Major surprises are overthrowing the longstanding hierarchies in China, as both Beijing and Guangdong – the two dynasties of the Chinese basketball empire – are relinquishing their thrones. With two best-of-five series already at 2-0, the sides of Xinjiang and Guangdong have to climb out of huge holes. Xinjiang is the home of Andray Blatche, Bryce Cotton and Zhou Qi, China’s next NBA player; and Guangdong for many years has been a de facto equivalent to the Chinese national team, captained
In the land of the NBA expat, the standard being set by the Golden State Warriors has not gone unnoticed — and in a few cases, it has nearly been matched. No team has duplicated what the ‘Dubs have done in the NBA, opening 24-0 en route to a 30-2 record that they took into their Saturday night matchup with the Denver Nuggets. But behind Andray Blatche, Andrew Goudelock and future lottery pick Zhou Qi, the Xianjing Flying Tigers are not all that
As I said recently on NBC Sports Radio and in my previous free agent rankings — there are still bargains to be had on the free agent market. Just ask the New York Knicks, who landed Kevin Seraphin on a one-year, $2.8 million deal. Seraphin was No. 1 on our previous free agency rankings. Seraphin turned down several significant offers for a better chance at playing time with the prospect of cashing when the salary cap spikes next summer. [Read more…]
Free agency shopping at the end of July is similar to waiting all month for the giant coupon booklet from your neighborhood grocery store. With that in mind, which players will be this year’s bargains on the clearance shelf? Can you find a scoring guard and a big man off the bench with a $2.8 million mid-level exception? Yes, that is somewhat akin to a two-for-one deal on soon-to-expire potato chips at your favorite grocery store. Some of the unrestricted free agents in
Everybody in the NBA wants top get their hands on the next Hassan Whiteside — a late bloomer who been a force in the middle for the Miami Heat. The guy who may fit that profile is Eli Holman, formerly of the University of Detroit and now playing in China where he finished one assist shy of a triple-double in Game 1 of his team’s first-round playoff series. There are some remarkable similarities between their stories. But whether Holman jumps to
With the Brooklyn Nets slumping despite Monday’s home win over the Clippers, and trade rumors swirling around the team’s highest paid players, at least two Nets players would welcome the return of center Andray Blatche, who spent the first five months of the season in China. Brooklyn, Memphis and Miami are among atleast three teams interested in Blatche, according to ESPN New York, whose Chinese club failed to reach the postseason, making the volatile nine-year vet a free agent. So would Nets players
With a triple-double of 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocks on national TV, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside has shown that impactful midseason signings can be found in the strangest of places. Whiteside was a 2010 second-round pick of the Sacramento Kings. He was waived by both the Kings in 2012 and the Memphis Grizzlies three months ago. In between, Whiteside was playing for Jiangsu Tongxi in the second tier of Chinese basketball. With the regular season of the Chinese Basketball
From NBA bust to CBA folk hero, Shanghai Sharks import Michael Beasley is enjoying an incredible career renaissance in China. The second overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, Beasley is currently averaging 29.4 points and 10.4 rebounds. If that wasn’t impressive enough, on Sunday at the CBA All-Star Game in Beijing, Beasley scored a record 59 points. There are few players with quite so hot a hand as the former Miami and Minnesota forward, and given that he will soon