Training camps begin in a little over a week, the start of the regular season is 40 days away, and what awaits us this season is going to be special — a renaissance in Cleveland, Kobe’s return in L.A., a chance for the Spurs to chase that elusive repeat championship. But let’s be realistic here for a second. There are 15 teams in the Eastern Conference, and there is a very slim chance at best that anyone other than the Cleveland Cavaliers
In an interview in April 2013, Kevin Durant told Sports Illustrated he was tired of finishing second. Durant was the second player taken in the 2007 draft. He lost in the NBA Finals in 2012. He finished second in MVP voting four times. This past season, Durant took a huge step forward when he won his first MVP award, finally emerging from the shadow cast by LeBron James. But if he doesn’t win an NBA championship in the next two years with
Derrick Rose will be taking the first steps towards returning to competitive basketball when he practices with Team USA tomorrow. The 2011 NBA MVP has struggled with staying on the court since tearing his ACL in 2012. After missing all of the 2012-13 season, Rose finally made his return last year for the start of the ’13-14 season. Unfortunately his return was short-lived as re-injured himself after playing just 10 games. Though some would wonder why Rose would risk further injury playing
Thankfully, the dominoes of the summer of 2014 have begun to fall into place for next season (and beyond). And even though it’s the middle of July, it’s never too early to think about the possibilities that lie ahead on the hardwood. Here are three offensive certainties that will make waves during the 2014-15 NBA season. [Read more…]
The growth of analytics in the NBA has been nothing short of phenomenal. It started with a deeper look at numbers that already were available and produced new and useful statistics such as true shooting percentage, defensive rebound percentage, offensive rating and win shares. With the use of a grid or a matrix, we now have the ability to determine a player’s offensive tendencies and hot spots. For some players, it is quite revealing. For others, such as DeAndre Jordan, it pretty
As NBA free agency dominated the weekend with several big headlines — see LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh — and a avalanche of new signings, teams are now getting down to the nitty gritty of available players and are even looking at which players they can clear off the roster. That brings us to the curious case of Carlos Boozer and the Chicago Bulls. [Read more…]
Tuesday brought forth the beginning of the NBA free agency period and, with it, the subsequent Carmelo Anthony World Tour. The tour began with a visit to Chicago to meet with Bulls staff and players. During his stop in the Windy City, he was greeted by coach Tom Thibodeau, who rode with him to the United Center, where they met general manager Gar Forman and executive vice president John Paxson along with Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah
Wednesday the All-NBA Teams were announced, and with them came a slew of congratulatory, confused and frustrated tweets. Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant led all vote getters as the lone unanimous selection to the First Team, followed by Miami Heat forward LeBron James, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, Houston Rockets guard James Harden and Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul. Much to the chagrin of 124 NBA writers with voting privileges, Chris Sheridan, our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, was the lone vote preventing