I was jonsin' for basketball so I paid the $15 to get broadband access to the Las Vegas games.  The Lakers' scrubs are battlin' with Clevelands' pine-riders and they've been filling air time by interviewing GM's.  I caught Daryl Morey and then they had KP on for an extended amount of time.  I didn't take any notes, but I'll try to paraphrase a bit of what was said.

KP on Nate's comment to go year-to-year: He wouldn't take the bait to say it's weird, but he said Nate isn't going anywhere.

KP on the draft: He wanted Portland to get tougher, probably because of the Houston series.  They didn't ask why he passed on Blair which would've been my question, but you wouldn't get a straight answer on that question on the record.

KP on Bayless: He wants Bayless to work on his distributing, but doesn't want to handcuff him by going away from his strengths - driving and finishing.

KP on Oden: He said Oden does what is necessary and that he doesn't see him as a big time scorer like Shaq or Duncan.  He referenced Oden's PER of 18 as indication that Greg is gettin' it done.  He said Oden is working with Bayno on defending the pick and roll so that he can stay on the floor longer.

KP on Millsap: He's looking to get a tough guy and another guy who can bring it from the bench because you need four quality bigs.  He wouldn't take the bait that Portland gave Millsap an offer that is toxic to Utah.

KP on Turkoglu: He wouldn't take the bait here either and spent a few minutes talking about how great Portland's fans are.  Yawn.

KP on dudes who enter the league without much of a shot: He said his analysis shows that guys can develop a jump shot with work.  Guys like LeBron, Conley and Outlaw were referenced as dudes who put the work in to develop jump shots.

It's weird to see Adam Morrison on LA's summer league team, but I guess he needs to prove that he belongs in the league.

Portland should consider itself lucky to have hardcore fans who come to each and every game.

I'm watching San Antonio in Atlanta tonight and Philips Arena is unbelievably empty.  Sure, Tim Duncan is sitting out, but this game is a matchup of two playoff-bound teams.

I'm not sure if it's the economy or just Atlanta, but it's a shame so many people are missing some high quality basketball.  They should let folks move down to fill in the lower bowl.

One good thing about this morning's game was that the arena was empty enough that you could hear shoes squeaking and the players talking.  I didn't hear much music or sound effects during game play either and it was pretty refreshing.  I've been to three games this season so far and always find the music pretty annoying.  It's not pipe-organ-in-MSG bad, but pretty close.

I think the NBA should ban teams/arenas from playing music and sound effects during game play.  They can pump up the jam during timeouts and other stoppages, but it would be great if the only noise was crowd-generated.

It seems that the "Hate the Lakers" thread has revealed two camps: those of us who really hate the players/team and those who hate the "fans," if you can call B-list celebrities gabbin' away on their cell phones as Kobe hassles another teammate for dunking the ball instead of passing into the double team fans.

Maybe it's too tough to separate out the "fans" from the team, but try to choose one or the other.