Court Vision: Dwyane Wade underwent shockwave treatment for knee tendinitis
Dwyane Wade played through knee bone bruises during the 2013 playoffs. (Sun Sentinel/Getty Images)
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Dwyane Wade underwent shockwave knee therapy earlier this summer after being bothered by bone bruises during the Heat's run to their second straight title.
Speaking before the start of his adult fantasy camp, Wade revealed that he underwent OssaTron shockwave treatment a month ago to deal with tendinitis. Wade said the results have largely been favorable, hopeful for similar relief to what he experienced after a similar round of treatment in 2007.
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"Feeling a lot better," Wade said at Thursday's event, which included appearances by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, Hall of Fame forward Rick Barry, comedian Kevin Hart and Indiana coach Tom Crean, who coached Wade at Marquette. "I'm not at 'great' yet. I'm feeling a lot, lot better.
"Right now I have to work on the strengthening part of it. So, I still have time before the season. By the time the season [starts], I think I'll be as good as I've been."
• The Phoenix Suns unveiled three new jersey designs, including an orange, sleeved alternate, on Thursday evening.
• Spike Lee opens up about Michael Jordan, poker and more in an SINow video interview with Maggie Gray.
• The NBA has a whole host of preseason games slated for locations outside the United States and Canada. Here's the list.
- Oct. 5: Oklahoma City @ Fenerbahce Ulker -- Istanbul, Turkey
- Oct. 6 Philadelphia @ Bilbao Basket -- Bilbao, Spain
- Oct. 8 Oklahoma City @ Philadelphia -- Manchester, England
- Oct. 10 Houston @ Indiana -- Manila, Philippines
- Oct. 12 Chicago @ Washington -- Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
- Oct. 13 Indiana @ Houston -- Taipei, Taiwan
- Oct. 15 Golden State @ LA Lakers -- Beijing, China
- Oct. 18 LA Lakers @ Golden State -- Shanghai, China
• Jonathan Abrams of Grantland.com catches up with Jonny Flynn, a David Kahn lottery pick who bombed out of the league in short order. What went wrong? What's next?
Dave Wohl, Minnesota's lead assistant, remembers arriving in Minnesota and Kahn asking him whether Rubio and Flynn could prosper playing together. Wohl described Flynn as a good, ambitious kid. He also said that Rubio and Curry would have made a better pairing. He didn't believe either Flynn or Rubio could perform at shooting guard. "He said, 'No, no. I want to play Jonny and Rubio. They remind me of [Walt] Frazier and [Earl] Monroe,'" Wohl said.
"When he said that, I didn't know what to say. I actually played during the '70s against Earl and Clyde and there's just no comparison." Wohl told Kahn that he did not think it was an accurate comparison. "He said, 'Yeah, it is. They are two guys who can handle the ball,'" Wohl recalled Kahn saying. "When he started going in that direction, I knew that Kurt was going to have a struggle in him trying to figure out what to do with both those guys when they came because Ricky was clearly a guy who was a great passer and was going to be able to do some things offensively with his passing that Jonny, at that point, wasn't able to do," Wohl said.
• Speaking of lottery misses, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM.com runs some of 2010's not-so-finest.
Xavier Henry (No. 11): There might need to be a warning sign for NBA scouts at Allen Fieldhouse: Kansas players are not what they appear. In the last few years, the Jayhawks have had six different Top 15 picks -- Henry, Aldrich, Julian Wright, the Morris Twins and Thomas Robinson -- underperform in the NBA. Of those six, only Henry and Wright were Top 25 recruits coming out of high school. Bill Self’s teams are usually greater than the sum of their individual parts.
An elite athlete with great size (6’6 210), Henry seemed like a safe pick. After shooting 42 percent from three on 4.6 attempts per game as a freshman, he projected as a high-level 3-and-D player, at worst. However, once he got to the NBA, he stopped shooting three-pointers. He took only 45 in three seasons with Memphis and New Orleans. Without a long-range shot, Henry hasn’t been an effective player. He’s still only 22, but a shooting guard with a career PER of 8.1 has his work cut out for him.
• Scott Schroeder investigates the history of draft-and-stash players for SBNation.com.
From 2002 through 2012, there were 195 "American" players -- meaning they either played at an American college or were drafted directly out of high school or the NBA Development League -- that heard their names called in the second round.
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There are therefore just nine of 195 players in the past 10 years that have succeeded with what this year's draft-and-stash second rounders hope to accomplish. Even then, their results haven't ended with a ton of success.
• Ricky O'Donnell of BlogaBull.com conducts a nice offseason interview with Bulls guard Marquis Teague.
"Our defensive schemes were a lot different than what people are used to learning growing up," Teague said. "You know Thibs has a lot of different things he likes for us to do to make it difficult on the offense. I feel like that's a big part of why we have the best defense in the NBA."
"It takes a second to get everything down. It took me a little while to figure out all the sets we do and all the schemes we're running and traps we gotta do, and there's a lot of names for things. If you mess up your job on defense, you mess up the whole defense. You know, we work on a string. You gotta be ready."
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don't Lie has some fun with a reflection on Bulls center Joakim Noah.
It was as if Scottie Pippen was handed a seven-footer’s frame and Fernando Venezuela’s mechanics with the ball. And, perhaps, Fernando Venenzuela’s actual mechanics; because I’m sure Fernando had someone with a pony-tail or giant Rasta bun working on his car at some point.
• ESPN.com's Chris Broussard ponders Stephen Curry's status as a possible dark-horse MVP candidate.
An assistant coach on one of the league's top teams thinks so.
"Name two guys who had a better playoff than him," the coach said. "He was killing guys. If Curry stays healthy [this season] -- and withAndre Iguodala there to guard the opponent's most difficult offensive guard -- he could lead the league in scoring. He already had incredible confidence, but now that he's done it, this year will be different for him. Now he knows he's better than a lot of guys. He'll definitely make the All-Star team. And the Warriors have improved their team. I'd definitely throw him in as an MVP candidate."
• At TrueHoop, Ethan Sherwood Straus contemplates David Lee's fit with the Warriors going forward.
“Signature significance,” as Bill James coined it, dictates that a singular event can be so dramatic as to have some analytical meaning. For example, when James Harden scored an efficient 82 points over his first two Houston Rockets games, you’d have good reason to believe he’d fare well in Houston.
After Lee injured his hip in Game 1 against Denver, the Warriors beat the Las Vegas spread in eight consecutive games. The staggering streak only ended when Stephen Curry badly injured his ankle.
• From earlier this week, All-Star forward Paul Georgechats with Karan Madhok of Slam Magazine about the Pacers' chemistry.
“We work so well together,” George says, “There are no egos, it’s not about who’s getting shots, who’s getting points. We can all create for ourselves and create for one another. I think [Granger’s return] just opens up everyone’s game. You can’t sag off Danny because he shoots the ball so well. And you can’t pressure up on Lance, because he has the ability to get to the rim. I think all three of us really have a knack for scoring the ball and creating for one another.”
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