At the quarter pole of this NBA season, it’s becoming clear which teams are truly part of the league’s elite and which ones ought to be condemned. In between is a giant squishy middle including some supposedly good teams, particularly … Oh, who are we kidding. Kobe is back! Let’s talk about that. Never has the return of a player to a .500 team with zero shot at a title been so highly anticipated. Sunday, the Lakers got back Bryant, and the
This caption doesn’t exactly fit what the author is writing, but it adequately shows your typical Knicks fan. Pacers fans act oppositely. There are moments in life when we become one with our sofa. We get comfortable, we sink deeper and deeper into the plush fabric, we cover ourself with a blanket or two and we try to set the record for popcorn consumption. (I worked in a cinema when I was 16, and my popcorn skills are
About a month into the season, we’re past the point of Wacky Fun, Power Rankings Style (THE SIXERS ARE 3-0! BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE!) but not quite to the point where teams in the NBA’s middle class start separating themselves or merit full buy-in’s whether positive (Portland) or catastrophic (New York, Brooklyn). Still, a few things are abundantly clear. First, the Eastern Conference is a dumpster fire that will burn until nothing but Indiana, Miami, and a heap of ashes remain. Second,
There is a temptation to put Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker on this list after what we all witnessed last night in Chicago. Think about it: Every NBA team – great, good or bad – had scouts and player personnel in attendance at the State Farm Classic, where Wiggins’ second half-heroics for Kansas outshined Parker’s 27-point effort for a Duke team that apparently has hired Andris Biedrins as its free throw shooting coach. Even the most diehard NBA fans couldn’t help
(Folks, the news of Russell Westbrook being out for a couple months after knee surgery calls for an Oct. 1 revision. We published on Sept. 29, and should have known better. Something big happens early in ever October-CS). The beat brought us to East Rutherford N.J. this past week, where the Nets still have a practice facility (and yes, they still use it, making for a particularly brutal two-river crossing to get to the BK). Jason Kidd was the featured speaker,
The beat brought us to East Rutherford N.J. this past week, where the Nets still have a practice facility (and yes, they still use it, making for a particularly brutal two-river crossing to get to the BK). Jason Kidd was the featured speaker, and he spoke not in black and white – the team’s new colors – but in pink and vanilla. [Read more…]
Quite a month it was, eh? Remember back on July 1 when the moratorium began, there was hope in Lakerland, Metta World Peace was not contemplating another name change and the Bobcats were doomed to hold down the No. 30 spot in these rankings for all eternity? Yes, things have changed. And they will keep changing in August … and then in September when we can get rolling on all the Rajon Rondo and Pau Gasol trade rumors that will keep us
It’s July 23, and a vast majority of the free agents have found homes, meaning that the player movement portion of the offseason has nearly come to a close. So most fans would love to see where their team stacks up, right? Right. [Read more…]