@tribjazz: #UtahJazz’s Mehmet Okur cannot return to U.S. until #NBA lockout officially ends. Contract in Turkey has an opt-clause, but it hinges on work stoppage being lifted.

Okur will be allowed out of his deal as soon as the stoppage is lifted. Unfortunately this just shows us that the NBA isn’t back and might not be for a while. We can only hope the two sides stay level headed.

The reason for the dealing with Pelinka? Many mock drafts have the Nets selecting Johnson with the third pick in the draft but more importantly Boozer is a free agent. Could the Nets be working out a deal with Pelinka where they draft Wesley and Rob steers Carlos towards New Jersey? It’s very possible and a theory Marc Stein at ESPN mentioned today.

Drafting Johnson would be the first sign that something is up as he’s not the third best player in the draft. Chad Ford of ESPN currently has Wesley at number five on his big board. He’s without a doubt the best small forward in the draft but some question his upside.

Johnson has a solid shot and typically excels in the transition game. He’s a very unselfish player which would work well with Devin Harris and Brooks Lopez, as they’re the focal points of the team. What the scouts really question is his ability to create shots, playing the three in the NBA will mean he has to create more then he had to at Syracuse. Can he do that?

If the Nets do take Johnson with the third pick there is no guarantee they’ll get Boozer but it would definitely help. My question thou is to they really need Wesley to land him?

Stein mentions that a source “close to the situation” says Boozer has been very interested in the Nets and they could land him with or without Johnson. The Nets have $27 million in cap space and could easily afford the big guy whose averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds a game over his career. On top of that why wouldn’t Boozer want to join the Nets? They’ve got Harris at guard and Lopez at center, add a power forward like Boozer to the mix and you’ve got a nice three headed monster.

Now in my mind I have to think about the tampering aspect here. If Johnson is drafted and Carlos signs VERY quickly on July 1st wouldn’t you think the Nets and Pelinka had something worked out? Doubt the NBA would look into it thou especially since every team with cap space has been lobbying LeBron James for months.

Here’s a video that goes over the Nets possibilities in the NBA Draft
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I’m going to start off with the Dunk of the Night for one big reason. Everyone is saying LeBron James posterized Dwyane Wade last night, which is soooooo not true. What are all these people smoking? Stop drinking the kool-aid please! Wade was playing catchup the entire play, trying to prevent a fast break. Granted when he did get his hands in the air to foul LeBron it was too late, but in no way did the King dunk on Wade.

With Wade and James facing off you knew Wade would also get in on the highlight reel. Wade showed off his blazing speed by sprinting after a loose ball and turning it inot a big time dunk.

One last dunk from that game, this one from Jermaine O’Neal. He drove baseline on Shaq for an easy slam, the reason I show it is look how Shaq just backed away from the play instead of contesting the dunk. Come on diesel!!! Disappointing.

Jason Richardson of the Phoenix Suns had a pretty sweet baseline jam of his own last night, dunking over two Utah Jazz defenders. Unlike Shaq the Jazz players tried to make a defense, even at the risk of being embarrassed.

The last dunk of the day wasn’t tops of the night but probably the most entertaining. Houston Rockets’ Carl Landry had a powering tomahawk jam over Atlanta Hawks’ rookie Jeff Teague. Teague saw what was coming and got the hell out of dodge.

We’ll get things going with an alley-oop in the Sacramento Kings / Washington Wizards game. This went from being an ugly bouncing ball all over the court play on the Washington end of the court to a nice simple alley-oop from Tyreke Evans to Spencer Hayes on the other end.

Next up we’ve got one from the King, Lebron James. He made a steal against the Los Angeles Clippers and took the rock coast to coast himself with a powerful jam on the finish. He tried to do the ol’ jump from the free throw line but took one huge step to much to make it happen. When you watch his speed on this play you’ll see that the dunk wasn’t even the most impressive part.

Got another alley-oop for you today. The Ronnie’s out in Utah took it to the Milwaukee Bucks on this play. Ronnie Price made the pretty sweet pass from long range and Ronnie Brewer slammed it home.

When it comes to plays in the post one of my favorite is the putback dunk, preferably the power ones that shake the rim and make all the defenders underneath feel like shit. Well, Amare Stoudemire did just that last night against the Charlotte Bobcats, too bad his team was the one getting embarrassed at that time.

This next one probably included the most star power of any of the dunks today. It involved Rudy Gay and Tim Duncan. Duncan played some help defense in the post and I’d have to say it was pretty weak at that.

Finally is the dunk that NBATV chose as their Dunk of the Night. It comes from Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat. It was a steal in the back court taken all the way down for the one handed jam. It was nice, I just don’t know if it was really the Dunk of the Night thou. What do you think?

First off, J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets had a beauty of a steal turned into a reverse dunk on the other end against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Don’t ya love it when a guy turns a steal into an amazing breakaway finish, none of those weak ass layups here.

During his collegiate days Emeka Okafor was known for his defense and shot blocking abilities, not many players would challenge him in the post. In the NBA, well Philadelphia 76ers center Samuel Dalembert had no problem challenging him last night dunking on Emeka the Rejecta.

Speaking of getting dunked on. Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat was absolutely embarrassed last night by the Utah Jazz’s Carlos Boozer. This one might have to go into the dictionary next to the word posterized (once it officially makes it in to one). Not only did he get dunked on but Carlos hit him with a beautiful ball fake before running him over.

