The NBA season tips off on Tuesday night with LaMarcus and the Trailblazers heading to San Antonio to take on the defending champs. But before EJ and Kenny start making fun of Barkley for his inability to win the big one, let’s take one last look at how the former Horns did in the exhibition season…

Royal Ivey‘s summer play earned him a spot with the Milwaukee Bucks, although it looks like he’ll typically be coming off the bench to give Charlie Bell a breather. Royal with Cheese played in all eight preseason contests, averaging six points in his 20 minutes per game. His assist-to-TO ratio was a little troublesome for a guard, sitting at 1-to-1.54, but the defensive-minded Ivey did log seven steals.
T.J. Ford started every game for the Toronto Raptors, but averaged only three more minutes per game than his evil time-stealing teammate, Jose Calderon. When he was on the floor, Ford logged 9.4 points and 7.6 assists per game. If those numbers are extrapolated to just 36 MPG, T.J. would be averaging a double-double. While these numbers were put up in the preseason, it might be an early sign that Ford is on the verge of a breakout season.

 

Chris Mihm is back on the floor for the L.A. Lakers after missing an entire season due to ankle problems. Mihm has seen limited minutes in the preseason as he looks to improve his conditioning. The Westlake product started only three of his seven preseason games and played only a quarter of each game, but still managed to put in 5.3 PPG and 3.4 RPG. Look for Mihm’s role in L.A. — and his numbers — to increase as his stamina improves throughout the year.

Mihm’s Laker teammate Maurice Evans is also bouncing back from an injury, as he was hobbled down the stretch in 2007 by knee problems. Mo once again ran into injury problems this October, missing two of the Lakers’ preseason games with hamstring troubles. While Evans did not start in the other five games, he did still log an average of 18 MPG. He is expected to be ready for the first game on Tuesday night against the Rockets, and will be looked to for some critical minutes off of the bench.

LaMarcus Aldridge missed one game about a week ago to do an injury on his right pinky toe, but came back with a vengeance in the preseason finale. The Marcus finished his six exhibitions with a 19.5 scoring average in only 27.3 minutes per game. With Greg Oden out for the season, Aldridge will be relied on even more as a defensive presence in the paint for Portland this year.

Daniel Gibson and the Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers spent some time in the far east this preseason, taking part in exhibitions in China. D-Gib strained his hamstring and only saw the floor for four preseason contests, but played a team-high 29 minutes in those games. He also continued to impress behind the arc, hitting at a 45.5% clip from three-point range. After missing the last two preseason games, it remains to be seen if Boobie will be ready for the season opener against the Mavs.

Kevin Durant is already being leaned on heavily in Seattle, as the rookie led the team in both MPG (29.8) and PPG (18.8) this preseason. The man with the freakishly-long wingspan swiped the ball ten times in his six appearances, but logged only 4.3 rebounds per game as the Sonics toyed with using him at the 2-guard position. K-Smoove was forced to miss an exhibition with an ankle sprain, but is expected to be ready for his regular season NBA debut on Wednesday against the Nuggets in Denver.