NBA News, Notes, and Observations: August 6, 2008

With all eyes on the Olympics, all is quiet back home. The NBA hot stove league is nearly at a standstill as teams wait for the remaining restricted free agents to sign contracts.

Things aren't totally dead, though.

That being said, here is my latest round of News, Notes and Observations:

1) Another Bulls-Sh*t Schedule

The last few years, no team has had worse luck when it comes to scheduling than the Chicago Bulls. It's no coincidence that the team has had to perennially dig themselves out of early-season holes.

This year is no exception. The NBA just released its schedule this morning, and the Bulls play ten of their first seventeen games on the road. That might not seem that bad—until I tell you that included in those ten road games is a seven-game trip where the Bulls play at Orlando, Cleveland, Lakers, Portland, Golden State, Denver, San Antonio, and Philadelphia.

The Bulls will be lucky to win one of those seven games. And the other three road games? At Boston, Orlando, and Cleveland. The Bulls could potentially find themselves ten games under .500 by the end of November.

Ouch.

2) What about the West?

No doubt the Lakers benefited down the stretch last year when it came to their schedule. They played ten of their final fourteen games at home, and one of their four final road games was against the Clippers. That favorable schedule may have been the biggest contributor to them winning the top seed in the Western Conference.

This year, the Lakers lucked out by getting ten of their first sixteen games at home. Down the stretch, they play five of their seven April games at home.

The bad news is that they have a brutal seven-games-in-twelve-days road trip to end the month of March.

3) A site to Book-Marc

ESPN.com's Marc Stein did us all a favor by highlighting next season's best games. Opening night gives us the Cavs in Boston to watch the raising of banner seventeen, followed by the Battle of the Rehabbed Centers, when Andrew Bynum hosts Greg Oden.

Christmas Day has another ABC double-header with San Antonio at Phoenix as the undercard, and Celtics-Lakers in prime-time.

4) How do you say "Webster" in Italian?

The latest NBAer on his way to Europe is the pint-sized Earl Boykins. He became the highest-paid player in Italy when he got $3.5 million to play for Virtus Bologna next year.

Boykins' departure comes on the heels of Carlos Arroyo signing on to play with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Whose the next NBA baller headed to Europe? You'll never believe me, but Slam is reporting that it's Shawn Kemp.

Kemp is now 38 and claims to be in shape and clean. I hope he's telling the truth, and the he stays clean for the sake of his kids. All twenty-seven of them.

5) LeBron to Europe?

The whole Internet is now abuzz with rumors that LeBron might consider spending two or three years in Europe if he gets an offer of $50 million a year.

You can't really blame anyone for taking that kind of money, but LeBron would essentially be selling two of his prime years and losing out on any chance he has of retiring with any significant records or an impressive number of championships.

Because LeBron was a starter straight out of high school and because he only missed 19 games in his first five seasons, he already has 10,689 career points. The all-time scoring champ, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, had 12,262 points through his first five seasons—but he was a 22-year-old rookie while James was only 18.

Jabbar missed 37 games during the following four seasons, so it's not farfetched for LeBron to catch up to Jabbar's pace if he can stay injury-free.

I don't really believe LeBron is going to leave. If he's smart, he'll do what David Beckham did and spend the tail end of his career overseas.

6) Collective Bargaining?

The NBA's current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of the 2010-11 season, and the owners have the option to extend the agreement until 2011-12. As of right now, I see no reason why the owners wouldn't exercise that option.

I'm curious as to whether or not the issue regarding restricted free agents who sign with European teams will be on the table.

Will NBA owners try to get monetary compensation from those teams, like the buyouts that teams overseas include in their player contracts?

The other issue that needs to be discussed is what happens when a restricted free agent returns to the NBA from playing overseas? How will the salary cap be handled?

What happens when Childress comes back in two years? The Hawks should still have the right to match any offer. Would they be allowed to go over the cap to sign him?

What's to prevent teams from encouraging restricted free agents to go to Europe for one year so they can use the cap space to sign other players, then bring those players back the following year?

This might sound improbable, but I wouldn't be surprised if a European player did it. The Raptors could tell Andrea Bargnani to go to Italy after next season, use his cap space to sign someone else, then bring Bargnani back as a restricted free agent a year later.

Just something to think about.

Another thing to pay attention to will be if some in the free agent class of 2010 try to have exit clauses in ther contracts that coincide with the expiration of the current CBA. If the players think they can get the owners to significantly raise the salary cap or luxury tax, some players might want to opt-out instead of locking themselves into five- or six-year deals.

Did you know that the modern salary cap in the NBA went into effect before the 1984-85 season? The cap that year was $3.6 million.

7) Simon says things that make me laugh.

Herb Simon, one of the Pacers' co-owners, says that Jamaal Tinsley will be traded and the team won't buy him out of the last three years of his deal.

Simon is fooling himself if he thinks there's a market out there for an overweight, injury-prone point guard who has missed at least 30 games in four of the last five seasons, and has three years and $21.5 million left on his deal.

The only thing the Pacers can get for Tinsley is another bad contract that runs longer than Tinsley's. The ones that come to mind are those of Kenyon Martin, Nene, Erick Dampier, Jameer Nelson, or Luke Walton. Nelson and Walton are the only that work straight up. The others would have to include more Pacers for the salaries to match.

Nelson is signed until 2013, and the Magic would much rather move Nelson than move Hedo Turkoglu. The problem is the Pacers added two point guards this summer, so they won't want Nelson.

With so many teams trying to create cap space for 2010, how many teams want to take on a contract as awful as Tinsley's? All the Pacers need is one—but I can't think of any that will.

8) Jersey Boy

Bobby Jones is on pace to break one of the NBA's most impressive records. Jones just signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Miami Heat.

Since the start of the 2006-07 season, Jones has played for six NBA teams. If you include the teams that Jones was traded to but didn't play for, that number is even higher. This is Jones' second stint with the Heat.

He's already been traded once this summer, and it could happen again before the season starts. Because it isn't guaranteed, the Heat can use it to help make a trade happen and the team that gets him would inherit the same non-guaranteed deal.

By the way, Chucky Brown, Jim Jackson, and Tony Massenburg share the record with 12. In just two seasons, Jones is already halfway there.

Good luck, Bobby!

9) The Silence is Pierce-ing

Neither Paul Pierce nor the Boston Celtics have commented on Pierce's incident last weekend in Vegas.

Pierce was handcuffed in Las Vegas over the weekend for making an illegal lane change. He was given a field sobriety test and was under Nevada's legal limit of .08.

My question is, who gets handcuffed for an illegal lane change? I wonder if the story will just die or if more details will come out about what happened.

If that's really all that happened then there's no reason for anyone to have to comment. Pierce wasn't drunk. There's no story.

The good thing is that Pierce parked his car with the valet and took a cab home—even though he wasn't drunk.

Hopefully that becomes a trend among athletes.

10) Wade 2.0

I've watched most of the five exhibition games played by the United States as it gears up for the Olympics. For the most part, the games are pretty boring. The one things I have noticed is how incredible Dwyane Wade looks.

Wade missed 31 games in each of the last two seasons, but he looks like he's already in midseason form.

If you haven't seen Wade's dunk from the game last week against Lithuania, then you should check it out.