Wake up, basketball fans. An unusual NBA Sunday tips off at noon Eastern with the wounded Pelicans visiting Madison Square Garden. Anthony Davis $10700 (hip) is doubtful, leaving Eric Gordon $6300, Ryan Anderson $6200 and Jrue Holiday $5000 as the only scoring threats. [Read more…]
As a personnel man, Stan Van Gundy has broken a lot of the so-called contemporary rules. Since being lured back to the NBA by Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores in May 2014, Van Gundy has not exactly followed the usual NBA blueprint in rebuilding the once-proud franchise, which has not been to the playoffs in six years. Van Gundy has flat-out waived four veterans with fully guaranteed contracts, accumulating nearly $32 million in dead money to be paid over the next five
Last November a young 19-year-old lady by the name of Lauren Hill made headlines for scoring a basket in a NCAA Division III women’s college basketball game. Her team, the freshmen squad of Mount St. Joseph, won the opening tip against Hiriam College and she received the pass leading to an uncontested layup, which she made with her left hand — as her right (dominant) hand had lost some of its coordination due to the treatments she had been receiving for
What do James Harden, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James have in common? They’re all legitimate MVP candidates, of course. But what else does that Awesome Foursome have in common? In a potential playoff series against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, they can all expect to see an individual matchup with Kawhi Leonard. In case you’ve been transfixed by March Madness, the Spurs are looking like a championship contender. Again. If you want some perspective, my son Andrew was born
Teams in the NBA playoff races aren’t the only ones watching scoreboards this time of year. Take the Philadelphia 76ers, for example. The Sixers lost their first 17 games, were mathematically eliminated from the playoff race nearly a month ago and almost certainly will lose 60-plus games for the second straight season. But GM Sam Hinkie and the rest of the Sixers’ front office are tracking the results of other games almost as closely as their own. That’s because Philadelphia could have
The next 36 games will likely determine point guard Reggie Jackson’s career trajectory. Jackson, 24, will become a restricted free agent after the season, assuming he doesn’t exercise a $3.4 million qualifying offer Oklahoma City will almost certainly extend him. How much a team will offer him and what his role will be for the foreseeable future will probably be decided over the duration of the regular season and in the postseason, if the 23-23 Thunder even reach the Western playoffs. Before
There were two pieces of bad news coming out of Loud City this weekend. And there was a disproportionate reaction to the wrong one. There was far too much hand-wringing to the news that Russell Westbrook will be joining fellow Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on his broken right hand. The Thunder are going to survive November without Durant and Westbrook. They have 14 games between now and Dec. 1, the projected earliest return for
Coming into the 2014-15 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder figure to continue to be one of the league’s true title contenders. What’s different? A big free agent signing, the continued development of young talent, and finally a change in the starting lineup. Should everything work out, this could be the strongest Thunder team ever. Hovering over this potential perfect storm is a world of doubt. The Thunder have remained contenders for three or four years now but still have little hardware