very high-speed section. Its a great sensation in the ca

Nobody cared who Aron Baynes was until he put on the mask.That may not be entirely true, but, just like the villain from the Batman film, Bane, Baynes has certainly been getting noticed since donning his face mask in October. Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy on Monday called Baynes a starting center in the NBA, and he continued to praise the Australian pregame at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.Arons a really good player, Van Gundy said. I said this after the last game -- were gonna be in a difficult situation by the rules of tying to re-sign him next summer. The bottom line is, hes a starting-calibre NBA center who were very lucky to have as a backup.Baynes is making the most of his opportunities this season while playing a career-high 16.7 minutes per game, mainly backing up All-Star center Andre Drummond. He recorded a season-high 20 points and eight rebounds in the Pistons win over Oklahoma City in his first start of the season. If Aron were getting 30 minutes a night, I dont think hed average 20 [points] but hed be a very, very solid player offensively in this league -- and defensively, Van Gundy said. Hes just a very, very good basketball player.Against the Knicks, however, Baynes was largely ineffective, missing his only field goal attempt in 12 minutes on the floor.Baynes signed a three-year, $20 million deal with Detroit in the summer of 2015 that also included a player option after the second season for which the Pistons were heavily criticised at the time.We were criticised because we paid him too much money, and now hell make about triple next summer and we wont be able to re-sign him, Van Gundy said.The critics -- who always know -- killed us for overpaying him. Right now, we can trade him to 29 teams in about five seconds with what hes making. I dont think we made too bad a deal.Baynes player option after the second-year of his deal makes him an unrestricted free agent once the 2016-17 season concludes. The salary cap spiked from $70 million last season to $94.1 million for the 2016-17 campaign, and it is expected to pass $100 million for 2017-18 -- meaning the burly Australian could be in line for an even bigger payday. Jonathan Huberdeau Jersey . -- Ken Appleby made 32 saves for his first shutout of the season to lead the Oshawa Generals to a 2-0 win over the Belleville Bulls on Wednesday in Ontario Hockey League action. Keith Yandle Panthers Jersey . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. http://www.hockeypanthersofficialonline.com/evgenii-dadonov-hockey-jersey/ . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. Mike Hoffman Panthers Jersey .J. Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Vincent Trocheck Jersey . -- Ryan Blaney provided more evidence that Penske Racings No. Focus on ... Rosberg v HamiltonWe were told the lessons of 2014 had been learned. The relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg was supposed to be mellowing, it was supposed to be getting easier to manage. Sure, the collision at this years Spanish Grand Prix was a disaster from a sporting perspective -- a one-two finish thrown away -- but the maturity shown in the aftermath represented progress, did it not? Despite the high-speed collision, there was barely a misplaced word to the media and a remarkable gesture of goodwill followed at the next round in Monaco as Rosberg moved over to let Hamilton pass.So what on earth happened in Austria?On the final lap of a rollercoaster race weekend for both drivers the illusion slipped and revealed the raw egoistic ambition of two top level racing drivers fighting for the ultimate prize in their sport. That ambition had never gone away but recently both drivers, especially Rosberg, had done a better job at concealing it. In Austria it was laid bare for all to see, and with it the problem Mercedes faces in managing its drivers.Team orders are on the table, but theres the potential for them to do more harm than good to the Mercedes brand. On the one hand the team has a duty to the sport to let its drivers fight for the title, but on the other it is fed up of its two best-paid employees undoing the hard work of 1,500 others. Team orders can come in many forms and it is unlikely we will see the drivers being told to hold position after the final pit stop, or worse, after the first corner. More likely is a return to identical strategies for both cars, making it harder for one to attack the other in normal conditions.In the immediate future, Thursdays press conferences will be fascinating. The stewards and most pundits blamed Rosberg? for the collision, but he is unlikely to roll over and accept that. Following the stewards decision on Sunday he logged on to Facebook Live and repeated -- almost word for word -- his version of events, in which he claimed he was simply using the full width of the track to defend his position.Either driver admitting they made a mistake would undoubtedly ease relations at Mercedes, but its hard to imagine that happening. Instead, Mercedes must balance the two egos of its drivers in public this weekend, while making sure any ill feeling does not trickle down to the rest of the team. Its an unenviable task, but one that will be fascinating to watch from afar.In need of a podiumOne of the biggest surprises of the Austrian Grand Prix was how Max Verstappen managed to outperform Daniel Ricciardo in the race. Once he was ahead of his more experienced teammate, he pulled away from him and was rewarded with the second podium finish of his five-race Red Bull career. By comparison Ricciardo has had an unhealthy dose of bad luck and scored just one podium. As an overall package, few would disagree that the more experienced Ricciardo is the better all-rounder, but he stiill needs to prove it with results.dddddddddddd.In need of pointsRomain Grosjeans return to the points in Austria was proof that Haas is slowly recovering its early-season form. The competitiveness of the car at any given track is still delicate, but the Frenchmans seventh place proved that in the right circumstances with the right tyres points are still very possible. As a result, Esteban Gutierrez must step up and take his first points of the season as soon as possible. On three occasions he has finished one place outside the points-paying positions, but to secure his future at the team he needs to move off zero.WeatherUnsurprisingly, rain is expected over the Silverstone weekend, but the question is when and where it will fall. Light rain is expected on Friday morning and again on Sunday morning, but anybody who has visited Silverstone will know how fickle a forecast can be. Saturday is likely to be the hottest day, with temperatures reaching 23C, but it is expected to dip back under 20C for Sundays race.BettingLewis Hamilton has odds of 1/1 to win his home race while Nico Rosberg is 2/1, making the latter the obvious choice for a bet on Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel is 13/2 in the Ferrari while teammate Kimi Raikkonen is 25/1. A Red Bull victory carries odds of 14/1 for both drivers, but perhaps a more tempting is Felipe Massa at 10/1 for a podium in the Williams.A lap with ... Romain GrosjeanYou start off on the new main pit straight before taking the first turn flat out. Then you come into two hairpins. The first one is more open than the second one, and the second you really want to go for as early as you can. Then you go through the old last couple of corners -very tricky braking here - before going along the old pit straight. Its very tricky here on power, as well.Then you get to the very high-speed section. Its a great sensation in the car here. You stay flat out as much as you can into Maggotts and Becketts, and then downshifting every corner a gear, and then youre onto the Hanger Straight to Stowe corner. This is another tricky one where you enter very quickly. You want to go on the power as quick as you can, but the corner is closing down more than you think. Then you go to the last chicane - heavy braking and its very bumpy. Then youve got your final throttle application with a lot of g-force on the right-hand side and you cross the finish line.TyresAvailable compounds: Hard, Medium, SoftWith the majority of teams choosing mostly the softest compound available - a consistent trend we have seen all year - its clear that the intention of many drivers is to run quite an aggressive strategy, which on a track like Silverstone could result in multiple pit stops. As last year showed, the weather is also a typically British variable, which means that we are likely to be in for an unpredictable race. ' ' '