The MVP debate is a great one this season, and as I mentioned in my most recent edition of my MVP rankings: This is one season when things could truly go down to the wire. As in Game No. 82. But what about the other end of the spectrum? Who have been the Least Valuable Players? The guys you may never have heard of, or guys whose weaknesses are well-chronicled but particularly acute this season. Those players’ lack of production should not
Thursday afternoon’s tweet from the Los Angeles Lakers says it all: Kobe Bryant has suffered another injury. [Read more…]
In today’s NBA, the formula for winning in recent years was simple: Accumulate as many maximum-salary stars as you can without breaking the bank. But when you start piling up eight-figure salaries against the luxury tax, the bank breaks pretty quickly. So teams fill out their rosters with minimum-salary veterans. And if you look at the top of the NBA standings right now, many teams are getting very productive seasons from veterans signed to minimum-salary deals. The Chicago Bulls added Pau Gasol to Jimmy
For Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, it was another summer of dreams and possibilities after a relatively disappointing 2013-2014 season that ended in dramatic fashion in the first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers. During the offseason last year, there was some talk about the possibility of Dwight Howard having interest in joining the Warriors. It was unlikely (and never materialized), but the interest alone elevated the team’s status to a destination that was slowly but surely becoming
The Los Angeles Lakers received some bad news on Friday when it was announced that guard Nick Young may miss 6-8 weeks after suffering a torn radial collateral ligament in his right thumb. It apparently happened in practice while he was trying to guard Kobe Bryant, which is a shame given the praise that Bryant gave to Young about his defense just a couple of days ago. The Lakers will look to head into the season without a key player once
Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has spent an almost innumerable amount of time (years, months, weeks, days, hours…) focused on rehabilitation while sidelined with injuries. Finally, he is back. At least, that was the hope heading into Monday’s Team USA practice in Las Vegas. Sometimes, hope is all you have. Then, there are the bright spots where your hope is superseded by reality. This could be one of those times. Reaction from those who were at the practice seems to be quite
After coming off one of his best seasons ever and winning the Sixth Man of the Year award over Jamal Crawford in 2013, J.R. Smith spiraled down in the wrong direction last season. Due to off-season knee surgery, Smith had no time to work on his game or stay in shape. Consequently, he started the 2013-2014 season comically bad, scoring 11.7 points on just 32.8 percent shooting in November and 12.4 points on 36.8 percent shooting in December. To be fair, Smith
While all but two other high-profile NBA draft prospects run drills in Chicago for the 2014 NBA Draft Combine, Kansas Jayhawks freshman phenom Andrew Wiggins has found his own way of creating buzz heading into this year’s draft. The internet. Doing standard fitness drills for P3 Applied Sports Science, Wiggins vertical leap results were quite impressive. A photo, posted to Instagram, has since drawn all sorts of reactions on the social media sphere. [Read more…]