Let the Race for ROY BEGIN!

It might not even be the regular season yet, but a top-tier has already emerged from the 2008-09 rookie class.  Last night, on Tuesday, that tier furthered their growing resumes.

Michael Beasley, a Rookie of the Year candidate since busting his way through the Summer League, had a 19 point outing in a little over twenty minutes last night against the Memphis Grizzlies.  Beasley is averaging 16.4 points from the Heat’s five exhibition games and his nine points in the fourth quarter last night helped the Heat win its first preseason game since 2006.  At times though, Beasley is being outshined by the Heat’s other big-time rookie Mario Chalmers.  Chalmers quietly played himself to a 7 point, 9 assist, 6 rebound performance last night while Beasley finished the game with no (zero!) rebounds.  Both players finished with five fouls.

In the same game, O.J. Mayo took the helm with Rudy Gay out with a staph infection and posted   28  points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals for the Grizzlies.  Quite the stat line for any NBA player.  In fact, if it weren’t for a slew of fourth quarter turnovers Memphis could have kept this game much closer that the 102 -85 final.

While we’re becoming to expect this from Mayo, a player whose star is rising and rising higher everyday is that of the Chicago Bulls’ point guard Derrick Rose.  Coming off the bench, Rose helped turn a 23 point deficit into a 109-105 victory against the Dallas Mavericks.  He scored 30 points off of 13-18 shooting (72%!) and 4-6 points from the free throw line.  Check this out, Rose is quick, assertive, aggressive, and clutch—a player who can take over a game.  The fans of Chicago are squealing, we haven’t had a player described like this since, well. . .

No Surgery for BD.

So it is official. . . Baron Davis’ has been cleared by a hand specialist yesterday to resume basketball activities within a week. This means Davis could be ready by the time the Clippers season opener against the LA Lakers (even though the Clips are slotted as the home team it’s kind of hard to consider this one their home opener—gee, I wonder if there will be more Lakers fans than Clippers fans?).

Technically, Davis has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left ring finger and it is being reported that he will wear a splint while the injury heals naturally. While it’s great that he may not miss any playing time, let’s hope that this doesn’t affect his playing abilities. With Baron Davis’ injury history, I always forget that this cat is only 29.

Meanwhile, the Clippers big three: Chris Kaman, Baron Davis, and Marcus Camby have yet to play together in a preseason game. . .

Hope You Haven’t Drafted Your Fantasy Team Yet…

Well, okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but the Utah Jazz announced today that Deron Williams will be out for at least two weeks with a 2nd degree ankle sprain. Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune quoted Kyle Korver saying, “I think he’s sprained it a bunch of times before. He’s never had one swell up on him like this one has, but he’s sprained it a bunch of times. As much as that’s not a whole lot of fun, it does help you for the next time it happens, you can usually recover a little bit faster.” Hopefully Kyle knows something we don’t since Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams aren’t saying as much.

It should be interesting to see how long Williams will be out; ankle sprains can be hard to predict. With severe ankle sprains (which this is not) players can be out a month and upwards. I don’t think you have to rearrange your fantasy plans if you haven’t drafted yet, but it’s sad to see a guy like that go down before even the first game. And in case you were wondering, Deron Williams has only missed four games in the three regular seasons he’s played, two in each of his first years. The Salt Lake Tribune also reported that Korver said Williams intentions were to be back by opening night against Denver: Oct 29.

And from L.A. …

Deron Out; Rose In?

Welcome to the blog, everybody.  Well, let’s get right to it; shall we?

Yesterday’s game between the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls was about as interesting as preseason games can be.  As I’m sure you’ve heard, Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz was injured during a three point attempt.  During the descent off the jumper, Williams landed ackwardly on Derrick Rose’s shoe.  X-Rays came back negative, and the Jazz are calling William’s injury an ankle sprain

Deron Williams returned to the game wearing a protective boot and was taken off the court in the arms of two of his teammates.  It was clear that Williams was in a great deal of pain, evidenced by animated grimaces.  While Jerry Sloan and Deron  Williams have chosen not to specifically comment on the injury, it seems that this could sideline Williams for at least a few games.  Let’s hope he can bounce back like Paul Pierce, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls’ PG is causing some excitement…