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
Over the last couple days, it looked like the Grizzlies were this year’s Nuggets: a playoff team undergoing massive front office shakeup and losing their well-regarded coach. Today, they’re still down a couple executives (though by many accounts, not Masai Ujiri-caliber), but in an unexpected move, it looks like coach Dave Joerger is sticking around. How unexpected? Well, let’s look at a couple pieces that came out earlier today. First, from Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor interviewed Dave Joerger
Watching the NBA games on Christmas, my brother turned to me and asked why the teams were all dressed like that. I told him that the NBA does special uniforms on Christmas, and the sleeves are so people can buy them as shirts and the NBA makes more money. He responded: “okay, but why the big logos?” I didn’t have an answer. I still don’t. All I can think is they were trying to copy the Warriors’ design. That got me thinking: are
It’s been well documented that the New York Knicks are an awful team this season. As it turns out, the Brooklyn Nets may be a notch worse than them after seeing the two teams duke it out on Thursday night. You know it’s bad when Andrea Bargnani is trash-talking to Kevin Garnett. Yes, that happened. The Knicks embarrassed the Nets on their own floor by 30 points and showed that they are at least capable of playing some semblance of team basketball.
BROOKLYN– Brad Stevens is new to the NBA, and the Boston Celtics have had to grow familiar with his brand of coaching over the course of training camp and the preseason. With just about two weeks before the start of the season – and a new era for the franchise – the Celtics seem pleased with the progress the team is making under Stevens’ early stewardship. If general manager Danny Ainge’s plan for the franchise is for the rookie coach to grow
Younger NBA fans have been spoiled by Game 7s. Tonight’s showdown in Miami between the Heat and Spurs is the third Game 7 in the NBA Finals in the last nine years. Prior to that, there had been just one in the previous 16 years. Game 7’s are like tax returns, pizza and sex; they’re never really bad. But they can be really good, and as Game 7’s go, we haven’t had a really good one in a long time. [Read more…]
LeBron James is struggling in the playoffs, and that means everyone is talking about his demise. When the King struggles – which he rarely does – it is always major news. Usually, his struggles stem from the inability of his teammates to step up and make plays. In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, however, that actually wasn’t the case. For once, LeBron didn’t have a whole lot to blame for his poor performance other than himself, and that’s exactly what
Until now, the Brooklyn Nets had been methodical and deliberate about naming a new coach. However, that all changed this week. Sources tell me that the Nets have offered their coaching job to Jason Kidd, their former star point guard and future Hall of Famer who recently retired. The Nets have an interview scheduled with Brian Shaw, but I am told that is just window dressing. They are talking contract with Kidd, who is in the process of building a coaching staff.