So, that Warriors/Hawks game. First of all, it lived up to the hype. One of the most fun regular-season games you’re ever going to find. Second of all, go back in time ten years and tell me that in 2015, the Warriors and Hawks would be the consensus two best teams in the NBA and I’d probably assume they’d drafted a pair of generational superstars or something. Greg Oden and O.J. Mayo, probably. It’s incredible how quickly the NBA has changed. Not in
How did nobody see the Hawks coming? I’m not saying anybody should have expected them to have already surpassed last season’s win total, or have the best record in the NBA, or go undefeated in January, or any of the other feats they’ve managed, but still, they’ve been a perennial playoff team, Mike Budenholzer earned raves last season, and Al Horford missed most of last season. Looking back, it seems almost bizarre that nobody looked at them as even being in the
Some of the most iconic basketball moments in history involve guys playing through injuries. Willis Reed in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals. Michael Jordan’s flu game in 1997. Rajon Rondo dislocating his elbow in 2011, then coming back seven minutes later to play point guard one-handed. It’s absolutely not something anyone should ever expect a player to do, but it’s still hard not to admire the commitment of those who do play through their injuries. If LaMarcus Aldridge can go
There are several schools of thought on rebuilding in the NBA. There’s the Sixers’ style, adding “assets” and losing a ton of games as a not-altogether-undesirable byproduct of getting your young players experience, the Knicks’ and Lakers’ style of losing until you’re free of bad contracts, and then there’s the tightrope-walking act of getting better without ever going through a protracted rebuild, like the Suns have done. As difficult as it is (the Suns, the best success story, didn’t even
Very few bad teams have ever gotten as much attention as this year’s Lakers team has. Then again, very few bad teams have ever been the Lakers. The arguments over whether Kobe Bryant should shoot as much as he does have gotten so fierce that they’ve been the impetus for a Twitter user driving all the way to Temecula on Christmas to fight another Twitter user (who never showed). Needless to say, there’s been criticism of both Kobe and coach Byron Scott since
Josh Smith is one of those players whose praise is always qualified. You know how it goes: “He’s unbelievably talented, but…”, “He’s a matchup problem at both ends, but…”, “He’s a phenomenal finisher at the rim, but…”. The “but” is always the same: he’s not a good outside shooter, and he takes way too many outside shots. There’s one word that comes up more than any other these days when people talk about how the NBA’s best teams win: efficiency. Teams can win
I’ve got to say, it’s a little surreal that Rajon Rondo isn’t a Celtic any more. Not so much because he’d been there forever, though that’s certainly part of it. It’s more that in the time I’ve been doing this blog thing here (coming up on three years), Rondo’s been the player I’ve seen the most rumors about where nothing ever really happened. Until, of course, this week. Public perception of this trade seems pretty consistent: Brandan Wright is pretty good, Jae Crowder
What, exactly, constitutes a fire sale? That’s the question this Billy King quote raises (via Tim Bontemps of the New York Post): Nets general manager Billy King knows his team isn’t playing up to expectations, but he isn’t ready to pull the plug. “My job is to listen to people and to make calls and to make calls back,” King said before the Nets’ 88-70 victory over the 76ers on Friday night at Barclays Center. “Does that mean we’re having a fire sale? Absolutely