Group C Likely To Advance 1. Spain Known as the most powerful basketball country outside of the United States, the winners of the past two Eurobaskets will once again be the favorites to win gold in Slovenia this summer. What is really crazy is that Spain is the favorite to win the tournament, but their list of players absent this year, which includes Pau Gasol, Serge Ibaka, future Chicago Bull and Spanish league MVP Nikola Mirotic, Juan Carlos Navarro, Victor Sada and Felipe
Dario Saric of Croatia withdrew from the NBA draft today, along with 15 other international prospects. Saric was the biggest name of the bunch, the second-best small forward prospect behind Otto Porter of Georgetown, according to our draft guru, Joe Kotoch, who had Saric going No. 15 to the Milwaukee Bucks in Mock Draft 5.0. [Read more…]
Not long ago, Jason Kidd still had two seasons left on his contract with the Knicks. Now it looks like he’ll still be in New York, but not with the Knicks, and not as a player. News came seemingly non-stop over the last 48 hours with Kidd going from a long-shot pipe dream to a potential candidate to an actual candidate to a clear-frontrunner. That’s the way things go in the NBA sometimes. If you take a day off, you could miss
Hello and welcome to the Evening News. As the playoffs continue, we’ll keep you updated every evening. What’s happening today? Here’s the latest from around the league: [Read more…]
We’re into June, which means the playoffs are almost over and we’re coming up on the draft and free agency. Fittingly, today’s blog includes a lot of discussion of those two topics. For a look even further ahead, check out Adam Zagoria’s column on why the 2014 draft is even more exciting than this one coming up. The other big topic right now is the coaching and front office shuffle. Some big names have already moved around, including Masai Ujiri to
In case you missed it, the NBA released the list of early-entry candidates for the 2013 Draft last week. We have a post up from our U.S.-based draft guru, Joe Kotoch, highlighting the names that were conspicuously absent (Marcus Smart chief among them), and we also have a brand new Mock Draft update that takes into account the recent rise of San Diego State’s Jamaal Franklin. As you can see from the big list, there are 31 international prospects — quite a
Will the 2013 draft deliver the next LeBron James, Kevin Durant, or Carmelo Anthony? Absolutely not, but it could deliver a quality starter or a key contributor off the bench. The NBA is a copycat league, and with the majority of the best players in the league playing small forward, it is easy to see why teams are eager to target that position in the draft. [Read more…]
While basketball continues to grow around the globe, there has been an increasing amount of European talent making an impact on NBA teams. The talent pool is quickly spreading, and teams that are able to recognize the talents of the Alexey Shveds of the world are given a distinct advantage. While the 2012 draft had a relatively weak European crop, 2013 should prove to be a much stronger group. While it lacks a sure-fire stud in the mold of Dirk Nowitzki