Sorry I've been a bit lax on the updates recently, regular readers (do I still have regular readers?), but I've recently been spending my weekends GTLing, playing NBA 2k11, working on my cardio, creeping, watching the Green Bay Packers be the best worst team in the NFL and preparing to spend every waking second - including the weekends - following all of the players thisclose to being in the NBA starting in just a couple of weeks.

Anyway, because I didn't have any updates this weekend, I was able to catch up last night and therefore am ready to share with everyone some lovely links from around the internet.

• First, from Ben Golliver over at Blazersedge, former Tulsa 66er Steven Hill has received a training camp invite from the Portland Trail Blazers.  The Blazers (fans) have loved Hill since chanting "We want Hill" during the 2008 Vegas Summer League, but he's really not been able to do much with his professional career aside from pick up a ton of "DNP-injured"s during the past couple of seasons in the D-League (he played 74 minutes in 10 games with the 66ers last year, averaging 1.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.8 blocks). I have no idea why they wouldn't have looked to Chris Hunter or Earl Barron to fill the injured Jeff Pendergraph's spot.

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There really hasn't been much to talk about this week as I've engulfed myself in NBA 2k11, my return to rec league basketball and training for something else that may or may not be happening on October 23 (suspenseful, I know).

Fortunately, John Reid from my favorite newspaper named the Times Picayune (he's in Nola, baby) has a couple of fun updates on players the D-League faithful are probably interested in and where they sit with the New Orleans Hornets in trying to win their training camp battles.

Hoping to maintain depth even if injuries occur, New Orleans Hornets Coach Monty Williams said he's considering keeping three point guards on the roster for the regular season.

While Chris Paul is the starter, he could be one of three point guards on the New Orleans Hornets roster.
After veteran Jannero Pargo was waived Tuesday, Paul, Willie Green, D.J. Strawberry and Mustafa Shakur are the remaining point guards on the team.

"You would like to have three point guards that could step right in case a guy goes down,'' Williams said.

Despite Shakur's adequate performance in Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage at the New Orleans Arena, Williams said he remains a work in progress.

"He's a young guy who just came out of the D-League, and for me to put that kind of pressure on him right away, I don't think that would be fair,'' Williams said of Shakur.

If I'm reading that quote correctly, Strawberry seems to be the front-runner ahead of Shakur (unless they do something NewOrleansy and bring back Jannero Pargo, of course).  I don't have a problem with that, really, except that I don't think Green or Strawberry are better point guards than Shakur, even though they are probably better players.

Also of note, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Joe Alexander are battling for the right to back-up David West and it seems, well, you'll have to hit the jump to find out what's going on in that battle.

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The Texas Legends, this season's newest expansion team in the NBA Development League,  aren't averse to being a bit innovative - I mean, just look at the scouting skills of J.R. Slagendorff.  You could also add the hiring of Nancy Lieberman to the "innovative list" as well as now being the first multi-nationally owned team in the D-League.

D-League sources told ESPN.com that the Frisco-based Texas Legends - who already employ Nancy Lieberman as the first-ever female head coach of a team under the NBA's umbrella -- will announce Tuesday that Chinese sports entrepreneur Sonny Xiao is joining the franchise as a co-owner.

Sources said that Xiao - who will team with Mavs president Donnie Nelson and local businessman Evan Wyly in the Legends' ownership group - has been approved by the NBA and will thus become the first Chinese-born owner of an NBA-affiliated team.

Xiao, who completed a portion of his education at SMU and is a co-founder of RXtreme Sports Consulting in China, can still claim that distinction because a signed agreement in 2009 that would have transferred a 15-percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers to a group of Chinese investors fell through and was never executed.

I honestly can't wait to see what else the Legends do this season - and that's a good thing for the marketing of the D-League.

Oh, also, fun fact time (Courtesy ESPN Dallas):

The Mavericks, thanks largely to Nelson, have had strong ties to China for more than a decade, dating to the selection of Wang Zhizhi with the 36th overall pick in the 1999 draft.

The Boston Celtics have waived training camp invitees Jamar Smith and Chris Johnson according to the team's official Twitter account.

This is a bit unfortunate, for them anyway, but something that was all but inevitable considering the Celtics had invited 20 players to training camp - 13 of which with guaranteed contracts for the upcoming season.  All isn't completely lost, though, as the Celtics presumably saw enough of them throughout the week that they'll be familiar with them if a need arises for a midseason call-up.

Until then?  Well, they'll probably end up with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League where Celtics coach Doc Rivers will apparently still consider them a part of the organization.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers admitted he's a little too focused on getting his own team ready for the 2010-11 season to pay too much mind to a change in the NBA Development League allocation rules that will allow Boston to stockpile as many as three camp cuts on the roster of the Maine Red Claws this season.  Rivers did admit that, for the invitees that are likely to end up as camp casualties, it's a good opportunity to stay in the organization.

I'll probably try and get catch up with these players over the weekend to see if I can hash out their feelings on playing in the D-League and then get everyone familiar with them from there.

The Minnesota Timberwolves announced, on Twitter appropriately enough, that they have released training camp invitee DerMarr Johnson.

Johnson, the sixth overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, was looking to make an NBA roster after not having been in the league since a stint with the San Antonio Spurs toward the end of the 2007-08 season following a stint in the D-League.  That didn't end well for Johnson, either, as a DWI arrest that summer all but assured he wouldn't rejoin the team for the following season.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Jerry Zgoda said in his story that "I thought they might keep him around a little longer because he missed a good part of training-camp contact practices while they waited for paperwork to clear from Europe."  The reason they released him today, though, was so that they wouldn't have to take him to Europe where they'll play the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.

