Timofey Mozgov “would like” to reunite with David Blatt, become LeBron’s teammate

Timofey Mozgov is in Saint Petersburg where he conducts his yearly tournament for kids, TM25 Cup, supported by the NBA.

Photo from Twitter feed of @Sharifyanov

 

At the event, Denver Nuggets and Team Russia center has talked to a crowd of Russian journalists, and Boris Khodorovsky of ITAR-TASS reported what Mozgov said about the rumored possible trade to Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, it would be interesting to play for David Blatt’s team. I know his coaching philosophy well, after working with him on Russian national team. The thing you like about Blatt is that he always sets the highest goals for himself and for the team.

 

Mozgov said he has no plans to force his way out of Denver.

So far all the talks about trade to Cleveland are just rumors. My last season in Denver was good, and to try and do something to leave the team wouldn’t be smart.

 

Taras Barabash of R-Sport quotes Mozgov on possibility of playing with LeBron James:

I would like to play with LeBron. But even though playing for a contender is cool, you got to understand that I want to be part of the team and not to just join a contender and ride the coattails, being a burden.

Photo by @Sharifyanov

Timofey Mozgov blogs about double-double, broken finger, free agency

Timofey Mozgov has blogged at Sports.ru after the regular season finale where he got to play after the long wait.

Here’s my quick translation of his post in its entirety – up to the last smiley.

Hi! I’ve got something for you that can serve as a small reason for joy. Today – a new blog post and yesterday with an actual play during the game between Denver and Suns. Now I have a second double-double of my career overseas – 10 + 10 in 20 minutes. And it feels good, of course, I will not lie to you))

But I’ll tell you this right away: this is just stats, and I am not going to jump with happiness. I think it’s clear. This is just one game (and not the most important for us) and in fact it was just my second real chance this season. I’ve said it many times that I know what I’m capable of and I’m hungry for the game action. And, as you should agree, double-doubles are so frequent in this league.

So that was another reason why I didn’t even want to blog today. Didn’t want it to look like Tima, who used to be silent, got happy now and when the slightest opportunity presented itself, right after taking the shower, ran to grab his tablet and started to boast about it:)) Well I didn’t do anything outstanding today! And it’s unlikely to change the overall situation too…

So I wanted to wait a little bit – when the first round ends, for example. Or to blog about the season in general. But my team insisted on it. Guys told me that I already had enough reasons to make my readers happy. And there will always be enough time in future to sum up the season. So if you are happy to be reading this, then you should thank the guys as well:)))

The morning before the game Javale didn’t feel very well – he was suffering from stomach pain. But in the end he played despite it. Kosta played too. Almost his regular minutes. So where did my almost two entire periods of playing time come from – only coach knows that.

As it normally happens, nobody told me anything beforehand. The coach just picked me up from the bench in the second quarter, and that’s it. There was no personal assignment either. All in all, I think I did alright in the end. Other than my field goal percentage which could be better, and that I injured my finger.

It’s the thumb, on my left hand. This means, not the shooting one. Luckily. There was some commotion and something happened there when I battled with Haddadi. I can’t even recall what exactly. Even more so because I didn’t feel any strong pain. Maybe it happened because of game emotions, but I kept on running around right until the siren.

It was only in the locker that I saw how swollen my finger was and felt a strong discomfort. Doctors did an X-ray. It turned out it was a fracture. Not exactly a complex and scary one. In this little special cast here I can keep on practicing and of course I am ready to play. During the breaks in gym work I’ll be taking medicine and going through procedures.

In general, I want to say, we had a really good season. It was steady, on the same good level throughout. We have polished our playing style as a team, many among us got the extra experience, somebody has found their place and role on the team, and here is the result. Which is even unique in some way. For example, a 23-game winning streak at home!

Right now we start to get ready for the playoffs. I’m sure it’s going to be interesting:))

And it’s going to be not less interesting during the offseason.

The media are writing about it, you are discussing it and I am asked to comment on the information that Denver can make a qualifying offer to me. What can I say about it? If they are writing it, then, maybe, it may really happen. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Especially since it wouldn’t be like they are going out of their way if they did this. I think the reasons for this are clear.

So, if the offer comes, nobody (me and my agents for sure) will be surprised. But looking at the big picture, no matter if it happens or not, my future will be set after July 1. This is the date after which I will be able to receive offers from any club in the NBA. This is when we are going to see the full picture. During that period we are going to decide what we should do.

As always, here’s a bit of something unrelated to basketball.

I’m tired of the winter!:)) I don’t like it too much as it is. And here – just look at this: it’s April outside, and we still have this going on behind the window.

It’s great that the parents came for a visit for a couple weeks. Mom and dad got to see Lyokha who has grown up a bit, we went to the Colorado mountains, showed them the Red Rocks. So both they and we got recharged with positive energy.

Oh, and at last I got to see a hockey game in Colorado. I used to go to SKA games in Saint Petersburg, then in New York, and now here. If not for my dad, I don’t know how long it would take. And here it all coincided – the practice was in the morning, game in the evening and dad who really wanted to go there.

Our team lost. Maybe because Semyon was injured. Though they are clearly not the strongest team in the league right now. But anyway, my dad was really happy, and I liked a lot too.

