Since the beginning of the season, Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers have been all about being written off by the media. No one thought the Blazers would come anywhere near making the playoffs, let alone being a top five team in the Western Conference. Lillard, who has clearly had an All-Star season, wasn’t voted in by the coaches to be at All-Star weekend. Naturally, there aren’t too many outside of Portland who believes the Blazers have any shot at moving past
With just 10 days left in the NBA regular season, there’s still a lot to be determined and decided. Records can be broken, playoff fates will be sealed and the season will be mercifully be over for several hopeless teams around the league. With the regular season reaching its last days, we give you the 10 most important questions that needs to be answered before the postseason begins. It’s going to be YUGE. [Read more…]
It’s been just over three weeks since the NBA trade deadline and 10 days since the March 1 buyout deadline that saw numerous players joining playoff contenders. So which acquisitions are soaring and which are flailing? We’re going to look at 15 players who were recently acquired via trade or signing and sort them into three categories: Good, Bad and Obscure. The good players are making positive impacts on their teams, the bad players just haven’t been faring very well on their new
In the brave new world of basketball analytics, trends and modules, a simpler stat surfaced this week that was utterly inexplicable. Two teams have lost 10 games this season in which they led after three quarters. One is the league-worst Philadelphia 76ers, who have no one on their roster who knows how to win a game. The other is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have two of the supposed best closers in the game in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. [Read more…]
When the biggest names on the move at the NBA trading deadline are Brandon Jennings, Jeff Green and Markieff Morris, it is a bit of a letdown. There is legitimate reasoning behind last week’s relatively quiet activity. This summer marks uncharted territory for NBA teams and their general managers, none of whom want to be the guy who shoots before aiming. The salary cap is going to jump from $70 million to more than $90 million this summer. That is an unprecedented
There is one way — and only one way — for Phil Jackson’s reign of error with the New York Knicks to take a turn for the better. It is time to trade Carmelo Anthony. Period. The Knicks haven’t won with Melo. They aren’t going to win with Melo. They need to turn their one desirable veteran asset into the tools that will enable a viable rebuilding effort centered around Kristaps Porzingis. And they have to make peace with the fact that
It’s time to get serious about the Golden State Warriors and their pursuit of 73 wins. Even before the advent of the 24-hour news cycle required media members to have an ironclad opinion 10 minutes after something happened, I have always been a more patient sort. Yes, a record 24 straight wins to start the season got my attention. But that is less than one-third of an NBA campaign. Over the course of 5 1/2 months and 82 games, teams slump. Teams
When you think of JaVale McGee, you probably think of all the goofy things he has done on the court to earn the unofficial title of the clown prince of TNT’s “Shaqtin’ a Fool.” But you should probably think of McGee in a different way. McGee is the only active NBA player from Flint, Michigan, a city that has produced fellow players Charlie Bell, Mateen Cleaves, Jeff Grayer, Roy Marble, Morris Peterson, Glen Rice and Trent Tucker. And if someone doesn’t do