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

Peter Vescey, New York Post: "Donnie Walsh is set to pull the trigger on his first substantive move as KnicksNew York Knicks president, The New York Post has learned. Knicks sources said a deal for Al Harrington was to go through late yesterday, but was delayed until today. A league conference call is scheduled for this morning that would bring the disgruntled Warriors forward to the Knicks, presumably for Malik Rose. [...] The move will reunite Walsh with Harrington, whom the Pacers president drafted out of high school (No. 25) in 1998."

UPDATE: Alan Hahn is reporting that it is in fact Jamal Crawford heading to Golden State in exchange for Harrington.

Ivan Carter, Washington Post: "Gilbert Arenas continues to rehabilitate his surgically repaired left knee but remains limited to non-contact basketball activities, and neither the team nor the three-time all-star has established a firm timetable for a possible return to game action. Arenas has watched the Wizards stumble to a 1-8 start from the bench and said the team's progress or lack thereof could impact his plans. Yesterday after a practice at Verizon Center, Arenas said he and center Brendan Haywood, who is expected to miss four to six months following wrist surgery, are hoping the team can rebound from the poor start and remain in playoff contention. 'Me and Brendan, we talk about it,' Arenas said. 'If I come back in January — that's about 20, 25 games we counted — when do we say it's okay? If we're 15 games out, how hard is it to come back from that? It might depend on who is in the eighth spot at the time and what our record is.'"

Mike Wells, Indianapolis Star: "He's 7-foot, 255 pounds and plays center. Just don't expect him to play like one. Rasho Nesterovic doesn't have a strong inside game. He isn't an intimidating shot blocker. He isn't overly athletic and doesn't fly above the rim for alley-oop dunks. Ask his Indiana Pacers teammates, though, and they'll say Nesterovic is one of the keys to their offense. He's an exceptional passer. He consistently makes the midrange jump shot. He has a high basketball IQ. Most important, he wins. He has never been the focal point, but he made the playoffs each of his 10 seasons."

Rick Bonnell, Charlotte Observer: "Bobcats coach Larry Brown can live with a lack of experience. Lack of effort, he'll not tolerate. So he might start rookies D.J. Augustin and Alexis Ajinca in Atlanta tonight against the Hawks, in part to send a message to the veterans. 'He gives effort every play and that's what we're not getting,' Brown said of Augustin, who would start at guard alongside Ray Felton. 'It's been obvious we've been lacking pizzazz and enthusiasm and effort (among the starters). The second group, I don't think that's the case at all. They might be inexperienced, but they're trying hard.' [...] Ajinca and Augustin would replace Sean May and Matt Carroll as starters. And, based on repetitions in practice Thursday, Brown is strongly considering this lineup. Brown gave the players off Wednesday, then conducted one of the most physically-taxing practices of the young season."

Chris McCosky, Detroit News: "Right now, the Celtics are too fluid, too cohesive and too efficient at everything. They move the ball around so crisply on offense, they make the Pistons look two steps slower. If they weren't getting straight-line layups Thursday (13 in the first three quarters), they were draining uncontested 3-pointers (6-for-10 through three quarters). Defensively, the Celtics are so tightly wound and aggressive, the Pistons barely completed initial passes of an offensive set, let alone swing the ball. Uncontested shots were few and far between."

Paul Coro, Arizona Republic: "See that up there? That's where the Los Angeles Lakers put the bar. Suns coach Terry Porter said Thursday night's game with the Western Conference favorite would be a good measuring stick for his team, and it's clear that the Suns are far away. [...] Suns substitutions strayed from the norm Thursday. Terry Porter went to Sean Singletary as the primary backup point guard instead of Goran Dragic. It initially backfired when Singletary missed two shots and he committed his first NBA turnover during a 14-0 Lakers run following starter Steve Nash's exit. The other new move came late in that run. After Lakers center Andrew Bynum posted up Amaré Stoudemire, Shaquille O'Neal got off the bench, walked by Porter and said, "I'm going in." Three minutes later, the Suns led again."

Sarah Rothschild, Miami Herald: "Heat rookie forward Michael Beasley has been reduced to a spectator in the fourth quarter of recent games. He has started in the 12 games and is averaging 30.2 minutes, but he sat for much of the fourth quarter in four of the past five games. As the Heat mounted a 17-point, second-half comeback during a 101-95 loss to the Raptors on Wednesday, Beasley watched. ''If I was the coach, I would have stayed with that lineup, too,' Beasley said. Beasley played a career-low 12 minutes against Toronto."

Kate Fagan, Philadelphia Inquirer: "Elton Brand's words, spoken as he sat on a stool within the cozy confines of the Target Center's visitor's locker room, were as bruising and straightforward as his low-post game. No, he wasn't looking forward to seeing his former teammates, the Los Angeles Clippers, whom the 76ers play at 7 o'clock tonight at the Wachovia Center. What he wanted was a victory. 'I don't care to see them,' Brand said. Brand's words were not meant to slam his former pals — he said he had texted two of them, Chris Kaman and Cuttino Mobley, leading up to the game — but rather as an indication of how focused he was on leveling the Sixers' record, which at 5-6 is a disappointment. 'I can't worry about individual stuff,' Brand said. 'It's just a competition. It's just a game we need to win.'"

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald: "It will be Kevin Garnett’s second visit to his old arena with the Celts, but he didn’t play last February because of the abdominal strain that cost him nine games. 'You don’t know until you get there,' said coach Doc Rivers of Garnett’s hyper forecast before the Celtics’ 98-80 win over the Pistons last night. 'With Kevin, he walks that line every night. Usually it’s a gut feel. Sometimes I’ve been wrong. I’ve called him in the office and he’s completely calm even though he looks ... well, calm in Kevin’s world. But then there’s times that he needs to be talked down some. You just don’t know until you get there and read it. I think it’s nice that he’s been there once. He didn’t play, but he’s been there.' The coach will be on guard because of how intense Garnett was last year. It wasn’t until he actually walked out onto the floor for a pregame moment to acknowledge the crowd that anyone knew he’d leave the dressing room."

Janny Hu, San Francisco Chronicle: "Injured guard Monta Ellis had the screws in his surgically-repaired left ankle removed Wednesday in Birmingham, Alabama, and is expected to rejoin the Warriors after next week's East Coast swing. Team officials did not set a date for a return to basketball-related activity, though Ellis' agent, Jeff Fried, has said he anticipated a Thanksgiving week start."

Israel Guitierrez, Miami Herald: "For most, being left open on an NBA floor is the result of an offensive play properly run. Udonis Haslem sees it a bit differently. To him, being left unaccounted for is dismissive. He used to consider that so insulting that he once berated Don Nelson and the Warriors' bench for ignoring him time and again — even though Haslem was benefiting from it with a huge game. 'It gets old after a while,' Haslem said. 'Basketball is supposed to be 5-on-5. People mix all those junk defenses. To me, I feel like that's kind of cowardly. Just play ball.' He will take the wide-open shot. But that doesn't mean he has to like it."

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