The expectation for the Golden State Warriors in the Monta Ellis kerfuffle was to lay down a light punishment or no punishment at all. NBA teams aren't in the business of pissing off their best players for dumb but largely benign mistakes. For every Ellis, I have no doubt dozens of ballers ride motorcycles, snowboard, base jump, run with scissors, microwave floppy disks and do other assorted silly things which could fall under behavior clauses in their contracts. Basically, there's little to gain in terms of material benefit or future deterrence in slapping Ellis with a punishment. Ellis will stop riding mopeds whether you punish him or not. Punishing Ellis isn't likely to make an impression on Anthony Randolph, though.

The Warriors disagree. Tim Kawakami reports the team has suspended Ellis without pay for 30 games. The guard expected to be out a few months, and would likely miss 30 games regardless. But the fine comes out heavy, almost $3 million. That's about 28% of this year's pay. (The Lakers took 10% of Vlad Radmanovic's cash when he injured himself snowboarding and lied to the team about it.) For a cat who'd only made minimum second-round scale money up to this point, that hurts.

Kawakami notes Ellis isn't around to answer questions, which leaves open the possibility Ellis and his camp aren't on board with this. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine Ellis' agent working with the franchise to come up with the right "statement" to protect Golden State's stature while keeping the guard from losing too much. Based on the size of the fine and the lack of an Ellis presence in Oakland right now, it does not appear to be the case that Monta's camp is cool with this penalty.

(It's all worth noting that a Kawakami column from last week quoted Don Nelson and Chris Mullin as appearing to stand against significant punishment. The decision on the $3 million penalty came from team president Robert Rowell, Mullin's boss.)

Portland's Tuesday night glee spun to Wednesday morning's trepidation (followed by more Wednesday night trepidation) as news spread that starting small forward Martell Webster suffered a fracture in his foot during the preseason-opening win over Sacramento. In Wednesday's match with the Warriors, Rudy Fernandez went down with an ankle sprain which looks less gnarly but still temporarily worrisome. Webster will be out until at least December, putting about a quarter of the season in play for Portland's second-tier wings.

Common courtesy and coach Nate McMillan give Travis Outlaw the first crack, which makes sense: Outlaw has spent training camp competing for the job. He has been a spot starter over the last three seasons, and he broke out as a decent scorer last season. Outlaw's an able NBA starter, and this is a good situation for everyone.

But might there be some value in bringing Fernandez into the first unit? Outlaw aims for starter status, but looked real comfortable as sixth man in '07-08. Fernandez would appear to be the superior offensive player, however -- he is, at the very least, a better shooter. With LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden up front, should Portland prefer an explosive defender and good scorer like Outlaw, or a great playmaker and efficient scorer like Fernandez?

Of course, there are other considerations ... like the starting point guard job. If Sergio Rodriguez is the back-up PG, as it would appear to be, Fernandez might be best matched with him: they know each other well, as the Kings -- who saw a brilliant Sergio-to-Rudy alley-oop Tuesday -- can testify to. So Outlaw likely rings through as the right choice here. But if he gets off to a slow start, don't be surprised if fans start chanting Rudy's name.

If Gilbert Arenas' continued medical issues with his knee weren't worrisome enough, losing Brendan Haywood for four to six months because of that pesky wrist injury he suffered in practice this week. The Washington Post's Ivan Carter reports that Haywood needs surgery to repair a torn wrist ligament; the recovery period will keep him out until at least February, and possibly the entire season. Meanwhile, Antawn Jamison has an injury that keeps most players out two months; Jamison, however, says he will be ready for opening night.

Haywood was a huge, undersung cause for Washington's improvement last season. Perhaps being unshackled from constant battle with Etan Thomas allowed the ease of mind to finally perform well. Maybe Haywood finally got it. Some would argue Haywood had a fluke year, and would have come crashing back down to Earth in '08-09. Whatever the case, we aren't going to find out.

It appears Thomas will get the starting nod, though Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee figure as options, according to the Post's Carter. Is it an opportunity for the Wizards to see what they have in the youth corps? Sure, but it's also enough to suggest Washington won't be making the playoffs this season unless someone unexpected comes through in a major, major way.

Okay, so basically, we're going to take this one in two strides. First, we'll do the half-full version for any Wizards fans who might be reading as to not send them airborne, and then we'll do the half-empty version for the sadists among us.

Fresh off finding out that Gilbert Arenas had more surgery and won't be back for a while, the Wizards headed toward their first preseason game with the same "us-against-the-world" attitude that got them to the fifth seed last year without Arenas. Then center Brendan Haywood sprained his wrist in practice. No problem, there's a good chance he'll be back in a few weeks. And now, not five minutes into their first preseason game, Antawn Jamison hits the deck with what is being described as a strained knee.

Luckily, there's a good chance neither injury will be serious. Barring any severe second opinions or terrible MRI results, both players should be back within the month.

Okay, Wizards fans, that's all you need to hear, you can head back to whatever you were doing before. Drive safely.

...

One of the most amusing compelling stories of the offseason has been the wait for Andrew Bynum to return to the lineup and destroy everything in his path in pursuit of his destiny as the best center in the NBA. Well, okay, the most recent wait . Ask anyone that's big on statistics, as most of the NBA scribes are, and they'll tell you that Bynum was on pace to produce simply devastating numbers last season based on his thirty five games of action, and his projected path of development through his early years. Of course, then he suffered a severe knee injury. But it's no big deal, because he definitely made his estimated return of March. Well, okay, April. Well, okay, the second round. Okay, no, he had surgery again and was out until this season. But seriously! When he gets back, you're all on notice!

