When the biggest names on the move at the NBA trading deadline are Brandon Jennings, Jeff Green and Markieff Morris, it is a bit of a letdown. There is legitimate reasoning behind last week’s relatively quiet activity. This summer marks uncharted territory for NBA teams and their general managers, none of whom want to be the guy who shoots before aiming. The salary cap is going to jump from $70 million to more than $90 million this summer. That is an unprecedented
The Houston Rockets said they were not particularly close to trading star center Dwight Howard at Thursday’s trade deadline, instead framing their talks involving the probable free agent in terms of due diligence. [Read more…]
Former NBA Executive of the Year Mark Warkentien once told me a story about this time of the season. Warkentien often traveled with his teams during the season and came to practices both at home and on the road. But not in the days leading up to the trading deadline. While with Denver, Warkentien was on the road with the Nuggets and sitting in the hotel lobby one morning before practice. It was a couple of days before the trading deadline. A
Houston Rockets coach J.B. Bickerstaff called his team “broken” recently, and with the team currently out of the playoffs Dwight Howard could be on the move. However, trading Howard may not be as easy as it sounds in theory as colleague Ben DuBose explained in a SheridanHoops column. Trades talks are heating up with less than a week until the trade deadline on February 18. Another player who may be dealt at the deadline is Phoenix Suns forward Markieff Morris who has wanted
The Houston Rockets are admittedly “broken,” but the fix may still be months away. After losing to Portland in their final game before the All-Star break, the Rockets have lost six of eight and now find themselves below .500 (27-28) as the West’s No. 9 seed. That means that a team that went to the Western Conference finals a year ago and opened 2015-16 training camp with championship aspirations could actually miss the playoffs entirely… depending on what goes down by next Thursday’s
It’s a relatively easy three bucks, plus eternal bragging rights if you finish ahead of Chris Sheridan tonight at DraftKings. Click here to enter, pick an 8-man lineup without exceeding the $50K salary cap, make your first deposit ($5 or more) and cheer on your players. [Read more…]
We have two pieces of news to pick apart today: The announcement that USA Basketball has released a list of 30 finalists for the 2016 Olympic team, and the “non-commitment” from LeBron James regarding whether he will be part of the party. And yes, it will be a party. The games are in Brazil, after all. And LeBron, whose non-commitment is disingenuous at best, does not miss a good party. So let me tell you a little story about the Brazilians. [Read more…]
Congratulations to everyone who keyed on Jimmy Butler $8700 and DeMarcus Cousins last night to win big at DraftKings. Also common to many of the highest-scoring eight-man lineups were Ish Smith and Robert Covington, but “hawks3312” won $15,000 for $3 with the best production from his other four players (Tony Parker, Joakim Noah $5400, Trey Lyles and Julius Randle.) [Read more…]