Friday was the final night of exhibition games — hooray! — and this is a huge weekend for fantasy basketball drafts. We’ll take a quick look here at all the results, along with what we learned, if anything. Later today, around 2:00, be sure to return for the debut of our Week Ahead column by Jeff Nichols. Every Saturday afternoon, Jeff — the master strategist behind our Fantasy Basketball Primer — will review the previous week (today, the entire preseason) and
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) The Indiana Pacers went into last season following the NBA lockout hoping to be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. That goal proved too modest for the Pacers as several new faces
Commissioner David Stern wanted to level the economic playing field and curb overspending by the NBA’s bigger markets with the new CBA. Some very useful players got squeezed this summer, while some not so deserving players cashed in major checks. Some guys such as O.J. Mayo and D.J. Augustin did it to themselves. Others such as Devin Harris and Mickael Pietrus were victims of their own circumstances. But at the end of the day, a win is a win, and a loss
Another day passed by, which meant another day of having to deal with Dwightmare. Orlando’s new general manager Rob Hennigan apparently thought there was a chance to convince the malcontent center to stay home. See how Howard responded, and how far the Houston Rockets are willing to go to acquire him in today’s news: Rob Hennigan tried to talk Dwight Howard into changing his mind about wanting to be traded from the Magic, but Howard would have none of it, from
Let the Wood-sanity begin. It has been three games since Mike Woodson took over the coaching duties of the New York Knicks after the firing resignation of Mike D’Antoni. The Knicks have since gone 3-0. Preaching defense and accountability — perhaps the polar opposite of D’Antoni’s style — Woodson has changed the attitude of his players and the results have shown in remarkable fashion on the court. Since going on a nightmare six-game losing streak that saw them fall out of the playoff picture, New
The return of Kyrie Irving (22 points) is great for his fantasy owners and the Cavs. The probable Rookie of the Year showed no ill effects from his recent mild concussion, and made his teammates much better. Semih Erden is suddenly a hot fantasy pickup in many leagues. The big Turk had 18 PTS on 7-8 shooting and grabbed 8 REB, cementing his role as the starting center while Anderson Varejao is out. Coming off the bench didn’t hurt Ramon