Unfortunately, based on the word coming out of Lakers camp via the OC Register's Kevin Ding, Bynum's a little behind schedule on that whole "next Kareem" thing. As in, he may not start. The wunderkind is apparently having issues meshing with Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom has outworked him in training camp. The issue, at least according to Tex Winter, is one of effort.

"He's just not exerting himself, maybe," Winter said. "And most of the other guys are. I think he just needs to play a little harder."

Bynum has said himself that practice work hasn't had him completely riveted.

"This is the first year where it's kind of a little bit boring just because we have to run through the same stuff we already know," he said.

Knick swinger Jared Jeffries snapped his leg during camp this week. It's an unfortunate turn for a player Mike D'Antoni had commended early on during auditions for The Resurrection of Madison Square Garden. As Jeffries seeks to hurry back lest he lose his spot to old hand Quentin Richardson, older hand Allan Houston or young buck Wilson Chandler, he made the logical next step: ask Terrell Owens for some advice on hyperbaric chambers. From the New York Daily News via Deadspin:

"We know each other through Brand Jordan (a division of Nike)," Jeffries said. "I texted a contact with them and T.O. had this same injury when he was with Philly. I'm going to get a hyperbaric chamber."

Why not just buy T.O.'s? "No, I'll buy my own," he said.

Hand-me-down hyperbaric chambers are for chumps. While we're on the subject of the Knicks, let's take a look at the latest live camp coverage from the extraordinary Posting and Toasting.

The right eye of Amare Stoudemire was poked by an errant Boris Diaw finger during a scrimmage this week. Most considered it to be a minor malady. But Diaw's nail tore Stoudemire's iris, requiring up to two weeks without so much as a work-out, lest the eye bleeds due to a higher heart rate. The eye will heal, and he has lost no vision. But he will possibly be forced to wear goggles for the rest of his career.

Bright Side of the Sun offers to pay for a manicure for Diaw, but I think what we should all be concerned with is the goggle issue. Amare is one stylish dude. As Horace Grant would testify, goggles are a massive game-killer. We need some serious fashion minds working on some rubber specs for STAT right away.

It doesn't appear Stoudemire will miss any regular season action, but he might not be available for next Saturday's first-ever outdoor NBA game at Indian Wells in the California desert.

Stephon Marbury may be a distraction at the Knicks' training camp, but perhaps he's a welcome distraction -- when you take a look at the rest of the roster, there are problems that a mere buyout can't solve.

Take, for instance, Eddy Curry. Despite knowing that he'd be running more than he's ever run in his life with Mike D'Antoni at the helm, he showed up to camp out of shape. And then, making matters worse, he's actually missed the first few days of camp after going viral -- and not in the good "Allan Houston on YouTube" kind of way.

He's been diagnosed with a bacterial infection that will keep him out of action until Thursday at the earliest. As D'Antoni pointed out, though, it may be a blessing in disguise:

"I heard he was throwing up and everything," D'Antoni said, "and that's a great way to lose weight."

Any sorority girl out there can tell you, D'Antoni speaks the truth. Unfortunately, not every ailment on the Knicks can be solved by a mere eating disorder.

Danilo Gallinari has been sidelined for months with a bulging disc in his back (a condition the Knicks previously tried to downplay as a "sore back") and is expected to miss not only all of training camp but also the entire preseason. Needless to say, any chance that the Rooster had to crack the rotation early in the year has officially been thrown out the window, providing even more fodder to a disgruntled fanbase that never wanted him in the first place.

"Ah, finally!" Rockets fans said. "Now we can compete for a championship with Ron Artest. With a healthy Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, along with the core that won 22 straight last year, we're set for launch!"

Hold off on that "Go" code, there, boys and girls.

The Rockets' rational detractors (and Jazz fans) are always quick to poing out that a healthy Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming is pretty much an event horizon. As in, you know something's on the other side, but you can't actually see it.

Well those detractors have a little more ground after Monday's Rockets media day. Tracy McGrady was asked about his health and excellent Rockets blog Clutchfans.net has a rundown. Let's just say it wasn't exactly the most encouraging response. Apparently McGrady's knee is about "75-80%" and that its recovery took longer than McGrady had expected.

Oh, well, okay, sure, the knee's not so hot and that's a concern. But at least the rest of him is back to normal, right?

"My shoulder, after surgery, kept bothering me," said McGrady. "I had another MRI and discovered that I have arthritis in there so I got to have surgery again on my shoulder. That's something I have to deal with again this season."

Whoops.

Gilbert Arenas made an appearance at media day, but it was for photos only. He skipped out on the actual um, media portion of the commitment, and as such both he and the Wizards received $15,000 fines. The likely reason that Gilbert bailed is because he's tired of the questions about his knee. As he has said before, he can't understand why everyone is "tripping out" over his most recent surgery. But it's not like the topic never came up.

Sure, there were lighthearted stories involving wristbands and the growing out of afros. I mean, it is still the Wizards. But there were also plenty of questions about Gilbert's knee that his teammates were forced to answer, which is a position that I'm sure they would rather not have been in.

It was a thoughtless move by Gilbert -- still the team's biggest star -- to leave his teammates there answering all of the questions that he should have been there to answer himself. But it's not likely to cause any problems in that locker room. Gil is beloved by everyone in the organization, and by all the media in town as well. When he finally does meet the press (which is something he hasn't done since signing that $111 million dollar deal), I'm fairly certain all will be forgiven.

[via TSB]