Hopefully this link works...

Speights shows off his considerable ball handling abilities, enjoy! Kyrie Irving has nothing on Speights. He really knows how to keep the ball(s) on a string


http://www.nba.com/video/teams/sixers/2 ... s2.sixers/

Pretty sure that he was palming the balls there.

Might even had been an over and back violation !

Master Speights !

On Kyrie, Cavs and Celtics

By Sam Amico
Some quick NBA thoughts:

1. There’s no evidence the season-ending knee injury to Celtics guard Rajon Rondo will mean Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving starts in the All-Star game. Rondo was voted the starter by the fans, Irving a reserve by the coaches.

2. Jrue Holiday (76ers) is another point guard, and he’s been in the league longer than Irving. The decision of who starts will be made by the East coach. Bottom line: The considerably bigger issue here is Rondo’s injury and what it means for the Celtics.

3. As soon as Rondo’s injury was announced, the Internet was abuzz with Celtics trade rumors. And gosh, isn’t that just a shocker? But the Celtics were looking to make a trade before Rondo got hurt. Now? I’m sure Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will continue making calls (just as every GM). And yes, it seems like the Celtics are primed for a fire sale. But it won’t be easy moving Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Young teams don’t want them and contenders will have a hard time giving the Celtics anything worthwhile in return.

4. How about Irving’s game-winner in Toronto on Saturday? The Cavs have won four of five and eight of 17 since Dec. 22. They’re a young team that’s figuring things out with perhaps the most dynamic point guard in the game. Things aren’t all bad, eh?

5. Marreese Speights and Wayne Ellington have been excellent additions off the Cavs’ bench. It took all of 30 seconds to figure out they’d make a bigger impact than Jon Leuer, who was traded to Memphis in the deal that brought Speights and Ellington (and Josh Selby and a first-round pick) to Cleveland.

6. Rumors say the Cavs may be willing to move Speights at the trade deadline, and while they really like him, it wouldn’t be a major surprise. He can opt out of his contract at season’s end and will be looking to get paid.

7. I’d like to see the Cavs hang on to the new guys. Speights is only 25 and at least as good as anything they’ll get in the draft. But it’ll all come down to whether or not GM Chris Grant feels the team can keep Speights and still maintain financial flexibility.

This entry was posted on January 27, 2013 at 3:35 pm

Heat, Cavs Frontrunners For Greg Oden
January 29 at 11:08am CST By Luke Adams
As Greg Oden continues to eye an NBA comeback, the Heat and the Cavaliers have emerged as the favorites to land the former first overall pick, reports Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com. According to Goodman, Oden is hoping to visit Pat Riley and the Heat in Miami within the next week or so.

We heard earlier this month that Oden is considering signing an NBA deal this season, with the intention of rehabbing with the club this year and then returning to the court for the 2013/14 season. Multiple reports have identified the Heat as a possible landing spot for the seven-footer, but the Cavaliers have a couple factors working in their favor -- Oden has a history in the area, having attended Ohio State, and the Cavs could also offer a higher salary. While the Heat only have minimum-salary deals at their disposal, Cleveland still has about $3-4MM in cap space.

Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio reported last week that Oden was hoping to sign with a team shortly after the All-Star break or trade deadline, which means we could get resolution within the next few weeks. Besides Miami and Cleveland, the Celtics, Mavericks, and Spurs are among the teams that have been linked to Oden.

rusty2 wrote:Pretty sure that he was palming the balls there.

Might even had been an over and back violation !

Master Speights !

Pretty sure there was a double dribble towards the end:)


After further review he doesn't seem as dumb as Gooden was. And- benefit of the doubt- the ball-play seemed related to him being nervous and not knowing what else to do with his hands?

I thought the interviewer was going to tell him to get his hand off his crotch.

I'm thinking Speights thought the camera was only showing from his waist up.

Or he has crabs !

