Last month, while I was working on my Nick Young feature, I asked Wizards guard John Wall what he thought about two of his former teammates’ divergent yet equally successful paths to relevance in the NBA. At the time, of course, Young was enjoying the hottest and most efficient scoring tear of his professional career. Meanwhile, Jordan Crawford, who had essentially replaced Young as Washington’s volume scorer in 2012, had reinvented himself as a facilitating point guard with the Boston Celtics.
To no one’s surprise, Mo Williams says he plans to opt out of his contract for next season and test free agency over the summer. Williams signed a two-year deal last summer worth $5.6 million, with 2014-2015 a player option. He was scheduled to make $2.7 million next season if he chose to opt into that deal. Portland, of course, has been the NBA’s most pleasant surprise this season and is tied for the third-best record in the league at 27-9. Williams has been a
Imagine for a second that this column is a talk show. It’s easy if you try. Now, imagine I told you that Isaiah Thomas and Reggie Jackson were going to be on it. Imagine all the people who would watch that show. Yoo-hoo, oooh. You’d be pumped, right? Isiah Lord Thomas. Zeke. One of the greatest basketball players in history. And Reggie Jackson. Mr. October. The man who hit three home runs in a World Series game?! What a show we’ve got for you tonight! You’d be glued
Just as Reggie Jackson looked to be solidifying himself as the NBA’s best sixth man, Russell Westbrook got injured again. Now, with Westbrook sidelined until at least the All-Star break, it’s unclear whether Jackson will remain eligible to win the award. After all, to even be considered for the Sixth Man Award, a player must start in no more than half of his appearances. Jackson has seven starts in comparison to 25 games off the bench. As of now, his eligibility isn’t
Reggie Jackson is really, really good. Still, not that many people realize it. He’s the kind of player whose impact on his team is completely understated because his per-game numbers fail to tell the whole story. When people think of the Oklahoma City Thunder, they think of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook putting up big numbers and carrying the team to wins. As it turns out, Jackson’s impact on the Thunder’s success is not too far behind. For the season, Jackson is averaging
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
When you write a column about the NBA’s Most Improved Players, things can get emotional. As you can probably imagine, you start to adopt the guys you write about each week. It’s a common theme for those of us who chronicle the Most Improved Players in the league each season, and everyone I’ve ever met who does it feels the same way. OK, so we’re the only ones who do it. But still. You root for your guys, feel a sense of pride when they
Where the hell has the time gone? It certainly flies as the days get shorter and darkness descends in the late afternoon. We’re already through the first quarter of the NBA season and almost at Christmas. The league has seen plenty of pleasant surprises, like the consistently stellar Portland Trail Blazers, and many disappointments, like the entire Eastern Conference besides Indiana and Miami. There have also been a whole host of players who have really progressed in a positive direction over the