NBA news roundup: Glen Davis expected back before October, Nene to have unrestricted minutes

Glen Davis is expected to resume basketball activities by the end of the month after breaking his foot in January and undergoing two surgeries to correct the injury, Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports reported on Monday.

Davis was having a solid season with the Magic, averaging 15.1 points and 7.2 rebounds a game, before breaking his foot against the New York Knicks on Jan. 30. He had surgery the next day and another procedure over the summer to correct a screw that had come loose.

After Nene spent last season on a minutes limit, Washington Wizards coach Randy Wittman doesn’t expect any restrictions for his forward this year, J Michael with CSN Washington reported on Monday.

Nene suffered from plantar fasciitis much of last season, and has also dealt with injuries throughout much of his NBA career. This past season, Nene appeared in 61 games but only logged 1,659 minutes for an average of 27.2 minutes per game. That is his lowest average since 2006 (excluding his injury shortened 2007 year).

As Mike Prada with Bullets Forever writes, due to Nene’s contract and his importance to the team, don’t be surprised to see Nene’s minutes reduced in some sort of fashion this season.

It wouldn’t be wise for the Wizards to overextend him in a nervous attempt to maintain playoff positioning in the standings. That’ll only end in Nene’s body breaking down when the Wizards need him most.

The official position is that Derrick Rose is still rehabbing his injured knee, but thanks to the marvels of modern technology there are plenty of examples of Rose looking healthy on the court as he toured Japan over the weekend, Blog a Bull reported on Monday.

As each video showed, Rose had no problems getting the crowd excited as he pretty easily demolished each opponent in a little game of one-on-one. When Rose had enough of the basketball players, he even took some time to take on samurais and ninjas.

Even with the arrival of Andrew Bynum and the return of Anderson Varejao, Tyler Zeller shouldn’t be forgotten among the Cleveland Cavaliers roster, Fear the Sword posted on Monday.

Zeller went from developing as a potential backup center to being thrust into the starting role after Varejao went down with a season ending injury. Rather than having the luxury of developing at his own pace, Zeller struggled to keep up with the pace of the NBA game and his stats showed as he averaged 7.9 points and 5.7 rebounds a game.

As Fear the Sword writes, Zeller is the only true center the Cavaliers have on the roster behind Bynum and Varejao. Bynum isn’t known for being healthiest of players over his career while Varejao has missed significant time the past three seasons due to injury.

If Zeller plays [similarly to how he did] last year, the Cavs could be an injury away from another seriously disappointing season. On the flip side if Zeller is much improved, he could significantly limit the downside for a team that is banking on two centers with shaky injury histories.

The Brooklyn Nets will retire Jason Kidd’s No. 5 jersey on Oct. 17 at a ceremony before a preseason game against the Miami Heat, the team announced on Monday.

Kidd led the Nets to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 and owns the Nets’ franchise marks in assists, steals and three-pointers made. Kidd is second all-time in the NBA for assists and steals, and third all-time in three-pointers made.

Kidd, now the current coach for the Nets, will be the seventh jersey retired by the franchise.

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