The NBA’s trade deadline is just a week away, and practically every team will be looking to improve its roster or its payroll over the All-Star break. Many of the media reports will come from the perspective of the teams and the executives in charge of making the trades, and few will detail how the players manage, cope and deal with being the subjects of these rumors and reports. Over the last few weeks, SheridanHoops spoke with nine NBA players on six different teams,
Adding some small degree of excitement to what would have been a dull, mundane preseason game at the Barclays Center, the league conducted an experiment with the Celtics and Nets playing 11-minute quarters on Sunday. In addition to the one fewer minute per quarter, there were two media timeouts in the second and fourth quarters instead of the normal three. The shorter 44-minute long game, the first one in NBA history, ended in a pleasant one hour and 58 minutes with the Celtics
In all their years in the NBA, the Boston Celtics had only put together six seasons worse than the one they muddled through in 2013-14. The shattered remains of their former glory were cobbled into a team built to lose games and win ping pong balls in a draft allegedly top-heavy with potential franchise players. But 25 wins and the sixth pick later, the Celtics are setting forth on the slow journey upward. Their coach, Brad Stevens, having suffered through the
The departure of LeBron James as a free agent earlier this summer left a void for the Miami Heat to fill. With the leagues best player taking his talents back to Cleveland, there isn’t really a viable way to replace such a loss. Determined to remain competitive the Heat retooled by adding new free agents, but they’ll also be relying on their returning stars to contribute in a major way. [Read more…]
It can be tough to compare teams based on nothing but dominant victories. Danny Ainge’s scouting method is often cited: the best game, the worst game, and somewhere in between. At their best, Team USA demolished Finland, winning by a ridiculous margin and throwing down ridiculous dunks. At their worst, they struggled to get anything going against Turkey’s slow-it-down strategy. At Spain’s best, they have two of the world’s best bigs in the Gasol brothers, and an ultra-canny backcourt led by Ricky Rubio,
This is the part of the summer when we wait … and when waiting can be divided into short waits, long waits and really long waits. In Category One, it’ll be a short wait before the Kevin Durant-to-Washington speculation takes on a life of its own. KD will be in Team USA training camp beginning Sunday, and he’ll be bombarded with questions about what he plans to do when he becomes a free agent in 23 months. The Wizards are a
Lance Stephenson is a free agent enigma and a polarizing topic amongst league executives. Stephenson, a tantalizing talent who led the league in triple-doubles (5), showed signs of immaturity during the playoffs with his antics toward LeBron James, leaving several executives split on his free agency value. The general consensus is Stephenson could command a yearly salary ranging from the $5.3 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to as high as $10 million. The mid-level exception indicates concern over Stephenson’s maturity level, while the $10
We waited all season for an Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers. Yet when the time came for the two talented teams to finally meet in late May, only Miami showed up. Indiana finds itself down three games to one, and more blame is being passed around than a Benghazi hearing on Capitol Hill. A lot of that blame is being placed on the referees, an easy target since Miami took twice as many free throws