ATLANTA — James Harden is warming up to this whole ‘foundational player’ thing. The Rockets’ new $80 million man spoiled Atlanta’s home opener by dropping a career-high 45 points on the Hawks in Houston’s 109-102 win on Friday night. Not a bad encore to his 37-point Rocket debut on Halloween. Working those mammoth stat lines into wins should be even more encouraging to Kevin McHale, Daryl Morey and everyone else (outside of Oklahoma City) who had a hand in making Harden so
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) The Atlanta Hawks spent the last seven years developing a contender in the Eastern Conference and the last five cultivating a core of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford and Marvin Williams. Dubbed
Remember the 1990s, back when it was trendy to break backboards? Darryl Dawkins broke them almost with regularity, then the league introduced breakaway rims. Shaquille O’Neal brought down entire basketball goals. Eventually, the NBA was prompted into action, implementing rules to prevent such breaks. Well, breaks are back, as we can see in this tweet from Atlanta Hawks reserve Anthony Tolliver. Earlier today, Tolliver’s teammate Ivan Johnson shattered a backboard at Butler’s practice facility in Indiana as the Hawks prepared for Tuesday night’s
The Western Conference, as we’ve become accustomed to, is once again stacked with playoff-level teams. This means one or more of those teams will miss the playoffs due to the level of competition, even if they end up with a winning record. The Mavericks could end up being one of those teams if Dirk Nowitzki, who has a swollen knee that has yet to improve, misses an extended period of time this season. See how the sharp-shooting big man plans
C Tiers The centers wrap up our five part series on fantasy tiers. Yesterday we looked at power forwards, a much deeper position. In fact, we “borrowed” a few PF with C eligibility to make this list more respectable. Point guards, shooting guards and small forwards were ranked previously. Default position settings (those used in a majority of leagues) are PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util, with three Bench spots. That second center spot can be a revolving door all season, even in
We already told you who we believe will make the playoffs in the Western Conference. The picture in the Eastern Conference is a bit different. Just like the West, the East has six teams that are locks to play in May. They are the defending champion Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, who last season weren’t in (a) Brooklyn or (b) the playoffs. You can find whatever real or imagined faults you’d like with those
The exhibition game between Team USA and the Dominican Republic national team at Las Vegas on Thursday night turned into a showcase of the amazing level of talent on the roster of the Americans, as they cruised to an impressive 113-59 victory. Click here to see what Scottie Pippen said about the current team against The Dream Team during halftime. With a limited number of legitimate big bodies on the roster, coach Mike Krzyzewski tinkered and toyed with various ideas, playing Kevin
