In a teleconference last week, we asked NBA analysts Chris Webber and Greg Anthony to pick a Western Conference team which missed the playoffs last season but will make the playoffs this season. “Dallas, mainly because of Dirk Nowitzki,” Webber said. “He’ll be back healthy. What he does, with spacing, getting guys involved … We take his game for granted.” “I would go with the Pelicans,” Anthony said. “I think that’s a team that could make sizeable leaps and surprise a lot
This is the time of year where everyone and their mothers offer up a series of fearless prognostications about the upcoming NBA season. Here’s what I can tell you about my skills at predicting the future. If I was really any good at it, I wouldn’t be wasting it on the NBA season. And neither would anyone else. I am not reading tea leaves, interpreting tarot cards, gazing into crystal balls, holding seances, poring over analytics or buying classified information on the
With NBA training camps now open, every team will be using October to try to answer questions about their rosters. But for teams with injured stars, the questions have greater significance. Like, how long can the Lakers stay afloat without Kobe Bryant? Is Danny Granger going to come off the bench for the Pacers? Are the Warriors really a better team without David Lee? No less than nine current or former All-Stars will start the 2013-14 season with doubt swirling around them because they
Kevin Durant is a great player. He deserves a great owner. Durant may not know it yet, but he is becoming this generation’s Jerry West: a fantastic talent and class act whose career was marked by finishing second. In 14 seasons, West twice finished second in scoring (also winning once). He never won an MVP award, finishing third once and second a record four times. And he lost the NBA Finals seven times before finally winning in his 13th season. In six seasons,
With transactions reduced from a torrent to a trickle, the NBA is now truly in its offseason. Yes, there’s still a few prominent names out there – Lamar Odom, Corey Maggette and Tyrus Thomas among them – but no one who is going to crash our list of the top 10 free agent signings. [Read more…]
Whenever the NBA and the Players Association negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, the media – including Sheridan Hoops – goes to great lengths to understand and explain its rules, exceptions and nuances. But since the first wave of players began making the jump from high school to the NBA in the mid-1990s, the premise of every new CBA could be summed up in six words: To save the owners from themselves. Restraint never has been the collective strength of NBA owners. In
With transactions reduced from a torrent to a trickle, the NBA is now truly in its offseason. Yes, there’s still a few prominent names out there – Lamar Odom, Antawn Jamison, Corey Maggette and Tyrus Thomas among them – but no one who is going to crash our list of the top 10 free agent signings. [Read more…]
Like three to make two, the 10-second violation and low-top sneakers, the $30 million NBA player may become a thing of the past. A handful of stars have approached and even crossed the magical monetary mountaintop, which is something when you consider that the collective bargaining agreement has a maximum salary restraint. Michael Jordan – who else? – was the first player to make $30 million in one season, negotiating about an 800 percent raise after the 1995-96 season. That was Jordan’s