New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith has been suspended five games by the NBA for violating the anti-drug program. The NBA made the announcement Friday, continuing a string of off-court news for Smith, the reigning Sixth Man Award winner. Two days after winning the Sixth Man Award, Smith was suspended one game for elbowing Boston Celtics guard Jason Terry in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series. Upon his return, he shot just 29 percent (34-of-117) – including 13-of-50 from 3-point range
The Toronto Raptors are a team in flux. Gone is President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo and many of his front office staff. Now in charge – strangely enough – is his one-time understudy in Toronto, Masai Ujiri, fresh off an exceptional run as GM of the Denver Nuggets. Ujiri was lured away from the Nuggets by new Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke. Ujiri and Leiweke represent not only a changing of the guard for the Dinos but potentially
The New York Knicks were stuck in neutral while other Eastern Conference teams improved mightily this offseason. Are they still No. 2 as they were last regular season? Probably not. After a disappointing loss to Indiana in the Eastern Conference semifinals that denied them a shot at the NBA champion Miami Heat, the Knicks essentially replaced Chris Copeland, Jason Kidd and Steve Novak with Metta World Peace, Beno Udrih and Andrea Bargnani. The team also re-signed J.R. Smith, Pablo Prigioni and Kenyon
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…]
After weeks of knowing that the trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry would join the Brooklyn Nets, they were finally introduced at the Barclays Center on Thursday afternoon. While all the reports were out on how everything came about and what pieces were needed to successfully get a blockbuster deal done between the Nets and the Boston Celtics, there was never an opportunity to hear how the trio coming from Boston really felt about what went down. [Read
After years of frustration from Canadian basketball fans, the Toronto Raptors finally pulled the trigger on a trade that would free them from their once beloved big-man Andrea Bargnani. In a package from the Knicks, sharpshooter Steve Novak landed in Canada and was clearly excited for the opportunity to be a Raptor. When the trade was made official on July 10, Novak took to Twitter days later. He quickly updated his Twitter settings, including an updated display picture, bio, location and header. First
Say hello to your new starting center (or should we say old starting center), Mike Brown. Yes, the one that once insisted on launching a 3-point shot in the middle of a tight game for no apparent reason. It was reported on Wednesday, first by ESPN’s Chris Broussard, that the Cleveland Cavaliers and the enigmatic center Andrew Bynum have come to an agreement on a two-year deal filled with incentives. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports has details: “The Cleveland Cavaliers will guarantee $6 million of a possible
There is, of course, the old adage that titles are not won in July (the Heat in 2010 being the clear exception) but several moves were made on Tuesday that could quietly alter the regular season standings out west next season. We’ve also seen shooters get large contracts this week like, it seems, never before. Those are the main two storylines from the July 2, but there’s a whole lot to get to before we all take a nice break for the