Portland Trail Blazers

I still remember when I got the call that I&rsquo;d been traded from New Orleans to Indiana. It was the third time I was traded in my career, and by this point, I was going on 34 years old. I didn&rsquo;t want to leave my guys Chris Paul and David West, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
The silver lining for me was that I was heading to Indiana to join a team with a nice group of young players, including Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert and two rookies named Paul George and Lance Stephenson.
So it made me really happy to see that Lance not only got another shot with Indiana this season, but that <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lance-stephensons-energy-would-make-him-a-perfect-tank-commander-for-pacers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he&rsquo;s made the most of it</a>. Last week, Lance dropped 30 on the Nets, and even scored 20 straight points in the game&rsquo;s first quarter. I was so happy for him, just like I was happy for guys like Joe Johnson, Isaiah Thomas and Greg Monroe, to name a few.
G League guys get &ldquo;called up,&rdquo; but some <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/greg-monroe-and-the-brief-case-for-us-to-see-more-nba-veterans-this-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">veteran players were fortunate to get called back</a>. It&rsquo;s hard to come back to the league after you&rsquo;ve spent a year or two away, but this season, a lot of guys have made it look really easy. They deserve props.
Everyone who loves the NBA owes the guys who are coming in and playing on these 10-day contracts, because the season would have probably been suspended already if it wasn&rsquo;t for them.&nbsp;
But what the whole situation has revealed, to me, is that there are some teams that have faith in their developmental programs, and some that don&rsquo;t.
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When I was coaching in the G League, we approached the situation with our players on the Canton Charge as if we were developing them and preparing them to get called up to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers one day. The G League is the NBA&rsquo;s farm system, and it&rsquo;s supposed to be used as the training ground for the league. Even I am an example of that &mdash; I spent a year with Canton before I was promoted to an assistant coach for the Cavs.&nbsp;
In theory, the same thing is supposed to happen with the G League players.
Like I said, I am happy for guys like Lance, Joe and Isaiah. Someone like Jamal Crawford should still be in the league right now.&nbsp;
But when a team goes out and signs a guy who&rsquo;s been out of the league to a 10-day contract, it does make you wonder a bit.&nbsp;
A guy coming in on a 10-day isn&rsquo;t coming to the team with an understanding of the team&rsquo;s offensive system, the team&rsquo;s coaching staff or any of his teammates&rsquo; tendencies. For the most part, he&rsquo;s being signed as an insurance policy to be available to play a few minutes and to play off of muscle memory. In most situations, he probably isn&rsquo;t going to be incorporated very much into the team&rsquo;s long-term plans.
G League call-ups, on the other hand, should already be familiar with the culture of the organization and the system that his team is running. So if a team has players out with COVID (or for whatever reason) and it finds itself in a pinch, the G League should be the first place to turn to. In some cases, you can look at some of the teams that do things the right way, and see the rewards they get from taking player development seriously.
Look at Miami, for example.
When I was in the NBA, even before there was a G League, Pat Riley and the Heat had a reputation for finding guys with potential and turning them into ballers. I think about guys like Voshon Leonard, Caron Butler, Udonis Haslem and D-Wade, as well as some of the younger guys like Mario Chalmers, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
This season, Omer Yurtseven&rsquo;s name is starting to ring out. <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/omer-yurtseven-georgetown-hoyas-nc-state-wolfpack-fenerbahce-ulker-turkey-2020-nba-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Look him up</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Omer Yurtseven now has 10 straight games with 12+ rebounds. That is a new 𝙈𝙞𝙖𝙢𝙞 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙 breaking Hassan Whiteside's previous streak of 9. Yurtseven is only the 3rd rookie ever to accomplish this feat. Blake Griffin was most recent.<a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MiamiHEAT</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HEATCulture?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HEATCulture</a> <a href="https://t.co/wjLjK9yj0z">pic.twitter.com/wjLjK9yj0z</a>
&mdash; Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) <a href="https://twitter.com/BallyHEAT/status/1478951383244197889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2022</a></blockquote>