That’s all for now! Let’s wait for the playoffs to tip off! See you again!:))

Mozgov blogs about Dwight and who pays when the Nuggets eat together

Timofey Mozgov has updated his blog at Sports.ru.

Here’s my quick translation of the entire post:

Hi everyone! It’s nice after all the hard work in practice to eventually return on the court. First in the game against the Lakers and then Atlanta too. A lot of people make jokes already that LA are my “clients”. I guess there’s some small amount of truth to it: I really play against them often and a lot.

And coaching staff backs it up too. I knew it beforehand that I would step on the court. The “headquarters” informed me about it in the morning. Even though they made a remark that normally they don’t like to let players know in advance. But we were about to face such a strong frontcourt that we had to throw all forces to fight it. They told me to get ready.

I’ll say it once again: I was happy to get some considerable playing time after all. But to tell the truth, I didn’t expect to get so many minutes. Even though – once again, as I already said – physically I’ve been ready for a long time. Foot doesn’t bother me anymore; I’m working hard in the gym: both before the team practice and after it.

Though I already blogged about this training regimen that I have. I won’t repeat myself.

I think I played alright. Alright in a sense that no practice (even if it’s very long and hard) can replace a real game for a basketball player. So of course I don’t get to play enough now. From this stems the stark realization that everything could (and should) be much better.

By the way, here’s what I want to note separately. Finally – in my third NBA season – I got to face Howard on the court!:))) Well, it’s clear why they call this strong, aggressive and quick guy the best center there is. He is gifted with all these qualities in abundance. Actually, you already know his strongest traits.

Of course, he did his thing great against us. Let’s call things by their names: he buried us. Though, despite all that, there were some moments where you could realize that even “superman” is human. He, too, can be not perfect, he can feel the pain and it’s possible to compete with him.

But Bryant wasn’t on his best game. And our defense didn’t let him go too. But, as you can see, it didn’t change the general situation…

I got my second real chance this season – not garbage time, but a good number of minutes – during the game against Atlanta. Once again, I knew it beforehand that I would play. Kosta felt some stomach pains in the morning and wasn’t even listed for the game.

As you can guess, having tasted blood again versus LA, my desire to play exceeded even my normal desire that is always strong. So the “hungry and mad” Mozgov was very active under the rims. With all that, I can’t say I had dramatically changed the way I play and so those 13 rebounds came right away. I was just doing my job, and a good deal of what I tried ended well.

For now, to my regret, main thing didn’t work out: using two chances out of two didn’t bring me a stable spot in rotation. So I continue to patiently work hard.

And to finish, here’s something not basketball-related. Lyokha is almost walking on his own already. He’s even more confident standing on his feet now. Alla and I can’t be happier looking at the new games that he comes up with.

By the way, about the other “games”.

We still go out to eat together with the guys. So, here’s a fun thing that we do. When it’s time to pay on receipt, we take all our credit cards and give it to the waitress. She hides it behind the back and we start to pick the “lucky ones”. The last credit card that’s left is used for payment.

Guys are already looking at me sideways – I’m always out during the “qualifying” rounds for probably a year already. I have to counter it, “When I lose, it’s going to be no problem”. And the most frequent client turns out to be Danilo:))

That’s all for now. Keep waiting for the new posts.

P.S. Sorry that I’m not updating my blog often. I don’t want to write about the mundane stuff, and there aren’t many other causes. I hope that it’s just for now. Oh, and by the way – check the comments too, which you can leave now in the guestbook at my website mozgov.pro )))

Timofey has also joined his readers in the comments under the post for the first time and answered a few questions before leaving for another practice. There, he said normally eating together are Koufos, Gallinari, him and “Felipe, one of the trainers”.

Follow me on Twitter for more Mozgov updates.

Nuggets rookie hazing involved condoms, tampons and Hello Kitty backpacks

It is well known that this season Denver Nuggets rookies had to dougie on the court after a public scrimmage, but that was only a part of the story.

On December 26, Timofey Mozgov wrote this on his personal blog at Sports.ru:

After the morning practice team captain gave every rookie a gift that was indeed worthy of a captain — these exact backpacks)) And then he used his captain word and ordered that the rookies never part with them during the entire season. Also he has put some interesting content inside, so that the guys wouldn’t be too sad.

 

 
The guys, of course, were taken aback at first, almost got depressed and felt terribly shy. And we were cheering them up, teasing them, so to say. I am lucky, after all – nothing like this was happening last year… Or am I not?! I didn’t get a backpack…))

The photo features a Hello Kitty backpack and its content is easily recognizable.

About two weeks later, on January 6th, Mozgov blogged about a Nuggets road trip and wrote:

By the way, rookies are still carrying the backpacks that captain gave them everywhere they go. There are strict rules about it here, so there’s no way to dodge)))

Obviously pranks were frequent in the Nuggets locker room early in the season. Here’s one by the team staff: each international player got a national flag placed next to his name on the locker.

This is a flag of Lithuania, where Ty Lawson was playing for Zalgiris Kaunas during the offseason. Abroad, Lawson “had bubbly guts” the whole time and lost weight, and also had a teammate who would smoke a cigarette after a game.