Suicide lines: Celtics talking title; Assorted Media Day goodness

Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your double teapot.

Frank Dell'Apa, Boston Globe: Celtics captain Paul Pierce expressed optimism about the team's chances for a championship this season during media day yesterday. And he believes having such a lofty goal hinged on the decision of coach Doc Rivers to return. "I think the most important thing, really, is bringing Doc back,'' Pierce said. "That was huge. It wasn't about us bringing him back, it was about him coming back, so I think that was huge, regardless of whether Ray [Allen] or me re-signed.'' Pierce said without Rivers he might not have re-signed, Allen and Nate Robinson likely would not have returned, and Shaquille O'Neal would not have been pursued. "It would have been a tougher decision, truthfully,'' Pierce said of signing a contract. "I think it kind of would have been a kind of domino effect. Because if you would have seen Doc leave . . . we probably would have seen a rebuilding year. That just goes to show you the ownership group, they're committed to winning the championship. And that's why they brought the pieces here to do something this year. [If not,] I probably wouldn't be ending my career as a Celtic. I'm happy they did things the way they did.''

Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express News: Tony Parker's offseason itinerary was like something out of Magellan's travel logue, hopscotching him to points across the continent and the globe. One week, a soccer game in New York. The next, hobnobbing in Hollywood. After that, an afternoon outside of Paris, having a basketball gym named in his honor. On Monday, Parker showed up at the one place some thought they might never see him again: Spurs media day. After an offseason riddled with trade rumors, and on the cusp of a season sure to be rife with contract uncertainty, the Spurs' past and present point guard ambled into the team's practice gym and took dead aim at the notion that he preferred to play anywhere but San Antonio. "I definitely want to stay here," Parker said on the eve of his 10th Spurs training camp. "I feel like I'm a Spur." "Of course, I said that plenty of times," the three-time All-Star acknowledged with a rueful chuckle. "Nobody's listening to me."

Chris Dempsey, Denver Post: In the ‘next domino' universe that is journalism philosophy, when the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors started getting hot and heavy, the next name most everyone wondered about was Chauncey Billups. Specifically, if Anthony was gone and the Nuggets suffered as a result, would Billups want to stay and suffer with them? Billups has a contract that isn't fully guaranteed for next season if he is waived by five days after the 2010-11 season ends. Only $3.7 of a possible $14.2 million is guaranteed. In the summer, while he played for the USA basketball team in the world championships he gave me this in response to that question. "I have hopefully four years left of playing," Billups said, "and I'm not the kind of person to just ride it out. I want to win. I want to go out on top; I want to go out winning. ...I want to get out there, get after it and play. And I want to win as a Nugget the rest of my years. In a perfect world that's what I would want, that's what I would hope for." Today he was asked again about whether he would want to stay if the Nuggets lost Anthony and had to start over. Billups said yes he would - but with an interesting twist. "The way that I see it, is I don't feel that the Nuggets are going to be in a rebuilding stage, no matter what happens," he said. "I think they are all about winning, just being in my meetings with the powers that be; they are. They are all about winning and getting it done and doing it the right way. That's the things that I'm about. I think that we share the same vision. "Everybody knows that I don't want to be a free agent, I want to be a Nugget until I'm done, until I have no more gas left in the tank. I want it to be here. Everybody knows that. You all know how I feel about this town and about this organization. So, no I don't."

Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle: No one talks about "The Rick Adelman offense" anymore. The topic - which Adelman never considered valid, anyway - is as out of date as discussing the competition at point guard between Rafer Alston and Mike James. The Rockets headed to camp talking about reviving their defense. They held meetings, ran drills and have emphasized nothing as much as they have retooling their defense. "The intensity has definitely picked up," point guard Aaron Brooks said. "The talent level is up, too. Everyone is pushing each other. I think everybody is putting a little more emphasis on defense to start. "It's different. I think we started out this training camp talking about defense. We start on the defensive end with that mentality. Everybody is more focused on it. We've had individual chats about what we can do differently on defense, the rankings of where we were defensively in previous years to where we are now and trying to get back. "We definitely put more pressure on the ball. That's where it starts. It's fun playing defense again." The Rockets had ranked among the NBA's top five defensive teams in almost every measure for six consecutive seasons. Last season, they ranked 17th in the NBA in points allowed per possession and were in the bottom third of the league in opposing points, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage. To rebuild the defense, Adelman has started with his backcourt, and he started the retooling before camp began. "Me and Aaron, we had a meeting with coach," Kevin Martin said. "He said it starts with us on both ends of the court. We have to accept that responsibility on the defensive end if this team wants to go somewhere. I know I'm up for it, and I know he's up for it. We're just ready to make the most of this opportunity we have in the backcourt and with this team. "He expects things out of us. He has every right to do that. With the leeway he gives us out on the court, we better take advantage of it."

