Friday Bullets

• Evidently the Kings have found themselves at the point of threatening No. 5 overall draft pick DeMarcus Cousins with a demotion to the D-League to get him to act right ... since kicking him out of practice, fining him and pulling him from the starting lineup doesn't seem to work. One can only shake their head and wonder what the next step in disciplinary progression is for a player that some advanced stat heads claimed should have been the 2010 first overall pick.
• Gilbert Arenas tried to tow the company line this season in Washington, to be the good guy who aimed to avoid conflict (for the most part). Now he's trying to do the same in Orlando by attempting to nip controversy in the bud before it happens, quite a diversion from Gilbertology of the past. "I don't want to start, this team is too talented," he says. Too bad, when you make $18 million and are playing better than the incumbent for a single game, the media is going to rush to find an issue regardless.
• Wizards owner Ted Leonsis often likes to think about the "coulda been" wins when pumping positivity on his blog, Ted's Take, recently writing, "It is a shame. There have been six other games this season that were winnable for [the Wizards] and we came up short." But those close games follow a two-way street, and Tim Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell likes to travel the other way, pointing out that the San Antonio Spurs might not be as good as their league-best record reflects.
• John Wall rides a tiny bike while handing out presents to underserved families in the D.C. area ... Nick Young with a tiny bike while doing the same thing ... Ernie Grunfeld sports a puffy adidas coat.
• Without Amare Stoudemire around to dive into the paint after setting a screen for Steve Nash, it's less of a gamble to hard double the two-time MVP off P&R action -- so that's exactly what the Miami Heat effectively did last night. Sebastian Pruiti of NBA Playbook explains.
• The Atlanta Hawks are in a tough position. They aren't good enough to compete for a championship, and they don't have the financial means to add key pieces to their core. Oh, and even though they have the fourth best record in the East, their average attendance ranks 25th in the League. What should they do? The Atlanta-Journal-Constitution's Michael Cunningham says just about all they can do is hope things come together under first-year coach Larry Drew.
• Nick Young is finally breaking out with consistent effort, this being his fourth NBA season. Young is starting now with the departure of Arenas from Washington, but came into his own earlier this season when he started being more comfortable with a role off the bench. Now in his third NBA season, should OJ Mayo be doing the same thing in Memphis? Perhaps Mayo should follow a mold set by Jason Terry, says Beckley Mason of HoopSpeak.
• At Truth About It.net, we talk to the Wizards about the best and worst holiday presents that they've ever received.
• Evidently Stephen Jackson and new coach Paul Silas can call each other "Cuz."
• Orlando's new dynamic formula involves putting diverse offense players on the floor together and running at every opportunity.
• Arenas was never able to complete some folks in D.C.
• A sheriff in Polk County Florida has decided that prisoners in his jail don't deserve to play basketball, so he made the inmates dig up the goals and then donated them to a local church. Talk about cruel and unusual.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/23105/friday-bullets-170

Boston Celtics kendrick Perkins Tony Raines New York Knicks Washington Wizards Miami Heat