition, alongside Jameer, JJ, and Dwight Howard make them extremely dangerous? Yes. They’re surrounding Dwight Howard w/ shooters to make teams pay for doubling off someone onto him. I like the move even though they are over-paying…
July 11th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Bron42 says:
the thing about lewis in orlando is he wont HAVE to lift the team himself. He’s there to be penny to dwight howard being shaq. Be aggressive on offense so people cant’ just double and triple team dwight. Plus the magic hired patrick ewing so hopefully dwights offense will come around too. Now if their bench wasn’t so weak, maybe they could make noise but their too stocked on bench guys who hvae the same average skills.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Bust Jlaze says:
I’ve been wondering the same thing; I like Rashard Lewis, don’t get me wrong, but has he really done anything to get such a HUGE salary?
July 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Celts Fan says:
He’s done enough offensively. The question is, w/ JJ, Jameer, and Rashard, who’s playing the perimeter D? They could be one of those score 95ppg, give up 100ppg type teams (which I’m terrified my Celtics may be too…)
July 11th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Jules says:
yeah, paying ‘Shard 118 mil sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Guy plays no defense and doesn’t rebound, although Dwight can clean up that I guess…
July 11th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Bron42 says:
lewis is there to compliment dwight, not take over…dwight cant shoot…lweis can shoot…lewis doesnt rebound…dwight rebounds alot…they make up for eachoothers weaknesses…now they just gotta find a way for the bench to score and jameer to average less turn overs
July 11th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
kudabeen says:
Dwight’s offense is around…it’s around the same area as Eddy’s Shaq’s Emeka’s and every other center in the league not named Yao or Amare…he averaged 17.6ppg 60 fg% on like 10.6 fga 45 ft% on 666 fta.
Eddy average 19.5 in his 5th year out of high school 58 fg% on like 12.4 fga 61 ft% on 659 fta. People talk about how dominant Eddy is offensively and talk down about Dwight’s offense. Looks to me like Dwight is developing just fine. Not to mention Dwight is way better on the Defensive end of the floor.
His biggest issue is going to be passing out of doubles and hitting cutters, that wasn’t Patrick Ewing’s specialty to say the least… I don’t want Dwight working on fade away 12-15 footers at this point in his career. I want him working on that back spin on a double move out of a power dribble to a left and right handed hook or bank, which is unblockable if you can get off the ground (see ‘Tim duncan’ - then give him raw power and the ability to bite a chunk out of the rim.)
Maybe I’m mistaken, but Ewing was never a polished post player. He was a dominanting presence athletically and had develop his game, because of bad knees (e.g. Fade Away/Side fade away jump shots and his step back shot). Dwight needs to dominate that paint and leave the jumpers to his team. Only jumper I want to see him practicing is his freethrows. If he could hit closer to 70% he would average 20ppg easy.
July 11th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
JC says:
no mention of Coby Karl getting 23 pts against the 76ers? or J. Farmar getting 18, 11 ast, 5 boards, with only 2 tos?
July 11th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Bron42 says:
Kuda your kind of right…ewing was never really the abusivbe dominant force say…shaq was but at the same time. thats why people hate on shaq, because they say he just had brute force and no real talent. The magic aren’t trying to take away from any of dwights strength but instead make him more well rounded. You see how when amare got hurt, he developed a jumpshot and became more effective? as detroit showed, if you keep dwight from dunking, you can pretty much slow him down. That won’t happen if he had a variety of post moves. does this mean they want dwight pullin 3s on a fast break? no but just that you can’t shut him down by takin charges or pushin him out the paint.
P.s: can we quit makin it like yao has ever been dominant. his first few years in the league he was all hype and this was his first semi good season (semi cuz he got hurt) but lets not ignore the guy sucks on defense and is still soft.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
JT$ says:
OKAY guys, but can anyone tell me why Smush isnt a Laker anymore? I mean, if he plays in Europe next year, he’ll have to get the steering wheel on his Smushcalade switched over. F*ck that
July 12th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Hampton says:
I don’t care if Lewis and Howard compliment each other, you don’t pay $116 million to a complementary player, that is just absurd. This by far takes the cake as the worst contract in NBA history - worse than anything Billy King has given to anyone in Philadelphia, worse than the Allan Houston contract, worse than the Juwan Howard contract, this is certifiably insane. As Bill Simmons pointed out on his ESPN chat today, at least at the time of Houston’s deal he was the best player on a team that had just been to the Finals. Lewis was the second best player on his own team. He is a taller Houston who has never won anything. When I think of guys who should be paid $116 mil in the league (if there are any) I think of LBJ, Wade, Kobe, Yao, Amare, Nash, Duncan, maybe even Dirk and Melo. But Rashard F’n Lewis? With a whole one All-Star appearance? And I hate to break it to Orlando fans, but Jameer Nelson is a backup point, and JJ Redick should be a towel boy. If they are your starting backcourt, then you are in for a long season.