Rusty Simmons, San Francisco Chronicle: When Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis were heard singing in the shower after the Warriors' season-ending 122-116 victory over Portland, it was clear their relationship had been mended in some sense. Still, they're not exactly humming the same tune. Ellis seems to have a more inclusive attitude entering this season than last, when he said he couldn't play with Curry, then spent four-fifths of the season ignoring the rookie. "I've become a better leader than I was last year," Ellis said Monday. "I'm going to hold everyone accountable. I'm going to take this team to another level." Curry reached out to Ellis by being one of only two teammates who attended his wedding this summer, but that doesn't mean he's ready to call Ellis the team's undisputed leader. "In the locker room, he's the guy who is going to get us together during tough times," Curry said. "On the floor, I'll do my job as the point guard and be the most vocal guy out there."

John Jackson, Chicago Sun-Times: Whatever the sport, talent separates the greats from the wannabes, but talent alone doesn't assure greatness. The truly great ones not only have the talent, they also have the desire to be great. If still-blossoming Bulls point guard Derrick Rose doesn't develop into one of the NBA's great players, it won't be because he doesn't have the desire. During the Media Day festivities at the Berto Center on Monday as the team officially opened training camp -- the first practice was scheduled for this morning -- Rose spoke boldly when asked about his individual expectations for the upcoming season. ''They're high,'' he said confidently. ''The way I look at it, why can't I be the MVP in the league? Why can't I be the best player in the league? I don't see why not. ''I work hard, I dedicate myself to the game and sacrifice a lot of things at a young age, and I know, if I continue to do good what I can get out of it. If that's me going out and doing whatever, I'm willing to do it because in the long run I know it's gonna help me.'' Said teammate Joakim Noah: ''Derrick is an unbelievable talent and things have really changed around here since he's been in Chicago. If Derrick feels that way, that's good for us.''

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports: As talks on a four-way deal that included Utah and Charlotte lost momentum on Monday, Denver and New Jersey were constructing contingency plans with several other teams to try to keep alive hopes of a trade that would send Carmelo Anthony to the Nets, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. New Jersey and Denver were moving from including Utah's Andrei Kirilenko and Charlotte's Boris Diaw in the trade packages, front-office sources said, and trying to find trade partners in both the Eastern and Western conferences. Denver and New Jersey were trying to line up new scenarios that still would result with Anthony in New Jersey and Derrick Favors and Nets draft picks in Denver, sources said. The four-team trade fell apart when Denver kept trying to include more of its players in deals to spare themselves a bigger luxury-tax bill that would've come with the arrivals of Kirilenko and Favors, sources said. The proposed trade would have added $4.5 million in salary to their payroll plus another $4.5 million in luxury tax.

Jeff Caplan, ESPN: Of the 13 players on the Dallas Mavericks roster with guaranteed contracts, five played shooting guard last season either on a full- or part-time basis. Rookie Dominique Jones plans to make it six, starting today when training camp opens at SMU. "It's crowded, but I feel like there's 82 games, a lot of minutes out there," Jones said Monday at Mavs Media Day. "I feel like if you're being productive then you have nothing to worry about. We're all on the same team. Then again, we're all competing for playing time. I guess you just go out there and do what you can do and the best play." Although his NBA experience includes only five impressive Summer League games in Las Vegas, Jones believes he will be one of the best. Most of that confidence comes naturally, but at least some comes from the level of belief coach Rick Carlisle and his staff already seem to have in Jones' ability. Jones, 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, has spent the better part of the last month or so working out at the American Airlines Center with Carlisle and assistant coaches Terry Stotts and Dwane Casey. "He's a different kind of player than we have. He's a bigger, stronger, rugged scoring guard that is great off the dribble. He's got a great first step," Carlisle said. "We don't have that element. Roddy [Beaubois] can get in the paint, J.J. [Barea] can get in the paint when they're at the 2, but they don't have the size and strength that he has. So, that, along with the fact that he's a very good defensive player and is a physical defender, those things put him in a different category and open up the possibility that he could be a factor for us."

Paul Arizin Charles Barkley Rick Barry Elgin Baylor Dave Bing