It has been a couple of days now since the Thunder traded away a big part of their future in James Harden, but that hardly stopped anyone from still buzzing about it all. Who won the trade? Did the Thunder give up on their chance to contend after making it to the Finals last season over money? What does it mean for the Rockets, who suddenly look a whole lot more interesting? Our columnist Chris Bernucca was far from thrilled with the
When the Oklahoma City Thunder traded James Harden on Saturday night, they revealed to everyone that they are a team far more concerned with the bottom line than the top of the heap. Probably a bit ahead of schedule, the Thunder reached the NBA Finals last season. As we have said before, they were a questionable foul call away from opening a 2-0 lead on the mighty Miami Heat that would have cultivated the doubt and derision that has swirled around
(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) Honestly, it’s nearly impossible to list just five reasons to feel positive about the NBA champion Miami Heat. The “Big Three” could take up three spots by themselves, and the fact that
When you want to hear a candid opinion about any given subject, there may not be a better NBA personnel to listen to than Sir Charles Barkley. The Van Gundy brothers are up there as well, but Barkley just has a way of grabbing you by the balls about what he has to say. He will be honest about anyone, even if it’s about his best friend Michael Jordan, who – as you’ll find out below – doesn’t exactly appreciate the
When the 76ers acquired Andrew Bynum from the Los Angeles Lakers, the team and its fans showed unreal support for the center and treated him like a rock star as they expected big things – in a franchise altering way. What they probably did not expect or anticipate, however, was the possible acquisition of damaged goods. This is not to say that Bynum is significantly injured, but he has already missed the entire preseason due to pain in his knee and
It seemed more like an inevitability than a possibility when news about the status of Dirk Nowitzki’s knee broke out earlier in the preseason. There was swelling in his knee, and the German hinted at the possibility of surgery if the condition did not improve. Unfortunately, the swelling continued, forcing Nowitzki to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery on Friday. The procedure will sideline him for about six weeks. Chris Bernucca has the details of the situation. Playing without the heart of the team
Our 24/7 coverage of Kevin Love’s broken hand began with a Wednesday tweet by Jeff Nichols, continued through my update Thursday morning, led off Bruce Wrigley’s column on auction drafting yesterday and has since returned to Twitter. My feeling is, Love will be fine, and if everyone else in your league overreacts to this unfortunate news, you should take advantage. Bruce cautions that an injury to the shooting hand can have lasting effects, so even if he returns sooner than the six-week
There is news out there from my buddy and old cohort Marc Stein that Dwyane Wade’s deal with Li-Ning will pay him $10 million annually for 10 years, plus significant equity in the company. That is some serious cheddar. In case you missed it, we filed a story two days ago about Wade’s deal, noting that Li-Ning does not sell its products in U.S. retail stores … at least not yet. Wade is currently in China now, where many of his teammates