Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby NEW YORK — If you ask New York Knicks head coach Mike Woodson why the team has gone old, he’ll tell you it’s because young NBA teams aren’t the ones winning the championships. And the Oklahoma City Thunder’s egg-laying ceremony over the course of the last season’s five-game flameout in the NBA Finals give credence to that argument. But when you build a team around over-the-hill veterans, you need two things. First, is a good
The Western Conference, as we’ve become accustomed to, is once again stacked with playoff-level teams. This means one or more of those teams will miss the playoffs due to the level of competition, even if they end up with a winning record. The Mavericks could end up being one of those teams if Dirk Nowitzki, who has a swollen knee that has yet to improve, misses an extended period of time this season. See how the sharp-shooting big man plans
So it’s finally happening: the NBA will punish players for the act of flopping. Will the rule change help clean up the game? Only time will tell, but it’s a start to help distinguish the difference between basketball players and those that may wish to pursue a career in acting. Some will surely be unhappy with the idea of losing money over such a subjective issue – the NBPA is already taking action – but others are quite happy with
(This entry is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) I have often been labeled a Knicks optimist because that’s my personality by nature. Plus, it’s a combination of finding myself having to defend them against what I sometimes find to
Media Day is in full swing for a number of teams, which means we will be flooded with quotes in the next few days or so about championship desires, expectations of making the playoffs (even if your team has no shot at it) and players claiming they can shoot the ball now. We’ll have plenty of that and more in today’s blog. But first, be sure to check out some news on the knee situation of a couple of very important
On Monday, we looked at the three NBA coaches that will be starting fresh with their respective teams. Each member of that trio has their hands full with rebuilding projects of varying sizes. Today, we will take an in-depth examination of another trio of coaches – those who took over during last season and will hold their first training camps with their teams. Keith Smart in Sacramento and Randy Wittman in Washington both will have the opportunity to implement their own schemes
The chatter about the Los Angeles Lakers have been non-stop for much of the summer, thanks to their huge offseason acquisitions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Doc Rivers and Kendrick Perkins aren’t so high on focusing on the Lakers like everyone else though, and are looking forward to another possible meeting with the Miami Heat instead. See what they had to say about the Lakers and the Heat, what lesson Dwight Howard learned from his debacles as a Magic,
Game 2 of the NBA Finals is in the bag, and here we are, left without a basketball game until Sunday night. Luckily, we have news for you to read about, from LeBron James’ clutch play, Russell Westbrook’s demise, Tony Parker’s brawl story and more. An epic battle has taken shape between LeBron James and Kevin Durant, writes Adrian Wojnarowski: “These are the Finals everyone wanted, the moments of truth for Durant and James that shape the sport’s history, that make