Rudy Gay trade shows LeBron James the future: Super team era ending

NEW YORK – As a Western Conference contender disassembled out of frugality and panic on Wednesday, Miami Heat star LeBron James should've been recalibrating the realities of the free-agent frenzy awaiting him in 2014. For him, the economics of the sport keep reaffirming that three's a crowd now, that James will have to choose a partnership with one superstar teammate.

The Super Friends scenarios are gone, replaced with the NBA's vision of talent spreading out to the have-nots. James Harden leaves Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for Houston. And months before it was necessary to do so, before the Memphis Grizzlies could make a run in the Western Conference playoffs, they moved Rudy Gay to Toronto and out of Zach Randolph's and Marc Gasol's lives.

James has helped to make it so profitable to be an NBA owner that Robert Pera bought the Grizzlies, hired a front office of novices, ran out a successful scouting staff and began to unload genuine assets for pennies on the dollar. Just recently, James tweeted, "What the hell we have lockout for?" upon learning of the $525 million selling price of the Sacramento Kings.

Why? Simple: The NBA's owners wanted to break up the super teams and create a system that'll assure Pera can mismanage the Grizzlies into oblivion and still make money on the enterprise. The max contract system makes James the most underpaid athlete on the planet, and soon it will do something else, too: It makes most precarious his future with the Miami Heat.

James' agent and childhood friend, Rich Paul, born and raised and still living in Cleveland, has been privately telling people for two years of his intrigue with bringing the prodigal son back as the conquering hero in Cleveland. James will ultimately make the call to return – just like he made it to leave – rest assured that the most important voices in his ear will be partial to Cleveland again.

Klutch Sports – Paul's new agency – calls Cleveland home. And its client, Tristan Thompson, would assuredly benefit with an eventual rich contract extension should Paul deliver James back to the Cavaliers.
"Riley has never given them the run of the place in Miami," one high-level associate of James' inner-circle said, "and they could all be back in business together in Cleveland. For Rich and [business manager] Maverick [Carter], they all see the benefits of getting the credit for bringing LeBron home again."

As significant as sentiment could play into the possibility of James returning to the Cavaliers, there's an understanding that as Dwyane Wade pushes into his 30s, past his prime, Cleveland's Kyrie Irving will emerge as the planet's preeminent point guard in two years.

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets' Reggie Evans disputed the legitimacy of the Heat's shortened lockout-season championship on Wednesday morning, declaring James a comparable talent to the Nets' Joe Johnson. That didn't turn out too well for Brooklyn on Wednesday night. James marched into the Barclays Center and dismantled the Nets with 24 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in a 105-85 victory.
"No one knows what it takes until you've done it," James said. "He hasn't done it."

Indeed, James is a champion, and he could win two more titles before he has to make a choice on his opt-out in the summer of 2014.

Before trading Gay, Memphis had already moved under the tax threshold with a trade last week. It could've waited until the summer to move its star and made one more run in the Western Conference. But winning isn't a priority for Pera. Owners are virtually guaranteed profit in this changing economic setup, and small-market owners can play the NBA's corporate welfare game off the profits that the LeBron Jameses, Kobe Bryants and Chris Pauls produce for the sport.

These Grizzlies aren't the Lakers, and they don't get a lot of chances at making a deep playoff run. They could've hung in there for this season, but instead bailed on it. Across the NBA, front offices were incredulous with the way that Memphis unloaded Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington and Josh Selby, along with a future first-round pick, in a salary dump to Cleveland last week.

Several league executives insisted Memphis could've waited until closer to the deadline, traded the parts individually and, minimally, received returns on Speights and Ellington.

"Beyond a panic move," one Eastern Conference GM said. "Cleveland would always be there with that deal."

To return to the Cavaliers, James has to believe that general manager Chris Grant can construct a champion around him. Irving is fabulous, but that wouldn't be enough. As much as anything, that's the biggest thing that Heat will have going for them. In the end, Riley and Miami owner Micky Arison will make it hard to walk away, because there will forever be a commitment, a competency, in South Beach. How long Riley will stay on the job is a different matter, and that uncertainty will play a part, too.

