In my latest SheridanHoops previews for the upcoming season I have the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks as playoff teams. What about the rest of the league? Can Kobe Bryant carry the Lakers to the playoffs with Steve Nash now out for the season? Is this the year the Chicago Bulls fulfill their potential and reach the NBA Finals? Are the Cleveland Cavaliers the title favorites with LeBron James and Kevin Love joining forces with Kyrie Irving? With that in mind, I joined FOX
The Cleveland Cavaliers made some noise over the summer. Not only did LeBron James make his return home, but he brought plenty of proven veterans with him. Possibly the one with the most to prove of these new components to the Cavaliers is Kevin Love. The proposed trade to send Kevin Love to Cleveland in exchange for the top overall pick in this year’s draft, Andrew Wiggins, could not be completed when the news broke about the parts and places
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 NBA has been considering, or at least entertaining the idea of finding ways for the regular season to be shorter in some way to help prevent its valuable players from being too worn out. So in Sunday’s upcoming preseason contest between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets, the league will try out a 44-minute game for the first time ever just as a simple sample to evaluate. Here are the details, from ESPN: The contest will be four minutes shorter than
With the Miami Heat expected to face off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in preseason action this weekend, it is only right that the storyline between the two teams continues to develop. It will be the first time to two franchises meet since the departure of LeBron James from Miami to Cleveland, and despite being an exhibition match the history between the involved players is evident. [Read more…]
By this point, David Blatt’s journey – from the suburbs of Boston to Princeton to Israel, followed by a Magellanesque coaching journey around Europe, a Euroleague title with Maccabi Tel Aviv and finally landing a head coaching job in the NBA with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers – is well documented. But what Blatt has learned along the way and what he brings to the professional game is more than worth chronicling. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Blatt’s former team, just completed its
CLEVELAND — Walking out of Quicken Loans Arena Sunday night, I had a chance to catch several fragments of conversation. “That place was nuts,” said one man. “I can’t wait for the season,” said a middle-aged woman. Most of the time, though, all I could catch was a name. “LeBron James.” “LeBron James.” “LeBron James.” It couldn’t have been more obvious who the fans came out to see. And, unlike most preseason games, this wasn’t just the diehards (or if it was, there are suddenly a lot
There has been a lot of movement and change in the Eastern Conference this offseason, enough so that the Chicago Bulls have emerged as challengers for the NBA title with a healthy Derrick Rose and an added big man in Pau Gasol. The Cleveland Cavaliers now hold Vegas’ highest odds to win the coveted Larry O’Brien trophy, having reeled in hometown hero LeBron James and All-Star power forward Kevin Love. The Charlotte Hornets are also getting consideration as a challenger in