The Jazz have the "late" game today as they go up against the Magic's squad at 3:00 MT. As far as their team goes, I have heard of Magnum Rolle. He last played for Atlanta and has a crazy name.
Seriously though, the summer league games are interesting. I read some of the Twitter banter during and after the game and their seemed to be two main comments regarding player's performance: Camp One was impressed with Burks and Kanter's performance, Camp Two being of the cynical "It's only Summer League" variety. Both are true, in certain aspects. I think what is most important is that the guys we expect to see improve this year look like they are more at ease in this level of competition. Burks certainly looked that part yesterday as his performance was rather effortless.
What does everyone think of the new Olympic team logo? I thought they were pretty nice until a Tumblr follow stated that they reminded him of the White Castle logo. I would post a picture, but I can't find one that I'm allowed to use.
The free agent moratorium period ended today, so all the players that got offer sheets and teams that received verbal agreements can now begin to put pen to paper. This means that absurd contracts will be signed by Roy Hibbard and Robin Lopez who don't deserve to get paid that much in any universe. Scratch that. Maybe the one in which all other humanoid lifeforms are below 6'0" tall.
With the revelations about these contracts we are seeing all the "What the hell was the lockout for?" comments. The answer is clear: so the owners could handout stupid contracts and not have them be hit as hard in the wallets. It is no surprise that the two owners initiating these exorbitant contracts are two of the richest: Paul Allen and the Russian mobster "businessman". So, the golden rule (whoever has the gold makes the rules) continues to hold true and San Antonio quietly re-signs their free agents to very smart, affordable contracts and will again be better than the Blazers and Nets.
On the free agent note, again, it came out yesterday that Ronnie Brewer will not be returning to the Bulls, which sucks for such a great guy. I have no doubt that he will land somewhere, especially if the Nets end up gutted to get Howard. I hear he's a good friend of the Nets' de facto GM. Additionally, I could see CJ Miles ending up there, as well, and for the same reason. Either way, those two are better than many of the back up wings in the league and should end up being picked up.
Finally, it just came out (read: i just read it on Twitter, via Zach Lowe of SI) that the bulls are shopping Korver. This along with the Brewer news means that they are trying to clear space to match the offer for another overpaid big man in Omer Asik.
Last bit of Free Agent talk. Also, last bit of The Downbeat. I am a bit surprised we haven't heard more about Andrei Kirilenko. He has had an outstanding year in a very competitive Euroleague, yet has barely garnered any attention. I'm sure some of this has to do with the Olympics, but I have to believe that there is a team out there that he could help put over the hump. I also think that he could be had for a little above the MLE. We will see what happens in August, after the Olympics have wrapped up.
Any thoughts on where he would fit or where theories on where he will end up?