James has been thinking about a return to Cleveland for most of his time with the Heat, including the night of his cable TV special. He had second-guessed himself that night, but once Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert released that vitriolic letter, James understood: There was no turning back.

Rich Paul has stayed back in Cleveland to run his business and now represents Thompson, the Cavaliers' young forward. As Yahoo! Sports reported last February, James' associates had been feeling out members of the Cavaliers organization on a possible return in 2014.

For now, though, James understands that he'll get two more chances at a championship with Wade and Bosh, and that's precious in this evolving NBA landscape. These Heat aren't perfect, but they're well-constructed, well-coached, and there are never mixed messages from their ownership and management. It's all about winning, all the time.

Whatever James does in 2014, he'll make a decision with the highest of basketball IQs on what will work and what won't. Once again, the breaking down of this Grizzlies roster is a reminder that every NBA star had better make sure he understands the track records of the owners and executives with whom he's turning over his future.

The Grizzlies issued a statement on the trade late Wednesday, and embarrassingly had "general manager Chris Wallace" throw out the obligatory organizational quotes on the deal. Only, Wallace had nothing to do with the trade. Nothing. He isn't making calls to teams. He isn't consulted by the new regime. He's waiting until they agree on the terms of his inevitable parting. So, Pera and new CEO Jason Levien take an unpopular trade and assign it to Wallace in the news release.

Levien is making these deals based largely on the recommendations of John Hollinger, a statistician who worked for a cable sports company. The San Antonio Spurs once used him as a consultant and regretfully took his advice to sign a free agent named Jackie Butler. It was such a disaster, the Spurs had to attach Luis Scola to a trade to get Butler out of town.

This wasn't the '86 Celtics broken up in Memphis today, but, still, a contender became something far less over the past week. All of this didn't need to happen so fast. Between an owner guaranteed to make a profit and a front office guaranteed to believe it's smarter than everyone else, the Western Conference has one less contender to come chasing the defending champion Heat in the NBA Finals.

The Super Friends NBA is going, going and will soon be gone, and James will be left to choose one partner in 2014. Three's a crowd in the new NBA, and that'll be an immense part of James' decision about returning home and making everything right again.

Pera bought into a great time in the NBA, where the genius talents of the sport's biggest stars can fund his revenue-sharing checks in Memphis. Why did they have a lockout? Well, LeBron, this is why: Two stars per team and guaranteed profits for the owners. Make no mistake, James has everything to do with those transformations of the modern NBA.

For now, it won't be long until James makes a choice in 2014 that will leave him with far fewer assurances on his future than arriving in Miami did in 2010. Whatever LeBron James does, wherever he goes, just understand he makes it easy for the freeloading Robert Peras of the NBA.

