Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points like Guy Fieri loves bacon and bad hair.
• Who are the best three-point shooters never to win the All-Star Weekend Three-Point shootout? I think Reggie Miller wins that contest, but there are some good names on the All Ball list.
• Video of James Harden making it rain at a strip club. And no,I’m not posting that video.
• Rudy Gay, John Wall and a great list of players who need to step up this season (including a few who already got paid on potential).
• Mark Cuban says he hopes the eight newcomers to the Mavericks roster will stick with the team for a long time. Which is the right thing to say, but he will kick them all to the curb this summer for a shot at someone like Chris Paul. (As he should.)
• Ray Allen is already down in Miami working on his shot.
• A couple of high-end children’s sporting good shops in Manhattan are going to have 3-D Carmelo Anthonys to help guide people around the store and answer questions. No, I am not making that up.
• How the divorce of the Maloof sister — you know, the one on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills — impacts the Kings. Which is not really that much save just more embarrassment for a family that has had plenty of it.
• Dwight Howard’s rehab has reached the point he has stepped on to a court. Expect the Lakers to bring him along slowly, it’s about June not November.
• You can trade in your guns for Memphis Grizzlies tickets. No, you do not get the weapons back if they lose.
• A fantastic, even handed look at what it has taken to get this far with the Seattle plan for a new arena from friend of this blog Kevin Pelton.
• Timberwolves big man Nikola Pekovic has los lost almost 10 pounds this summer and thinks that will help him stay more healthy next season.
• Chris Bosh scooping ice cream for charity. There’s a good joke in there but I just can’t find it. At least he wasn’t hanging at clubs with James Harden.
• Erik Spoelstra says a lot of nice things about the potential of Mickell Gladness. America shrugs.
• The Heat are bringing in Garrett Temple as training camp fodder.
• The Thunder are apparently bringing in Andy Rautins as camp fodder.
• The Knicks are bringing in swingman Mychel Thompson, center Henry Sims and guard Oscar Bellfield as camp fodder.
• Former Celtics first rounder J.R. Giddens has signed with Centrale del Latte Brescia in the Italian league.
• Otis Smith (you last remember him as the Magic GM until he was canned) is going into the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches Court of Legends.
• The mother of Pacer and former Tar Heal Tyler Hansbrough may be part of a fundraising scandal at the university.
• It’s not NBA but I find it interesting: The widespread cheating scandal at Harvard has reached into the basketball team.
• Zach Lowe, one of the very best NBA bloggers out there, is leaving SI. This would make me really sad if I was not going to be able to read his stuff at Grantland soon.
• As a final bonus, here is Scottie Pippen talking Phil Jackson, Derrick Rose, superteams and more.