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He might not ever be an All-Star or anything like that, but he&rsquo;s just another example of a player that Miami got its hands on and prepared for the big leagues. They&rsquo;ve had guys in and out the lineup all season, and have had to rely on some of their end-of-bench guys and replacement players &mdash; and they really haven&rsquo;t skipped a beat.
That&rsquo;s a developmental culture.
Already this season, there have been over 100 G League call-ups, and what I&rsquo;m really paying attention to is the amount of guys who get called up by the team that their G League team is affiliated with. That kind of continuity, in my opinion, should be the goal. If every team strives to treat its G League affiliate like a true farm system, it will help to advance the game and could continue to help make the G League a more viable alternative for players who might not be good enough to play in the NBA as soon as they&rsquo;re eligible.
While on the subject, I will show some love to the Magic, who have called up five players so far this season, four of them from their affiliate in Lakeland. The Thunder have called up four of their own guys from the Blue; meanwhile, the Lakers (South Bay), Pistons (Motor City Cruise) and Sixers (Delaware Blue Coats) have gotten good mileage out of their G League programs too.
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Of all years, if you can&rsquo;t find use for your G League affiliate this season, why bother having a G League affiliate at all? That&rsquo;s the way I see it.
At the end of the day, the NBA is a fraternity. I have a lot of brothers still playing in the league and others who are blessed to be coaching or otherwise working for teams. I&rsquo;m rooting for everyone to succeed, and hope that the league is able to continue to thrive and bring us exciting basketball, in spite of COVID.
I just couldn&rsquo;t help but to think about all the G League players who are hoping to find their own opportunity and get their 15 minutes of fame.&nbsp;
Some guys literally work their entire lives for that one moment, and I hope as many as possible continue to get them this season.
In the long run, the game and the G League itself will both be better off for it.

The pandemic has resulted in over 100 G League players being called up this season. But some teams can't rely on their prospects.