Irving's 35 pace Cavaliers over Thunder

By TOM WITHERS (AP Sports Writer) | The Associated Press – 49 minutes ago
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CLEVELAND (AP) -- Kyrie Irving wasn't just interested. He was incredible.
With one shot better than his last, Irving scored 35 points, including 13 in the final 2:52, as the Cleveland Cavaliers stunned the Oklahoma City Thunder 115-110 on Saturday.
One night after saying he was ''disinterested'' during a loss in Detroit, Irving was simply spectacular down the stretch. He single-handedly closed out one of the NBA's best teams, making his last five shots and showing why he's an All-Star at age 20. Irving's biggest bucket was a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left to make it 113-108.
''He's a killer,'' said newly acquired Cavs forward Marreese Speights, who added 21 points. ''I knew a little about him, I didn't know THAT.''
Kevin Durant scored 32 points and Russell Westbrook had 28 for the Thunder, who came in 35-11 and with the league's best road record. Durant left briefly in the third quarter with an injured rib, but returned and scored 13 in the fourth.
However, it wasn't enough to offset Irving, who sent the Thunder home with a loss.
''He's one of the best in the business,'' Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. ''Give him a lot of credit.''
Tristan Thompson added 12 rebounds and C.J. Miles scored 16 for the Cavs, who had played poorly in consecutive losses this week to Golden State and Detroit.
Irving was so frustrated with the Cavs' lackluster effort on Friday night against the Pistons that afterward he admitted to not being as involved as he should have been. Before facing the Thunder, he promised it would never happen again and the reigning rookie of the year more than kept his word.
''I figured he'd be a lot more focused - and he was,'' Cavs coach Byron Scott said. ''He's a closer. That's exactly what he did.''
With the Cavs trailing 101-100, Irving, who sat out the first 6:12 of the fourth, drew a foul and hit two free throws. On Cleveland's next possession, he drove and dropped a layup to make it 104-101. Durant's two free throws brought the Thunder within one, but Irving, dribbling between his legs and around Oklahoma City's defenders, hit a floater from the baseline.
Westbrook scored seconds later, and after Thompson scored for Cleveland, Durant coolly buried a 3-pointer to tie it at 108 with 1:26 remaining.
Then, with a sold-out Quicken Loans quaking the way it once did when LeBron James starred here, Irving dribbled through the lane, bought some room with a ridiculous hesitation move and hit another layup. Durant missed a 3-pointer with 59 seconds left, giving Irving a chance to ice it.
And that he did, burying a long 3 from the top of the key over Westbrook before clenching both fists in celebration.
''I never know what shot I'm going to take,'' said Irving, who was just 1 of 7 to start the game. ''I saw him back on his heels a little bit.''
Durant got the Thunder to 113-110 but Irving did it again, this time knocking down a 12-foot bank shot to cap a performance none of the 20,562 fans on hand will soon forget - and one Irving hopes to draw upon in the future.
''It's my responsibility as a leader of this team to do this every single night,'' he said. ''It has to come from within.''
The Thunder surrendered in the final seconds, and after the horn sounded, Westbrook wrapped his arms around Irving, who had gotten the best of him.
''He came through in the fourth quarter,'' Durant said. ''He hit some big shots. He hit a tough 3. He was getting to the rim. He's a quick guy.''
Durant appeared to injure his lower back in the third while hustling back on defense. He stayed in the game for two minutes before he was escorted to the locker room, grabbing his right side. When he left, the Thunder led by five but by the time he returned to the bench with 9:55 remaining, the Cavaliers had tied it at 81.
Following the game, Durant said he was fine.
Speights, recently acquired in a trade with Memphis, gave the Cavs a huge spark in the fourth, scoring 10 of Cleveland's 13 points in one stretch. The 6-foot-10 big man has only practiced twice with his new teammates.
''I love what I see,'' Scott said of Speights, who is helping ease the season-ending loss of Anderson Varejao. ''He's a great kid around these guys, and he's very vocal, which is what we need.''
Westbrook was better behaved than on Thursday night, when he snapped at his teammates and stormed off to the locker room in the third quarter of a blowout win over the Grizzlies. The Thunder chalked it up to Westbrook being Westbrook, but Brooks said he didn't worry about the outburst having any carryover effect.
Westbrook left before speaking with reporters.
Durant finished just 8 of 21 from the floor. He had several shots rim out in the first half, when he went just 3 of 10. His three-point play with three seconds left gave the Thunder a 57-52 lead at the break.
NOTES: Scott said the only player he has seen score as effortlessly as Durant was George ''The Iceman'' Gervin. ''He got 37 and I didn't see a drop of sweat,'' Scott said, ''and most of it was on me. And to add insult to injury he said, 'Don't worry about it, young fella. You'll be all right.''' ... Thunder rookie swingman Jeremy Lamb was inactive because of a back issue. He did not make the trip. ... The Thunder fell to 22-6 when Durant and Westbrook each score at least 20. ... Oklahoma City finished a stretch of playing 12 of 15 games on the road.
TEAM COMPARISON

Terry Pluto
About the Cavaliers...