Johnson's options now, as far as I can tell, are to either resume his playing career in Europe or the D-League (I believe the Austin Toros still hold his rights. UPDATE: The Idaho Stampede apparently hold his rights.). Or, if the 30-year-old is feeling entrepreneurial, he can resume either his 'management' career or resuscitate his rap career.

 The Timberwolves also left 35-year-old big man John Thomas at home, but that was so that he could rehab his hamstring - so at least he'll be healthy when they release him before the regular season begins.

The San Antonio Spurs released free agent shooting guard Thomas Gardner today, announcing it in the shortest press release I've ever read.

Gardner, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, has played 20 total NBA games split between the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, though spent last season with the Antwerp Giants in Belgium where he averaged 14.2 points on 58% shooting through five games in the EuroChallenge.

Assumedly, he was only brought in to be the designated shooter while the Spurs waited on Kirk Penney to come over from Australia and sign his contract as I had initially not heard his name mentioned with the rest of San Antonio's training camp invitees (they also added Bobby Simmons, though I suspect he's got a better chance of sticking than the rest of the invites).

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You may as well go outside and lower your flags to half-mast because the Los Angeles Lakers just made the first cuts of the NBA preseason, releasing former NBA Development League players Russell Hicks and Anthony Roberson right before heading to Europe.

It may seem a little harsh, coming just three days after Hicks memorably posed with the NBA championship, but as Lakers beatwriter Kevin Ding found out, it could have been worse.  Ding tweeted ""... Kinda late notice, I said to Lakers spokesman. John Black's reply: 'When did u expect us to tell them, on the plane?'"

He mentions this because the Lakers are leaving this afternoon to play exhibition games Monday in London against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Thursday in Barcelona against FC Barcelona.

What this does mean, though, is that Trey Johnson and Drew Naymick did get to make the trip to Europe and, presumably, also got to bring along a friend according to this article.

For more on the four(mer?) Lakers, here's a briefing on Russell Hicks, here's a story on Trey Johnson and Anthony Roberson and here's the last time I mentioned Drew Naymick.  The Lakers do only have 14 players guaranteed to be on the team next year, one less than the NBA's maximum, but they'll probably leave that spot open so expect a similar post on Johnson and Naymick sometime next month.

Remember when I pointed out midseason that Mustafa Shakur had developed pretty drastically in the D-League from the player I had remembered?

Well, turns out Shakur also believed that playing for the Tulsa 66ers in the NBA Development League helped his career because he said exactly that in a recent interview with Dime Magazine.

Dime: You played overseas and came back to play in the D-League. Is the D-League the best situation for a player trying to take that next step?

MS: It was the best decision that I've made in a while. Because you're running all the NBA sets. You're doing the same exact things that mirror your NBA affiliate team. Our Tulsa team was owned by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Overseas, you can play well but sometimes it gets overlooked because NBA scouts aren't at every game.

After displaying the skills that made Shakur one of the top point guards in D-League last season, he's now earned a contract with the New Orleans Hornets for the upcoming season backing up Chris Paul - the top point guard in the NBA.

Take heed, NBA hopefuls.  The D-League is where it's at - especially when playing for a team closely watched by its NBA affiliate.

If you thought that I would stop talking about former Reno Bighorns swingman Yaroslav Korolev (pictured above for context later) just because he signed with CB Granada in Spain, you would have been right until I received a timely tip in my inbox from the best former Ridiculous Upside player blogger now also playing in Spain, Mr. Mike Gansey.

You see, over the weekend, Korolev - yes, the former Los Angeles Clippers lottery pick - competed in the ACB Dunk Contest along with Fede Van Lacke and Tomas Satoransky.  Satoransky took first, but Korolev received the loudest cheers of the night when it was time for his "prop dunk."

Possibly knowing he was outmatched by Satoransky, possibly just wanting to show off, Korolev opted to dunk over what looks to be his 5-foot-2 girlfriend (or novia en español - Thanks Mrs. Adams!) before giving her a piggy-back ride off the court.  I would've given the dunk a solid eight, but all but one of the judges gave him 9.5s - which I guess I can agree with, considering you probably have to take into account the "prop" as well when judging the dunk.

Oh, and if my writing isn't impressive enough, I actually have the full embedded video after the jump.  Skip to around the 5:45 mark to see Korolev dunking over his girlfriend.

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Remember back in early July when everyone was completely surprised that the Utah Flash had decided not to retain Brad Jones?

Well, it turns out that it wasn't a terrible change for Jones because today he was named the head coach of the Austin Toros - long thought to be one of the model franchises of the NBA Development League.

"We are excited to have Brad join our organization," RC Buford, president of sports franchises for Spurs Sports and Entertainment, said in a press release announcing the hiring. "We are confident that Brad will provide outstanding leadership and instruction for the Toros players. His coaching style will provide our fans with an outstanding experience while still focusing on the Toros main mission, which is player development."

As former Jazz beatwriter Ross Siler pointed out on Twitter earlier this afternoon, one would "have to imagine (Jones) will be working closely with Gregg Popovich, R.C. Buford and company as the Spurs run their D-League team unlike Jazz.  That's tough for Jazz to lose Jones (in essence) to the Spurs. He'll be schooled in two great systems."

I have to agree with Siler on all accounts.

Last, but not least, I have to give a bit of credit to the one and only TorosGirl since she predicted this way back - before the Fourth of July! Annnnd credit to me, of course, since I agreed with her.