This season, we’re seeing the teams that trust their G League program

No matter what, &lsquo;Melo's always gonna be my youngin&rsquo;.
I told him that when we became teammates after his rookie year, and I told him that the last time we spoke.
On the real, not many people know how hard it is to make it in the league and to play for 18 years. And what&rsquo;s even tougher is making it to 18 years while still playing at a high level.
So when I saw &lsquo;Melo become the 11th player in NBA history to score 27,000 points earlier this season, man, it was crazy. It was one of those moments that made me think about just how long I&rsquo;ve been around, because I remember watching him in that Orange jersey winning the NCAA title for Syracuse.
So to &lsquo;Melo, my youngin&rsquo;, I salute you, fam. You&rsquo;re one of the most gifted scorers this game has ever seen, and nobody can ever take that away from you.
Anyone who watched &lsquo;Melo play in college knew that he was gonna make it in the league, but I specifically remember thinking he was gonna be a problem. That&rsquo;s probably why I took it upon myself to give him a tough time when I played against him during his rookie year. But honestly, by the time we met at All-Star Weekend in 2004, he&rsquo;d already gained my respect. I didn&rsquo;t expect that to end up being my last season in New Jersey, but when it was time to move on, I chose to go to Denver because I thought, with &lsquo;Melo, Marcus Camby, Nene, &lsquo;Dre Miller and Voshon Leonard, we had a chance to be special.
Say what you want about &lsquo;Melo, but he always got the ultimate respect from his teammates. When you&rsquo;re in a locker room or a huddle, there are only a few players whose presence lights a fire under everyone. Not all players that are called "superstars" today are capable of getting their teammates to believe in them. For those who can, it&rsquo;s the ultimate sign of respect. With &lsquo;Melo, for me, it happened fast.
During the seven years we spent as teammates, he won me over by dedicating himself to his craft, and I respected him for it. It&rsquo;s no surprise that he&rsquo;s still balling and taking kids damn near half his age to school&hellip; But it&rsquo;s still a beautiful thing to see.
Today, he&rsquo;s still doing his thing, even going on 37 years old. It just makes you wonder what could&rsquo;ve been if he landed in Portland a few years sooner.
As athletes, we don&rsquo;t focus on the &ldquo;what if?&rdquo; We just deal with the present situation and do our best to make good decisions based on what we know or feel in the moment. If we harp on the past or think about what could&rsquo;ve been, it&rsquo;s meaningless, because we can&rsquo;t change the past, you know what I mean?
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By the time I signed with the Knicks in 2012, &lsquo;Melo had already proven himself, but things just didn&rsquo;t work out for him in New York. When it became obvious that he was gonna be moving on in 2017, of all teams, Portland was the one that made the most sense, at least in my opinion.
Funny thing is, over the summer, right before he was traded from New York to OKC, I remember seeing C.J. McCollum in Las Vegas. I pulled him aside and told him that they needed to go get &lsquo;Melo, and he actually agreed that it would be a good look. I don&rsquo;t know if Portland tried to get him then or what, but next thing I know, I see that 'Melo was traded to the Thunder.
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On paper, teaming up with Russ and P.G. was exciting, but I thought Paul&rsquo;s game was a bit too similar to &lsquo;Melo&rsquo;s. For the most part, they wanted the ball and did their work in the same spots, and as for Russ, he was more effective running and being out in transition. &lsquo;Melo was more of a halfcourt player that wanted to set up on offense and use up the shot clock. Russ&rsquo; style of play with how he pushed the ball and wanted to get into open space didn&rsquo;t fit &lsquo;Melo, and especially with Paul there, it was bound to lead to confusion as to who the second option was and where they would be effective on the court.
On the other hand, Dame and C.J. play much slower, in the halfcourt and they took more two-point shots and midrange jumpers. It was such a good fit.
In hindsight, it wasn&rsquo;t really a surprise that &lsquo;Melo lasted only one season in OKC, and it was less of a surprise that he lasted even less time in Houston.
Mike D&rsquo;Antoni and &lsquo;Melo didn&rsquo;t work well together in New York, and if the style didn&rsquo;t work for &lsquo;Melo there, there was no reason to think it would&rsquo;ve worked in Houston. That was confirmed when, within 10 games of being there, he did a pump fake from behind the three-point line, stepped in and hit a long two-point shot. Then, he turned to the bench and said, &ldquo;My bad.&rdquo;
I knew right then and there that it was over.
If you want to be successful in the league, you gotta understand that you can&rsquo;t dictate the game of basketball or manipulate the game of basketball. If the game tells you to take a pull-up jumper, you gotta take that pull-up jumper. And the teams that have won as of late play with that mentality.
That&rsquo;s definitely one of &lsquo;Melo&rsquo;s best qualities: he was always happy to take what the defense gave him and he was effective scoring in so many different ways. We&rsquo;ve now seen that carry over to Portland.
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For sure, &lsquo;Melo is fortunate that he eventually linked up with Dame and C.J., because when you&rsquo;re 34, 35 years old and two or three different teams pass on you &mdash; especially if one lets you go after just 10 games &mdash; it would scare most teams off. It&rsquo;s like you&rsquo;re damaged goods.
Despite that, the front office in Portland decided to give &lsquo;Melo a shot, and he&rsquo;s taken full advantage of it. I&rsquo;m happy to see it.
For a long time, people have been saying negative things about my youngin&rsquo; &mdash; that he&rsquo;s selfish, he&rsquo;s a bad teammate, he&rsquo;s not willing to sacrifice, stuff like that. But the negativity that he&rsquo;s gotten has mostly been from the media; he&rsquo;s always gotten nothing but love from the guys he was in the trenches with.
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Since &lsquo;Melo picked up a basketball, he was bred to be a professional scorer. He was taught to put the ball in the basket, and you know what? He became one of the best in history to ever do it.
'Melo is less than 300 points from becoming a top-10 scorer in NBA history. Amazing.
[UPDATE: Anthony passed Elvin Hayes to become 10th on the NBA&rsquo;s all-time scoring list on May 5.]
Truth be told, &lsquo;Melo never told me that he wishes he ended up with the Blazers earlier or anything like that, cause like I said, most of us don't like to think about the "what if?" But I&rsquo;d be lying if I didn&rsquo;t admit that I wish he ended up there three or four years earlier. If so, the Blazers might have been champions.
It&rsquo;s water under the bridge at this point, though. What&rsquo;s most important is that I&rsquo;ve gotten the opportunity to watch &lsquo;Melo grow up and become one of the greatest in history.
&lsquo;Melo will always be my youngin&rsquo;, but he damn sure came a long way since he was just a skinny teenager leading Syracuse to the national title. And as he's proven, he ain&rsquo;t done just yet.

With Carmelo Anthony poised to crack the top-10 of the NBA's all-time scoring list, former teammate Kenyon Martin reflects on his career.

