The Sixth Man Award is a complicated one. Historically, the winner has been a super scorer who provides a needed offensive boost to a winning team. But this season might be different. No top team has a true standout scorer off the bench who fits the mold of winners from seasons past. The one exception could be Ryan Anderson of the New Orleans Pelicans. Sure, New Orleans is only 9-9 and has been wildly inconsistent this season. Still, since Anderson’s return to the
Raise your hand if you had the Portland Trail Blazers leading the Western Conference. OK, now put your hand down and stop lying. The Trail Blazers are 16-3. After a disappointing loss in Phoenix that ended a double-digit winning streak, Portland is 3-0 in December, including back-to-back home victories over the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, two of the best teams in the NBA. There are two things every NBA fan wants to know right now. First, is this Blazers team
The guards are still surging in our latest Sixth Man Rankings. After another week of Western Conference dominance, it makes sense that the top five candidates for Sixth Man are coming from West teams. The role of sixth man continues to evolve from the longstanding “super scorer” stereotype into one better designed for all-around contributors. Of the top five players in the rankings, only Jamal Crawford is considered a pure scorer. Three of the other candidates are in the top five in distributing.
Monday was a happy day for some, ominous for many others. Some big news broke early in the day about the status of Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant. The news on Rose was worse than expected, while some may consider the good news for Bryant not so good. See what all the ruckus was about below. DERRICK ROSE OUT FOR THE SEASON: After undergoing successful knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus, the Chicago Bulls declared that Rose would miss the remainder of
We are all familiar with the Spurs and their uncanny efficiency. Are you familiar with AAU basketball? I have coached it at the high school level for the last three years. And one thing I have learned is that with just four hours of weekly practice time followed by four games every weekend, if you don’t have definitive, well-drilled schemes on both offense and defense, you have no chance to compete. However, if you have a group that is committed to a
What’s going on? Are the Nets really this bad? They lost to the Pistons (who have also started a bit sluggishly) today. And that was with Joe Johnson going bonkers from deep. Also losing today were the Jazz. They’re really this bad. Not as bad as that time in the video game when I traded all their players away for draft picks and had Jason Kapono and Brian Scalabrine in the starting lineup, but pretty bad. [Read more…]
Derrick Rose took the entire 2012-2013 season off to get himself right from the surgery on his left knee after suffering a torn ACL in the playoffs in 2012. After showing much promise this preseason with what appeared to be an improved jump shot and a better ability to attack the basket, the point guard struggled mightily when the regular season came around. Through nine games, Rose has averaged 15.4 points on just 35.9 percent shooting, with 4.4 assists and 3.3 turnovers.
Well, it’s happened. The NBA’s early season darling teams have fallen back to earth. The Phoenix Suns, who started 5-2, are now 5-6 and look poised for the early lottery once again. Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division could be historically bad. The Philadelphia 76ers, who have won only twice in their last 10 games, trail the Toronto Raptors by only a half game for first place. And the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets are fighting for Gotham’s infamy as they both stand