NBA Bric-a-Brac

Tristan Thompson signs 5yr/$82m deal with the Cavs. Much talked about deal, much talked about holdout, welcome to the new salary cap. Thompson is a fine rebounder, solid inside guy off the bench, certainly not a star, but probably worth the money. As the cap rises, this will look like a typical deal, so he probably did the right thing to hold out. The Cavs will be in some turmoil for the first coupla months and Thompson without training camp will take a while to contribute, look for the Cavs to kinda suck til about New Year's but they'll be rolling come playoff time.

Lamar Odom seems to be getting better, apparently getting back with Khloe Khardashian. Brain dead coma or married to a Kardashian?....Hmmm, that's a tough one.

Thabo Sefalosha suing the NYPD. Good for him! Pro athletes and local cops are perhaps the two most maligned figures in contemporary American media, it'll be interesting to see them go at it. Thabo already won the criminal investigation--apparently prosecutors were dying for him to take a plea bargain and he declined (good for him!)--which pretty much gives him the upper hand in his civil suit. The NYPD has shown themselves to be a bunch of brown shirt thugs and they deserve to get a high profile thumping. (Memo to James Blake: you should sue, too, man! You should the NYPD and then after you win, sue them again for the emotional distress of having to sue them the first time. Don't let it go, Blake, their treatment of you was shameful, give them the beating they deserve)

Thunder picks up options on Steven Adams, Mitch McGary and Andre Roberson. Adams is a no-brainer but probably only one of McGary or Roberson will be around next year. We'll see what Coach Donovan can get out of that supporting cast to know which one of these pickups will be worth it.

Jazz picked up options on Exum, Hood, Burke and Gobert. Gobert has established himself as keeper, I think Exum too is worth the pick up. Hood is cheap enough that he's probably worth it too. But then there's Burke: I thought they should've packaged Burke for a draft day trade back in June, I'm not sure he's efficient enough, I'm pretty sure he's not much of a scorer, the Jazz has young depth, perhaps they can make him work (but since he was a higher draft pick, his salary is slotted higher than the other guys).

Pelicans picks up PG Nate Robinson. Veteran depth for a banged up team, always liked Nate Rob. Coming off the bench and being a 10 minute microwave guy will serve this team well later in the season, but trying to get big minutes out of him early on while everyone is hurt might get kinda ugly.

Gregg Popovich to replace Coach K as head coach of Team USA following 2016 Olympics. Obviously Pop is a great coach and will be great for Team USA but I'm a little surprised he wants the job (he never liked Manu playing internationally, for example, shows me he doesn't care about the int'l game). Also, I've always believe that John Calipari wants that job but was never in the right elbow-rubbing circle to get the gig. Cal is younger than Pop but I got a feeling he never gets the job (feels like Brad Stevens, Mark Few might be higher on the totem pole).

Some notable recent roster cuts: Ben Gordon (Warriors), thought he might hook on with them, thicken up their bench but he really isn't very good so I reckon they can do better.
Jazz waived Jack Cooley and Bryce Cotton, who both played a bit for them last year and Treveon Graham, who was once upon a time thought of as 1st round talent then ended up undrafted; I assume all three guys can and will filter into their D-League system.
Jimmer Fredette (Spurs), at this point he's not an expensive player and I thought he might give them a little something something off the bench (not saying I love the guy but he is the poor man's Steph Curry), we'll see if the Jazz give him one last shot.
Robert Upshaw (Lakers) was a 1st round talent that ran into some health problems leading up to the draft and fell completely out of favor, was rooting for him, he should get some D-League run.
David Stockton (Kings) played some last year but the Kings have upgraded (uh, sorta) their bench, guess Stockton goes to the D-League.
Terran Petteway (Hawks) was another one of those that was thought to be a 1st rounder last year that went undrafted, Hawks might be too deep, too set in their ways for what Petteway offers but he could still hook on somewhere.
Cartier Martin (Pistons), didn't they just re-sign him? Stan Van traded for him, re-upped him and then cut him? I don't get anything SVG is doing in Detroit.