Court Awareness: Breaking Down Opening Night

Tuesday might have been the NBA’s official start date but it was a mere appetizer when compared to the full slate of games on Wednesday night’s docket. We’re less than 72 hours into the 2008-09 season and there are already plenty of storylines worth paying attention to.


Garden Party

The Knicks (1-0) victory over the Heat last night put them over .500 for the first time since November of last year. If they can win in Philadelphia on Friday night they will be two games over .500 for the first time since January 1, 2005. Baby steps. Rookie Danilo Gallinari played just four minutes and missed both shots he attempted. For Miami, rookie Michael Beasley played 27 minutes and scored 9 points on 4-for-14 shooting and pulled down four rebounds.


Al Wants Out

Al Harrington has informed Warriors’ general manager Chris Mullin that he wants out of Golden State. Harrington has had enough of Don Nelson and with Nelson signing a two-year extension he’s hoping for a change of scenery.

Harrington has two years and about $20 million left on his contract. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a taker for Harrington since his contract expires during the same summer that many teams are hoping to clear cap space for.

Despite their differences, Harrington played 42 minutes and took the potential game-tying shot in the Warriors loss to the Hornets on Wednesday night. New Warrior, Corey Maggette, led the team with 27 points. Ronny Turiaf, in his Bay Area debut, went scoreless in his 24 minutes but managed to block four shots, grab four boards and dish out three assists.


No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Nets owner Bruce Ratner denied a Yahoo! Sports story that he had spoken to foreign investors from Dubai and Russia about wanting to sell the team.  The story cited sources that estimated that the Nets were losing Ratner up to $30 million a year.

If it’s cash that Ratner needs then maybe Jay-Z should increase his stake in the team. It would only increase the likelihood that LeBron James would join the Nets in 2010. He could just sell part of his stake to James once he retires.

In their first game of the post-Richard Jefferson Era, the Nets went into Washington on Wednesday and shocked the Wizards with a 95-85 upset. Vince Carter scored 21 points. Yi Jianlian had 17 in his Nets debut and Brook Lopez had 8 points and 8 rebounds.


Good News For Greg

An MRI confirmed that the injury Greg Oden suffered in the Blazers opening night game against the Lakers was only a mid-lateral foot sprain. He’s expected to miss two to four weeks.

The bad news for Portland is that they could easily start the season 1-6 without him. Five of the Blazers next six games are against teams with great low-post players--the Spurs, Suns, Jazz, Rockets, and Magic.

It might be in the team’s best interest to bring Oden off the bench when he returns. He’s already under enough pressure being a top pick and coming off of knee surgery. They should limit his minutes and then gradually increase them as the season goes along. Even before he hurt his foot he didn’t look comfortable in Tuesday night’s game.


Tick Tock

The clock is ticking towards the October 31 deadline for players from the 2005 draft class looking to sign extensions with their current clubs. Andrew Bogut, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Francisco Garcia are the only players from the 2005 draft that have been locked up. The only other names that look like they could be signing extensions before the deadline are Danny Granger, Jason Maxiell, Linas Kleiza and Andrew Bynum.

Granger scored 33 points for the Pacers in their loss to the Pistons on Wednesday. Perhaps he was trying to make a last impression in his final game before the deadline.

J.A. Adande of ESPN.com is reporting that Bynum could be on the verge of signing a three-year extension for $42 million with a team option for a fourth year. If it’s true then the Lakers seem willing to overpay their young center in order to get him to sign for fewer years. Bynum has only started 80 games in his career. He missed the last 47 games of last season after suffering a subluxation of the patella and a bone bruise to his knee.

Teams who do not sign their players to extensions by the deadline will not be able to negotiate with them until the season is over—at which time they’ll all become restricted free agents. The Lakers, it seems, didn’t want to be forced to match an offer that Bynum could get from another team in the five-year range. By giving him a shorter deal they will buy themselves time to evaluate Bynum’s future.

The move would also signify that Lamar Odom’s days in Los Angeles appear to be numbered. The question then becomes whether Odom will finish this current season with the Lakers or if he’ll be traded for a missing piece. Don’t be shocked if he goes back to Miami if the Heat can’t pry Carlos Boozer away from Utah.


Speaking of the Lakers

The Lakers have won their first two games of the season by an average of 29 points.  Even more impressive is the fact that they held both of their opponents under 80 points.

While early season games are usually marred by horrible shooting percentages, especially behind the arc, the Lakers may have bucked that trend. They have made 49% of their shots with an astonishing 17-for-29 (59%) on three-pointers.

In their own heads the Lakers believe that the reason they didn’t win the championship was because they didn’t have home-court advantage. So far this season they look like a team on a mission to get it.

Oh Captain, My Captain

Through the fist two nights of the season, the teams with new head coaches are 5-2 and the only two teams that suffered defeats, Miami and Milwaukee, lost to two other teams with new head coaches, New York and Chicago.

One Last Thing

The NBA League Pass is offering a free preview through November 4. You don’t have to sign up for anything. Just turn your TV to the game you want to watch and it should be on.

This article also appears on FoxSports.com.