It’s a shame Carmelo Anthony didn’t end up in Portland sooner

The toughest part of Klay Thompson&rsquo;s surgical rehab for his torn Achilles tendon may be the first four-to-six weeks. He will not be able to put any weight on his right leg, which means a heck of a lot of TV time for a guy who has made a living on his feet.
What may make it even tougher is the mental side of his recovery, as other athletes who ruptured their Achilles tendon have said that depression was a very real side effect.
Golden State&rsquo;s superstar is going to miss the entire 2020-21 season because of the injury he suffered in a workout the day of the NBA draft. This comes after he missed the entire 2019-20 season while recovering from a torn ACL that he sustained during the 2019 NBA Finals.
&ldquo;Kobe Bryant and Dominique Wilkins had this injury and came back from it, but it may take two full years to get back to his full performance level,&rdquo; said Dr. Paul Ledesma, a podiatrist and surgeon at&nbsp;<a href="https://phoenixspineandjoint.com/">Phoenix Spine &amp; Joint</a>. &ldquo;So it is a long haul, but there have been a lot of medical advancements that may make it easier.&rdquo;
Dr. Ledesma is not actually treating Thompson, but he has operated on athletes in the past and described two procedures for repairing a torn Achilles.
The first is the percutaneous approach, which is noninvasive and almost never used on pro athletes, although it works for weekend warriors. Small incisions are made and the specialist is somewhat at a disadvantage and &ldquo;operating kind of blind.&rdquo;
The second approach involves making an incision along the back of the leg and making reinforcements with small steep plates attached to the heel bone. In this type of procedure, tendons from a cadaver or from the same leg are woven together with the damaged Achilles to strengthen it. The heel anchors can be made with steel or with a dissolvable material, depending on the severity of the Achilles tear.
&ldquo;Thompson&rsquo;s leg is then placed in a stable position with the toes pointed down to relax the repair site,&rdquo; said Dr. Ledesma. &ldquo;It cannot be walked on, and we don&rsquo;t let you walk for four-to-six weeks before any weight-bearing is allowed. It is a long haul in terms of conditioning the leg muscles and getting your balance back.&rdquo;
The next stage of recovery could involve a rehab machine known as Alter G, which was developed by NASA. With this machine, a plastic bag is inflated with air while a player walks on a treadmill, reducing the load being carried by the leg by 80 percent, but still allowing for a full cardiac workout. It is often used in conjunction with swimming-pool rehab, in which full buoyancy reduces the stress on the injured leg by 100 percent.
Numerous NBA players have undergone surgery for a torn Achilles, and the results have varied on a case-by-case basis. Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets still has not played since being injured in the 2019 NBA Finals and by the time he returns this winter, it will have been more than a year-and-a-half since he last played.
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Isiah Thomas was 35 years old when he had to retire because of an Achilles tear. Patrick Ewing was 36 when he was sidelined for seven months by the same injury. Voshon Lenard was 30 when he missed almost an entire season. Mehmet Okur recovered in eight months when he was 30. Kobe Bryant (34) recovered in nine months, Wes Mathews (28) recovered in seven months, Rudy Gay (30) recovered in 10 months and DeMarcus Cousins (27) missed an entire year.
There is no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to the expected recovery time for Thompson, 30.
&ldquo;It is different with every person and every body,&rdquo; Dr. Ledesma said. &ldquo;On average, people heal in a certain amount of time. There are outliers. Our biological nature means not every body is the same.&rdquo;
Ledesma said that a national study of Achilles injuries in baseball, football, hockey and basketball players revealed that a stunning 30 percent never recover.
&ldquo;That is a significant percentage, but it is the largest tendon in the body and it endures the first strain and stress because of the nature of the sport,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;And then there is the mental aspect of what this does, because it is ingrained in athletes&rsquo; brains to be active and working with their bodies&hellip; yet they have to rest.&rdquo;
When asked what he would recommend for Thompson, Dr. Ledesma said: &ldquo;Klay has been in the league a long time. I would tell him to rely on his experience and the ability he has. And don&rsquo;t be too hard on yourself.&rdquo;
Thompson underwent successful surgery on his Achilles on Wednesday, the Warriors announced.

Klay Thompson underwent successful surgery to repair his Achilles tendon on Wednesday. Now, what's next as he begins his rehab?