First off, play this video. It is my Christmas present to y’all, and you are guaranteed to laugh at least once while going through this column. And never forget: Laughter kills the blues. You may end up shaking your head, too, because it is an extremely subjective thing to be ranking so many top-tier players who are currently having top-tier seasons. I’ve been saying through the first third of the season that this is a four-man race this NBA season, and the
In his stated effort to upstage Knicks owner James Dolan, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has become him. Like Dolan, Prokhorov desperately wants an NBA championship. Like Dolan, he has pursued that desperation with financial abandon, giving his GM an open checkbook. Like Dolan, he has overspent on overvalued big names. Like Dolan, he has mortgaged his team’s future by giving away multiple draft picks. And like Dolan, he appears headed down the abyss. In two months, the Nets have gone from contenders with
It’s time for people to start taking notice of the rejuvenated Manu Ginobili and his impressive start to the season. San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had good reason to rest Ginobili on Thursday night in Golden State. After all, through eight December games, Ginobili has averaged 14 points, 5.4 assists and 4.0 rebounds. Those numbers are impressive for any bench player. When you consider that Ginobili has put them up in just 22.6 minutes per game, it ranks him among the
Well, it happened. After speculating last week that Sacramento Kings guard Isaiah Thomas would fall out of our Sixth Man Rankings despite his impressive stats, Thomas fell out by default as he was elevated to starter. With Greivis Vasquez shipped to Toronto in the Rudy Gay deal, Kings fans can breathe a sigh of relief that Thomas won’t get screwed out of this year’s Sixth Man Award. [Read more…]
Kevin Garnett accurately described what everyone thought after he and Paul Pierce battled his former coach, Doc Rivers. “It was a bit weird,” said Garnett. You know what’s even more weird? Watching Pierce come off the bench in back-to-back games for the first time in his career and Garnett on a minutes restriction comparable to a role player. [Read more…]
The Sixth Man Award is a complicated one. Historically, the winner has been a super scorer who provides a needed offensive boost to a winning team. But this season might be different. No top team has a true standout scorer off the bench who fits the mold of winners from seasons past. The one exception could be Ryan Anderson of the New Orleans Pelicans. Sure, New Orleans is only 9-9 and has been wildly inconsistent this season. Still, since Anderson’s return to the
Remember that streak of games hot-shooting LeBron James put together last February? Well, he’s doing it again. Much earlier in the season. And for a longer stretch. And if he keeps it up, it will become historic. Because since the ABA-NBA merger, no wing player or point guard has scored this much while shooting this well. Not Dr. J. Not even Michael Jordan. Yes, really. Through the first month of the season, James is third in the league in scoring at 26.2 points per
The guards are still surging in our latest Sixth Man Rankings. After another week of Western Conference dominance, it makes sense that the top five candidates for Sixth Man are coming from West teams. The role of sixth man continues to evolve from the longstanding “super scorer” stereotype into one better designed for all-around contributors. Of the top five players in the rankings, only Jamal Crawford is considered a pure scorer. Three of the other candidates are in the top five in distributing.