1. The obvious benefit of adding veterans Shaun Livingston, Wayne Ellington and Mo Speights is they have upgraded the team's talent level. They now have a bench that can affect the game. But even more important, Byron Scott has some options when his young players don't defend or follow a game plan. If Dion Waiters is struggling, he has Livingston and Ellington in the backcourt. The muscular Speights can play power forward or center.

2. Players value minutes. A coach's weapon is playing time. When guys are drafted high and handed starting jobs on a bad team, it's easy to develop a sense of entitlement. Scott can fight that with the additions of Livingston, Ellington and Speights.

3. The Cavs entered Saturday with 5-2 record since adding Ellington and Speights in the Memphis deal. They are 9-9 since claiming Livingston on waivers.

4. The 6-7 Livingston rarely puts up big numbers, but the team plays well with him. The ball moves and he has a good idea of how Scott wants to play defense. Young guards Kyrie Irving and Waiters have connected with Livingston, who was the fourth pick in the 2004 draft. Major knee injuries cost him a chance to be an impact player.

5. The Cavs are intrigued with Ellington's outside shooting, and could re-sign the 6-4 guard at the end of the season. Ellington is averaging 9.0 points and shooting 42 percent 3-pointers since joining the Cavs.

6. Speights is exactly what was needed to take some of the pressure off Tyler Zeller. After Anderson Varejao was lost for the season (leg surgery and blood clots), Zeller was forced to start at center without a viable backup. Zeller was taking a pounding. Now, the rookie from North Carolina can play 20-25 minutes with Speights handling the rest.

7. Speights is averaging 15 points and seven rebounds (shooting 48 percent) since arriving. He's probably not that good, but he clearly can help any team. He has a $4.5 million player option for next season.

8. Scott says in practice, his second unit of Speights, Ellington, Livingston, Luke Walton and C.J. Miles often beats the starters in scrimmages. Or he tells everyone they do, to pressure the younger players. Daniel Gibson is shooting only 36 percent over the last two seasons and has trouble staying healthy. Livingston, Miles and Ellington are all ahead of him when it comes time for Scott to use a guard off the bench. He is making $4.8 million this season.

9. The Cavs still have about $4 million in salary cap space. They have $14 million in expiring contracts -- Omri Casspi, Walton and Gibson. While they always are looking to add draft picks, they also may be willing to trade for a player who has a few years left on a large contract -- if they believe it helps them take a significant step forward next season.

10. No one has said it, but I do sense the Cavs are shifting into adding talent to start to win in 2013-14. While the Jon Leuer deal with Memphis was about adding a likely lottery pick (no sooner than 2015), they also liked Ellington and Speights as players they may want to keep.

I wouldn't object to winning next year, although I realize the real goal is the long run. This current group seems to be a roughly .500 club and assuming improvement next year from Waiters, which seems reasonable, and from Zeller, which seems possible, and additions in this year's draft the playoffs in 2014 are a goal

Question. What are the chances that through back channels LBJ has inquired to Gilbert that he would like to come back the the Cavs after next year???

According to Windhorst, there are still some issues that need to be addressed by LeBron as far as how he left before Gilbert will consider the situation.

Gilbert is a loose cannon so using back channels might explode in LeBron's face if Gilbert is still upset.