In my opinion one of the most exciting plays in the NBA is the alley-oop. I don’t mean the little weak ones where the ball is tossed up for an easy slam. I’m talking about the high flying above the rim kind. The slam on this next video from DeMar DeRozan wasn’t the greatest but what makes this my NBA play of the day is the dish from Hedo Turkoglu. The pass itself makes this a great alley-oop.

The dunk of the day thou didn’t even come from the ranks of the NBA. It came from the collegiate ranks and a small school down in Arkansas. Tavaris Washington of Arkansas Pine-Bluff completely jumped over an Alabama State player. A lot like Vince Carter over Frederic Weis, although this defender wasn’t nearly as tall.

If the initial diagnosis of 4 to 6 weeks this most of been a pretty serious ankle injury. Of course till you hear that he’s almost ready to go in just 10 days, but let me tell you the reports do make this sound very serious. Jazz officials told the Salt Lake Tribune that the ankle was so swollen after the injury that his toes even turned yellow. Now I’ve had plenty of sprained ankles before and I’ve never seen this, so for someone to hurt the ankle that bad, that is just insane. Makes you wonder if there is any other damage. The Jazz did just that, and sent Williams for an MRI on the ankle but everything came back clean.

Through hard work thou and some dedication in the training room, Williams is on a remarkable pace in his recovery. He was already seen at today’s (Thursday) pregame shoot around wearing an air cast and sneakers, instead of the walking boot. Jazz officials have said that Deron has been so dedicated he wakes up in the middle of the night to get extra treatment on the ankle. That’s pretty hard core right there. “I’m going to see how it feels every day, keep getting treatment and play as soon as possible, as soon as it feels great,” Williams said. “It still hurts, I’m just trying to get there as fast as possible. It’s better for me to walk on it, put pressure on it right now.”

So who starts for the Jazz should Williams not make it back in time for the opener. That duty would go to Ronnie Price. Price is actually starting tonight for the Jazz in their final preseason game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Price averaged just under 10 minutes a game last season scoring 3.7 points and 1.3 assist a game. So basically he’s a young guy with potential but not someone the Jazz want running the floor while they have big hopes for this season. Price even knows to get to where they want to be Deron has to be healthy, and say’s all the right things about it.

“He’s not going to be out for a long time,” Price said, “so people don’t get used to not seeing Deron in a jersey because his will and desire to get back and to be on the floor is probably stronger than anybody else’s that you can think of … So all we’re going to do is keep motivating him and encouraging him that we’re going to try to win without him and when he gets back, he can just lead us to the championship.”

Having his replacement say such strong things about him, tells me Deron is definitely working hard to get healthy and should be back on the court a lot sooner then anyone thinks. It’s a good thing for the Jazz and their fans.

Speaking of the fans does anyone have their NBA tickets yet? The young guys that have come in over the past couple years are definitely adding a new level of excitement to the game. If you’re a fan you definitely want to do what you can to get to an NBA game this season.

The Chicago Sun-Times lists a few options the Bulls may consider. They include, Tyrone Corbin of the Utah Jazz, Tom Thibodeau of the Boston Celtics, Michael Curry of the Detroit Pistons and Brian Shaw of the Los Angeles Lakers. One of them Tyrone Corbin has already been scheduled for an interview. Personally, I feel that out of those guys only 2 are really viable options. They are Corbin and Thibodeau. Let’s look at both guys.

Tyrone Corbin – Utah Jazz. First, Corbin is a fairly local guy after playing his college ball at DePaul. Corbin played for 15 seasons in the NBA, and has now coached for 4, this was his 3rd season as an assistant coach on Jerry Sloan’s staff. Corbin has been noted as an up-and-coming coach, but not quite yet on the hot assistants list. ”I’d love to be a head coach in this league someday,” he said. ”I’m just going to continue with this team and see where it takes me.”

Currently, Corbin has been given some responsibilities of preparing scouting reports for certain teams. But his main role with the team is to work with the Utah big man, which would be very beneficial to the Bulls. With youngsters Joakim Noah, Aaron Gray, Andres Nocioni and Tyrus Thomas the team could really use a coach who has considerable experience playing in the post, something Corbin has.

Tom Thibodeau – Boston Celtics. This guy is a defensive wizard. And a defensive mindset is something this young team needs. The Bulls ranked 16th in the NBA this past season in points allowed, giving up just over 100 a game. Team’s with Thibodeau as an assistant coach have finished in the Top 10 defensively in 14 of his 17 seasons as a coach. This past year was his first with the Celtics, and the team improved considerably. The Celtics finished 2nd in team defense after being 18th the previous year, and gave up 9 less points per game. True, they added some pretty big pieces to the roster, but the coaches mindset and game plans also come in to play. The Bulls can score and as the youngsters get better their totals will go up, if they can get anything resembling a defense they could be a force in the Eastern Conference.

Both coaches have the most pluses in my eyes. But then again, I’m not a big fan of the NBA, so what do I know! If one of the these two coaches do get the job thou, they’ll have plenty of young guns to work with.

If anyone’s wondering why Avery Johnson wants to take a year off the answer is pretty simple. He had 3 years left on his contract with the Dallas Mavericks. So essentially he can sit back beach side for the next 3 years and Mark Cuban would be forced to still pay him $12 million.