There have been some real surprising early returns to begin the season, starting with Andrew Bynum and Russell Westbrook. No one expected the center back any time soon, and Westbrook was supposed to be out for at least the first month of the season. Or was he? See what the point guard had to say about the timetable for his return, how Bynum’s knees have been feeling since his return, what LeBron James is set to accomplish and more below. STORY
There’s no question the New York Knicks have a lot of really good players other than Carmelo Anthony. But without J.R. Smith in the lineup for the first five games, they lack a quality second option on offense in order to succeed against the league’s better teams. Who knows? The Knicks may end up struggling even when Smith returns from his season-opening five-game suspension. On Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks struggled mightily in the first quarter, when Minnesota raced
CHICAGO — It was Halloween night, and Derrick Rose took the court in front of the capacity home crowd fans before a regular season game for the first time in over a year and a half. Peering down from the six championship banners of the Jordan era, all felt right for the folks in downtown Chicago as their star fittingly was the last player announced during player introductions. After all, this is where Rose belongs: It’s his Chicago Bulls team. [Read more…]
Remember when ESPN ranked Kobe Bryant as the 25th best player in the league? It sounds ridiculous, but what people didn’t realize was that the ranks had nothing to do with what the players did last season or in previous years. Rather, it was a projection of what the players may do in the upcoming season, with all things considered. In Bryant’s case, it was easy for analysts to bring down the expectations due to the unpredictability of his recovery from
In today’s headlines, Mike Woodson addressed J.R. Smith’s five game suspension, Dwight Howard revealed that his former coach was encouraging of a move to Houston and Delonte West has signed a deal to play in China. [Read more…]
NBA Media Day is in full swing for teams all around the league, which means plenty of status updates on players, coaching plans, headline-worthy quotes and more. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so we’ll get right to it: Danny Ainge realizes that the Celtics roster needs work, from Mark Murphy of Boston Herald: “The C’s are loaded at both forwards spots with Green, Brandon Bass, Gerald Wallace and (for now) Kris Humphries. Green’s versatility could actually find the scorer
Take Mike Woodson off your Most Likely Coach to Be Fired list. In his first major move since replacing Glen Grunwald, Knicks president and general manager Steve Mills announced today that the team has picked up the option on Woodson’s contract for the 2014-15 season. Anyone who speculated that Woodson would be a lame duck at the mercy of Carmelo Anthony’s whims? Well, doesn’t look like that’s the case. Woodson is entering his second full season after being named interim head coach on
The New York Knicks were stuck in neutral while other Eastern Conference teams improved mightily this offseason. Are they still No. 2 as they were last regular season? Probably not. After a disappointing loss to Indiana in the Eastern Conference semifinals that denied them a shot at the NBA champion Miami Heat, the Knicks essentially replaced Chris Copeland, Jason Kidd and Steve Novak with Metta World Peace, Beno Udrih and Andrea Bargnani. The team also re-signed J.R. Smith, Pablo Prigioni and Kenyon