On Thursday, the NBA trading deadline will be exactly five weeks away. One team everyone seems to expect to be active is the Los Angeles Lakers, who can’t quite figure out the right personnel mix for Mike D’Antoni’s offense. [Read more…]
Moneyball NBA style hit Memphis as new Grizzlies management started moving and shaking in modern fashion, shopping Rudy Gay before pulling him back when no one offered anyone like Anthony Davis while several teams offered someone like Tyreke Evans. The new owner, internet billionaire-or-not Robert Pera, is shifting power from GM Chris Wallace, who built a contender in the NBA equivalent of a trailer park, to former player agent Jason Levien, who brought in former ESPN stat maven John Hollinger. Talk about
The latest news on Phil Jackson is that he has no intention of ever coaching again. Of course, there is wiggle room there. So at this point, the proper thing to do is turn to one of the most veteran NBA writers in America, Hall of Famer Mark Heisler, for his take on if’/when Phil might return to the NBA, and in what capacity. [Read more…]
As we approach the halfway point, let’s review our preseason predictions. OK, how many of you had the Lakers at No. 11 in the West? I did – well, if you take away one of the ones. Who dreamed that it wouldn’t work with Steve Nash – perhaps the most skilled point guard ever, even if he was 38 – and Dwight Howard – the most dominating big man, even coming off back surgery – joining Kobe Bryant, even at 34, with defenses
Who’s laughing now? For lack of anything better, local writers – of whom I’m one – have used that lords-of-all-they-survey-vs.-dregs-of-the-earth angle for Lakers-Clippers meetings since 1984, when Donald T. Sterling relocated his team from the mid-market paradise of San Diego, only to see it become the Promised Land’s village idiots. At the moment, the royals have traded roles with the village idiots, going into Friday’s meeting to see who’s whom here now. [Read more…]
We’ve been doing an awful lot of writing here at SheridanHoops on the Clippers, and you can’t blame us, eh? There are some former Buffalo Braves fans sitting through storms in the snow belt in Western New York who are in their glory, not to mention a bunch of folks down the road in San Diego who recall the powder blue days of yore. [Read more…]
David Stern, soon to be remembered as the NBA’s greatest commissioner – once he’s retired and everyone stops moaning about everything he does – once joked his ideal matchup was “the Lakers vs. the Lakers.” Actually, a league is best served when both conferences are balanced; when there are glamour teams involved at the end, but also when all teams have a fair chance. To see what glamour teams are worth, look at what the New York Yankees’ long run has done
As we all have seen, the basketball universe in Los Angeles is upside down. [Read more…]