Hello friends. This may be the longest, most difficult month of basketball famine I've ever faced. It's only September 18th! The good news is that training camp is less than two weeks ago and takes place about 2 minutes by foot from where I sit right now, so we have that to look forward to. In the meantime, let's hit a couple links, shall we?

- Jamal Crawford is back on the web at Crawful to Crawesome, and this time he's discussing magazine covers featuring himself, as well as providing a scouting report of the '08-'09 roster. A taste: 

Wilson Chandler: Wilson has gotten a lot better from last year! His range has improved -- his ball handling and his athleticism was always there…I think he's just more confident then anything now and it's showing. I think he'll have a really good year for us!

Danilo Gallinari: "Gallo" is still banged up a little bit,..so he's just been shooting and riding the bike...but this kid is very VERY confident!! He listens, works hard and wants to get better. Some of you guys may have booed him when we drafted him, but he is going to be a big time player for us one day!

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Eddy Curry: It will be a transition for him at first because he's used to posting up. But he'll be on the perimeter a lil bit more....he'll get better adapted to the system the more he does it...but we need him...

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David Lee: We all know David's game by now - all out hustle, rebounds. The thing that will surprise you most is his jumper! He shooting it with so much confidence, I mean even three pointers! He shot one and I said to myself, "No way." And it went straight in.

Great to hear, especially regarding Chandler and Lee. Oh, and one more thing. Even the rather bubbly Jamal can hardly spare a compliment for Mardy Collins:

Mardy: Lost some weight, so he's moving better. Very smart, really good defender!

Poor, sad Mardy.

- Though his back is ailing, Howard Beck reports that Danilo Gallinari is expected to be good to go come September 30th.

- A potential destination for Marbury, should he be waived. Steph+Chalmers and Arthur= MADNESS! (Tip of the hat to Uncle Skeets.)

- Since he's a New York guy and some of this takes place in New York, and since his brother was dilligent enough to email me about the subject, check out Charlie Villanueva's pretty impressive contributions to the community. I like it when families of NBA players email me.

- An interview with Anthony Roberson.

That's all I got for now. Tomorrow, I think we're gonna take a look at potential starting lineups. See you then.