Cavs' Anderson Varejao considers himself 'very lucky' after surviving life-threatening blood clot
22 hours ago
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Cleveland's Anderson Varejao didn't realize the blood clot in his lower right lung was life-threatening until after surgery corrected the problem, the Cavaliers' forward told Yahoo! Sports in his first interview since the health scare.
"I was having my best season, the best time of my life, and a week later I'm in the hospital and I could be dead," Varejao said. "It's crazy. I'm very lucky."
Varejao had trouble sleeping and suffered back and chest pain shortly after having surgery on his quadriceps near his right knee on Jan. 10. He didn't waste time telling the Cavaliers' medical staff. A CT scan revealed the blood clot in his left lung, sending him back to the operating room.
Horror stories from friends brought more light to the situation.
Anderson Varejao was off to a great start before injuries sidelined him for the season. (Getty Images)
"They told me stories like, 'Oh my God, I had a friend who died of a blood clot in their lung,' " Varejao said. "And then somebody else tells me the same thing. …
"Then you start to think about it and realize that this is more serious than I thought. A week after the surgery I was at home thinking about how I could be gone right now."
Varejao, 30, was averaging career-highs of 14.1 points, 14.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.5 steals in 25 games this season and was a strong All-Star candidate. His All-Star dream was dashed when he suffered that quadriceps muscle tear on Dec. 17 against the Toronto Raptors. That injury was projected to sideline him six to eight weeks.
He is currently doing light rehabilitation on quadriceps and says he is ahead of schedule in recovering from that injury. Varejao also says he's pain-free following the blood clot surgery and is slated to get off blood thinner medication on April 16. But there is still a daily concern for Varejao as any physical harm can cause bleeding that can trigger another dangerous clot. He is extremely careful about any physicality he takes part in.
[Related: Heat model of harmony, Lakers exact opposite]
"When I drive to practice or something like that I try to slow down, I don't speed," Varejao said. "If I have a chance to have one of my friends driving with me when I have to go somewhere, it's always good because you don't know what could happen if someone hits my car. I would need someone to rush and drive me somewhere to try to stop the bleeding."
Varejao says he recently was cleared to fly and hopes to go on the Cavaliers' next trip, a three-game run which starts in Orlando on Feb. 24. Even so, he plans on spending the upcoming All-Star weekend with his fiancée at a Pennsylvania resort. The couple plans on driving there.
During the break, Varejao won't be lamenting the missed All-Star festivities he could've enjoyed with teammate Kyrie Irving, who made the East team. "He's a special player and he deserves everything that is going on in his life right now,” Varejao said. “I'm happy to be part of his career and play with him."

Varejao has one more year left on his contract after this season and a team option for the 2014-15 season. He hasn't heard his name mentioned in trade talks since his injury and says he wants to remain in Cleveland.
"If they trade me, they trade me," he said. "I'm happy here. I don't want to be traded."
The scary time has passed for Varejao, but he hopes his story can motivate those in medical need to not hesitate to get help.
"If you have some pain in your back or around your liver, kidneys," Varejao said, "let your doctor know."

rusty2 wrote:According to Windhorst, there are still some issues that need to be addressed by LeBron as far as how he left before Gilbert will consider the situation.

Gilbert is a loose cannon so using back channels might explode in LeBron's face if Gilbert is still upset.

W&G said the same thing, that before LBJ would be welcomed back there'd have to be some kind of amends or penance.

It's against all rules for anyone to entertain what might happen in 2014-15. After Gilbert raised the tampering allegations against James and the Heat he's have to be extra careful, follow every rule to a tee. Same goes for LBJ.

Sure there might be some "having my people talk to your people" type stuff to feel things out so both parties understand what to expect, that's a given. But who are LeBron's "people" anyhow? His "people" had zero clue what he was going to do when he made the "decision", and it turns out he had some different "people" he cared more about than his old gang.

I wouldn't trust LeBron any farther than I could throw him, he'll always follow his own best interest and screw everything else. Thing is his best interest could very well be a return to the Cavs. I think Gilbert will have some pretty tough conditions, he's not going to be walked over the way he was the last time. Probably no tougher than Pat Riley's conditions though.

Over the last few drafts the top power forwards taken were Anthony Davis, Tristan Thompson, and Kenneth Faried.
While the jury has just begun deliberations on these youngsters, it is becoming clearer that teams prefer their power forwards to be active, energetic, dirty-work guys that won’t command the ball or bring too much ego into the locker room. When examining this year’s crop of 4s, its important to remember that teams aren’t necessarily looking for the best player — rather the player that best fits into their team. If you like players that do the dirty work, prepare to enjoy. While there may be some debate about some college prospects and whether they are considered power forwards, these positional rankings are based on NBA projections of where players will be not only in the short-term but what they will grow into as well.

More at Sheridan Hoops › / about 10 hours ago