What did we learn from the first night of the regular season? The Warriors are still great and the Pistons aren’t bad. After an impressive road win over the Hawks, Detroit is one of four teams to open with a back-to-back. [Read more…]
James Harden finished 2nd in MVP voting last season and was the rock for a Rockets roster decimated by injury. Harden handled the ball, created his own shot and opportunities for others. [Read more…]
The familiar days of Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade leading the shooting guard rankings are over. In fact, Bryant, Wade and Monta Ellis are the only players over 30 to crack our top 10 rankings at the position. James Harden, Klay Thompson and Jimmy Butler are the new – and younger – top dogs at the position. DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal and Khris Middleton are three rising young stars listed that could vault within the top five by next season. Shooting guard is thin
Every four decades, the basketball galaxy is in alignment for the Golden State Warriors. And on cue, last season was one of those moments as the Warriors won their first NBA championship since the days of Rick Barry 40 years ago. Last season’s Warriors were a talented group, particularly deep and immune to significant health problems, which they managed to avoid. In a breakthrough season, Stephen Curry achieved NBA Most Valuable Player status. Even their postseason matchups seemed to be hand-picked. And they did all of this with a rookie coach, no less. Now comes
The NBA is currently mid-stage in one of its follow-the-leader transitions. This era has been in process for several years. Previously it was called position-less basketball; today we’re calling it small ball. [Read more…]
The 2014-15 Houston Rockets were a feel-good story, shaking off major injuries and muted preseason forecasts to become the Western Conference’s second-best team. The 2015-16 Rockets, on the other hand, shouldn’t come as such a surprise. Following the bold offseason trade for former Denver point guard Ty Lawson, the story in Houston is back to being about what is, rather than what might be. In other words, GM Daryl Morey is finally “all-in” on his roster. While Lawson fills the obvious need of
After an extended vacation along with a visit to Team USA camp in Las Vegas alongside Sheridan over the summer, my NBA gambling column is back. We absolutely NAILED last year’s NBA Championship winner (at 14-1, too, I might add) and I’m excited to be back on deck for the 2015-16 season. I’m going to kick things off with a series of preseason gambling predictions. We’ll cover all the major awards, division winners and even find where the value lies in the NBA Championship and conference winner markets.
It pays to be patient. That is the financial lesson of the NBA’s offseason, which saw the biggest pay raises go to players who turned down contract extensions and gambled on themselves. Among the top 11 pay increases this summer, five went to players who felt like they were being lowballed by their teams — and proved it when they cashed in with bigger deals as restricted free agents this summer. Chicago’s Jimmy Butler, Orlando’s Tobias Harris, Detroit’s Reggie Jackson, Oklahoma City’s Enes