The 10-man rotation, starring Dwight Howard, duh
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: CBSSports.com, The Basketball Jones and The Shadow League. Ken Berger makes the case for why Dwight Howard should choose to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers, Andrew Unterberger (mad bergers) makes the case for Dwight heading to the Houston Rockets and Bomani Jones (née Jonesberger) makes the case for us not caring quite so much about this silliness.
PF: DraftExpress. Mike Schmitz digs into the tape to highlight Howard's strengths and weaknesses, giving those who actually want to watch and consider the ammunition to make their cases as to why or why not he might be worth somewhere between $22 million and $25 million per year over the next four to five seasons.
SF: New York Times. Beckley Mason gets the book on new Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd from the man himself, who's getting ready to coach Brooklyn's Summer League team and preaching the principles of sharing on both ends of the court.
SG: FOX Sports Florida. A fun piece from Chris Tomasson on what it's like to be a player who gets a "magic envelope" — like Quentin Richardson, who had to be signed to a guaranteed $1.4 million contract so that the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors could make the Andrea Bargnani trade legal under league salary cap rules. Says one former recipient: "When I got a call from my agent, I was dumbfounded [...] I thought he was just joking."
PG: SB Nation, twice. Smart stuff from pals Paul Flannery and Tom Ziller on the difference between "tanking" and "starting a rebuilding effort," which — while frequently conflated by reporters and analysts these days — aren't the same thing.
6th: Raptors Republic and Raptors HQ. A pair of post-Bargnani deal looks at the issues facing Masai Ujiri and the Raptors — chief among them, whether to patiently/systematically approach a rebuild, or tear down as quickly as possible in the interest of a more proper tank.
7th: Red's Army. John Karalis says an emotional goodbye to Paul Pierce.
8th: SB Nation. "The NBA's Penis Monologue is a real thing." Thank you for your intrepid reporting, Seth Rosenthal.
9th: Half-Court Press. J.P. Pelosi considers Matthew Dellavedova — a player I really enjoyed watching play for the Australian men's national team in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and who's just accepted an invitation to join the Cleveland Cavaliers' Summer League team — and the odds of undrafted St. Mary's point guard sticking around the league.
10th: Wages of Wins Journal. According to sports law professor Ryan Rodenberg, it might actually, technically, theoretically be legal for a sports league to "rig" games. That realization shocked Andre Alvarez, who dug into a bit further in search of an explanation.
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