Kemba Walker is ready to emerge as a leader on the court and in the locker room.

“Coach (Mike Dunlap) is really pushing me to be the leader and pushing me to use my voice,” said Walker, who turned 22 in May. “I’m trying to embrace that role.”

Walker praised Charlotte’s decision to select Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with the second overall pick of the June draft.

“Very happy, very happy,” Walker said. “He was the next best player in the draft (behind Kentucky teammate Anthony Davis) and we had to take him. Not only that. He’s a great person. He’s a great kid. He’s going to be a great teammate. That’s what we need. We need high character guys.”

The New York Knicks became one of 10 team to purchase a multi-camera system from STATS, LLC that tracks every movement in an NBA game.

Carmelo Anthony was the most efficient player in the NBA of all players who drove the ball at least 40 times in camera-recorded games during the 11-12 season. New York scored 1.66 points per possession on those trips. Anthony shot the ball on 55 percent of those drives and drew fouls on 25 percent of them. Anthony shot just better than 50 percent.

But Anthony drove just 3.1 times per game, equivalent to the same rate as Chandler Parsons and Luol Deng.

Anthony also ranked No. 1 on points per possession on all of his elbow touches. Anthony shot 62 percent on shots taken after an elbow touch.

Martell Webster studied the roster of the Washington Wizards and figured that he would have an opportunity to become a spot-up threat with John Wall working off the dribble and Nene receiving attention in the interior.

The Wizards have recently struggled with their perimeter shooting.

Webster's deal with Washington is for one season at $1.6 million.

“We really wanted to improve our perimeter play and Martell is a proven player and he has started a lot of games in this league,” Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said in a telephone interview. “I think he’s a good complement to some of the players we currently have on the roster.”

“I wouldn’t call myself a three-point specialist,” Webster said during a conference call. “I’m more of an all-around player, as far as that’s concerned.”

Webster is also feeling healthy after experiencing multiple back surgeries.

To prepare for his rookie season, Donatas Motiejunas is practicing against Omer Asik.

“So that’s the thing: When you go up against that kind of player you see really quickly where you are and what you need to work on,” Motiejunas said of lining up against Asik. “He’s already earned his reputation so I need to check myself. I need to learn how to deal with these kinds of players because that’s what I’m going to be facing every day.”

Motiejunas -- who was taken 20th overall by Minnesota in the 2011 draft – said he is picking up lessons from Asik that will aid in his development.

“My quickness is my weapon, but I knew that already,” he said. “But he’s also fast so I just need to outsmart him. I need to be more consistent and a smarter player. Just coming from Europe, there are things I learn every day about the NBA and I have to work to figure out how to adjust and adapt my game.”

The Suns are placing greater emphasis on player development, with former NBA guard Lindsey Hunter heading up the team's efforts after a season as a college scout.

"We're trying to put together a system where we're no longer looking for outside influences to create a better product," Hunter said. "We want to do it right from the interior. A lot of people say, 'You got to go get better players,' which is true. But you have to make what you have better and we're serious about it now."

Lance Blanks intends to hire a young former NBA big man and make the staff available to players at all hours.

"This is really important to me," Blanks said. "It's not something that was needed. What the organization was doing worked. It won at a very high level. Different personnel and situation. This will create a lot of continuity between front office, coaches and training staff."

Kevin Durant plans to take a hands-on approach to Perry Jones’ development as an NBA player.

“Perry and I got close over the last few months after we drafted him,” Durant said. “I was happy that he reached a goal, a dream that he had been wanting for a long time...We have a good relationship and I’m looking forward to taking him under my wing and also learning a lot with him as well. I’m just trying to help him become the best and I’m sure he’s going to try to help me become the best as well. It’s going to be a fun relationship.”

Durant reached out in June, just days after Thunder selected the 6-foot-11 Jones with the 28th pick of the draft.

“He’s a guy that really cares about his team and his teammates,” Jones said earlier this summer. “A lot of people at his level, players like that, most of them care about themselves. It’s very rare to come around a type of player like that who cares about his team.”

Kevin Durant believes he's approaching the prime of his NBA career.

“I’ve heard a few times, in three or four years, this league is going to be yours. . . . I don’t like that. Because I think I’m established now. My time is now,” Durant said. “I feel as though I’ve proved myself these last five years that I can be one of the top players in the league. I’ve got a long way to go to being the ultimate best, but I think my time is now. And I’m starting to enter my prime.”

The 23-year-old three-time scoring champion said he will continue to move at his current pace, with the expectation that he’ll eventually win an NBA title.

“I’m not going to let people define my career as a player thus far if I don’t win a championship,” Durant said. “They are going to say I’m a bust or I flopped or that I didn’t have a good career in the NBA because I didn’t win a championship in the time that they wanted me to do it? I’m just going to keep enjoying what I’m doing and hopefully I get there sooner than later.”

Dwyane Wade doesn't want the Heat to have a similar post-championship season as the Heat experienced in 06-07.

"We want to be a lot more prepared than we were," said Wade. "I have no worries that we will be. I'm a lot better with this group of guys we have. It's a totally different mentality being with the guys we have than then."

The Heat will incorporate Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis into the rotation.

"Our mentality, obviously, is LeBron is one of the best players in this game, hands down, and we want him to continue to be that player," he said. "But, also, you never know who's going to emerge."

Wade also talked about how essential it is that he, LeBron James and Chris Bosh continue to evolve.

"You never know what player is going to start off and be playing a certain way and you switch things up a little bit," Wade said. "But we have that luxury, because we have not only three marquee players, but we have a lot of other players on our team that's very capable, highly capable, and very good."

Mike Brown will give Steve Nash the freedom to direct the Lakers offense on the fly.

“The way that we’ll put it together, Steve’s going to have an opportunity -- he’s going to quarterback the team -- and so he’s going to have an opportunity to come down the floor every possession and in early offense play pick-and-roll if he wants to,” Brown said. “It’s up to him, based on where he decides to take the ball or a call that he makes or an action that he does, it’s up to him to get us into some of the looks of the Princeton offense.

“So again, with him quarterbacking, or making that decision, he’ll still have a chance to get the ball back after he moves or after bodies move. I don’t want to completely give away what we’re trying to do, but in a nutshell, he will have an opportunity to play pick-and-roll at the beginning of almost every play set coming down the floor in early offense. And if not, he can also choose to get to some of the looks out of the Princeton by making a pass or doing an action or doing a call or whatever.”

Nash’s teams in Phoenix and Dallas led the league in offensive efficiency for nine straight seasons from 2001-02 to 2009-10.

The Lakers slipped to 10th in offensive efficiency last season.

Bradley Beal doesn’t want to be handed a starting position because he was a lottery pick and it’s expected of him.

“I want to just come in and try to earn everything. I don’t want anything given to me. I want to earn everything and show these guys that I’m a hard worker and I’m a winner,” Beal said. “You know we have a young team, but we have a few vets as well and I just want to come in and try to set the tone and try to get this team back on a winning pace.”

Beal averaged 17.6 points while shooting 41.7 percent from the floor last month during summer league.

“I can always get better. I just want to be more aggressive and contribute a little bit more than what I did,” he said. “I think overall I had a solid performance, but I’m still pretty happy.”