Busy Day In The NBA: With training camps less than17 days away, teams are starting to get last minute business done… The HEAT pulled the trigger on re-signing Chris Quinn, it's been expected that Quinn would return to the HEAT, although he did have talks with other teams including the Orlando Magic. Ultimately Quinn's restricted status and the HEAT's two-year $2 million deal got the job done… Orlando forward Pat Garrity announced his retirement yesterday, Pat got a few small nibbles from teams, but ultimately Pat did not want to relocate his family and the Magic no longer had a roster spot for Pat, it's believed Pat will stay involved with the Magic in some capacity if he stays in Central Florida. Pat also served as the Player's Association's Secretary and Treasurer, a post that will now need to be filled by an active player… Shaquille O'Neal told reporters than when his contract was up in two years he would retire. Shaq has been pretty adamant that he wants to pursue life after basketball, and said he'll spend his final two seasons helping Amare Stoudemire develop into the "best big man in the game", someone might want to point out to Shaq that Amare is already one of the best in the game, but I think we get the point, Shaq is conceding he's no longer the dominate impact player he used to be. It's never a good thing to have a player marking off days on the calendar, especially not one making $20 million per season… The Indiana Pacers still have not found much interest in Jammal Tinsley, and this morning the Indianapolis Star ponders how long the Pacers will stick to their guns on not buying Tinsley out. A league source said yesterday, they thought it was far more likely the Pacers pay Tinsley to sit at home, rather than buy him out and let him land somewhere else… with 17 days to go until camps open the next few weeks will be interesting.

All In And Ready To Run: Count the Orlando Magic as one of the earlier starters. The Magic's core players have been reporting to RDV Sportplex all week and have been running full on workouts. Mickael Pietrus arrived just the other day, with Hedo Turkoglu being the only core guy not running with the team. Turk is playing for the Turkish national team in the EuroBasket qualifier and will join the guys next week. Sources who have seen the workouts say the guys are in great shape, but in even better spirits and have the goal of picking up where they left off. The Magic were 17-8 in their final 25 games last season, a percentage they'd love to continue into 2008-2009. Training camps open for NBA teams on September 29th, with the Magic holding a press only Media Day that afternoon. And for those of you that care, yes, JJ Redick is on the floor running with the guys and making shots. So you can likely rule out a pre-season trade involving Redick, but JJ getting a chance to play this season, seems very likely.

Coach Cassell: Sam Cassell announced that he would be returning to the Boston Celtics for a final season as a player, and let it be known that he'd get a chance to transition into coaching next year as part of Doc River's staff. Cassell has been talking for awhile about his desire to coach when his playing days were over, and it was assumed he'd join Denver for the same opportunity. Cassell's Boston deal is at the NBA veteran's minimum. Cassell was an inspirational locker room presence for the Celtics during the playoffs, and played key reserve minutes down the stretch. PJ Brown on the other hand has told his teammates in Boston that he does not plan to return, but Celtics sources said they will keep in contact with PJ and he'd be welcome to join the team mid-season, much as he did last year, if the itch to play returns for PJ.

The Last Visit To IMG: Wanted to take a few minutes to thank the folks at IMG Academy for taking such great care of us this summer. The biggest reason HOOPSWORLD is able to continue to bring you outstanding news and insight all summer long, is because of the relationships we have with folks like Mike Moreau and David Thorpe at IMG, Joe Abunassar at Impact Basketball and our new relationship with Tim Grover at Attack Athletics. Yesterday, I made my final trip of the season to IMG to catch up with Kings' star Kevin Martin. If you are sleeping on Kevin this year, you need to wake up. Last year Kevin was among the leagues' most efficient NBA players, and tops in a ton of categories. Injuries derailed a nice "All-Star" caliber season something he's better prepared for this season. Kevin looks great coming into camp, being trailed for the past two days by a Kings' TV crew, you may see yours truly giving Kevin some crap as he trained yesterday. Kevin is a notorious gym rat and has found a new passion according to friends with him at IMG. Kevin apparently has fallen in love with the weight room, adding about 10 pounds of core and upper body strength to his wiry frame, look for Kevin to be more durable this year as he knows he's the target. Also getting some work in at IMG was free agent Elton Brown, early this summer we told you about Elton, and were amazed that a true double-double guy was unsigned, even after a dominating showing in Vegas. League sources say that Elton is caught up in talks between three NBA teams that are pretty serious about signing him, and a pretty lucrative European offer or two on the table. When we saw Elton prior to Summer League he looked good, and was very effective in summer league. This week, Elton looked even better, if that is possible, having shed about 15 pounds since summer league. His overall game and attitude are impressive. There was this knock on Elton as being tough to coach, and that's just so hard to see having spent time around him, he's far more coachable than most. Elton is a serious NBA big, and watching him work for a few hours yesterday it's clear this kid is a steal for someone in need of a banging four spot player. If he ends up in Europe that would be a tragedy because I can name 12 NBA teams that need exactly what Elton brings to the table. He is tough, he's physical and he's ready to play at the NBA level today - he's not a project, he's a proven. Another similar story is Daniel Santiago, over the past two weeks we've had two different HOOPSWORLD reporters in to see Daniel for the first time, and both said the same thing before seeing him and after. Daniel is not much to look at athletically, you see him as slow and tall, and then he plays. Daniel is not the quickest guy down the floor but he holds his own, he's not the greatest rebounder, but again he holds his own. You just can't beat Daniel. Daniel has such a complete and polished package, it's absolutely amazing he's not on an NBA team. A prominent Western Conference assistant coach was into IMG this month and said that Daniel was a better player than any big they had on their roster, and this team sports a former NBA All-Star and Olympian in their front court, and has two lottery pick front court players. IMG's David Thorpe labeled Daniel as one of the best centers in the world in his opinion, and at first that sounds laughable, until you see Daniel play. He is easily as good as any starting center in the NBA not named Shaq, Bynum or Dwight. Houston had Daniel in for a workout last week, and it's shocking that they passed on signing him in favor of returning Dikembe Mutombo. It was another great summer in the gym and the folks at IMG took great care of us.

Next NBA Chat: HOOPSWORLD editor Preetom Bhattacharya will take his best shot at answering your NBA questions, whether its trades, roster moves or the countdown to training camp. Pree will get started at 2pm EST on Saturday the 13th, you can swing by now and drop in your questions, or come back mid-day tomorrow and get in on the action live.